Thanks Bob for the great session!

It has been 9 years since I windsurfed with Bob at the 2009 HIHO. We've kept in touch and managed to bump into each other last year when I was in Hatteras.

So this year I headed down a day earlier than the rest of my friends for our group trip. Jen was at the wheel as we headed over the inter-coastal and down toward the outer banks.

Hatteras Road Trip!

We were invited to stay at Bob's place in Rodanthe overnight. He has the perfect setup; a sound side house with windsurfing gear storage underneath.

In the morning it was wonderfully windy and I set up my 4.8 Idol and Skate 108. Bob was on a 5.5 and a Quatro 90l board. Jen got some photos of us enjoying the 15c wind and warm water.

The amazing thing is that Bob is 73 and seemed like a kid rediscovering his favourite toy. He admitted to not having had many great days windsurfing recently, but today he and I had a wonderful time blasting back and forth off his beach.

I caught some drone footage of his session after I'd done enough sailing - over 2 hours for me and he was approaching 3 hours of sailing. (Edited using DJI's skypixel editor on my phone.) I definitely have a new goal - to be ready to sail for 2+ hours when I'm 73!

Click for video of 73 year old Bob ripping up the Outer Banks!

It is funny that Severne sponsored windsurfer Boujmaa joked that I'm his hero and he hopes to have as much passion for windsurfing when he gets to be my age. And I have a Severne riding older hero to look up to as well.

Heading out for my first Hatteras 2018 session

Bob already out a long way

Nice shot of us both nearby

Now the sun is out!

Clearing weeds from my fin!

Bob blasting

More weeds!

Bob heading in

Here's my session map. 2 hours and 15 minutes, 45 km. 47.7 km/h top speed once I was able to borrow Bob's weed fin.

View looking east of our fun session
Sadly the whole area is due to be surrounded by the new bridge :-(

Speeds got better after I was able to borrow a weed fin.

After that we headed down to Avon to meet the rest of the boys at the house. Jen and I went for a quick bike ride to shop for food and then made dinner for our first night together with the kiters.