Heaven's address is Ocean and 18th

Sunday had all the ingredients for a disastrous recipe.  High tide was at 6pm.  On weekends, Huguenot bans access to the park 2 hours before high tide and 1 hour afterwards in order to ease the vehicular crowding on the beach.  This is actually somewhat serious.  Depending on how many people are on the beach and how high the tide is, you may not be able to get out of the park on time.  If you are in the park after 8pm, you are fined for trespassing.  The increased traffic due to the birdie closures coupled with the complications of high tide encouraged us to continue our search for another suitable area.

Anyone that knows us knows that we are picky.  Like, Goldilocks and the Three Bears picky.  We first went to Jax Beach.  There was actually someone kiting there on what looked like a 19m foil, which in my opinion means you are damn good.  You can't drop a foil kite in the water and expect things to end well.  Not only was I now thinking that the conditions must be for advanced kiters only, the beach was extremely crowded with many people swimming in the surf, so no go.  From there, we drove all the way down to Vilano Beach only to witness the same scene but with many more surfers.  This started to worry me. I had made myself a rule that if the waves were big enough to draw the surfers out, I had no business getting in the water.  We decided to head back north and check out some Ponte Vedra Beach access areas.  No bueno.  With the encrouaching high tide, there was very little beach to work with, and again, too many people fishing, surfing and cavorting in general.  It looked like our day was going to be spent in the car instead of on the water.

We finally decided to try Atlantic Beach again but, heeding the suggestion of our kiting buddy, we went to the 18th street access instead.  This area of the beach was just right, as in total Baby Bear right.  It was graciously wide, even at high tide.  There were fewer people, which probably had more to do with the fact that it was about 5:30 when we got there.  But still, less people romping in the surf means safer conditions for me so I don't give a ding-dong as to the reason behind it.  There was only one problem.  Waves.  Big waves.

I now understand that what I used to consider waves were really just annoying, lazy slaps in the face.  These waves weren't kidding around.  Wilbur guessed that they were consistently around 4-5 feet with some 6 footers thrown in.  And while this is all fine and dandy for the surfers, for me it meant I had to ride through these rolling barriers to get out to calmer waters.  I was so scared at first, I decided that today was not my day to kite.  But of course, as soon as I saw Wilbur succeed in breaking through the waves, the desire to kite was overwhelming and I decided to merely fly the kite while standing in the shore break and see how I felt.

I felt miserable.  If a breaking wave didn't threaten to knock me over, an oncoming wave was trying to suck me off of my feet.  It didn't take long for me to figure out that I would be much better off riding on top of this mess rather than trying to fight it.  Wilbur got my board for me, and as soon as the latest set had died down, I leaned back and got my board on my feet.  The change in mind set was instantaneous.  Suddenly, I was in a position I was comfortable and familiar with.  I almost unconsciously dove my kite and started to ride.

But as soon as I saw the huge breaker that all the surfers were gunning for, I backed off and high tailed it in the other direction.

Abort the mission!

I repeated this a few times, getting closer and closer to the 'big one'.  Finally, I got too close to be able to abort, and seeing that the wave was going to break right before I got to it, I decided to charge through the less powerful white water.  I made it through without incident.  Of course, by the time I was able to claim victory, I was so far downwind that it was time to head back in.

Success!

This posed a new problem.  All of the sudden, the 'big one' looked an awful lot scarier from behind.  If I timed it just right (or wrong, rather), it looked liked I would be flying off the back of a water ramp with a 5 foot drop off on the other side.  But I had to get back to shore some way or another, so I charged for it.  I got lucky and made it through before the wave broke, but then it broke right behind me.  There is no feeling in the world like hearing a sizable wave break behind you and seeing the white water rushing at you.  I did my best to pick up speed and stay ahead of it.  Luckily, the wave actually helped me as well by propelling me faster, and I cruised into shore almost looking like I knew what I was doing.  My first foray at our new location ended with me, my board and my kite in one piece.  Total success.

Not only did we have an eventful and amazing day, we are relieved to have an alternate place to kite now.  Huguenot will always be my first love, but it's hard to beat not having a curfew and not having a scary rocky inlet looming and waiting to eat you and your kite if you screw up.  Plus, the Atlantic Beach neighborhood is very charming and the beach access has showers to aid in sand management (we have been perplexed at how to reduce the amount of sand we now track everywhere).  Now if the wind would just blow and the smoke from the nearby wildfires would dissipate, my life would be a fairy tale.

Please enjoy some more pictures from the day.

Wilbur assesses the situation

Wilbur always makes it look easy

Pretty sure I could never do this.