Imagine you're sailing across a bay. The water is fairly flat, so you sail along casually...or you would except for the spot of the bay where 3 foot high waves come barreling through in sets...from straight downwind! They don't appear until about five seconds until they're upon you, so you practically have to press your face against the monofilm to see if a wave is coming for you.
So you're sailing across a bay, eyes riveted downwind hoping for advance notice of a wave. All of a sudden you feel seasick as you start bobbing up and down...those occasional three-footers are coming through with so much power that echo swell pops up unexpectedly big enough to bank off of, if you were looking at it (which you're not...you're looking for those waves.)
The Wolf said "you can feel drunk out there."
The waves are coming through Shinnecock Inlet. On the outside (immediately east of The Bowl) the waves are said to be twelve feet high. The remnants coming through and running across the bay have nowhere near that size, but they pack plenty of power. The good news is the waves are plenty of fun to ride...I've never wavesailed in offshore conditions before, but loved carving straight downwind onto the wave faces. The increase in apparent wind was huge...which was fortunate because of the bad news.
The bad news was that the wind was so fluky this day that oftentimes you'd fall off the plane as those sets appeared.
It was strange. Bizarro World. But I'd do it again in an instant, particularly with a bit more wind.
(Shinnecock County Park East is at the very end of Dune Road, driving west from Southampton. Permits are required in the summer. Watch out for rocks when you first launch.)
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