blows at least 15-20mph for at least a solid hour AND the air temperature is at least 40 degrees. The same system of measuring has been used each year for consistency and usefullness of comparability.
And so it is that the 2019 season has come to an end (for most of us). But what a year it has been! The 2019 season has crushed wind records since I began recording in 2011. It has been the single BEST season in nearly every category. As I discuss the numbers keep in mind that I only count days when the wind blows at least 15-20mph for at least a solid hour AND the air temperature is at least 40 degrees. The same system of measuring has been used each year for consistency and usefullness of comparability. Let's start with the main data. The season began on March 28 and ended on November 27. During those 245 days there were 159 days when the wind blew at least 15-20mph for a solid hour or more and the air temp was over 40 degrees. The average windsurfing sail size on those 159 days was 5.0m and average board size 93.1 liters. This includes ONLY traditional windsurfing, NOT foiling. Yes, that means that 4.5 days per week allowed you to ride a 5.0m sail. That's pretty amazing! Compare this to 2018 which allowed you 3.8 sessions per week on a 5.2m sail, and 2017 which allowed you 3.6 sessions per week on a 5.1m sail. That's an 18.4% increase in sessions per week compared to 2018, and a 25% increase compared to 2017, plus a slightly smaller sail size. Incredible! Of the 159 sailing days there were 56 days that delivered an average sail size of 3.7m...WOW! That's almost 2 days per week on average sail size 3.7m. INCREDIBLE! And, remember, eastern Lake Erie had ice until near the end of April, so we had to rely mostly on Lake Ontario for that month. Personally, I had a total of 66 windsurfing sessions with average sail size 4.2m and average board size 85.0 liters. This is a slightly smaller sail size than 2018 and 2017 which averaged 4.3m and 4.5m respectively, but significantly smaller board size dropping from 93.9 liters in 2018 (9.5% smaller in 2019) and 98.2 liter in 2017 (13.4% smaller in 2019). My top 20 sessions had average sail size of 3.3m which is slightly smaller than 2018 and 2017 which were both 3.4m. There were 29 sessions on 3.7m or smaller. Two of the most interesting categories in my log are "Conditions" and "Stoke". These are subjective categories that I rate on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the best and 1 being the worst). They were both significantly higher in 2019. The "Conditions" rating for 2019 is 6.0, while 2018 was 5.4, and 2017 was 5.2. The "Stoke" rating for 2019 is 6.6, while 2018 was 5.6, and 2017 was 5.4. That is as much as a 17.8% increase. A big jump in stoke and conditions. Why such a large jump? I think part of the drastic increase in rating this year is due to improvement in my personal skill level. With increased skill level comes increased stoke and the feeling that conditions are better. Plus, there was just more and better wind. My greatest areas of improvement this year were in the carving step jibe, riding smaller boards, and carve tacking on 85 liter board. At the beginning of the year I set out with 9 goals so that I had different things to work on in different conditions. Can't really practice wave riding in flat-water conditions, for example. Of all the goals, I am most excited about my carving step jibe this season. It is a move that eludes many of us. This year the move came with a lot more time during the jibe to address each little part. Progression has reached that critical point so that the basics are now internalized, and there is now time during the jibe to more carefully focus on the finer details. Here is a brief article that you may appreciate on "Continuing To Improve". A couple other notable items from 2019: We had a streak of 33 days of wind in a row from September 22 to October 24 with average sail size 4.8m. That's pretty cool! And the month of August was windy 27 days out of 31 days. That's amazing for August! Remember, that's at least 15-20mph wind. Wow! Lake Ontario hit record high water levels at over 249 feet in late Spring, which made it difficult to find safe launching locations. Eastern Lake Erie had ice through much of April. The storm of November 1 caused a seiche that forced water levels up 10.6 feet in Buffalo and down 2 feet in Toledo. That's almost 13 feet of water displacement. Property damage and shoreline damage is significant. Recorded wind speeds at the Buffalo Lighthouse were close to 70mph during that storm. The storm of October 27 brought winds of 50mph. While Lisa and I had a very successful session that day when the winds dropped to upper 40's, the gusts of 50mph finally convinced us to purchase a 2.7m sail. For several years we delayed this purchase, but now I wish we had done it sooner. For us, next season will be the year of the foil. We have finally made the decision, and we have secured a board specifically for windsurf wave foiling. The foil will be ordered closer to Spring. I'm optimistic that with a little practice we will no longer need anything bigger than a 4.7m. Sometimes the winter can be long, but this new endeavor will keep us mentally excited about next April. And, who knows, there may still be a warm day in December to sneak another windsurfing session. Our gear is accessible in the garage and the snowboards are not yet loaded into the van. 2019 was an incredible season! This sport just keeps getting better and better. Friday was the first day of the previous 33 days that the wind did not blow at least 15-20mph for a sustained solid session of at least one hour in the WNY area. This ends the longest streak of continuous days of wind since I began recording. Not only were there 33 days in a row, but the average windsurfing sail size during those 33 days was 4.8m for a person my size. That's pretty incredible! In determining what qualifies as a 'windy day' I use the criteria of at least 15-20mph of consistent wind for at least one hour. If the meter hits 15 or 16mph a couple times during an hour, that does NOT count. If there is consistent wind of 15-20mph for 55 minutes, that does NOT count either. There must be consistent wind of 15-20mph for a solid hour. Based on the complete records I have kept over the past three seasons, the 2019 season has kicked butt in almost every category. There is still over a month of wind to observe, but I have the feeling that November will also deliver. At the end of the season I will share the results of the entire season. Enjoy! October and November are known for bringing good wind to the GLR, but some years September can be fickle. This year, however, September delivered the goods. There were 22 days of wind over 15mph this September that offered an average windsurfing sail size of 5.0m. This equates to over 5 days per week on a 5.0m sail. That's pretty good! I personally was only able to score 10 of those 22 sessions, but I was pleased to be able to use an average sail size of 4.1m. I'll take that any month of the year. Temperatures have been pretty nice. According to the National Weather Service website Lake Erie sits at 67 degrees today which is just one degree lower than the highest all-time record temperature for the last day of September. This should at least give us fairly warm water through mid-October or later. It looks like tomorrow will bring air temps in the low 80's, so I wouldn't expect Lake Erie to cool off much in the next few days. As we get into bigger wind and more days of consecutive riding don't forget to pay close attention to proper nutrition and recovery techniques that I have talked about in my videos. This can really help to keep you on the water as much as possible without injury. I am posting links to those 2 videos below for ease of access. Get It Good!!! Recovery Techniques for Windsports https://www.ericthebige.net/recovery-techniques-for-windsports.html Basic Nutrition for Recovery in Windsports https://www.ericthebige.net/basic-nutrition-for-recovery-in-windsports.html It was Friday, and Lisa was able to exit her place of employment at 3pm. We were planning to go to Canada for south wind on Lake Erie, but the forecast just didn't look right to me for that location. Seneca Lake had been blowing since 12noon and the forecast looked epic for the evening, but it is an hour and forty-five minute drive. Hmmm...what to do? It really was an easy decision. Wind rules! We got in the van at 3:35pm and arrived at Seneca by 5:30pm. Sunset was 7:28pm, so no time to mess around. We immediately rigged 3.3m for me and 2.9m for Lisa. The sails were way too big, but we don't own anything smaller. If I took the 2.9m then Lisa doesn't get to ride, so we downhauled the crap out of them both and away we went. It was blowing 40-45mph. After two reaches I dropped in the water to add more outhaul to my sail as I was so over-powered that I could barely ride. The wind was so strong that I could barely get into the harness because the harness lines were blowing away from me. As I floated in the water adjusting my outhaul I could see Issac screaming toward me. I figured he was probably checking to make sure I was ok, so I gave him the 'thumbs up' indicating that I was fine. He beared off wind about 10 feet away from me on my downwind side, and as he was directly in front of me a ramp popped up in front of him which he hit at FULL speed. I looked up into the sky on my downwind side as I floated in the water, and all I saw was the bottom of Issac's board and the sky. UP, UP, and AWAY! It was an amazing view of him soaring through the sky. I have not been able to get the image out of my head....board, sail, sailor, and sky! As it turned out, Issac was a little over-powered also, and he blew out nearly an entire window on his sail shortly after his epic flight. It was probably for the best since he now had a sail about one meter smaller that was more suited to the conditions....LOL. An incredible session with perfect conditions! Really could not have been any better. Just awesome! Sometimes the stars align and everything comes together. Today was that day! By 6:30am I was rigged and in the water on eastern Lake Erie. The sun was just rising. Visibility was ok, but it was not totally light yet. I did my best to hold down the over-powered 4.7m sail that I had rigged on my 85 liter board. The waves were really good near shore. The wind started out south. Within 10 minutes is shifted to WSW, then W. And another 10 minutes it was WNW. I managed to hold down the sail for about 40 minutes and then the wind totally dropped. A great session, with a short swim back to shore. Back to the van for a look at the phone and forecast. Lake Erie did not look all that great for the rest of the day, but Ontario had potential. A quick breakdown of gear, and I was on the road headed north. As I arrived in Wilson tons of whitecaps appeared through the trees. Looks like 4.2m I thought. Rigged and grabbed a smaller 76 liter board. One run out and back....TOO MUCH power again. Not gonna make that mistake twice in the same day. A quick re-rig to 3.7m and.....PERFECTION! The sun came out brilliantly, the waves set up on the inside good enough to hit some frontside turns, and the next 90 minutes were amazing. Of all the days I have sailed Lake Ontario this was probably the best. The wind was so steady and so smooth. This was the first time I had ever ridden 76 liters on Lake Ontario. The park was empty. Just the wind, waves, birds and me. A great day! 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. It's the 4 month check-point in our 8 month season. We are windsurfing and kiteboarding during interesting times. These are changing times. Take notice of the weather patterns. During a normal June/July we would see a polar depression originate over Alaska, move across Canada, and then down over the Great Lakes Region about once a week. These systems normally bring us excellent wind. This year I have only seen one solid polar depression form, cross Canada, and bring us solid wind in the GLR. It's different this year. There are really no solid cold fronts. Even the one polar depression that DID bring us wind did NOT have a cold front associated with it as it was too far north and accompanied by high pressure to our south which pushed even further north. With a warming Earth we are seeing different weather patterns. Stubborn high pressure over Greenland is blocking weather systems from moving through Canada while it forces the jet stream to buckle. The wind has been decent...but it's different. June and July were decent wind months, with a total of 32 sessions on an approximate average size windsurfing sail of 5m. That's a 5m session about every other day. It's decent, right? Nothing great, but decent. It's a few more sessions than usual, but less average wind magnitude during those sessions....AND sessions have been a little shorter. The wind has NOT lasted as long during each session. AND, you had to drive a little further to get those sessions. The wind is not as broad reaching. The wind is coming from different weather systems. The arctic temperatures are at all time highs. There is less sea ice, less reflection of sunlight. Things are warming. I don't know what this will do long-term to our wind in the GLR. My gut feeling is that we will get less frequent sessions with higher magnitude winds, in the sessions we do get, because storms will be more intense...however, that presumption is dead wrong this summer. We have been getting slightly more days of wind with lower average wind magnitude, and you had to drive further. I only had one solid 4.2m session in all of July. Usually we get several 4.2m sessions in July. Autumn, however, could be a different story. Last autumn intensified to several days of near 50mph winds. I would not be surprised at all to see a repeat this year. Get ready to downhaul your 2.9m sails hard. They are not easy to hold down in 50mph wind. Now look at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This time of year they are getting their usual south winds....BUT, it has been extra good. Since we are not getting the polar depressions dipping south out of Canada into the GLR, the Bermuda high is staying put off the coast of North Carolina. I'm not saying we should all move to OBX....BUT.....lol....it's not a bad idea. There is no way to predict exactly how this will affect our winds in the GLR over the next couple years, but things are definitely different. Watch the models like a HAWK. STUDY THEM! Check at least 10-15 different models during the day. Check them often. Check them in detail and cross-compare them. Don't be afraid to drive 2 hours for wind. Don't be afraid to rig 3 or 4 sails. Don't be afraid to try new places where you have to walk a quarter mile to the beach....just get a set of wheels. Watch the meters carefully. Tracks patterns in a spread sheet like a professional would do. Watch air temps, clouds, CAPE's, precipitation, and fronts. There will be sessions to be had....we just have to find them. Go the extra mile and you WILL find wind...LOTS OF IT!!!! Love the wind and it will love you back. None of the professional meteorological models predicted much wind today despite the fact that there was a very obvious pressure gradient over the WNY area. On top of that it was forecasted to be sunny most of the day which can sometimes induce a thermal lake breeze. I felt that there was the probability of a 15-20mph session favoring the Rochester area as the gradient favored a NW wind, but as luck would have it the wind I had hoped for blew right here in Buffalo on a WSW direction. Even better. It wasn't a lot, but it bounced up and down between 15-20mph for a few hours. I rigged 5.3m on a small board with the intent on practicing tacks. Light wind tacks on a small board have never been easy. The first two tacks made no progress. But as I was falling in the water on the third tack I realized that the tail of the board was sinking as I leaned the sail rearward and tried to transition to the other side of the board. On the forth tack I leaned the sail rearward and this time I weighted the front leg. The tail did not sink, and I stepped around to the opposite side of the board without falling in the water. Progress made. Four more times I repeated the tack while weighting the front leg, and four more times I completed the move without falling in the water. If you are working on tacks on a small board try weighting the front leg more. It helped a lot today. Over the past 3 weeks I have been studying windsurfing foils and foil boards as I try to decide if it's time to buy my own kit. At first it was a little overwhelming. But, now, it is starting to make sense. I have narrowed it down to the Slingshot line. Here are 2 very good videos explaining the line. Please subscribe to my Youtube channel. Thank you! |
AuthorEric L. Mihelbergel is an intermediate/advanced windsurfer, kiteboarder, and foiler living in the Great Lakes Region of New York State who enjoys sharing about windsports and fitness. Archives
December 2023
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