Standup Zone Forum
The Foil Zone => Wingsurfing, Windfoiling, Wingfoiling, Wing SUP => Topic started by: foililm on October 12, 2021, 01:21:03 PM
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I've heard Canadian Hole is supposed to be deep enough for foiling. Can anyone verify this? Are there any other decent locations in the sound that are easy to access? I know Real has their "foil garden" but is it accessible if you aren't staying there? Thanks.
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Where are you staying? If in town, I think there may be a few spots near the bridge to Manteo.
Canadian Hole is certainly deep enough. It is a rather limited spot space wise and good for beginners or working on maneuvers and testing equipment. Ocean side can be fun depending on the swell situation.
If flying in to Norfolk, down't count out the many spots here in coastal VA. H
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Thanks. We are staying in Waves. We were there in July and I kited north of that bridge just south of Jockey's Ridge at the public beach. It was fun but super shallow.
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You could try PMing Obxdave, who’s not been active since last winter. Hope he’s well!
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I remember windsurfing inCanadien Hole years ago, and if I remember correctly if you wiped out far from shore it would still be waist high water. Not sure if that was the tide, but when I sailed there I remember it wasn’t too deep.
Ya I would have thought OBX Dave would chime in here. I foiled with him in Florida last March and he shreds..hope he just lost interest in the Zone and is ok.
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OBXdave is posting on seabreeze
Canadian Hole has one spot that is deep. One spot! You can see it on Google Maps. Fight the urge to go upwind when riding there. You will run aground.
Windmill point is the other spot they ride.
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In waves the water does get deep enough in the sound .... eventually. Just accept that you need to walk out a few hundred yards depending on your mast length. Look on google earth and you can see the lighter areas where it is shallower further out and the darker areas where it is a bit deeper. You can foil all the way back in. it probably quicker to walk a bit than drive to nags head or avon. Lots of good ocean spots pretty much anywhere in waves if swell is small to medium and your skills are up for it.
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I ended up going to Canadian hole. There were about 10 wing foilers there and a bunch of windsurfers. It is a pretty small area but do-able. The north boundary is pretty evident at low tide. Wind was out of the SW gusting into the mid 20s. Two kiters decided to land their kites just north of the parking lot and got lots of stink eye from the windsurfers.
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I can imagine that would be crowded!
OBX may have the wind, but we have a ton more fun spots up hear at the mouth of the Chesapeake bay!
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I foiled Canadian Hole 8 out of the last ten days. I'm pretty much off the grid when down there so I'm just seeing this message. Pretty decent crowd this week, and nearly every night due to the good conditions Matt from Real showed up and put on a jumping show on his potato chip thin strapped board. When he starts pumping his wing he's sunk nearly waist deep. I think his board is about 2 1/2" inches thick. Always amazing to watch him pump his way up on foil. Interesting to see his straps are unidirectional, he rides both tacks with the same stance. My guess is he's getting the bottom of his board about 5' to 6' in the air as his foil is about 3' above the water when he jumps.
Early in the week was great due all the west in the wind which forces water into the bight and increases the depth, prior to Sat 10/9 it was predominantly E winds which made it very shallow. With a 60cm or 71cm mast on those NW and SW days you could ride about 1 mile out from the beach. Basically just west of the Hole heading straight out from the beach the water is about 3' -4' deep for about 20 yards. Just don't fall in there you'll need to walk to get going again. Once past that area water is 4 to 6 feet for a huge area, stay away from the Duck blinks, there are all built in shallow water areas. If you ride a 80cm + mast then staying in the Hole or the channel that runs from the Hole to Kite Point parallel to Hwy12 is a must, except in straight West winds when water levels increase, especially if it is a multi day blow. Between the new moon 10 days ago and the stalled front offshore, the Hole was the perfect spot on the island.
There's miles of deep water just behind Brigands Bay on NW, but unless you know someone you'd need to rent a house to access that area.
Kiter's always get the stink eye if they land there. Earlier in the summer a kiter, locals call them jigglers, put his kite into the power lines. Knocked out electricity from Avon south to Buxton for about 4 hours, great for the environment to have 1000 HVAC systems shut down on a summer day. Cape Hatteras electric just uses a sharp knife to remove the kite and lines, user is responsible for discarding the shredded fabric. CHEC then bills kiter for the service of re-energizing the circuit. NPS gives a ticket which will require a court appearance in Federal Court for trying to land a kite within 50 meters of the high power lines, judge gets to set the fine. Net-Net, I have no issue with any kiter who has a spare $5000 to gamble on being able to put down their kite without inconveniencing several thousand visitors, especially when the NPS built a parking lot at kite point that is several hundred meters from the power lines.