South Padre, 4/22 – 5/19

[obzansky]

South Padre, 4/22 – 5/19

South Padre to start the season. For the past few years, we have made spring trips to North Padre to windsurf, surf fish, and paddle. One of the major disadvantages of North Padre however is the very limited access to Laguna Madre for kiting.

From the talk on the beach at South Padre, January thru early April were lacking in decent wind. It started to get more consisent in mid-April and seemed to be getting better in mid-May:

Summary
(sails: Retros (4.6 Revo), Boards: 133 and 111 Futuras, 86 Kode)
(note re. sail size, I usually ride 0.5 to 1 m lower than most other males on the beach)
4 days 7.0/6.5 on 133/111 L boards
6 days 5.5/6.5 on 111 / 86 L
3 days 5.0 on 111 / 86 L
2 days 4.6 on 86 L
6 days beginning kiting (trainer, 6 and 10 m) (3 lessons with Petra at Air Padre)

Only a few days were “sail till you drop”, most other days timing was key. Some days provided only a few hours of decent wind. Comparing the sailing to North Padre, from the North Flats on South Padre, the sailing is great on all points of sail. Lock into the straps, and ride for miles. Fall off and stand anywhere. North Padre is much more crowded on the water from the main windsurfing site, Bird Island, and has more islands and sand bars on the various point of sails. Also, North Padre has many more “over-the-head” holes even close to the launch site.

Camped at the county park, Isla Blanca. Really enjoyed this very clean, but dated park. With water, electric, sewer, cable, and hot water showers, cost was about $400 for the month. Our camping fees at North Padre are generally less than $200/month without water, electric, etc. Isla Blanc also serves as the best public beach on the island so it gets very busy (the beach not the campground) on the weekends. The campground seems to serve as a second home for lots of the locals. They book a site for 4 months or so and only visit on weekends. Other campers report that its best to have a “lock it or loose it” mentality but I had no problems.

[duanekarren]

Nice post. I learned a lot from reading it. We overlapped about 50% of the time. It appears you had more high wind days than we did but that may have been the fact you used smaller sails than most other males. Also appreciated the camping info as I have been thinking about pulling a trailer down and staying longer.