What a difference a day makes

Wellington lived up to its sometimes fearsome reputation with a couple of days that were, what we call........."a little on the windy side".........else where they use terms like extremely gusty and gale force.

To be fair we did have some fairly gusty winds, the forecast from the day before was right on the button and taking into account what's been happening over the 4 day period and viewing our 2 wind sites it wasn't a too difficult decision to postpone Sundays scheduled event. The actual wind strengths I saw pop on on the Met Service website during the 10 am to 12 noon period on Sunday were Northerlies 46 km/h gusting to 78 km/h. In Evans Bay the gusts were accelerating through the gullies from Northerly to Westerly, which can produce nervous moments on the water.

It was disappointing for Auckland Starboard sponsored rider Felipe Alonso dos Santos who was down to take part in Event THREE ........ but then again he choose not to go out for a downwind paddle that afternoon either, probably acknowledging that the conditions looked pretty wild. Still we spent some time with Felipe discussing local SUP activities and looking at what boards he thought are the one's to introduce to Wellingtons paddlers at the Fergs Kayaks Wellington shop. Felipe will be back down at some stage for another winter series event and being a qualified SUP instructor he would like to run some Coaching sessions closer to summer.

For me today was my first spin on the water since last Wednesday when the conditions then were marginally less windier than Sunday........ (yes big difference in conditions we only missed the smooth Harbour conditions by half a day).............so today I had the pleasure of enjoying some warm sun on my back, a smooth harbour, a mix of light NW and a light Southerly.

We are now well over halfway through the winter (in my books it really finishes at the end of July) as August is sort of like an entree for summer and in August and September there are a number of paddling events on that help pass the time by quite quickly...........it's always good to have something to aim for.

Hey did you guys read the Dompost Newspaper on Friday?

Did you read the Dompost newspaper on Friday July 5, page 3 a photo with a caption explaining how some one was fishing off the rocks............wakey, wakey Dompost people there was a SUP Paddler in the photo too!!!!! and most of us recognised it was Neal Luka otherwise known as "Movie Guy"..........anyhow Neal would like you all to know he's 189cm and 95kg............ rides and paddles with Starboard equipment his passions are riding the big waves in Lyall Bay and he has a soft spot for fried chicken from a certain bakery in Miramar.

Top two photos taken on Sunday at 9.50 am.............bottom photo just off Oriental Parade.
click any photo to enlarge