We've hit the wind here for the last couple of days. We had light 15K SW for the first 2 days of the trip. Big gear was the order of the day. This was followed by unseasonal beautiful sunny warm days more suited to the end of spring rather than August! All the crew have enjoyed doing all the things you do on Lord Howe when it's not blowing.
These are just a few photos from yesterday. We were all out on the reef near Erscott's Hole.
20-25 K SW, some nice reformed swell coming off the reef, small chop to totally glassy lovely bear away hero jibe territory....
Photos by Jack Shick.
Out of interest, what are "all the things you do on Lord Howe when it's not blowing"?
Snorkel, climb Mt Gower, go fishing & catch Kingfish, kayak, sail dinghies...read a book.
Water temp is 18-19 deg, you definitely need a steamer, but it isn't cold. The last 2 days everybody sailed for between 4-6hrs with no cases of hypothermia!
I was wondering if you got any wind..I remember the days when I used to be able to go out for 6 hrs straight.
these days 1.30 leaves me 
. Mind you if it blew often enough to get out at least once a week that would help fitness! looks fun
What's the weather like there today? Is LHI under these intense looking thunderstorms?
www.weatherzone.com.au/stormtracker/
edit - don't look, it's changed since I posted
That second last pic is mate of mine from the sailing club at UQ, saw it on Facebook yesterday
Ah Mr Lordhowe! We were watching you guys out on the reef as we flew out - looked very nice out there - was swearing a little :)
Such a great trip - everyone who is interested should go - well worth it. Tim is setting up a hire centre at the Lord Howe Aquatic club - brilliant spot to store gear along the front on the lagoon and perfect spot for rigging up.
We got a few lighter wind days at the start and got out on bigger gear - but a bizzare high was sitting over the island and so we got a few beautiful sunny days and 20-22 C weather to go snorkelling, fishing - polish up the not so polished golf skills :) playing a bit of golf in front of a turquise blue lagoon is pretty good! Apparently this weather was NOT common for that time of year and hadnt been seen for 20 odd years... it funny the jinx that getting 15 wind hungry windsurfers together in one spot ahaha!
Anyway, later in the week the W/SW kicked in and had saturday fully powered on a 5.7 (im a heavy b*#tard) and having an awesome time. on higher tides the swell builds a bit, and out near the reef the waves break over the reef so you can have some good riding if the conditions are right. Low tide flattens out the lagoon significantly and behind the reef there are some super smooth spots for blasting and some freestyling. I had been hanging out for a sail and we were flying out midday sunday, so after hitting the water at 7 - sailed until about 4... very tired and slept well!
Sunday morning got woken up to a solid 20-25knot SW and managed to get out until 10.30 for a overpowered 5.4m session.
Tim put on some great meals and the crew were great fun. its great to meet people from across Oz who share the passion!
Anyway - thanks tim!
Overall - definately worth a visit - next year Tim should have 20 or so boards and plenty of sails so you wont need to take gear!
:) :) :) good times!
Will
Back at work and looking out at about 2 knots of wind today really didn't compare to the last two weeks at Lord Howe Island
This is a fantastic place to windsurf, particularly where the photos were taken where you can sail in flat water, swell and then waves all in the one run.
I think I managed to sail about 8 days out of 13 on 4.7m to 7.7m sails and usually on 101 to 122 liter boards with the odd blasts on a 77l freewave and a 140l freeride.
Other activities on the lighter wind days included snorkeling, walking, laughing at Pete and Ian metal detecting and finding our planted one dollar coins (although they did find my fin so I can't complain too much) golfing/loosing golf balls (I forget which version of the sport I was playing) and just chilling out from the daily grind.
Coming from Mackay, I expected it to feel the cold but with a 3/2 wesuit, helmet and impact vest, it felt warm on and even in the water and easily managed 6 and 8 hour sessions on the water without feeling cold.
All in all, it was a great time, with great people, food and hospitality. Thanks Tim for the fantastic job in coordinating the fortnight and I'm looking forward to next year.
I've been home 3 days now and miss Lord Howe Island a bit already. I don't know if it was the 4am coffee wake up each day that I miss the most or the walk up that HUGE hill each day... 
For some reason I have also developed a fondness for cheap cask wine... I think I might have to blame one of my house mates (Pete!) for that one.
I don't know why everyone was talking about wearing wetsuits either. I was quite comfortable wearing a rash vest and shorts.
It was really good to get together with other windsurfing people and talking the usual windsurfing stuff.
Thanks to everyone that was there, it was a great social environment and together with the general friendliness of all the locals on the island it was one of the most relaxing holidays I have had. Being only 2 hours from Sydney makes it easy to get to too.
I will try and make it back next year. Thanks Tim for organizing it, and I hope you enjoyed it as much as the rest of us did.
Cheers.
Glad to hear you guys had a good time. Dale, I'm sure you could have written a few more 'cutting' comments under your circumstances but perhaps you're saving them for your alterego? But seriously, I've had an absolute ball with everyone and the island has been abuzz with talk of the 'windsurfers'.
Of course there have been a few epic days since you all left...tomorrow morning the plan is for an early with the last remaining sailors. Looking good at 20-30 SSW. The Taswegians and bill & Sue are still here but leave on Wednesday. Should be a great day to send them off.
Stand by for some more photos in due course.
A big thanks to everyone who made the trip. It confirmed to me that windsurfers in general are just great people!
Also a huge thank you to Sam & Chris at WindsurfnSnow for organising gear and freight.
Next year there will be 2 fortnights. stand by for dates.
Tim, as the quiet and shy type I don't like to pass judgement on these things, but if there was something that really seemed to annoy others was that there were no ham and pineapple pizzas available on the island. What's with that?
Sure, there was plenty of excellent food and alcohol, but no ham and pineapple?[}:)]
The locals were telling me that you should invite the fly fisherman to the island at the same time just to ensure that there is heaps of wind. Please organize the dates next year to match their fishing trip!
Pineapple on pizzas? That's outrageous! Next thing you know they will be serving uncooked fish, and some sort of salty sauce.
just got back from the 'last blast'. been on the water since 8am, we've got a beautiful 20-30 SSW blowing and all the crew have been on the water. Weapon of choice for me was 77L FSW with 5.0. Very nice to see the guys on their last day getting getting some serious TOW
FBRoy...I've never seen people put away that amount of sashimi, you sound like you were there!
Pineapple and chicken on pizzas, the two big nonos. Glad to hear there is a few discerning sailors out there!
I'm thinking about leaving work early to rig up my 10m RS Slalom and give the Go a go.........thanks for the update
However, we should have 25knots by midnight.
the boys and girls have been out again this arv and the wind was really hammering. All were on 77L boards and 4.5 & 4.0! lord Howe has turned it on to say goodbye.
Just came in from my powered planning session on my 10m and 170l board. I think it was harder work than the 4m to 4.5m conditions on Lord Howe.........
I miss the sashimi and prosciutto pizza and Pete's cask wine already.
Yeah........2 days in a row on my 10m RS Slalom in 10-15 knots......at low tide (great carrying that sort of gear ~100m down to the water....even saw a dorsal fin before I went out but managed to convince myself it was a dolphin.
Why would I want to be blasting around Lord Howe in 25-30 knots in a picture perfect lagoon pulling fantastic jumps
Here are some photos from our trip to Lord Howe.I enjoyed being able to walk/cycle to the rigging area,(no loading gear into a car) and conditions were very tropical, I dont think the temperature has gone over 13C since I have returned home!
I was having so much fun there that I had to extend my trip by four days, requiring some renegotiation with Jetstar and a certain amount of stress when I accidentally booked an extra 10 seats on board the flight back to Tasmania.If I have learned anything it is not to sail for three hours drink beer then try to change an airline booking on the net.
This computer chaos has continued since with the abrupt death of a two month old laptop with all the edited photos lost. As a result these photos are mostly unedited, crooked horizons, ect
Thanks again Tim and Honor it was a fantastic trip.
