It blows different depending on where you are. I have seen it blowing really good at PaG and only be blowing 8 knots at Treasure Island. Also, the sensors are meaningless for Wests/NWs, imo. Most of them along the beach don't do a good job of reporting wind, or report it 2 hours too late. I haven't looked at a sensor for NW in over 6 years. Chris Moore knows that
You have to be at the beach or use the beach cams. I live close and use the beach cams.
It just blew solid 17+ plus at least (probably hovering around 20) from the NW to NNW for a few hours and is still blowing at PaG/Upham.
I was actually overpowered (in terms of unhooking) on my 13m 'Roo. That happens right at 20. I would have been better on an 11m or even 9m for unhooking. Obviously you could hold on to anything hooked in, but why?
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The cam is better with moving pics, because you get a feel for how many whitecaps there are. But here is a single frame.