Not cold enough to snow, but windy enough to foam

Following my last post, let’s up the tempo and orchestrate a gale:

First, change the season to winter,

Then darken the light with heavy cloud and setting sun,

Now add a major storm out in the Atlantic, 

Have an onshore gale blowing – (I can barely stand upright at the shores edge),

The wind hammering in my ears,
 
Sail being ripped out my hands,

Board trying to blow up the beach,

The sea thundering and crashing,

The cry of seagulls.

Now we have music – a dramatic moment in a symphony composed by Mother Nature and performed by The Elements.

Force 8

“In which a well-conditioned man-o-war could just rig a 3.7 or 4.2 in chase of mother nature, the faint hearted remain on the beach, whole trees are in motion, some twigs broken from trees, cars veer on road, progress on foot is seriously impeded, moderately high waves with breaking crests forming spindrift, well-marked streaks of foam are blown along wind direction, considerable airborne spray” (Beaufort 8).

Carpets of sea foam.

Wind pushing water hard from a Nor'wester

Sea, surf, foam, wind Beaufort 8  = Windsurfing

 It blew its tits off all day.

The high winds sweeping Guernsey forced foam from the west coast onto the beach. The spume had left the beach looking like it had been hit by a sudden snow storm.  It was windy as hell out there today. Struggled against the breeze but it wasn’t cold; quite the opposite, in fact. Was on 4.7 (should of  been 4.2) and was powered whole time, waves were smallish but the odd smackable one. With a Nor,Nor,Wester today Vazon was a little onshore so decided to make most of it and punish my body with a marathon jump and bump session in Grand Harve.  Well known for its speed and slalom, getting a primo windsurf here on wave kit was rare. Only four out.  We were sailing in onshore slop and decided to sail across the bay to Rousse for a look.  A nice wave was  just wrap around this granite reef, (no real rocks), as you come in you're real close to the reef then you better pull out unless you want a shoulder high dump onto the rocks.  Nice jumping on the way out if your timing was right.  Just what I needed to shrug off the mid-winter funk. Nicely powered to start with and some nice rolling swell. In the end was a bit maxed out but waves came on form over the reef and presented some nice steep ramps to rocket off.

What other sport is this good? Ahh...