If you foil, or kite on 12m or bigger kites, or windsurf on 6.5m or bigger sails, you could have ridden almost every day in August. In my last blog post I wrote about this summer's trend of more sessions of wind but less average wind magnitude during those sessions. This trend continues in August. If you like to foil and/or ride bigger sails and kites then August was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE for you. There were 27 days in August that blew 15-20mph or more.
27 sessions is a lot for one month. However, let's look at the the average windsurfing sail size over those 27 sessions for comparison. The average windsurfing sail size was very large...5.8m. In my last blog post I mentioned that the average sail size for June and July was also large at 5m. But 5.8m is a big jump. So the trend continues from what transpired in June and July....more sessions with less average wind magnitude during those sessions. Don't be mislead though. It was still a good August. There were 6 sessions that were 4.7m or smaller, with 3 of those sessions being in the 3.7m size. That's not bad for August. Just because 'average' sail size was large does not mean there weren't any bigger wind days. It is because of the high number of lighter wind days that the average sail size was larger. There were still some big days.
Hopefully these numbers help to put the month of August in proper perspective. I've heard many people at the beach say that this August was a terrible month, and I've also heard many others say that August was incredible. Based on the actual numbers, and comparison of those numbers to previous years, I would have to say that August was pretty damn awesome. There were as many big days as any August I have recorded, plus there were a crazy number of light/moderate days. A very impressive month. Sometimes it's easy to get fooled by numbers. The numbers must be dissected to get the full story. Average sail size was very large, but that does NOT mean there weren't any big days.
The trend in weather pattern of June and July continues. Very few polar depressions bringing us wind and very few cold fronts. But there has still been wind. It will be interesting to see what fall brings. A very different weather pattern this year, but still good wind.
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