Category: Uncategorized
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About Matanzas
I was last in Matanzas, Chile, ten years ago. It was known as a windsurfing destination for the adventurous. The waves and the wind are superb, but the location is remote. After a three hour drive from Santiago on ever-narrowing roads you reach a one-street coastal village surrounded by stunning nature, steep wooded hills behind…
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Where Next
My trip back from California was uneventful. Join the I-10 in Los Angeles, a few miles from the Pacific, and leave the I-10 before you hit Jacksonville, on Florida’s Atlantic coast. I took my time but still managed to cross Texas in one day, 900 miles from El Paso to Beaumont. Things to be thankful…
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To GoPro or Not To GoPro
GoPro reigns supreme in extreme sport photography. The quality is remarkable (say the experts) and it offers all manner of shock proof and waterproof protection to withstand any ride, a perfect way to share your exhilarating moments in dramatic close-up. And yet I persist in using my staid mobile phone camera to take distant pictures…
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My Secret Spot
You may be getting the impression that my West Coast trip is all about Waddell, and you would be correct. When the conditions are right, it is the best place to windsurf in mainland USA. Thankfully for my sanity, conditions change and send me exploring. The Bay Area has a long windsurfing history. The sport…
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Kitesurfing Waddell
Kitesurfing Waddell was hard on my body and ego. There are extenuating circumstances: windsurfing is my passion and kitesurfing is something I do to spend more time on the water (see Windsurfing Theory); I’ve windsurfed for 40 years and kitesurfed for 4; I had previously only kitesurfed in gentle knee-high Florida waves. Obviously my experience…
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Why Surfing Sucks (Sorry)
I’ll keep this brief. I’m sitting in my home-for-now in Chile (I’ll be sharing more about that soon) watching a handful of surfers paddle out in the morning mist. They proceed to get hammered by the powerful waves, paddling furiously against the strong currents, and then paddling more furiously to catch a wave, which they…
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Santa Cruz
I think it’s time for a break from wind and waves. Santa Cruz is located 18 miles South of Waddell Beach and was my home for two months. It provided everything I expected from a California beach town, and much, much more . Santa Cruz is a collection of small coastal towns on the north…
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Windsurfing Waddell
So with all this build up, you’re now breathlessly waiting for the verdict on windsurfing at Waddell. We’ll ready or not, here it is. All images are from an iPhone 500 yards away – not great, but it will have to do. My relationship with Waddell is complicated. To understand why, Let me describe a…
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About Waddell
Back to reality… After a few days of driving cross-country, and a couple more days windsurfing in Big Sur, I arrived at Waddell Beach, the first stop on my windsurfing tour. In two months I was able to windsurf 60% of the time, kitesurf 15% and surf the rest. Not a bad start and a…
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Windsurfing Theory
Since the explicit focus of this trip is windsurfing, a better understanding of the sport might be helpful. All images in this section are borrowed. (Later, we can explore the implicit focus of the trip.) I windsurf in waves, riding the wave like a surfer. The beaches I visit have the right combination of wind…
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