Metro East Cold and we'll take it.

Rare east metro day. 6.9 Xpresh and 107 FSW worked well enough for an hour and a half and a 'hot' freestyle sesh. Sun tried to break out and you could see the swell potential but the dense cold air never licked like Friday. 49 degrees still made it another true fall sailing day. Taking whatever we can get at this point.

Sun. Nov. 14, Solid Metro Dense Winds

Looked like 10-15 SW on the water but it sailed like 5M 15-25. So happy I rigged and got into the chilly LSC waters. Good enough for a nice 3+ hours on the 43 degree wind/water session. Sailed 5.7 Xspresh overpowered on the ProEd and loved it. Some nice 2-3' waves to ride and carve upon the outside and loads on carving 360's on the inside. Very happy ending if this is the last sesh of the 2010 season. An ugly day that was actually really pretty good. Oh it was cold out there too!

Sat. Oct. 30 St. Clair Shoal HalloWind

Ok day, overpowered on the 6.2 Alpha but blazing speed out to the Shoal to rip some small but long curling glassy waves. Got to run the 5m and the ProEd for about an hour too before it lightened up. Good mild day that saw 15-25++ SSW and temps hitting the 60's. Not bad for a Saturday that started with little potential. Everyone was happy until the MSU came on.

Wed. Oct. 27 Big Metro Blow Out

Thanks Bob for the pix... The 4.5 and the 84 FSW PE were spot on all day long. This was one great day to be riding Metro Point.

Perfect. Metro. Wind&Wave. Day.

4.5m solid from 11am to 2pm 25-30mph SSW with 3-5ft. curling wave off the point. Sun and 60 degrees. Ramps to jump and ride everywhere. One of the best metro days in recent memory. Even an accidental port tack back loop attempt that was crazy close. Everyone was happy and the wind charts say why. Love it.

Island Lake works in the fall

Very little leaf cover on trail makes IL a great fall ride. 14.2 miles in 1:14 - very fast and cool 65 degrees and still about 30% leaf tree coverage. Have to come back to wrap the season here.

Wed. Oct. 20 Ok day at Metro

Got alot of promise in this day with SW 20-30 forecast and SC warnings. However, weak wind 15-20 (but great sunny clear skies) persisted from 11am until 1pm when I rigged up a 5.7 xPersh and the 107FSW. Things started to really get good by 2pm with winds now 15-25 and waves off the point getting really nice 3-5' curling. By 3pm, I was on the 84 FSW ProEd and the same overpowered 5.7. Just had to add the outhaul and downhaul to maxout the range. The sail and board combo was awesome for full on power and control with wind gusting to 30+. Good fall day with reasonable mid 50 temps and mostly sunny. Lots of fun being full powered and little of no weeds. We need a couple more of these before DST kicks in.

Sunday Oct. 17 Maybury Quick Ride

Great 45 minutes on leaf littered Maybury trail doing 7.6 miles in sun and 60 cool degrees. Fall mtb rides are here... be careful not to slip.

Sun. Oct. 10 Great Highland Ride

16.8 miles in a long 2:30. Perfect sun and 82 degrees, beautiful fall day ride. Tough mental ride but completing A, B, C & D - super satisfying.

Sunday Oct. 3 Classic Day at Lex

Classic day! Started nice and sunny with a 20-30 ENE swell and winds. Rigged the 4.5 and the 84 ProEd which worked great for the first few hours. Nice clean 4-6' waves all setting up for riding and jumping coming into the shorebreak. That east component to the wind had us all adjusting our sailing lines but everyone had smiles on there faces.

As the day wore on the 5 and then later the 5.7 made an appearance but the power and swell stayed there for the most part. A great lex day all in all and on a weekend no less. Hoping for a couple more of these. Soon.

Saturday Oct. 2 Blue Lagoon

Barely can say this day was a session at BL. NE winds 12-18 with some nasty rain and temps in the low 50's. Got the 107 FSW and the 6.2 Alpha out for and hour or two. Very disappointing with all the north forecasted. Should have followed the boys up to Lex where it kicked in late.

Memories from Friday...thanks MB.

>

Sunday Sept. 26th Fast Pontiac Ride

Nice 10.3 miles with Chuck and John B and John B (and not JAB) in 1:06 at PLSP. Good cool 60's temps and luckily no falls. Not enough in me to do a second loop with these pros. Need a rest after these past 3 days. Great long weekend.

Saturday, Sept. 25th Blue Lago report

Not anything to compare to yesterday. We had a morning session on the 6.2 Alpha and the 107 FSW with 15-20 west winds that didn't really kick in after the morning boundary layer burned off. Got in about 2.5 hours until about noon. Damn I miss that small sail and new 84 already.

Friday, Sept. 24th Wind, Wind, Wind! Golf is cancelled.

'Gale' called from Metro on Friday said get over here with the small stuff. So I did.

Great day on the new JP FSW 84 ProEd and the 3.7! Gusts touching 50!

Shot and edited with iMovie on the iPhone.

Tuesday, Sept. 21, Marysville Chill in the heat too!

Semi good day 6.2 Alpha and 107 FSW, powered and sunny high of 90. MB, Tom, and Keith and I had nice day on the river. 15-20++South but it never really kicked in fully....

Monday Sept. 13 Afternoon Breezes into BL.

Pretty good evening sesh on the 6.2 Search and the 107 FSW at Blue Lago. Tommy and I right on time for the 4pm west kick in with the right gear. Sun and breezy 15-20+ on a clear weed free side of LSC - Anchor Bay. Powered up ripping all the way to the other side and getting in 2.5 hours before it dropped off. Well worth the drive and not going to Metro. Suns going down much earlier it seems these days...

Saturday Sept. 11 back to biking @ TreeFarm

Novi mtb today. 10.54 miles in 1:03 with one nice fall in a sand pit. Wishing there was winds like last weekend.

Sunday Sept. 5 Classic Little Harbor Day

Dream Launch at Menonoque Beach

Brent Wave shredding on the 5.4M & 107FW

Shoreside fun

Using that wave face....

A great 4.5-5M NW 20-30++ day on LT Bay. John and Craig learn how good it can be when the directions right and the pre-fall winds kick in. Classic sunny sky, puffy clouds and 70's temps makes for perfect formula for strong NW blow. Lots of ramps and long swell in the 4-8' range made it a super sesh and then you got all the shorebreak on the inside play on. Loved it on the 5M Search all day overpowered with the 85 liter FSW. Great bookend to a windy Northern MI weekend. Thanks to Brent - the winds return!

Saturday Sept. 4 Breakwall Breakdown

Great day that didn't work at the Petoskey Breakwall. NNW winds 25-30 with the repair barges blocking the way out of the marina. Damn shame too. It was a classic day forcing us to down to the Petoskey State Park where the shorebreak was heavy and the winds weak. Probably the worst resulting sailing I've had with so much wind potential. A day to forget as there was nothing to take away from it that was really good.

Friday Sept. 3 Secret Spot Rocks (Bliss Gales!)

Wake up at 8AM on LTB - winds starting....

Jeff Degaynor into a Big Air

Hero jibing Bliss Beach

Locals said it was windiest day of the season and for those of us with very little summer sailing, it really was. Winds were SW to WSW all day at Sturgeon Bay Bliss Beach 25-35 with Gale gusts to 45. Gales sailing and great timing for Labor Day!

Brent and I started out on 5M in the AM and then quickly moved to the 4.5's and then I spent the afternoon overpowered on my 3.7. Brent found the courage to fight on with the 4.5 in nuclear afternoon winds. We had about a dozen sailors out with us all on 70-85 liter hulls and their smallest sails. Waves well upwind in the Sturgeon Bag Estates zone were 6-10 feet range and barreling often on the pointe reef (which is where I fell and got worked over the rocks). Each sesh out got shorter and shorter as the day wore on and the winds never let up. Loads of airtime were loaded as well as the down the waveface jibes. No room for error or slowing down. Schloggers were no where to be found on this day. Thank you Northern MI! Well worth the drive this time. More to come yet tomorrow.

Untitled from Jsealyons on Vimeo.

Big Air Time in 40+ gales

Untitled from Jsealyons on Vimeo.

Brent shredding it down the line

Sunday Aug. 22 Lex Looks Good...but disappoints

South Huron Bouy 8/22/10

Too bad the chart always looks good when it really isn't. Here it was North 20+ from 6AM on - signaling to me to the 1.5 hour drive up to Lexington but in getting there we find there's too much offshore NNW winds to deal with. With just JAB and I to rig we went WAY out and got about 1.5 hours in of 7M cruising. Something but not enough and it definitely doesn't cover the 3 hours of driving...

Monday Aug. 16, Finally a Metro Session

4 reasonably good hours on the 107 FSW and the very powerful 6.9 Expression. WSW-W-WNW mostly puffy in the 12-20 range gave a couple of good rise and kept me out for almost 4 hours in sun and 80 degrees. As for the water quality at Metro - it's horrible - almost criminal based on whoever is dumping overflows into LSC. Blue Lagoon is atleast clean - just wish it worked better on a west wind. Come on back winds, we need more of this stuff.

Sat. Aug. 14 Hot and Humid Mabury

JB and I did 2 fast loops at Mabury SP today on 1:26 for 13.6 miles. 7.2 mph average speed and 18.5 mph top speed. Hot, hot, hot.

2fer weekend Bald Mtn. and Addison Oaks

1 hour and 44 minutes riding 2 spots this weekend. Lots of speed and downhill. 12.9 miles with average of 7.4 mph and 1141ft ascent and 638 decent. 18.1 top speed. Addison - I'll be back. Baldie - I'll pass.

Sat. July 31, Highlands downhill day

Good ride in cloudy 75 degrees and had the place to myself mostly. 3.5 hour ride over 3600' vertical up (chairlift) and down for 15.8 miles. Ran almost all the expert terrain at Highlands but a couple extreme ones (AfterShock), had one minor sand pit fall. 22.5 Max speed and 5 mph average. The speedy part of the day.... that damn Mac Gully chairlift. Loved the Gororoth and Rob's Fun Run. Super fast with the seat down low. This freeride trail stuff is good times.