Utah Windriders Association

After two exceptionally good days, DC decided to throw a weird one. Despite ominous looking clouds and a chill in the air (about 50) my wind meter suggested that DC might just give up a few big gear rides. When I arrived at the Charleston Launch (about 11) it looked as though 6.6 might be the call, but by the time I got on the water, the wind had all but quit. Packed up and headed home, but on the way, I noticed whitecaps to the west of the Island. Headed for Island Beach hoping that the parking lot wasn't yet full. It wasn't. In fact, there were hardly any cars and very few boats on the water - on Memorial Day Saturday!? Just too cold, I guess. Anyway, there were occasional gusts the looked to be in the 7.5 range, so that's what I rigged, and it worked pretty well for about an hour. Was the wind really that much better at the Island, or was it just a matter of timing, i.e. if I'd hung around longer at Charleston, would I have gotten rides there too? I think in this instance, the wind really may have been better at the Island and possibly better still at the Dam, because although the wind on the lake and at Sundance was SW, the wind at the North end of the Heber Valley (US-40 Heber) was N, and at both the airport and my house, the wind direction was chaotic.