A Year (Windsurfing) en Provence: Solosports Baja 2014 Pritchard Wave Camp

Highlight jump photo!

Here's my diary from my 2014 trip to Baja:

Day 1 - Saturday Sept 20th

Great flight down to San Carlos from Brown Field. I may even have had the chance to take the controls for a few minutes of the Piper Cherokee 6.

1.5 hours of perfectly set up sailing. 5.3 and 108 RRD free style wave. Running 34 inch harness lines, the longest I've ever had.

Guessing 25 km of sailing. ‎Sang Howard Jones "Life in one day" the whole time and everyone was commenting on the permanent smile on my face.

Our flight down to Solosports

Two baja fogs and a great lasagna dinner. I'm so excited by my semi competent wave sailing today I'm thinking I'll sign up for the AWT next year.

Day 2 - Sunday

Intro to the camp. Great mix of people. 5 women aged 33 to 56. Lots of repeat customers, plenty of engineers. The men range from age 29 to 64. Norway, UK, Australia, Canada are all represented. Shame that Matt Pritchard wrecked his shoulder. But Kmac is out ripping up the waves.

The Baja coastline

Seal of approval. I saw so many seals in my two 2 hour sessions. 68 km total in 4 hours. A dozen pretty high jumps; two were painful. Got 3 out of 10 carve 360 attempts. Zero upwind 360s.

Same board and sail and feeling completely comfortable.

Great salmon dinner and got to know more guests. Laura of course knows Steve from Toronto who I played poker with on Tuesday. ‎Not really a small world anymore.

Coming into camp

Thinking I should bring fewer clothes, more sunglasses and a Spot satellite system next time. ‎(No wifi).

Day 3 - Monday

‎Woke to the sound of fellow campers cheering on the hearty souls who were already out on the water SUPing.

After video review of our day one efforts, I headed out for an hour of what tuned into light wind freestyle with a few wave rides thrown in. 8.5 ‎km.

Mmm chili dogs for lunch.

I think I should bend my legs a bit more!

In the afternoon I didn't plane for the first 1/2 hour but then the wind and waves kicked in. I sailed down towards the point and caught a few waves. Later I caught my first off the lip aerial - a full six inches up off the white water.

Day 4 - Tuesday

A quick SUP session before breakfast with a total of one successful wave ride. The 29 inch 10 4 board was way to tippy for this 210 lb wanna be surfer.

‎After video review and lunch I headed out for a session on a Goya Freewave 104. It worked nicely as well with the 5.3 Ezzy elite that has been my goto sail so far.

My first off the lip aerial?

Tried my first Vulcans of 2014 with predictably poor results. But it was fun to try. I did get one of my six carving 360 attempts. ‎35 km in 2.5 hours as there was a lot of slow sailing waiting for waves. My two good wave rides were very fun but were 2 hours apart!

Really missing my wife and kids though. While it is nice not getting work emails it would be fun to connect with my family and hope to be here someday with a few of them!

Day 5 - Wed

Morning light wind freestyle session inspired by Brian. 7.5 km in an hour. ‎Got some duck tacks and even a few wave rides on the RRD 120 and 5.0. Not really any planing but fun anyway. Especially since I almost got my dream of getting going riding back winded on a wave. Pretty neat to be just wearing neoprene shirts and a rash guard since the water is so warm this year.

It gets windy in San Carlos

I stubbed my toe on the rocks walking onto shore. Oww!

I did manage to connect with home via webmail on the shared ‎solo sports computer which cured my brief homesickness.

The afternoon session was the first bad one. With ‎my bad toe and a quad fin board it was my shortest session. 35 minutes and 6 km. Time to save my energy for the waves that should come tomorrow ‎night!

Nice backlit photo

Oh well, couldn't sit still. Went for a quick 1/2 hour 3.5 km bike ride. Saw one of the San Carlos hares crossing the runway.

After a great steak dinner Jet entertained us by the campfire. The wind shifted though so we'll see what tomorrow brings weather wise.

Day 6 Thursday

Nice huevos rancheros for breakfast. Then some AWT video review.

Everyone was waiting for the swell to come in. I finally cracked the book I've been meaning to read.

Around 4pm the first NW swells arrived just as predicted. Even the wind filled in. ‎I headed out on the Quatro 104 single fun and my trusty 5.3. Not enough to plane but good enough to get me lined up for the waves.

Right away I caught 2 good waves, then had a bunch of miss timed sets and then one more good one. I spent a fair bit of time in the white water trying to water start and then getting slammed. I had the clew view on so it will be interesting to see how that looks. Total 10km in 1 3/4 hours including the walk home - not really a walk of shame, just too tired to bother slogging upwind.

A Baja fog and fresh clams for our appetizers. Then off to the showers and a good chicken stew dinner. Lots of people wearing shorts and t-shirts tonight it is so warm.

Brad received 5 stitches in his head from Dr Rodney after being hit by his own fin while tacking - sadly not in the waves so there is no epic story. During the after dinner conversations I may have convinced Camilla from Norway to enter the AWT in Maui...

Soft and easy waves in San Carlos

Day 7 - Friday

It was pretty quiet in camp as we finished our breakfast egg muffins. ‎I read my book but by the time we finished our delicious chicken burrito lunch, the wind was building.

I headed out on the RRD freewave 108 and a 5.7 and had a great time. I put the GoPro in a few positions and caught some waves. ‎Of course the battery was dead by the time the wind picked up in the 3rd hour of my 3 hour session. I did around 35km but the best parts were the wave rides. I did contemplate a loop but that ended badly as did the one jump I tried. Oh well, I was nailing my tacks and getting back out through the shore break very well though.

Towards the end of my session I rode past two dolphins that were playing in the outside swells. I rode upwind and in to the beach feeling very good about my week. Baja fog time!

JET singing the goodbye San Carlos Blues

Dinner was great as usual and then we were treated to Joey's wrap up video. Jet entertained us again on the guitar. He graciously played a solid set of blues riffs for me and nicely finished off my impromptu attempt at singing the San Carlos blues.

The truck is taking our bags at 3:30 AM and hopefully we all get one more session in the morning.

Day 8 - Saturday

A hearty scrambled egg breakfast and extensive video ‎review had us ready to get on the water for one last session as the wind built up.

I went ‎for one last session on the 108 and a 5.3. I was fully powered and felt like my arms were 2 inches longer after one hour and 20 km. I got a few nice duck jibes and a jump, but the tide was too high for wave riding.

The planes started landing with the liquid force kite team as we munched on burgers. We got our last picture files transferred to USB keys, made our last shop purchases and ‎packed up. Goodbyes were said and as quickly as it started, we were airborne.

My GPS trail from a typical session

I windsurfed around 200 km in 8 straight days of sailing and spent around 12 hours on the water. My wave selection and riding have definitely improved. Other than a stubbed toenail I came out pretty well. Not even a blister on my hands. ‎2014 American Windsurfing Tour in San Carlos August 2015?

Sending this write up while waiting for the group in little Italy for Saturday night dinner in San Diego. What a great trip. (But I didn't get around to editing the video and uploading to my blog till May 2015!)

Here's my video: