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What SUP in Cabo Verde
Well, first of all, I figured out how to add a new post. I’m young enough where I really should be better at computers but just old enough where I was right before that generation that had access to computers since a very young age. Well, what I lack in natural skill, I’ll have to make up in hard work….. speaking of hard work. Riding an 11′ board on 8 foot waves is not the easiest thing I’ve ever done. I wouldn’t exactly call it hard work, because it sure is a lot of fun and adrenaline. Yesterday , Sat. 27. I woke up early , loaded my windsurf gear and the 10′10″ Angulo Sup and headed to Ponta Preta. I thought the swell was gonne be small with a little wind, but instead it was glassy and big. I supped out there in some perfect waves with one other guy out for about an hour and decided to catch a big left on the next peak over ( should have my buddy Pascal dropping me a photo by here later. I’ll get that on at some point) and after that conquest was realized with no injury, I decided to give windsurfing a shot. The wind ended up dropping from 8 kts side off ( which is still doable) to about 3-4 kts straight offshore( not doable) right as I got out to the peak. The high tide conditions quickly pushed me way out to sea and I tacked back and forth losing ground for about an hour. I finally decided to try some biblical techniques and commanded the wind to blow ” in the name of Jesus”, and funny enough the wind picked up just enough to give me a good run straight in to the Riu hotel ( 1/2 mile downwind).. after that 1.5 hr. workout with not one wave ridden, I headed home for breakfast, reflecting on my 11 years of sessions in Ponta Preta, that’s the first one without riding even one wave. I’ve had sessions where I only catch one and go straight to the rocks, but not getting even one wave was a first. The worst part was being just beyond the peak and watching dozens of perfect barreling waves break perfectly down the point with only one guy out and I was bobbing out the back like a real “windkook”….. all that was to be quickly forgotten when in the afternoon session I arrived to the circus at the beach… surfers, body boarders, one kiter, one Supper. Fortunately for me as soon as I got out on the smaller 10′2″ Angulo Sup, basically everybody went in at once except the other Supper Mikael on his little 7′7″ Bong . The previously cloudy afternoon got split open by a burning orange ball dropping into the sea. Mikael and I basked in the moment as there was more waves then we knew what to do with ( video update coming soon). Endless, perfect A-frames stacked to the horizon and reeling down the line, with our only other company being the light off-shores and oil-glassy patches that warmed our spirits even more. Ride after ride, wave after wave…. I truly was in Paradise. As the day came to a close and we rode our last waves the length of the point and docked on the shores, the final hoots from the peanut gallery toned as the closing whistle at the days end, signaling what would be an even bigger highlight……. wife and kids.
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