Ex-Presidents Shred it up at Lake Buchanan

On Saturday, December 13th, Ex-AWC-Presidents Ron Hensley, Tim Marvin (VP) and Brian Shepherd (me) headed out to Lake Buchanan for some early winter blasting with Steve Madere (a Lake Buchanan/Gorge Bump & Jump aficionado).

Ron's observations:

Terrific venue and an excellent change of pace within a reasonable drive from Austin. Long fetch provides nice big well spaced rollers. Water seemed a few degrees colder than Travis, but the ice storm we had the other day might be a factor in relative water temp differences. Guess we need real data comparative on avg water temps throughout the year before drawing conclusions... Suggest booties: With water level way down, the shoreline is very similar to the lower island area of Travis with coarse sand and crushed granite and also noticed some broken glass bottles (same as Travis). Only $3 entry fee per person with envelope (no attendant). Note: your Windy Point sticker does not work there... BTW, there is a free county park next to Black Rock Park with what looks to be excellent access which would be very handy if you got to the park without appropriate change to pay the fee. Wind was very "up and down," but didn't seem to have the "fists of wind, gusts within gusts" typical of similar Travis days. Was that just wind of the day or venue related? Wind was cross shore. Not certain, but 2-3:30pm sailing time, I perceive the extremes were 5-35mph and most of the time it was solidly 15-25mph. At 210lbs, I rigged 5.7m with 116 liter board. Pretty sure a more ideal configuration would have been 20 liters less board and 1/2 meter less sail. Had much difficulty keeping the board on the water during the 25-30mph periods, but had some nice jumps and some rather exciting speed runs.

All-in-all a fun experience made better by the collective of Tim/Brian/Steve. Would enjoy repeating.