WND&WVS Travel Blog

Back in John's Island

WND&WVS — 2009-04-23

I've finally come to accept that Florida is a kiting state, not a surfing state.

Don't get me wrong, Florida can get some great surf (sometimes), but its never very consistent down here on the central Atlantic coast. You'll get the frequent wind swell of short period waves that resemble Lake Champlain chop, but you won't get nice long ground swells like the ones that role into the north east. On top of that, the state is one big sand spit. The only wave-shaping structure that exists are inlets and piers that certainly shape the wave, but also draw in the crowds. Surfing a waist high day at Sebastian Inlet along with 100 other surfers is hardly worth the five dollar park entry fee.

However, one thing that Florida does offer is wind. It blows here every day. And most days are sideshore coming either from the north or the south. Both wind directions can be butter smooth and steady breeze. On top of that, Florida has generous amounts of big sandy beaches ideal for launching and landing kites. Throw in the warm emerald green flat water, and you've got the makings of an ideal kite destination. Thanks mom and dad for moving down here!

We arrived in John's Island on a Saturday to heavy onshore wind and shorebreak. I rigged my kite and was able to get out for about 2 hours before heading in. However, the shorebreak was pounding and the breeze was straight onshore making it very difficult to get out to open water.

The next day the wind shut off, but the shore break continued so I surfed most of the day getting pounded by the big closeouts hitting the beach. Unfortunately the waves in JI don't offer much of a ride, just a healthy pounding. And that's exactly what I got. By the afternoon, my lower back was shot. I came into the beach and tried to stretch it out. That night I was icing and heating my back and trying not to move much. By morning, I could hardly walk. I couldn't believe that on the second day of this trip I had just incapacitated myself. I was so so bummed. However, my faithful back remedy of hanging from a horizontal bar straightened me out by afternoon just in time to get out and enjoy another windy day on my kite.

The following day produced the epic postcard picture kind of day. The skies were a perfect blue and the emerald-green water was peppered with small whitecaps from the 10-15 northwest breeze. This is the kind of day I dream about down here. Absolute bliss (see photos in the Gallery). I kited for a good 2 to 3 hours by myself in total open water. The breeze was a little on the light side, but still a ton of fun.

Every time I come down here I'm reminded of how nice it is in central Florida. I can't speak for much of the area outside of Vero Beach, but VB itself is awesome. Its an ocean lover's kind of place.

Dan's Trip to Hawaii

WND&WVS — 2009-03-31

Dan and his family recently came back to Vermont after a 2 week vacation to Hawaii and got some great pics (see gallery)... Here are Dan's comments from the trip.

This years trip to Maui started with Becca, Isaac, Claire, and Henry heading to Boston in the snow. Henry has the flu with a 103 fever. Dan meets the crew in Boston after a week in Fort Lauderdale. We decided to continue on and everything was uphill from that point on. We arrived 20 hours later all in good spirits. We finally got to Uncle Luke and Laura’s house in Haiku at midnight. We woke up to head high surf at Hookipa beach which was a great way to get rid of the jet lag. There was good surf for the entire 2 weeks ranging from head high to 3X over head on the north shore. The south shore had some good small swell for Isaac in the knee to waist range. The kids were great letting us each get 2 long sessions a day.

Luke and Laura’s house is great. Thanks for all the hospitality housing the five of us 2 years in a row! The food was great this year. On the way home from surfing we were able to pick up a 20lb Ahi from a local fisherman on the side of the road giving us about 7lbs of fresh sashimi for $20. Every night after a full day surfing we relaxed in the homemade “Fudo” a wood fired hot tub and played the Ukulele. We are able to leave all of our equipment at home thanks to Luke and his tenant Sean Ordinez who is a local shaper.

All in all a great trip that we want to keep doing every year!

Cabarete, Republica Dominica

WND&WVS — 2009-01-18

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon to a nice sunny day with side shore winds about 15-18mph. The kites were flying up at Kite Beach, but we had just arrived and the sun was setting fast so no water time that day.

Next morning the surfcamp truck left at 6AM for Encuentro to find nice clean head high surf. Antonio drove the truck as he had done the year before then opened up the surf shack at Encuentro to start the beginner lessons. I quickly suited up and paddled out to the point to join 4 or 5 other surfers. The rights were peeling nicely off the reef and I was fortunate enough to ride a few of them. As the sun rose higher, more and more people paddled out. It was a gorgeous day that quickly got crowded. I think everyone must have been a little surf-starved from the days prior.

The truck left Encuentro at about 10:30 with a large crew of campers and headed back to Ali's for breakfast. We chowed down on pancakes and fried eggs to re-fuel for the afternoon. The breakfast at the surfcamp restaurant is mui excellente. Los pancakes son mi favorita.

Soon after breakfast, I hauled my kiteboard and bag for about 3 miles along the beach from Ali's up to Kite Club. It was getting hotter and the wind was light. Once at Kite Club I paid two 13 year old local kids, Daniel and Juan 100 pecos each to help me rig my 12M. We got the kite in the air, but the wind was light. "Biento es no fuerte". We waited 30-45 minutes for the wind to build and for another kiter to hit the water so that we'd be sure we had enough wind. Once that happened, Daniel launched my kite and I was off.

I made it into the water early, but the sky soon filled with more kites over the next hour. The wind strengthened to somewhere around 18-25mph side onshore with some gusts. It was a great session, but extremely crowded. Jim got some great video footage (see gallery). About 3 hours later I was headed into the beach to wrap things up for the day but got lazy and tangled my kite with a beginner who was taking a lesson near shore. Not good. We looked at each other and I couldn't offer any advice on how to get out of the mess since I'd never been in that situation. Before we could do anything else, all four of my kite lines snapped and my kite gracefully rolled through the air before settling on the beach. Some nice person turned my kite over in the sand where it sat until I could wrap the remains of my lines and exit the water. Not the best way to end a session, but it could have been worse. At least I was close to shore and my kite landed safely.

That night Jim, Jen, Rox and I had a dinner on the beach at the place with the big white comfy couch pillows. We ate, then headed back to camp to get some sleep.

The next morning we headed back to Encuentro on the 6AM truck. The waves had dropped slightly in size but were still very fun. Familiar looking line up from the day before, but slighly fewer people.

The afternoon brought scattered showers and no wind. We headed over to Vela to have some coffee and to scope out their restaurant/cafe to get design ideas for The Spot. Very cool place. In between rain squalls, we rented some standup paddle boards and surfed a small little reef wave about 200 meters from shore. This day marked my first attempt at riding waves on a SUP. Granted it was only an ankle high wave, but it was still awesome. Lots of potential for Hampton Beach in the summertime.

By Saturday morning the swell had built to clean overhead waves at Encuentro. We spent the entire morning at the beach enjoying the clearing skies and the building swell. That afternoon I headed back to Kite Club to wait for the wind that never developed. By 3:30 it was clear that kiting wasn't an option so I headed back to the surfcamp to catch the 4:00 truck to Encuentro. The swell had continued building over the course of the day and when the truck pulled up to Encuentro we were staring at big beautiful clean 7-9 foot waves under blue skys. I quickly hit the water and made the long paddle out to the top of the channel. I watched a goofy-footer riding across the face of the longest wave I've ever seen at Encuentro. High backside lines from the top of the point all the way into the channel. Based on how high he was positioned on the face, it was clear that the sets were getting huge. It was fun to see waves that big and to watch the excitement in the line up when the sets rolled through. I caught a few nice rights before getting extremely fatigued and heading in. The last afternoon in Cabarete was a fitting end to the trip and it was time to head home. Its always hard to leave places like Cabarete because its clear that every day of the year offers wind and wave water opportunities and 5 days is such a short visit. Next time we go down there its gotta be longer.

Our next planned trip is to Carlsbad in February to visit Ted and Suzy and to surf the breaks of northern San Diego county.

Vero Beach, Florida

WND&WVS — 2008-12-27

We had 7 sunny days in a row down in Vero for the 1st annual extended family reunion. Its certainly fortunate to have parents that have nearby access to the warm Atlantic waters of central Florida.

Saturday the 28th, only two days after Xmas, brought 18-23mph winds out of the ESE providing nice sideshore breeze for kiting. The winds started off on the light side early in the afternoon which made for a few downwind rides along the beach. Then as the breeze strenthened, it became possible to stay upwind.

The Beach Club in Vero was considerably crowded that day - more so than any other visit we'd made to JI. It was a little intimidating to launch my 12M Cabrihna as the only kiter in the water with so many sun tanners standing alert to see what happened next. Fortunately, the session went well despite the early part being a little too light.

The rest of the week was sunny and beautiful, but the wind never blew over 10mph. There were a few days of small onshore driven beach break to surf, but nothing to write about. Nonetheless, the trip was very relaxing giving us plenty of time to visit family and relatives while spending a lot of time soaking in the sun. A nice early winter escape from the northeast winter.

Little Compton, Rhode Island

WND&WVS — 2008-10-24

A band of Burlingtons ventured down to Little Compton Rhode Island this weekend for an extended 3-day weekend of wind and waves.

We were driven down by Rich First of POMG in his beautiful weekend-warrior-furnished van that he uses for his summer bike touring company, POMG (Peace of Mind Guaranteed). Ten of us filled the van on the ride from Burlington to Little Compton stopping in Boston for 4 pizza pies, then just outside Providence for a liquor and food run.

We were blessed with what would be a beautiful Nor Easter that produced 30-40mph on shore winds on Saturday, then clean head-hide surf on Sunday.

The strong on-shore winds on Saturday made it difficult to surf, however, the kiteboarding and windsurfing conditions were excellent. After a hardy breakfast of eggs while standing, Caleb rigged up his 5.0 sail and headed out - catch the footage in the video gallery. Moments later, yours truly ventured down the road to a small beach and cove to fly my Cabrinha 12M. The winds provided excellent kiting conditions as the swell increased in size throughout the day.

That night our host, Al Margulius, worked over the stove to boil some native lobsters and slabs of swordfish for dinner. The bugs and fish were served hot right off the pans at the dinner table and consumed with speedy vigor. We then wiped the table down clean and played countless hands of Texas Hold'em for the rest of the night while listening to the wind build to 40mph outside.

The next morning was epic Nor Easter aftermath conditions. The wind had shifted light offshore, the sky was a brilliant blue and the trains of swell lines were marching in. As each person woke from their bunks, their first glance was at the ocean just out front of the house. The break out front was huge and knarly. The waves were clean, but the peaks were all over the place and the shape was very iffy. We stared it down for about an hour then decided to venture down the road to the cove and check the conditions there. Good thing. The swell was wrapping into the cove perfectly providing head high plus waves breaking perfectly off of the rocky point on the south side. Ten of us surfed the place alone for 4 to 5 hours catching plenty of waves, sun and fun.

The conditions for this trip couldn't have been better. As a first time participant in this annual pilgrimage to surf late October RI, I felt blessed to have the conditions we experienced that weekend. We certainly cashed in some of our collective karma points to score that well.

Burlington Surf-Style Restaurant Opening Spring 2009

WND&WVS — 2008-09-01

A new restaurant to be known as "The Spot" will be opening in Burlington June 15, 2009. The building is currently an old Phillips 66 "Bat Wing" style gas station that will be converted to a restaurant serving breakfast and lunch.