Windsurfing » Windy Waters

Windy Waters (49 unread)

2012 4th Annual Cold Stroke

Posted: January 23rd, 2012, 2:12am CET

Back from the wildest race I have been in. Winds at over 30 on Mac's SOS surf SUP board made this both tough and a fun challenge. I had a great start on the race (I was dong the 3.5 mile rec division) with an amazing leg of downwind....boy that was fun. It was so amazing seeing the carnage of people falling off their boards, with many of them totally losing their board downwind and having to open their Co2 blow up flotation devices. There was one time on the backside of the race when I was going directly in the wind, and the tide was also against me, where I was paddling forward, but actually moving back. Very early on in the race I passed a guy who lost his board and did not have a flotation device (as it was tied to his board)....big lesson for everyone out there....to wear your pfd. I was able to get his board and hold it enough while he swam to it. I lost a lot of time, but this ended up being one of the greatest things for me. My girlfriend Dawn was now in front of me and I ended up catching up to her about half way through the race....just before it got really tough. We ended up paddling together and going through many of the same struggles (wind turning our boards around, getting dunked, wondering if we could go on, cold water). We thought we were done with the big wind and were on the home stretch when the wind picked up even more and we found ourself in one last up winder. Dawn's arm was really sore at this point and my back was not liking me at all. With side wind, white water and rolling chop we crossed the main channel and both made it to the finish with a lot of pride in what we just did. The beers really rated good that night! A big congrats to everyone who gave this race a go....whether you finished or not....just getting out there in those conditions is impressive.

I did not get many photos but did take a few short videos of Mac . The first of of him starting the sprints. As he was in the elite race, he could enter the sprint races to earn some extra dough.

Here is a video of Mac coming in from the race. Look at those white caps and the wind pushing him downwind.

Here are some great shots take by Kris Barnhardt....thanks Kris
Picture of Mac getting through traffic...with casualties around. Also, notice the cap Mac wore....very appropriate for the windy day.

Shot of Dawn before the race and at start

Picture of Nick kicking some butt in the race

Pick of me coming in to finish
SUP Surf on Lake Norman - Awesome Fun!

Posted: September 11th, 2011, 10:39pm CEST

On Saturday, Mac and I took off on his boat and had some SUP surf fun on the boat's wake. It was a beautiful day with very few boats out and glassy conditions. It took a few minutes to find the right speed.....which is under 10 mph. We used his Starboard Wave SUP and it performed so much better than the single fin, larger boards we had used in the past.

Mac catching some

Mac

Me (Rob)
Baja - Oh What Fun We Had!

Posted: August 20th, 2011, 4:33pm CEST

A week back from Baja and I am missing the early morning wave dawn patrol, the awesome Mexican food, the fantastic windsurfing and biking, hanging out in a beautiful place and the new friends made (oh and of course the Baja fogs...corona topped with tequila and fresh lime). Mac and I were talking last night about the great balance in fun we had during the week. We really took advantage of all that Baja has to offer.....and it is alot. When we first booked our Baja trip we had no idea that they would be scheduling the Matt Pritchard wave camp for the same week. That was a no brainer to join in there, and it turned out to be an awesome experience to learn more about wave sailing techniques. I am already looking forward to the next trip out there. Check out more detail on the trip at Mac's site: thewaterturtle

To get a sense of the Baja experience, check out the video below:

Punta San Carlos, Baja - August 2011 from Rob on Vimeo.
Paddle Palooza - June 2011

Posted: June 17th, 2011, 2:22pm CEST

Paddle Palooza is a Stand Up Paddle race, with family fun Stand Up Paddle events (dizzy dash, tug of war, tandem races) and other fun activities (BBQ, live music, board demos) held at the outer banks of NC at Frisco Woods camp ground near to Cape Hatteras. 2011 was the first year for the event, and it was the most fun my friends and I have had at a Stand up Paddle event! I only had a few video shots of some of the events, and there is so much more than what you see here. Come join the fun next year.

Paddle Palooza from Rob Cornwell on Vimeo.
SUPing Fun at Old Lifeguard Beach

Posted: April 30th, 2011, 2:35pm CEST

Mac, Ken, Ralph, Sam and I had some great waves yesterday. It was a day of big rides and big wipe outs.....and tons of fun! Here are 2 shots of Mac and me. Go check out waterturtle for more.

Rob

Mac
A SUPing Day

Posted: April 26th, 2011, 3:09pm CEST

Mac and I hit the waves yesterday with our SUP boards and some small sails. The girls paddled the sound. A beautiful sunset last night with some Margaritas.

Mac and I hit the waves yesterday, and the girls paddled the sound. A beautiful sunset last night with some Margaritas.
Awesome Saturday

Posted: April 19th, 2011, 4:23am CEST

Boy it is great when wind blows on a Saturday, and especially when it blows hard. Saturday was a blast over at Ramsey. Great to see some friends and to get some blasting in. I caught a few pics of Alan on his camera and he got a few of me too...thanks Alan. I am so ready for the Hatteras trip next week. This was a great warm up to get the hands nice and rough.

A Nice Day for a Cruise

Me

Alan Flying High

Me on the Jibe

Alan Jumping to the Turn
April 1st - No Fooling

Posted: April 2nd, 2011, 2:59pm CEST

Mac and I took the day off on Friday and hand a great day of SUPing and Windsurfing in Avon. Here are a few shots from the day.

Mac and me

Mac screaming by

Andy getting a sunset sail
Great Weekend in Charleston

Posted: February 28th, 2011, 2:41am CET

Dawn and I went down to Charleston this past weekend with Mac and Kris to have some fun paddling, partying, and seeing the Old 97's. The paddling ended up going beyond our expectations, as on Saturday we had 70 degree temps with 10 to 15 winds. Mac and I brought our 5.5 sails and rigged them on our stand up paddle boards and had a blast in the waves for several hours out at Isle of Palms. We had some good waves (thigh to hip size) that were tons of fun. Mac got to break out his new starboard SUP wave board. Major thumbs up for him on that board. In the afternoon the wind died down and the four of us took a nice long (several hours) cruise on the waterway. We saw some good wildlife (dolphin and pelican)....see pics. That night we hit the Old 97's concert at the Music Farm and rocked it out. As usual, they put on a spectacular show. While in Charleston we found 2 good places for beer that Mac and I would highly recommend.....Boones and Closed For Business (both on King St). Also, the Barksdale BandB was an awesome place to stay....great price value, good beds, incredible location near King St, private parking (nice for safety of boards), good breakfast buffet, and friendly people. Below are pics that came from all of us.

DD_POCCXdwE/TWsDHhbrPqI/AAAAAAAAAUE/cM8Ka53SlWU/s1600/SANY0073.JPG">
Cold Stroke 2011

Posted: January 22nd, 2011, 10:53pm CET

We had a great time at the 2011 Cold Stroke in Wrightsville. Coastal Urge really puts on great event. Lake Norman had an outstanding showing with 9 of us paddling. Mac was the all star with his first place finish. Here are a few shots from that day at the awards ceremony.
Lake Davidson Stand Up Paddling

Posted: January 22nd, 2011, 10:17pm CET

I was cleaning up videos on my hard drive and found this old one of me paddling one morning.
SUP Casual Paddle and Social at Lake Norman

Posted: October 20th, 2010, 1:35am CEST

Mac and Kris invited all SUPers to come out to the lake house for a casual paddle and social on Saturday. It was awesome. We had a great turnout with a fun group of SUPer nice people. Thanks so much to Mac and Kris for putting this together, and for the incredible munchies after the paddle. There is nothing better than a good beer or glass of wine after a paddle while watching the sun go down over the lake.
MAC

Posted: May 10th, 2010, 3:00am CEST
May 8th - Lake Norman - 6.5 day

Posted: May 10th, 2010, 12:02am CEST

Here are a few shots of Mac. We had a fun day at the lake on Sunday. A little gusty but some great rides on the 6.5m. These are shots from the dock. THe wind was WNW and blowing nicely through the channel.
Carolina Beach - Monday Dec 28, 2009

Posted: December 29th, 2009, 3:05am CET

Mac, Ralph, and I had a great time today at Carolina Beach SUPing. It was sunny and cool, and the waves were waist to chest high. We had a great time. Here are a few pictures from the day.
Video of Windsurfing Moves

Posted: November 28th, 2009, 12:42pm CET

Here is a free podcast I found in Itunes that shows a bunch of different moves. It gives the name of the move and the rider.....pretty cool.
SUPing at the Old Lighthouse

Posted: October 2nd, 2009, 5:07am CEST

Mac, Mark, Ralph, and myself headed to the Old Lighthouse around 4 yesterday and had a great 3 hour session. As the tide came up, the waves got better. With no wind today for windsurfing, we are headed back out this morning for some more waves.
Stand Up Paddling at the Old Lighthouse

Posted: October 1st, 2009, 4:56am CEST
Stand Up at The Jetties (Old Lighthouse)

Posted: October 1st, 2009, 4:12am CEST

Mark and I catching a wave. Thanks to Mac for the video.
Sailing the Sound and the Waves

Posted: September 29th, 2009, 2:14pm CEST

We had a great day yesterday. Started in the sound blasting on our 5.0 to 6.0s. Went over to Old Lifeguard and got beat up pretty good in the ocean. We then hit the sound for a sunset sail on our 4.5s.....ended up out there in a moonlight sail with some very good ramps.
Saturday Dawn Patrol

Posted: September 12th, 2009, 2:39pm CEST

Pictures from the paddle today....dawn patrol had 6 SUPers. Dawn patrollers....Barry, Doug, Tom, Mac, Marci, and Rob.
SUPING on the Runway

Posted: August 30th, 2009, 10:51pm CEST

Never boring when out SUPING!
Sunday Paddle

Posted: August 30th, 2009, 5:27pm CEST

Mac and I hooked up with Tom at his paddle location on Lake Norman this morning for a 1 and a half hour plus paddle. Tom has a great setup with a golf cart that carries his boards back and forth from his house to the lake.
Here is a picture of Tom and Mac.
Drive By Truckers

Posted: August 29th, 2009, 4:37pm CEST

Jeff, AMR, and I saw the DBT's at The Visulite last night. They played a great set of music. The Visulite was a perfect place for them to play as it is a small venue, and there is no bad place to stand. The video is a 5 minute perspective on their full set (except for "Houston" as I missed this song while trying to get some beers. The concert was a sell out, but still did not feel that crowded. Just alot of fun!
Water Fun on Lake Davidson

Posted: August 16th, 2009, 5:25pm CEST

Jeff, Jack, Joe and myself had a good time on the lake yesterday trying so new water toys. Jack and Joe got up on the Stand Up Paddle boards for the first time and had a blast. The also had the chance to do some wake boarding and tubing. A big thanks to Pam and John for pulling us on their boat. Catch some of the action below.....

param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OnUp5rbcW-4&hl=en&fs=1&">param>param name="allowFullScreen" value="true">param>param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always">param>src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OnUp5rbcW-4&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340">
When the Wind Dies

Posted: August 7th, 2009, 4:58pm CEST

Desperate for some sailing Mac and I got out on the lake as storms were coming in. When I got out to the lake Mac was out in the channel cruising. I quickly rigged and got on the lake just as some nice clouds to the North were closing in and killing the wind. I was able to get a few runs in, but both Mac and I had to sail to the other side of the lake for cover. At this point I was downwind considerably from Mac. We both saparately watched as the storm cruised over half of the lake. When the storm went through, we got back to sailing, but the wind turned North which meant trouble getting back. Soon after another storm cloud from the North was coming up and the wind totally died. I had to ditch my sail on the other side of the lake, and then paddle my AHD across until I met up with Mac who was a little over half way home but not moving. Here is a video from that point. Lesson learned! We did get back to land just as the 2 storm broke loose and it was a doozy...did not get a video, but it was ugly.....or beautiful depending on the perspective. To finish the story, we ended up on Mac's boat around 11:30 to go pick up my sail.
Video of When the Wind Dies

Posted: August 7th, 2009, 4:56pm CEST
Old 97s At Bele Chere in Asheville

Posted: July 27th, 2009, 2:49am CEST

Oh what fun! Saturday night Jeff and went to the Bele Chere festival in Asheville and rocked out to our favorite band the Old 97's. This was a pretty incredible festival with arts, food, music, and plenty of drink. Here is a 4 minute recap of the concert. If you have not seen the 97's before, it is a must. Let me know, and I will let you know when they come back around this area.
Come join the Fun

Posted: July 13th, 2009, 3:39am CEST

We have a great house rented in Avon the week of September 26th. Take a look at this short video of the sailing location and a picture of the house. Let Mac or me know if you can join us. The house has 7 rooms and we have several open. Hope to see you there.
Stand Up Paddling at Hatteras July 4th Weekend

Posted: July 12th, 2009, 10:59pm CEST

I spent several days over the fourth weekend at Hatteras. It reminded me of some good old times as I camped out on the sound at Frisco Woods. The wind blew a little the first day and the last day I was there, and in between it was SUPPING and fishing(with Don...we caught plenty of Sheeps Head for a great dinner). I also had a fun time clamming over at Ocracoke where Don, Debbie and I pulled in a whole cooler full of clams (they were delicious).
I had several sessions of SUPPING at the South Side (Isabelles) and at the Jetties by the old Lighthouse location. Here is a short video of some shots from SUPPING at the Jetties.
Lake Davidson Paddling

Posted: June 2nd, 2009, 3:51am CEST

Another great sunset on Lake Davidson. The Stand Up paddling has been awesome.
This is ...

Posted: May 1st, 2009, 2:47am CEST

This is a great time of year for beautiful sunsets. Here is one from last week I caught while stand up paddling on Lake Davidson.
3/29/09 - Oh what fun!

Posted: March 31st, 2009, 2:18am CEST

We had a blast on Sunday, and I hope you were there or somewhere else catching some of this wind.
Thanks To Alan - Baja 2008

Posted: September 8th, 2008, 2:32am CEST

A big thanks goes out to Alan for pushing us to get down to Baja. 8 straight days of sailing waves. It was an incredible trip.
Alan shooting me down towards the Point

Posted: September 4th, 2008, 6:22am CEST

This is from today, Day 5 of Baja. The learning curve on waves here is incredible. Thanks Alan for the photos.
Mac Shooting Alan

Posted: September 4th, 2008, 6:12am CEST

Picture of Alan at the Chili Bowl. Mac is taking picture from cliffs above. Clark (works at camp) is in water taking some photos.
Baja Alan

Posted: September 2nd, 2008, 7:21pm CEST
Baja Tommy II

Posted: September 2nd, 2008, 6:57pm CEST

Tommy on top:
Baja Tommy

Posted: September 2nd, 2008, 6:39pm CEST

As Tommy says "It just clicked today". here is a good one of him airing over some white wash on the top of the wave.
Baja Day 1

Posted: August 31st, 2008, 3:53pm CEST

Ok, too much fun sailing yesterday to have time to take videos of windsurfing. Here is a short video to let you know how bad it is out here. We are roughing it. Check out the shots of us at theChili bowl.
Think we will head down there today.
Daytrip May 31 2008

Posted: June 7th, 2008, 6:55pm CEST

Ok, sorry for the last video not working, not sure what happened . Here is the video from last Saturday. Donald, Tommy, and I had a great time on our 6.2/6.5s. Check out Tommy's sail at the end of the video..... which took one in the shore break.
Hanging Loose in Hatteras - April 16 & 17

Posted: April 20th, 2008, 7:41pm CEST

We had some great wind at Hatteras on Wed and Thursday. We sailed from the house we stayed at in Frisco.
Windy Saturday at the Lake 04/12/08

Posted: April 15th, 2008, 12:48pm CEST

Wow....what a great day of sailing and a good warm up to Hatteras. We had over 10 sailors at Ramsey with sails from 5.3m to 8.0m. Dimitri was rocking on his 5.8 the entire day. I sailed my 6.1, 6.9, and 8.0. Dave was getting it on the kite, and Mac showed up in the afternoon....cut short by a broken harness line. For this video, I attached the cam on the left side of my helmet. Hope to see you on the water this weekend!
Early Days of the Helmet Cam

Posted: April 9th, 2008, 4:06am CEST

Here is a picture of a friend, Mark, back in the late 90's trying to get some video action. Amazing what a little duck tape can do! A tad bit heavy to use as a helmet cam. See Macs comment on this.
Lake Norman NNE 10-15 AHD and Big Sail

Posted: April 6th, 2008, 11:40pm CEST

Mac and I got out at around 9:15 on Sunday morning and had our worship on the lake. The wind blew 10-15 NNE for several hours. We were both on our AHDs with our 9.6 sails and had many good long runs. Mac tried his helmet cam extension for his new video cam. I tried out my cam on top of my helmet....still need to adjust it as I was shooting too high and to the left. Hatteras in less than 2 weeks!
Windy Day At LKN

Posted: March 9th, 2008, 5:04am CET

I made it out to Ramsey after 1:00 today with all intentions to sail...that was until I realized that everyone was on 3's and low 4's and small boards. Unfortunately, I am not equipped to sail this kind of day. But I did have the new helmet cam, which I decided to try as a hand cam....a little bit less shaky then my previous mountain bike video. Anyway, I watched some great windsurfing until about an hour later when the wind shifted West.
How to Mount A Helmet Cam - See Mac Ride

Posted: March 4th, 2008, 1:42am CET

This 90 second video clip was taken in mid-February at Lake Norman State Park. A great day of riding until I realized I lost my cell phone somewhere on the trail, and Mac realized he had 2 screws missing from his bike. This video demonstrates a successful helmet cam mount.
It is best watched after a six pack. Hope you enjoy watching!
It's About This -10 Years of Windsurfing

Posted: December 21st, 2007, 4:52am CET

Over the last ten years I have had alot of fun windsurfing with friends.
Well Worth The Drive - Avon Oct 2007

Posted: December 19th, 2007, 10:29pm CET

Mac, Mark, and I found some great wind at Avon in October. Jim was also at the coast and joined the action. It was well worth the drive.