Re: Windsurfing

From: Jeff Hodges (hodges@Breakaway.Stanford.EDU-DeleteThis)
Date: Fri Nov 24 1995 - 19:48:30 PST


Received: from hplms26.hpl.hp.com by opus.hpl.hp.com with SMTP (1.37.109.8/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA13580; Fri, 24 Nov 1995 19:52:36 -0800
Return-Path: <hodges@Breakaway.Stanford.EDU-DeleteThis>
Received: from Breakaway.Stanford.EDU by hplms26.hpl.hp.com with ESMTP ($Revision: 1.36.108.11 $/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1S) id AA146491555; Fri, 24 Nov 1995 19:52:35 -0800
Received: from localhost by Breakaway.Stanford.EDU (8.6.10/inc-1.0) id TAA20865; Fri, 24 Nov 1995 19:48:39 -0800
Message-Id: <199511250348.TAA20865@Breakaway.Stanford.EDU-DeleteThis>
Subject: Re: Windsurfing 
To: "Csaba Peter" <PCSABA@epito.bme.hu-DeleteThis>
Cc: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis
In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, 24 Nov 95 07:55:05 -0800.
Reply-To: hodges@Breakaway.Stanford.EDU-DeleteThis
Office: Pine Hall Rm 161; 415-723-2452
Homepage: http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~hodges/windsurfing.html
Date: Fri, 24 Nov 95 19:48:30 -0800
From: Jeff Hodges <hodges@Breakaway.Stanford.EDU-DeleteThis>
X-Mts: smtp

Hey Peter, welcome to the Bay Area. When will you be here? You found the right
email list to use to contact bay area boardsailors -- wind_talk has over 100
folks on it, and almost all of us are located right here in the bay area. Get a
map of the San Francisco Bay Area if you can to follow along and identify the
sailing sites and all...

Spots to sail: The Sacramento River Delta, also known as Rio Vista (a town in
the Delta), and as Sherman Island (a locality wherein several of the Delta
sailing spots reside), will be the closest high-wind sailing spot to UOP.
Probably less than an hour from central Stockton to the Sherman Isl Access Park
spot out on the western tip of Sherman Isl. The next closest will be the East
Bay spots of Berkeley Marina and Pt. Isabel, El Cerrito (also known as CostCo
for the store of that name being nearby). The East Bay is effectively South
West of the Delta. I'd bet it'd take about 45 min to get to either Pt. Isabel
or Berkeley Marina from the Delta sites (assuming one knows the traffic
patterns and how to finesse them at the appropriate times).

Heading further West, the next sites (which are also "on the bay") are probably
a tossup between Crissy Field (on the northern tip of the SF peninsula, next to
the East side of the Gold Gate Bridge, and within the City of San Francisco
proper), and the Northern Peninsula sites of Candlestick Park (oops, 3Com Park
:) and Oyster Point. Coyote Point and 3d Ave are just 15..20min south of
Candlestick are are arguably the most popular Peninsula sites. I bet it'd take
about the same amount of time to get to Coyote/3d as it would Crissy from the
East Bay. 30..40min, maybe longer or shorter depending on traffic conditions.

Further west than that and you're on the coast, which I don't really now much
about. I have sailed Princeton Harbor in the winter on south storm winds and it
is about 40 min away from Palo Alto/Stanford (which itself is 25 min South of
Coyote). Waddell is South of Princeton and I'm told it takes about an hour,
mebbe a bit less, to get there from Stanford. Waddell is arguably the most
popular coastal wave sailing spot south of San Francisco. Davenport, a few
minutes south of Waddell, is also very popular.

Other folks on this list will also undoubtedly have their own perspectives on
where to sail and travel times, so collect as much info as you can and combine
it all.

Answers to your other questions...

1. bring your 4/3 and your shortie. You might use the latter in the Delta, the
former is recommended for the Bay and the Coast. You didn't mention how your
cold tolerance is or how much body fat you have. For example, I don't have much
body fat and get pretty cold sailing Princeton Harbor in my 4/3 with a 1.5mm
surfskin tank top underneath + hood + gloves. You might also bring the drysuit
if you get cold easily and you hope to sail the coast a fair amount.

2. I don't know. Do other folks know better about this? I don't know how much
the airlines will charge you to ship it from HU. Yes, you can get used gear
here very cheap, especially early in the season. You'll need more sails -- how
many depending upon your weight and where you plan to sail the most. It blows
arguably most consistently the hardest in the Delta. sub-5.0 days there are
common for me. I'm 150 lbs (68 KG ?). Sails go for from $20 to $150 for decent
condition, and the price range depends primarily upon age of the design. I've
bought perfectly decent 1988/89 Windwing single-cam sails for $10 each at a
swap (and subsequently sailed the piss out of 'em with good results). I've also
paid as much as $225 (in early 1995) for a 1993 Windwing 6.8 Race in perfect,
barely-used condition (and ~that~ was a good deal). Decent epoxy boards can be
had for under $300 if you get to a swap early and know what you're looking for.
So I'm confident you can get a complete setup with one (probably epoxy) board,
4 (at least) sails, mast, boom(s), lines, etc. for easily under $1000. And you
can sell it for a substantial percentage of what you paid especially if you use
if for less than a season, bought reasonable-quality stuff to begin with, and
take care of it. We have swap meets fairly regularly in the early season, so
getting used stuff shouldn't be a problem.

See my homepage if you have access to the WWW. I have links to several other
pages with into on Bay Area sailing (esp the SFBA page, which also has links to
pages of other Bay Area boardsailors).

I hope this helps. Good sailing and all,

Jeff
http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~hodges/windsurfing.html



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Dec 10 2001 - 02:30:31 PST