Utah Windriders Association

Here are some photos and short vid.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video ... 9161136465
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2 ... f9117b1f48

Craziest conditions I've ever seen at Deer Creek! Thx for posting that Mark... Water was spraying over the road at the convergence of Heber/Charleston road! Nice job Josh and Jason!

Wow, today has been full of variety.
Definitely a day with two completely different halves.

The SUP race went down well. 22 racers going 1.5 miles.
Twp classes - women and men. Lots of stoked up SUPers to start off the morning.

The wind started around 11:30 and we we able to have 6 or 7 heats for the windsurfers. I was sure that I was going to be the only windsurfer due to the terrible forecast. But it goes to show sometimes you get a surprise.

The kiter's didn't get any official heats off, but that doesn't matter because Billy claims he would have won anyway. So they saved themselves the trouble of the formalities.

I will post the race results later.

Then hurricane dc hit. For about 30 to 45 minutes the wind and rain came in absolutely fierce. Not just smoke on the water, there was a mist of water across the entire lake. We windsurfers love a good storm so when the swell at sailboat beach started going over the buoys we we were all smiles. Until Bob's board and rig flew up and over the tree and into the water - it went at least 20 feet up. The start board even started to take a roll down the beach. Then we all kind of realized that the real damage was down towards rainbow bay with all the small sail boats. Or what was left of them. The kiters were able to get their gear on the ground before the wind hit.

Seriously I think the sailboaters needed a crisis center set up for all the emotional turmoil they went through. Every sail boat capsized. There are reports that even a few of them did cart wheels down the lake. I don't think any of the boats survived without some damage. Brett Bingham, probably took the brunt of it. His mast was mangled. His son broke his nose, and almost drown. Luckily the worst physical damage was that a few sailors were taken to the hospital for hypothermia and stitches. In fact only one boat made it back to sailboat beach in the storm. I think a lot of those guys were finding religion while holding onto their turtled boats. Even the power boats were taking a major beating.

Mark's video actually shows the storm's severity very well. Wow. Wow.

I think the ranger called in all the sheriff deputies they could find. After the wind backed down to probably 30 we could see boats all along the shore of the lake, washed up. Many of them took some serious damage. Most of them were not prepared to spend an hour in cold water.

The drive home was very sobering thinking about all the carnage.
Brett did a good job in planning out the event. Even when the worst case scenario happened his preparation paid off. No fatalities, no major injuries, plenty of help arrived quickly. The auxiliary coast guard on hand to save or help many people. I have to give him props for his hard work and preparation.

As I said a day with two completely different halves. Both with some rather exciting happenings.

I've seen worse conditions in east coast. But the warning usually came a lot earlier and give sailors more time to clear off the water. I am glad no UWA member got hurt. I guess we're prepared for bad weathers anyway. Best of luck to the sailboaters. Hope the weather net year will be better.

Oh, Billy, did you use that 4 meter?

Hey anyone find one of these?
It fell off my camera at Barb Wire Beach.
Please keep an eye out for it. Thanks!

I figured I was the only one with a 4 so since thats all that would work I won by default.

Plus Jason tried to sabotage me early in the day by wearing me down, he was nice enough to lone me the slowest inflatable, (like for a river) paddle board ever. Nice work by the one of the only paddle boarders at DC Steven Nyman on a third place finish, He had the only true surf style board on the podium, First place was rocking a stand on race hull it had a bow and everything! Second was on a open water board also made to paddle fast. Lots of the local ski team kids made a go at it and did well they all came to race kites after. First year ever for a SUP race and it a bigger turn out then every other event.

The US ski team Steven Nyman?

Glad no one was killed, that storm swept through the valley and over point of the mountain with a vengeance, we only had about a 5 minute warning to clear everyone from the draper pool before things started flying around, can imagine how much worse it must have been up in the mountains.

Josh Shirley wrote:Wow, today has been full of variety.
Definitely a day with two completely different halves.
..
The wind started around 11:30 and we we able to have 6 or 7 heats for the windsurfers. I was sure that I was going to be the only windsurfer due to the terrible forecast. But it goes to show sometimes you get a surprise..

Oh damn I am super bummed I did not go now.
And I would have loved to see the storm come in. Anyone thought about rigging down for a second or was it obvious it was gonna be trouble?

Emmanuel Pons wrote:Anyone thought about rigging down for a second or was it obvious it was gonna be trouble?

If you have a 3.7 sail and a 67 liter board you could go out. But the swim back when the wind dies wouldn't be pretty. And then there was the thunder. . .

Emmanuel Pons wrote:Oh damn I am super bummed I did not go now.
And I would have loved to see the storm come in. Anyone thought about rigging down for a second or was it obvious it was gonna be trouble?

Actually Mani, I didn't bring up any gear... I flew up there with a little swag when I looked at the satellite pic and saw the purple colors heading over the south end of Provo... Otherwise, I probably would've been tempted to rig the 3.0 and small board... Glad you weren't there, we'd been a bad influence on eachother! The waves were so big and smoothe. Minus the lightening as Leo said, it'd have been a killer white knuckled sub 3.0 windsurf sesh for about an hour.

It was an amazing weather event to witness. Oh and the water isn't exactly tropical yet. A couple of the sailboaters treading water were only wearing boardshorts and life jackets.