2 Weeks, 2 "Big Wednesdays"!

OK so I haven't updated for a while. Well, what can I say. Spring has finally arrived here in Rhode Island, and I'm taking pretty much all the time (not that much) left from classes and studying to hit the water as much as I can.

So, last Wednesday, after all that rain we had, I was smelling BIG WAVES in the air. Surfline also helped.

I went SUPing at Tuckermans, a deep water break in between 1st and 2nd beach... The waves were double overhead PERFECTION. Not a breath of wind. Very gloomy atmosphere.

For almost 1 hour I was out by myself with these bombs breaking, at this lonely point sticking out pretty far out from shore. Paddling out in the channel, I realized my knees were actually shaking a bit, while looking on the side these huge monster bodies of water breaking, and spraying soo much off the back.
It took me a while to get some balls to go a bit deeper and deeper to catch one of these boms. The first one I took, my heart was pounding, and I was sweating in 5 degrees air. Once I got picked up, this THING just kept growing and growing underneath me. That wave was so massive by my standards that looking down the line, I felt like I was snowboarding down a trail! No joke!


After a few like that, Cody, who works at the Hooley shop in Newport, came out as well. Much better to be together with someone in those conditions. The timing of what happened next is just INCREDIBLE. This clear-out set that came broke right on top of me. Other than going MASSIVELY over the falls, i suddenly felt the leash snapping. When I resurfaced, other than noticing the even bigger 2nd wave of the set about to DESTROY me, I also realized my board was wayyyy gone. I swam like 15 minutes, in the middle of NOWHERE, in frigid water, getting pounded in double overhead waves, without a board and a f*** useless paddle in my hand! Not a nice swim. To make it worse, I kept on thinking at those "sharks' week" episodes I watched with Chris the weekend before. So finally I got back on the board, and since the tide was getting a bit too high for the spot to really work, we headed to 2nd beach for some more relaxed time.

At 2nd it was pretty packed with surfers and not as huge. Some nice rollers, not very powerful. I made a solid knot to keep the leash together and there stayed till dark.

So that was last week's Big Wednesday.

This weeks's (today actually) was another great day on the water, this time kiting.

Now, to look further at the factors that has brough together my sick session today here's a few technicalities, where I let the (soon-to-be) scientist in me (yes, apparently, there is such thing!) speak. Since last Monday is has really started to get warm around RI. As the specific heat of the land surfaces (in general) is less than the surrounding waters', the land warm up faster than the Ocean. things warm up by this "incredible heat" that we've been having, hot, moist air evaporates from land, and of course hot air rises, creating an area of lower pressure. Since stuff, in general, moves from areas of high to low, following the same logic air moves from high temp to low temp areas, so it moves over the Ocean, and there is sinks since now it's cooler. Now the air above the Ocean has a slightly greater pressure. And back to the same logic, this air now goes from areas of hight pressure (Ocean) to areas of low (land).

What does that mean? SEA-BREEZE! SW thermals! SW thermals have therefore have kicked in big time around here. Seabreeze, as seen, is overall driven by the gradient between the land's hotter temperature and the Ocean water's cooler temp. What does that mean again?! I want the biggest gradient I could possible find around, to get some CRANKING WIND! For,  this time of the year is the best for seabreezes, since the gradient between air temp (hot!) and water temp (still freezing!) is the greatest. It also means that the sea-breeze happens to be wayyy stronger here in the in-land Bristol than by sea-side Middletown, again due to that greadient (Middletown, by being so close to the Ocean, doesn't get as hot as Bristol. Smaller gradient. No-good wind).

So, all this technical explanation to say that Monday (didn't go out) and today we had such great wind. And today was such a great kiting session. Right in my own backyard. Well, I don't have a backyard, but IF I HAD ONE, Bristol Harbor would be it!

I know you can't wait to hear more technicalities of this sort, so tomorrow (or, better, sometime soon), more technicalities about my backyard's kiting specs!