Standup Zone Forum
Stand Up Paddle => Downwind and Racing => Topic started by: Off-Shore on January 12, 2016, 05:36:14 AM
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This is one of our Saturday morning runs here in Hong Kong. When the wind blows and the swell lines up it is a great off-shore downwind run.
https://youtu.be/tLneIZf8L1E
With thanks to Neil Rambaldi and his guitar (Speechless). If you can, try and sync the vid below with the one above... To do this, turn the sound down to zero on the one above and up to max on the one below and set the video below going first and when Neil appears, start the video above (with sound at zero). A bit technical, but it's worth it.
https://youtu.be/VvO0o0-XzMU
Thank you Neil :)
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FYI there are tools to rip a youtube soundtrack
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Thanks for sharing off-shore. Hong Kong looks like a very cool downwind destination. Do monsoons produce a lot of wind for runs? or is it too confused?
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Thanks for sharing off-shore. Hong Kong looks like a very cool downwind destination. Do monsoons produce a lot of wind for runs? or is it too confused?
SQ. We are very fortunate to have fairly consistent winds throughout the year. The graph below shows monthly mean wind speeds and directions at Waglan Island which is to the SE of Hong Kong Island. The difference between this Waglan Island wind speed and the Observatory wind speed, is Waglan Island is off-shore and wind is always stronger over water than over land where the Observatory is located. We only wear 3mm wetsuits from mid Dec to Mid March. Very fortunate. There is a 15+ year history of Outrigger and later, Surfski downwinding here and SUPs only got into the mix 3 years ago.
The Monsoons are varied. Here is a link explaining the winter ones we have now http://www.hko.gov.hk/education/edu01met/wxphe/ele_wintermonsoon2_e.htm. Generally they are quite consistent but winds can be affected by islands and surrounding geography and become gusty / variable close to land.
With island paddling, the main issue off shore is the refraction of swell and waves and backwash off the many islands, so getting groomed conditions is rare. This run in the vid above gets better the further off-shore you are to Lamma Island. The logistics are also a challenge with most good runs only accessible by boat. The further we get away from land, generally the better the conditions are.
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Thanks off-shore, that info was great. Keep the vids coming !!
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Thanks off-shore, that info was great. Keep the vids coming !!
We had a Strong Monsoon Warning today, and it all went a little squirly. Two of us headed out in the boat and decided to do the South Lamma Run, which means crossing the Lamma shipping channel. However it was so misty / foggy we could not see the ships at all, or any land, and so stayed in the boat to cross. We used a phone to check where we were on Google Maps and eventually found the channel marker and then a container ship loomed out of the mist and we found our bearings. The conditions were too big and crazy to risk the 3rd person Pole getting tangled up in the leash, and my Hero 4 Silver GoPro suddenly stopped working so I did not get any vid, and only a couple of shots from the boat. It was one wild wild ride with multiple falls and mountainous seas. I did one screaming drop and when I got to the bottom, the board slowed down so quickly I literally ran from the tail of the board all the way up to the nose and off the front.. Fun times.
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A quick snapshot of the Garmin Data showing the South Lamma downwind route (red) and the outward (blue) and return (green) boat trips to get there. Normally with high visibility we'd start paddling on the north side of the shipping channel, and if the gap in the ships is long enough paddle through them (with a safety boat which is required), or jump back in the boat to speed across the channel if the ships are too close together. With low visibility though it is safer to stay in the boat and not even start paddling north of the shipping channel.
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We had a wild South Lamma Downwinder today. Wind was 30-35 knots in the morning but calmed down to around 25-30 in the afternoon when we went out..
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This was the South Lamma Run last weekend, with a downwind buddy who usually paddles a SIC F14, and found the SIC Bullet 14v1 TWC, a little narrrow in comparison.. I also included some shots looking back into the wind at the end which gives a little bit better idea of the scale of the swell.
https://youtu.be/Il9CDTEJFPc
GoPro Black - Headmounted
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It was an epic day today on the South Lamma run.. A little bigger than was expected..
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Very nice conditions! Great music too :) How cold is that water?
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The water is at its coldest this month at 18 deg C or 65 deg F so this past weekend was the first time I felt a good full body "cold flush" falling in probably because I was boiling inside my wetsuit (3mm farmer john and 1mm Rip Curl Long sleeve top). In the Summer it goes up to 32 deg C. Bath like. In fact we get days where the water temp is higher than the air temp.
Glad you liked the vid. It's always interesting trying to find music that fits that is "free". I should have a new vid from this weekend which focuses on the 2nd half of the run past the end of the island where the runners are more groomed and there is less backwash from the south side of Lamma island.
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Here is a vid focusing on the 2nd half of the run when the backwash and lumpiness recedes as you get past the SW corner of Lamma Island.
This was shot this past weekend in similar conditions to the first two vids
https://youtu.be/qtlEAcT1ERk
With thanks to Tom Hambridge for "Gonna Make Some Time"
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We went out expecting that it would be a downbreezer today as the Winter Monsoon has returned rather unexpectedly ... and the wind picked up and it turned into one of those great surprise sessions. It was cold though for Hong for this time of the year..
I include a shot specially for DJ to show that after hearing his voice ringing in my ears "Get into surf stance ya buggah" for 2 years that I can actually get into surf stance now... well it's probably staggered parallel stance, but it sure FEELS like surf stance. ;). Thanks again DJ.
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Keep working on that surf stance, OS. Yours looks about as convincing as mine haha! Here's Charlie Grey showing proper surf stance when downwinding, to inspire you.
http://youtu.be/sqUCwHxh5Rg
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Area. I'm glad I've got company! That's one awesome vid and run you posted. Fabulous conditions. I'm going to make it down to Hayling one of these days. Interestingly on these big 16' boards with active steering there is something rather majestic about being up in the wheelhouse parallel stance using the foot rudder. I think it was Headmount who mentioned this in one of his vids.
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Area. I'm glad I've got company! That's one awesome vid and run you posted. Fabulous conditions. I'm going to make it down to Hayling one of these days. Interestingly on these big 16' boards with active steering there is something rather majestic about being up in the wheelhouse parallel stance using the foot rudder. I think it was Headmount who mentioned this in one of his vids.
Oh yeah for sure, stance is determined a lot by board and conditions. I still find myself steering from the back of the board in full surf stance quite often though on my 17. Certainly more than I see in the average Maliko video. Maybe it's me, maybe the difference in conditions.
Hayling is where we go usually when either we have newbies with us, or it's totally nuking. It's about as safe as conditions can get in the 35+ knot range, so it's really useful. Sometimes it can be incredibly well lined-up, and it never gets particularly big. Having said that, Charlie still makes it look all so easy. You'd swear that you could just hop on his board there and do that. But most typical amateurs (like me) would be confronted with an inconvenient truth if they tried. It's annoying when aspiration doesn't match ability... so I spend a lot of my time annoyed :)
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Whilst we can only dream of getting to the OluKai Hoʻolauleʻa (which happened yesterday in Maui) we did get out on the SLR (South Lamma Run) here in Hong Kong yesterday. We're hoping to get Hong Kong represented in 2017...
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Nice vid OS. Love the camera angle.
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Some unexpectedly good conditions on the South Lamma Run this week with one of the young local Naish sponsored riders.