Busy Weekend

This has been a good weekend up in the Bay Area. Yesterday I spent most of the day scoping out windsurfing locations, and shopping for windsurfing gear. I found a store up near SFO that sells winter and summer board sports. Comparing the size of the windsurf gear to the kitesurfing stuff was almost enough to make me switch sports. For windsurfing you need a fairly large board, mast, boom, and sail. All of this together is quite a lot of volume. They sell the kites in a backpack, and the boards are small enough to fit easily into a trunk. I did end up buying a package including a Hifly Mambo board and a 6.3 m² X-Ride sail.

This morning I was invited to the annual Shoreline service of the Bay Area Christian Church down in Mountain View. The service ran from 11-1 and was interesting. It seems that every year this church rents out the Shoreline Amphitheater and has a big service. Afterward many people have their picnic lunches, listen to music, and fellowship.

This afternoon I carted my gear up to Foster City to test out my new board and rig. There was some sort of big carnival going on in the park next to where I windsurf, and the street was closed off. I eventually found another way around. It took me a little while, and some help to get my gear ready for the water, but when I did it was great. This is the biggest sail I have yet used, and the board is about as small as I have tried before, but for the first hour and a half there was enough wind to really get going. I am pumped, and will be looking forward to trying out new areas now that I am not tied to the rental location. My arms are very tired, and I want to get and learn how to use a harness soon. I will probably pick up a used sail to try that out on, because I will be pretty sad if I fall through my new sail.