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After a while I became impatient. I had to go out now. The wind had a tendency of turning a notch further north, sun was coming out a few moments, waves were pumping. I knew it would be sort of hard but it very much looked worth the effort.
I rigged up the ancient 4.5 sail and trimmed it extra flat to be able to handle the shower gusts that still happened once in a while, despite the sun starting to get a grip on the weather. Wave-board and small fin, 5.3 wetsuit. I carried the stuff the short way across the dune and waited until a set rolled in. With the last wave of the set breaking I went in. Managed to get past the shore-break without problems, passed the first foamies with speed, as expected lost speed in the currents at the first sandbar. Managed to stay upwind far enough to reach the outer banks not too deep. Had some speed and a trajectory that led straight to the steepest past of the approaching set wave.
In the early nineties Kerhilio was one of my favourite windsurfing spots and I had plenty of good to excellent wave-sailing sessions there. Back in these days I would have taken advantage of this approaching ramp and would have used it for a “hail-Mary” high jump or a table-top (thatīs all the jumps I ever managed to perform in my windsurfing “career”). Now I avoided to jump too high and just made sure I passed the wave with enough speed to keep planning and make it past the next one.
One the way back to shore a selected a medium sized wave and managed to carve a few front-side turns. Despite this timid sailing tactics my heart was pumping and the pulse reached unhealthy highs. Windsurfing in 2 – 3m waves with gusty side-onshore winds oscillating between force 6 and 7 is still one of the most strenuous things I can imagine. But itīs so much fun!
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