Messages

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Travel, Trips, Destinations / Punta de Mita Delightful

« on: May 19, 2021, 02:07:23 PM »

Just returned from a 12 day Punta de Mita surf trip.  Cant rave enough about this place for paddle surfing.  Several breaks within a couple miles.  Easy boat hire to access.  Generally not too crowded and friendly vibe at all times.  Cheap beer and delicious food.  Alaska flies the board as a normal bag!  Got lucky with a medium filling in swell from the south that lit up La Lancha and the Cove at times.  Little wind produced shoulder to head glassy conditions.  Right in front of my hotel (Meson de Mita) - drop the board in and paddle over to Anclote for awesome evening rides and easy on the eyes scenery floating around.  Everything was outdoors - including all restaurants and felt safe with low covid rates and a nice little clinic to take the test for return to the States.  Fully vaxed anyway but easy to mask up at times to fit in with the polite local folks.  Felt soooo good to get out of town for a bit and surf-eat-drink-sleep-repeat.....

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SUP General / Re: Fun for the whole Family.... even the Foil Crew!

« on: March 30, 2021, 06:53:16 PM »

Nice Creek!  A nice change up from all of those "perfect" vids.  Especially when a good portion of my surfing resembles what I just watched!  Keep it coming!

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SUP General / Re: Is there SUP Surf life after 70?

« on: March 19, 2021, 07:26:04 PM »

Great Vid Mr Creek!  An inspiration for sure as someone who is rapidly approaching the 70year line (67)....I offer these words of wisdom;

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body
But rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out
And proclaiming..."WoW - What a Ride!!"

Lovin my Creek BTW and vaccinated and hopefully soon off to Warmer waters - Mexico?

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Travel, Trips, Destinations / Re: Any Tropical Surf Destinations for Dec 2020 during the Pandemic?

« on: December 19, 2020, 07:56:57 PM »

Plus One on Punta de Mita - so many options for surfing and very easy to access via inexpensive and friendly boat hire.  We stay right on the beach at a cheap hotel - Meson de Mita - which is clean, friendly, has a great pool and an easy walk right into the water and paddle out to a couple mellow SUP breaks.  The town itself is pretty minimal - some great food but not much else.  Sayulita is a wonderful day trip away for more of a shopping vibe and a super crowded surf scene.  Cant wait to gt through this damn pandemic and return asap!

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Foil SUP / Re: Efoil Vibe

« on: December 19, 2020, 07:40:14 PM »

On the battery losing power issue - I do notice some fall off in power as it gets low - but not that much.  The biggest drop I notice is operating it when the water temp is 42 deg F and the air temp about the same...Brrr...  Seems like the cold definitely effects the output.  On the porpusing - I'm still getting used to things so not expert enough to say - however, some of the more experienced folks over on the Waydoo users facebook page are already experimenting with shims under the stabilizer and reporting better results at reducing this.  There is a video i saw posted on the page of someone using the foil to tow him into small waves...drops the rope - surfs in - pumps back out to the board and repeats...it looks like hella fun.

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Foil SUP / Re: Efoil Vibe

« on: December 15, 2020, 07:17:19 PM »

That was my beef with the LYFT - I could not control the trigger in a smooth way while moving from knees to feet.  I also set the speed (gear) at a lower number - keep the trigger fully pulled in - move from knees to standing and then adjust the "gears" up until flying....makes it much easier.  They are heavy beasts for sure and ungainly until you get them moving in the water.  Personally, I would be happy with a smaller battery to cut the weight a bit as I'm usually out for a much shorter session than actual capacity would allow.   

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Foil SUP / Re: Efoil Vibe

« on: December 09, 2020, 02:42:43 PM »

Plus one for the Waydoo - received mine in October (early Kickstarter) and have been using it on my lake - Brrr - its a blast!  Neighbor has a Lyft and we have swapped around and I have to say, I prefer my Waydoo - not only for the <$$ but it uses "gears" on the controller that make it much easier to launch -  in my opinion and the plug and play battery with zero cable connections is also a nice feature.  Also the big wing is up and flying at much slower speeds and very stable.  Also have the smaller wing which is much more agile.  No question that the Lyft is higher quality - carbon board etc.  but I'm quite impressed with the Waydoo so far.  There have been teething problems - no argument there - but the company is rapidly improving their customer interaction and warranty process - I have had to get a replacement controller already after my first one drowned.  Recommend full body armor when learning - the crashes are spectacular!

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Foil SUP / Re: Waydoo Flyer One efoil

« on: November 02, 2020, 07:08:40 PM »

The Waydoos have and are arriving as we speak for the Kickstart campaign backers.  Teething pains abound but they are quickly getting their act together and these are well designed and a lot of fun!  Mine arrived a week ago to the PNW - this quick pic from my very first trigger pull...was quickly standing and driving around on the first battery charge.  Some really fun crashes too....hence the full body protective gear.   Agree that its a quick way to learn!

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SUP General / Re: Smokers body

« on: January 05, 2020, 06:25:25 PM »

Whoops - I apologize to the list! - this has taken a bad turn from a "general discussion about paddle surfing"  I'm back to that -  and Happy New Year everyone! - off to MX soon to get my wave on! - Fun side of the wall - oops - there I go again!

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SUP General / Re: Smokers body

« on: January 05, 2020, 06:20:15 PM »

Please Mr Rgbar - get off the FOX train and go read the Constitution - Article 1, Section 2, Clause 5..."The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment."  Clinton was impeached in the House for lying to a Grand Jury - Trump for Obstruction and Abuse of Powwer.  Its a permanent stain on the office - that is just the facts.

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SUP General / Re: Smokers body

« on: January 05, 2020, 06:05:14 PM »

Agree - pretty fit for a man nearing 60.  Mr Rgbar - the house draws up articles of impeachment - DONE - Votes them Up or Down - DONE (there was an election in 2018 - deal with it) - the senate holds a trial for removal from office - or not.  That's the system we live under - the current sitting president has been Impeached - same as Clinton.

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Foil SUP / Re: First time riding the Lift eFoil- video review

« on: March 15, 2019, 06:53:57 PM »

Interesting thread.  Check out VeConcepts - they are now in production of an e-foil that uses a jet induction direct drive for propulsion - they market it as being able to surf on a wave as there is very low drag from the unit compared to a ducted prop.  Still expensive at 8+ grand with shipping but looks like a robust design.  There are several cheap chinese knockoffs showing up as well.  Will be interesting to watch this one as it matures a bit......

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Travel, Trips, Destinations / Re: Come to Tofino!

« on: March 04, 2019, 09:04:59 AM »

FRP....thanks for the info on this beautiful Place....used to go there years ago van camping with the kids and kayaking the protected waters.   We now have a small Rpod trailer and I want to drag it up there for an extended surf trip.....any recommendations for best camping  spots / RV parks to optimize beach and town access.  Summer or fall trip in mind.....tia!

 

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Travel, Trips, Destinations / Re: Surfing the Fun Side of the Wall - Punta de Mita

« on: February 27, 2019, 05:08:55 PM »

Hey Thanks Creek - it was a good trip and I got in an amazing amount of surfing considering my non-surfing spousal unit was with me - she does her own thing - painting / hiking etc and lets me do my thing...its been a good arrangement.

I loved your travelogue thread - so inspiring and man I wish I could get better pictures - the above is a screenshot from one pretty good clip, after that, my battery went tits up and I never got around to trying again.  Its funny, I cant seem to walk and chew gum when it comes to pics - I've got the camera on the paddle shaft and as soon as I get on a wave its all I can do to wave it around and think about the video being shot and I usually forget to actually surf the wave!   After a few of those, I usually say screw it and just surf hard and enjoy the moment.

I would dearly like to see myself from a distance as its a great way to learn - found that out in a surf camp in Costa Rica that was filmed..need a waterproof follow me drone or something...although knowing that was around would probably mess me up too!  Ha

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Travel, Trips, Destinations / Surfing the Fun Side of the Wall - Punta de Mita

« on: February 26, 2019, 10:19:27 AM »

Just back from a month long excursion down south of the border - north of Puerto Vallarta - bopped around Punta de Mita - Sayulita - San Pancho and had some great sessions.  Highly recommend Punta de Mita - several easily accessible surf breaks - cheap panga boat hire for drop off and pick up and crowds are not bad and very friendly.

Also stayed up in Sayulita which has some nice waves but very crowded with all kinds of folks....actually got pretty comical at times - a nice set would come through and thirty folks would paddle for the wave - about ten would make the first drop - five would manage to stay up to the bottom and two would manage to make it on down the line...WildMex runs a shuttle from Sayulita back down to Punta and the La Lancha break and that worked quite well to get out of town.  La Lancha is incredibly consistent and fun - can get crowded but the vibe is good and everyone gets some.

San Pancho is a cool town with great vibe - lots of music - and crappy SUP surfing....river break is steep and fast and never looked very good.

Overall a really fun place to surf with many consistent options and cheap food and beer.  Best part was we completely missed the famed Seattle "Snowmageddon" event that paralyzed the city for a week....Ha!

One quick pic - this is up at The Cove - a short boat ride from town....lost two friggen hats that day...dang!

PS - shout out to Alaska Airlines for only charging the 25$ extra bag fee for a paddleboard - makes it a no brainer to take your board with