Windsurfing
I was wondering how many fellow RV’rs and rv.net enthusiasts also have the windsurfing bug? I would be interested in hearing about, and seeing (pics) of, places you have been and how you outfit your ...
Forum Discussion
Thanks for the McConaughey report, and especially the photos. It's always been on the radar. I'd heard about the sand and was concerned about getting our monster RV stuck, but that was back when the beach was MUCH larger. Bluff looks fine to me. Were you able to walk your equipment down that hill?
The photo of shooting the glades reminds me of El Reno, Oklahoma, where we were staying at the edge of the lake for reasons other than windsurfing. Then a hurricane came through (yes, an inland hurricane) and flooded the road and we were trapped there for several days, and the wind was still blowing, so we decided to make lemonade out of those lemons.
We had to thread our way through trees like that, and dodge debris out on the lake itself, but we were actually sailing. Then after about 20 minutes, we got chased off the lake by the cops. They called us over to the other side, which was downwind, to yell at us, and then we had to pinch upwind to get back. It was miserable. So much for lemonade. (Ha! I just showed Carey your photo and he said, "Looks like El Reno.")
About Hatteras...I don't know how much you investigated when you were in Ocracoke surfing last year. There's a small campground at Rodanthe Water Sports. It's on the sound side and I'm pretty sure you can launch from there. I don't know anything about it because we're too big to fit in their spaces.
We stayed at Sands of Time because it was a Passport America park and therefore cheap. Perfectly fine place, but no water access.
You can pay a day-use fee at Frisco Woods Campground and launch from there to see if it's a place you'd like to stay and sail.
Camp Hatteras has sound-site sites (it has sites on both sides of the island) that you might be able to launch from, but they didn't have monthly sites over there so we didn't do much more than glance at it. The KOA is on the ocean side but owns land across the street on the sound side (they have a pavillion or something over there) that they said we could launch from, but you have to get your equipment over there.
Carey sailed from Ocean Air one day, but felt a little illegal doing it because he was actually nearer to the houses. On our way out of Hatteras, we stayed at Oregon Inlet campground (national park) for a couple of days and he launched from Windmill Point in Nags Head one day. Small grassy area, looks like a locals' launch but they were friendly. He likes to sail way way out and went across to Roanoke Island, and encountered some of the nastiest voodoo chop he'd ever run across. But it was nice to have a destination--everywhere else it's just water as far as you can see.
As for Corpus, it should still be pretty warm in early November. We won't go unless it's cool enough at night to sleep semi-comfortably without air conditioning (about 70 degrees, and don't forget to factor in the humidity), and the only time we've been even close to there in the Fall we had a commitment to go north by mid-October, and it was never cool enough at night to go to Corpus before we had to leave. I've been there in late November a couple of times when it was pretty cold, or pretty cold to be romping around in the water. I sailed, so it couldn't have been that bad. It's all front-driven that time of year, and the water is so shallow it changes temperature pretty fast.
You should look at getting a solar panel. That place is ideal for solar, and lots of people in small RVs have just a single panel that they prop up on the ground. They've got marked spaces there now, and they're jammed in together very very tight. No chance of putting an awning out (but it's usually too windy anyway). Makes generators pretty unpopular.
Cell phone service is sketchy at best. Our Verizon gets a bar or two every once in a while, and I think it was AT&T that got nothing. But satellite is perfect because there's nothing taller than 2 feet for miles in any direction.
The closest civilization (convenience store and a couple of restaurants) is 13 miles away; the closes grocery store is 20 miles away. I think you can buy ice and small items like that at the visitor's center about 3 miles away (which is where the nearest water and dump are).
To back up my statement that you can learn to do anything in Corpus, here's a video of yours truly doing a duck jibe. Certainly bigger miracles have happened in the history of time, but I can't think of any offhand. And if you think flat water is too boring, head over to the bay--here's a video of Carey and another guy sailing there (he's not allowed to go alone).
But you can jump at Bird Island if you want to bad enough. This is Carey on a day when the wind howled from the north:
Check out that board. Did I mention we have old equipment?? That thing is several pounds heavy because of all the water in it, and when Carey came in, his session report was: Pigs can fly.
The photo of shooting the glades reminds me of El Reno, Oklahoma, where we were staying at the edge of the lake for reasons other than windsurfing. Then a hurricane came through (yes, an inland hurricane) and flooded the road and we were trapped there for several days, and the wind was still blowing, so we decided to make lemonade out of those lemons.
We had to thread our way through trees like that, and dodge debris out on the lake itself, but we were actually sailing. Then after about 20 minutes, we got chased off the lake by the cops. They called us over to the other side, which was downwind, to yell at us, and then we had to pinch upwind to get back. It was miserable. So much for lemonade. (Ha! I just showed Carey your photo and he said, "Looks like El Reno.")
About Hatteras...I don't know how much you investigated when you were in Ocracoke surfing last year. There's a small campground at Rodanthe Water Sports. It's on the sound side and I'm pretty sure you can launch from there. I don't know anything about it because we're too big to fit in their spaces.
We stayed at Sands of Time because it was a Passport America park and therefore cheap. Perfectly fine place, but no water access.
You can pay a day-use fee at Frisco Woods Campground and launch from there to see if it's a place you'd like to stay and sail.
Camp Hatteras has sound-site sites (it has sites on both sides of the island) that you might be able to launch from, but they didn't have monthly sites over there so we didn't do much more than glance at it. The KOA is on the ocean side but owns land across the street on the sound side (they have a pavillion or something over there) that they said we could launch from, but you have to get your equipment over there.
Carey sailed from Ocean Air one day, but felt a little illegal doing it because he was actually nearer to the houses. On our way out of Hatteras, we stayed at Oregon Inlet campground (national park) for a couple of days and he launched from Windmill Point in Nags Head one day. Small grassy area, looks like a locals' launch but they were friendly. He likes to sail way way out and went across to Roanoke Island, and encountered some of the nastiest voodoo chop he'd ever run across. But it was nice to have a destination--everywhere else it's just water as far as you can see.
As for Corpus, it should still be pretty warm in early November. We won't go unless it's cool enough at night to sleep semi-comfortably without air conditioning (about 70 degrees, and don't forget to factor in the humidity), and the only time we've been even close to there in the Fall we had a commitment to go north by mid-October, and it was never cool enough at night to go to Corpus before we had to leave. I've been there in late November a couple of times when it was pretty cold, or pretty cold to be romping around in the water. I sailed, so it couldn't have been that bad. It's all front-driven that time of year, and the water is so shallow it changes temperature pretty fast.
You should look at getting a solar panel. That place is ideal for solar, and lots of people in small RVs have just a single panel that they prop up on the ground. They've got marked spaces there now, and they're jammed in together very very tight. No chance of putting an awning out (but it's usually too windy anyway). Makes generators pretty unpopular.
Cell phone service is sketchy at best. Our Verizon gets a bar or two every once in a while, and I think it was AT&T that got nothing. But satellite is perfect because there's nothing taller than 2 feet for miles in any direction.
The closest civilization (convenience store and a couple of restaurants) is 13 miles away; the closes grocery store is 20 miles away. I think you can buy ice and small items like that at the visitor's center about 3 miles away (which is where the nearest water and dump are).
To back up my statement that you can learn to do anything in Corpus, here's a video of yours truly doing a duck jibe. Certainly bigger miracles have happened in the history of time, but I can't think of any offhand. And if you think flat water is too boring, head over to the bay--here's a video of Carey and another guy sailing there (he's not allowed to go alone).
But you can jump at Bird Island if you want to bad enough. This is Carey on a day when the wind howled from the north:
Check out that board. Did I mention we have old equipment?? That thing is several pounds heavy because of all the water in it, and when Carey came in, his session report was: Pigs can fly.
