The American Windsurfing Tour canceled the Hatteras Wave Jam which was set to run September 14 - 17. Hurricane Irene hit Hatteras on August 27 cutting the main highway in multiple places and disrupting all basic services. A disappointed AWT pulled the plug on the event Sept. 1. With the loss of the wave contest, the Makani Fins Wave Experience was also forced to cancel their concurrent week of clinics.
Local event organizer, Bill Bell, reported on his blog: "Hurricane Irene hit with full force Saturday featuring a double punch of opposite gale force wind direction as the eye of the storm passed nearly over the OBX. I am lucky to live on a high dune area near Jockey's Ridge State Park, thus flooding was not an issue for me. However, for many on the OBX (especially the local community) the west side took the brunt of the storm with major historic sound side flooding as the tail end of Irene's westerly winds brought the raging water onto land and into people's homes/businesses. Roanoke Island, Hatteras Island, Collington, Duck, and other parts of the islands were simply inundated by the Albermarle and Pamlico Sounds..."
Andy McKinney filed this report on September 1: "The biggest issue is the washouts on Hwy 12 in Pea Island and at Mirlo Beach. It’s going to take some time to get the road back up and running. Other standard infrastructure has been affected as well- including water, electricity, and phone lines. Obviously, it isn’t safe for anyone to be on the island when these basic necessities can’t be provided..."
Dana Miller offered these words of thanks: "... for that upper-level wind shear that helped collapse Irene’s eye wall the last day before land fall across North Carolina. Huge. That was some very hot ocean she was feeding from and the potential for her to gain power that last day had me fearing for the worst. Yeah, the loss of life, the destruction and pain would have been so much worse but for that single most excellent event...the locals on Hatteras have never seen a flood like that. Not one but two new inlets. One up at the Pea Island Refuge station and the other at Mirlo Beach at the north end of Rodanthe. Maybe a road again in a month or so. The ferries are running but only essential inbound traffic. The place is a disaster. The Hatteras Island Surf Shop grounds were swept clean. The decks and stairs are gone, the boats scattered..."
Meanwhile, way out west, Solo Sports is offering up a week at Punta San Carlos at half price to all of the AWT fans who can make it down Baja way Sept. 10 - 17: Details.
Video Replay is a selection, IMHO, of the best videos from the last week (Aug 29 - Sept 4) of DaNews. Not sure why, but big wipe outs are always interesting to watch. Straight from the Indian Ocean:
Continent Seven wrote: "Right during the filming of 'Minds Wide Open'...Andre Paskowski, the producer, got a new cancer diagnosis in March. Back then he thought to stop the project for a short moment, but Andre never gives up. His personal goals in competitive windsurfing may have changed a bit, but his love for the sport will never change..."Andre said: "I feel that I still can do good. My body is totally damaged, but it does not mean that it will stay that way...I feel that mostly, all is still there. Windsurfing is still the most important. I check the news every day. It is important that you keep your dreams alive! It would not help me to stop thinking of windsurfing… it would just make me even more depressed." The Continent Seven interview with Andre here.
JP always makes a fashionably late product debut:
The world is just a better place because there is windsurfing in Morocco. Thanks Boujmaa Guilloul:
The amazingly long waves of Lobitos, Peru from the recent IFCA Wave Championship:
Can we ever get enough help rigging our sails right? Even more rigging instruction here.
Radar · WindSurfing mag editor, Josh Sampiero, will be in Orlando, September 8 - 10, for the big industry show, Surf Expo... The PWA: Kia Cold Water Hawaii wave contest (Please have a look at their Press Kit below) will run September 12 - 18 at Klitmoller, Denmark. Like last year, they will live webcast the entire event: Live Video... Running almost at the same time, Sept. 10 - 19, the RS:X European Championship in Bourgas, Bulgaria will be the last big test before the Olympic country qualifier this December in Perth, Australia... If you want to be a boardtester for Windsport, now is the time to make your reservations. They will be testing at Solo Sports in Baja for 2 weeks starting October 8... Come to think of it doesn't WindSurfing do a board test in Maui about the same time every year... DaNewsBlog had its first visitor from Iraq last month...
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