The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Stashing Emergency Line

You’re out on the water and a line breaks.  Inhaul, outhaul, downhaul, uphaul, harness line…something you need snaps.   You’ll be happier if you’re carrying a piece or two of downhaul line to put yourself back together.   In twenty years of windsurfing  this has only happened to me once (I’m fanatical about checking and replacing worn line) but the time it did I was two miles from the launch and my harness line tore off.   Yes I could have flipped the boom (that’s fun to do in deep water) but instead I pulled out a piece of line, tied it on, and had an improvised harness line  that worked just fine to get me back home.

When I bought a new harness recently I didn’t make a point of stashing emergency line on it (I usually have two downhauls taped behind the bar).  But after Christian’s adventure at sea a few months ago I made a point of correcting that situation (as did Christian).  He and I opt for behind the bar storage, but you can also stash line in the back pocket of your harness if you have one (I don’t want to take my harness off if I don’t have to) or put a piece in the luff sleeve pocket of every one of your sails (requires sails with pockets, and line in each sail).

Do this.   And while you’re at it, replace all your downhaul lines for cold weather sailing (now is not the season you want to use your emergency lines).  Cut off the worn portion of your downhauls and make them your new outhauls.  Check boom inhauls (how often do you do that?)   For super stud status, replace your lines with Formuline if you haven’t already, and glory in easier downhauling and longer line life.

(Looks a little silly, works great.  My purple tape and Christian's blue line both call more attention to the set up than perhaps is necessary.  I'm going to switch to electrical tape in the name of fashion!  Note the orange bit on my rig...that's a safety whistle...less than $5 at Amazon.    Photo by Jeff.)

Duct Tape, WD 40, and Corona

Decision tree for the employment of WD-40 and duct tape in a waterside environment. Adapted after theft from Lord Tillerman's Proper Course.

Swap Meet Coming Soon

It's that time.  The wind is returning (fingers crossed) as are the waves.  If you need new gear it's time to clear out your old.  If you need newer gear it's time to pick up somebody else's stuff.  Windsurfing, stand up paddling, Vaderboarding, what have you...it's all happening Saturday September 17th at Hampton Watersports.

Even if you don't need anything or have anything to sell, it's still good fun to see your sailing friends in street clothes and chat about fall plans.   Long Island rocks in the Fall...do you have the gear?  (wanna sell me a sweet quad wave board, 85ish liters?)

Puffin Poetry

In the 1990's the Peconic Puffin was a three page weekly newsletter, published May-October, which recounted the windsurfing exploits of a crew of windsurfers and their friends ("the Puffins").  One feature in the newsletter was "Puffin Poetry," essentially the quote of the week.   I just saw this in the Yahoo Long Island Windsurfing Group bulletin board, and the Puffin Poetry bell rang at Peconic Puffin World Headquarters:

"Over the winter I bought two 3.3's (both great deals so I had to...)"

             -Chris (who has neither masts nor booms to rig the 3.3's)

This man risks serious injury at a swap meet.

Swap Meet On Saturday

Windsurfing, kiteboarding, stand up paddling...it'll all be getting swapped Saturday at Hampton Watersports, 9pm - 4pm.   Buy, sell, shmooze!   This is what the store's website says:

Buy or sell used Standup paddleboarding, Surfing, Kiteboarding and Windsurfing gear.

Buying: Closeouts available, specials on closeout '10 equipment, and loads of used gear to choose from.

Selling: Please drop your used gear by the shop from May 7 to May 14 (swap day) before 9am.

Rain or shine, windy or not, swap will run. See you then.

Here's a Peconic Puffin tip:  Park in the parking lot of the Japanese restaurant immediately to the east of the store (if you're bringing or buying gear you'll have an easier walk to your vehicle and an easier re-entry to Rt. 39)

Forward Loop Simulator? Look at the video...

Ely of the Yahoo Long Island Windsurfers Forum recently posted the following loop video (who he credits to his friend Darryl in Maui).   Describing itself as a Loop DVD trailer, it's a loose, fun collection of loops and loop drills...plus all of two and a half seconds of a loop simulator (go to 2:34 if you're in a rush.)  Perhaps they're saving a full explanation of the simulator for the DVD.  In any event  I'm intrigued.  I was going to type "I'll try anything" but as anyone who has tried forward loops knows, the trying is trying.  Scarifying and whatnot.   So I can use any and all steps to get me closer.  I must try to figure out how to rig this up:

Hydrofoil Windsurfing Boards You Can Actually Buy

  I’ve been hearing about them for years, but it looks like this year you can actually buy a hydrofoil windsurfer.  AHD is introducing the AFS 1.   Check out the massive vent in the nose!  And the Xtra-cool looking foil!

It seems to me that the big thrill must be in straight line reaching.  Most articles and speculation I’ve read suggest that the hydrofoil means greatly reduced wetted surface, and therefore the potential for more speed.  But I look at that foil, and there’s a whole lot of surface to it that is underwater.   And a conventional board, when ridden back on the fin, doesn’t have much surface in the water at all.

I think the benefit is the smoothing out of  bumps.  The surface “carrying” the rider is no longer the hull bottom (which slaps into every irregularity on the water’s surface) but instead is cruising below the water like a submarine, where presumably le disturbances are far less.   Smooth sailing (unless you broadside a bluefish.)

Check out the video (particularly if you speak French.)

Strange Finnage...There's More!

After starting a discussion about the turbo tunnel fin in the Aussie windsurfing forum Seabreeze some people posted shots of these fins.    The tubed windsurfing fins and split fins are taken from finmaker Deboichet's website.  I don't know the provenance of the unusual wooden surfboard setup.   Meanwhile discussions about the turbo fin seem to conclude that the fin is good on longboards for noseriding, but creates way too much drag for windsurfing.    So I'm thinking "what about putting one on a windsurfing board and sailing it fin first?"   Bizzarro freestyle possibilities?

Strangest Fin Seen In 25 Years…Could It Work?

This skeg was spotted by Jeff out at Montauk a few days ago. It’s called the Turbo Tunnel Fin, and there are surfers who say the thing does many wonderful things…helps maintain speed through turns, improves nose riding, provides lots of drive and so on.

So of course I’m wondering what this design would do for a windsurfer. And if I should plug one into my SUP board (not that I’m remotely good enough to be able to evaluate SUP fin performance.)

Back when I started windsurfing there used to be some experimental or otherwise unusual fins advertised in the back of windsurfing magazine. I remember a fin with small holes running through the fin (to “channel water to prevent cavitation,”) a asymmetrical fin that would change shape depending on the reach it was on, an aluminum fin and so on. But this is the freakiest thing I’ve seen since the football fin, but unlike the football fin, it seems to have some fans.

(Top photo by Peconic Jeff.  Bottom photo from the Turbo Tunnel web site.

Fin Flex Ain't No Joke, Homes

Check out this clip that was posted on The Beach Telegraph.   Yeah it's a formula fin, but if it's bending like this, you know more humble skegs are giving it up to a lesser degree.   I had been a flex skeptic...now I believe.  I Believe!

The Death of My Spencer Bucket

When I started outfitting my windsurfing van back in 2003 one of the first ideas I poached was the Spencer Bucket.   I met Spencer at a Dasher Windsurfing Clinic in May of ’03, and I was immediately drawn to his bucket.

 “Ya gotta have one,” Spencer explained.   "You can throw a good quantity of wet and sandy neoprene, harnesses etc into the thing after a session, you can use it as a platform to change fins and footstraps on a board, and the thing can be hosed out or just whacked on the back to get clean again.  The Spencer Bucket*."

This was Saturday at the clinic.  Sunday morning I arrived with my own Spencer Bucket.   Over the years it has met or exceeded expectations in terms of performance and utility.    But today it died.   More accurately:  Today I killed it.    I’d just taken off my wetsuit after a morning SUP session, and I thought I’d whack the back of the thing to get some sand out.    So I whacked, and it cracked

I’m going to K-Mart right now to replace it.   Can’t imagine showing up for a sesh without one.  

*Spencer did not refer to his bucket as a Spencer Bucket.   But I always have, in honor of Spencer (who called it a $7 bucket from K-Mart).   I’ve given them as gifts, and at least one happy recipient calls his a Spencer Bucket too (Steve don’t let me down when I see you this weekend!)

Navigating by Shell and Stick (Random nautical geek item)

That is a navigational chart of the Marshall Islands, showing "directions & interactions of the ocean swells as they pass through."   For real.    I learned this from Bonnie Queen of the Kayak Bloggers, who has a post about the chart and links to all sorts of info about these "paperless charts".  Bonnie wrote:

I think it's safe to say that almost anyone that grew up in (or has even just spent some time in) the Pacific Triangle has seen one of these.

I grew up in Queens, New York, and most assuredly have never even imagined such a thing, much less seen one.   More info at Frogma.

iPhone Wind Meter Update

I've previously mentioned that the iPhone's 99 cent Wind Meter App is about as accurate as some $70+ hand held windmeters (though you don't want to get your iPhone wet.)  The creators of the app are now proud to announce that they've updated it to work on the new 3GS iPhones as well (it always worked on my 3GS but apparently that was unusual.)

So the update is out there.  It now has a display that swings around to point at you if you hold the iphone horizontally and point the bottom of the phone into the wind.  I find I get more accurate (ie more like what everyone else's windmeters say) results if I hold the thing perpendicular to the wind, though.

In any event, nothing else in windsurfing costs a buck (what's a downhaul running you these days?  And don't be cheap...get the Formuline!)

(The editor gets best results holding the iPhone like so.  Photo by Peconic Jeff.)

Taking A Knife to a Neil Pryde Harness, Part Two

As previously discussed here, I've been taking a razor blade to my Neil Pryde FreeSurf harness, cutting away apparently useless (and certainly annoying) flaps, straps and tabs in an effort to make the harness more user-friendly.   The original harness appeared to have pieces that not only served no purpose, but which would work their way out from under the spreader bar during a session, looking bad and sometimes interfering with hooking in.

The first procedure (removal of a meaningless strap and its support loops and thingamabobs) worked so well that I went ahead and cut off a flap sewn into the middle of a section of velcro.   I could not figure out what this flap was intended to do, nor could anyone else I showed it to, so off it came.

The harness performs much better now.  I wouldn't say I recommend purchasing one, but if you already are in possession of a Neil Pryde FreeSurf, I encourage you to lop all this stuff off.  It's worked for me!

(Top:  Peconic Jeff (a clever guy) stands mystified by the offending flap.  Bottom:  Closeup of the flap, which prevents a solid velcro connection while protecting nothing.  My new theory is that this harness might be from a batch of factory errors, though the mighty Mike Burns says this isn't the first harness he knows of that couldn't be improved with a knife.)

Taking A Knife to a Neil Pryde Harness, Part One

When my DaKine Thermoform bit the dust a few months ago, my good friend and OG Puffin Steve gave me his waist harness.   He’s a seat harness man, but found himself harnessless in Bonaire and bought the best thing he could find:  a Neil Pryde FreeSurf waist harness.   Now its mine.   And it drives me nuts.

The thing has too many bells and whistles.  Furthermore these bells and whistles (by which I mean straps and flaps) not only do absolutely nothing, they squirrel around and get in the way, popping out from behind the bar after an hour of windsurfing.   After several sessions I joked that I was going to start cutting all the extraneous crap off of the thing, but after a few more sessions I actually resolved to do it.  

So I am.

In the interest of science I’ve decided to do the amputations as a series; I’m not lopping off every offending part at the outset, in case I discover that some of them actually are (or were) valuable.

The first doohickey marked for death was the little strap that attaches to the harness belt, and all the associated clips and rings that hold it in place.   Understand that as the belt holds the harness on the windsurfer when the hook is disconnected, and even if this harness had no belt (or if the belt failed) this strap is too flimsy to hold the harness in place, it is utterly redundant.    So I cut it off a week ago.   Here are the sad little pieces:

I have sailed with the modified harness once, and no ill effects were noticed on the water or on land.   I showed my handiwork to Peconic Jeff, who couldn’t figure out where the strap had been.  When I showed him, he took a long puzzled look and then said “what did it do?”   

And so on.

So the first stage of cutting the nonsense off of the Neil Pryde harness is complete, and appears to be a complete success.   Unfortunately the removal of that silly strap did not alleviate problems created by another extraneous part…worse than extraneous; really…perhaps it’s a factory error.   I’ll be cutting that off next, and then we’ll see if the harness is just ridiculously designed, or if I’m a fool.  (Okay we know I’m a fool, but maybe not about this harness…)

Stay tuned.