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Need I say more?

You guessed that right. NE wind is still blowing, and it’s blowing real hard. Something around 12-15 knots is an understatement when you’re past the island (Pulau Batu Balok), it was a storm out there! Somehow I felt guilty if I did scare some people off the beach from my previous post. But that’s really how things work around here, sometimes you get lucky.

Well anyway, i remember hearing a veteran said during the opening of monsoon season, that “..it’s going to last for some time since it came a bit late this year..” Take that with a pinch of salt. (end of post)

South-West (SW) or rather more accurately, South-East wind has arrived. As suspected, the wind strength is not something to be proud of. Time to rig up the big sails and big boards. On a kite, you’d be looking at something in the range of 16m² minimum for C-kites and probably 14m² for bow kites. Bigger kiteboards is also recommended.

The wind range is probably between 6 to 12 knots max. You can still anticipate for sudden wind hike due to storms, that could sometimes gusting up to 30 knots if you’re lucky ( no pun intended ). This type of storm is quite common as far as SW wind is concern.

All in all, don’t write off the wind in Balok. It was not named as the WINDIEST place in Malaysia for nothing, and obviously not just because of it’s Monsoon season.

Looks like the inevitable has finally surfaced.

NE monsoon season is finally over.

You can almost smell it from far distant when even the storm is not strong enough to power up an average size gear. And for someone who lives by the sea, I can almost taste it (by the price of the seafood!)

Her leaving was celebrated with mild rain from southwest in the evening, and blue light sunny sky in the afternoon where happy people enjoy BBQ’ing and resting at the beach…

NE wind, you will be missed.

But…Nobody says the wind is gone for good, right? In a few days the wind will slowly change its direction to become more south-westerly, bringing less rain & less wind, but still worthy for the wind junkies on their big gear.

So what is left for you the small gear brotherhood? Southwest monstrous storm perhaps? Yehhhaaaa!!

Of course, by no means, this post is to pull the plug of any chance for the last blow from the NE wind, and for what it’s worth, there have been a lot of surprises as far as the monsoon season goes this year. Who knows?

As expected, NE wind is still refusing to go away. After two days of raining since the EPIC storm, she visited us again today bringing 12-15 knots of solid wind. I had good fun sailing all by myself at a beach near my place, Pantai Sepat.

For those who don’t know Pantai Sepat, this water area is famous for SHARK fishing among the fishermen. It sounds a bit scary, but these sharks don’t usually attack human. If you don’t fall a lot, this beach may serve you good time without too much fear of getting bitten! Plus, there was not a single report about shark attacks here in Malaysia.

Wind direction relative to the beach during NE monsoon is from about 10′o clock. That gives you plenty of room to do downwind sprint without worrying too much about getting back upwind. The beach is reasonably wide, so it will be suitable for kiters from beginners to pro. For windsurfers, this can be another whole new adventure for you!

P/S: Picture is not actual footage of the sharks, they’re actually much smaller!