f-f-f-freezzzzing!

Saturday: 4am. It was frickin nukin. 40+mph gusts.
Wes gave me specific instructions "call me when you wake up. immediately. no matter what time. i MUST know the wind speed."
We'd been watching the storm approach. waiting. hoping it would peak at 9am. not 4am.
At 4am i thought... should i call Wes? is it light enough to sail?
Ahh, forget it. back to bed.

Later, as the Seahawks kicked-off, the sun broke out, the winds steadied, and i left the Hawks game to catch 45 minutes on my 5.9. Good choice too, since all the hawks action happened in the 4th quarter!

One thing i noticed on Saturday. It was cold. like frickin norway cold. my hands were numb on the second ride out. i tried sucking my thumbs to stop the pain/freezing - no help. So this got me thinking... how cold was it?

The wind was 21mph. air temp 40. That makes the wind chill = to about 30. oh, and the Puget Sound is a balmy 48.

There's a good rule of windsurfing in the Puget Sound... add the air temp and the water temp (40+48=88)... and use this chart:

Over 100... you'll be toasty.
90 - 100... you'll go numb
under 90... shrinkage, instant numbness, loss of brain cells, hallucinations, euphoria!

Eddie would go

Do you remember the "Eddie Would Go" bumper stickers? Of course you do. they're classic. the stickers inspired a whole generation of us to say - what the hell - why not - Eddie would do it! Of course, all those years i had no idea who Eddie was. I just knew he was a bad-ass surfer.

I just finished a library book Stealing the Wave, The Epic Struggle Between Ken Bradshaw and Mark Foo. As it turns out, Eddie Aikau was the undisputed king of Wiamea bay. After his death Quicksilver created a big wave surf competition in his honor. The competition could only be held if the surf was over 20 feet. One morning the judges woke up to 30 foot waves and decided to cancel the competition "too big" they said. Mark Foo, a big wave superstar, tried to convince them to run the competition by taunting "Eddie would go!" The judges thought this was a good argument, but decided to cancel the competition anyway - but the phrase stuck, and was used by Quicksilver to promote the event.

I had a 'Eddie would go' moment today. I was on kid duty and the wind kicked in - blowing 25 to 35 from the South. It was beautiful! Big swells, no logs, low tide. I HAD to go windsurfing. Then it hit me "Eddie would find a babysitter, then go!" After a few quick calls I found a kind neighbor to watch the kids while i got my fix. :-) I got an hour of OP'd (over powered) 4.7 (that's a small sail). It was snowing in parts of Seattle today - my hands were frozen - but i had a huge grin!

Oh, regarding the book. I couldn't put it down. Loved it. I'm not sure if the book is for everybody, but if you like surfing and/or if you're crazy - then you'll find it reassuring to know that there are other crazy people out there too. This book is like candy for crazy people.

Oh, there's a great quote in the book from Buzzy Trent "A wave is not measured in feet and inches, but in increments of fear". The same could be said for catching air on a windsurfer.