I can’t believe I didn’t go. The forecast looked nonexistent, the drive was long, so despite my having enjoyed great days at ECWF past when the winds were light, I decided not to go.
This was the wrong answer. Plenty of people went, and had a great time!
Results first, then we’ll have some story:
King of the East: Alex Hering
Queen of the East: Jeanne Bauman
Mens Freestyle:
1) Alex Hering
2) George Pav
3) Peter Richterich
4) Jake Agoos
5) Pete Roesch
Women's Freestyle:
1) Nina Schweikardt
2) Jeanne Bauman
3) Deniz Kalaycioglu
Men's Open Racing:
1) Bill Degeorge
2) Dean Oleksiak
3) Dan Cresci
4) Alex Hering
5) Florian Feuser
Men's 7.5 limited racing
1) Pete Roesch
2) Joe Natalie
3) Dennis Grunbeck
4) Peter Richterich
5) Joe Giordano
Women's Racing
1) Jeanne Bauman
2) Thandi Bradix
3) Deniz Kalaycioglu
Day 1 highlights: Very light wind, yet a race despite all odds. Nonplaning freestyle. The NEWJ Board tossing. SUP racing. And if you think SUP racing doesn’t sound exciting, check out Phil Rizutto’s call:
“Bill DeGeorge and Joe Natalie came storming into the finish line neck & neck, pumping away, veins popping, paddles digging, absolutely in a nose to nose tie for the last 50 yards of the race. They both hit the beach at the same exact second, jumped off their boards together, and a slight stumble by Bill De gave Joe N just enough of an edge to eak out the win by a paddle, with Mike Burns in a close 3rd.”
Day 2 highlights: a steady light northerly. “A perfect day for lightwind freestyle and course racing. Everything from a pile of Fanatic Megacats to the top of the line 2012 Fanatic Falcon were lined up along the beach ready to race. And race they did!! We were able to get off 3 races and 2 more full rounds of freestyle along with the freestyle finals on Sunday.
An action packed day indeed! In both events, the top spots were changing hands, but Bill Degeorge and Pete Roesch were just dominating every race. After the competition was over, the raffle was held and everyone was waiting to see if Deniz would win the NoLimitz mast for the 3rd year in a row. This time it was George Kellner to take home the beautiful mast. Makani also donated some fins, hats and t-shirts that the winners were stoked to have received.
And Triple 8 Helmet company gave us a couple helmets for prizes. With an overwhelming amount of thanks from both competitors ad bystanders I'm looking forward to planning the event for 2013.”
Can’t believe Deniz didn’t win the mast again.
Can’t believe I missed the ECWF. I’d like to think I’d have given Dennis a race (I always lose to Pete, and usually to Joe.) And I love nonplaning freestyle...truth be told, maybe better than planing freestyle.
Can’t believe I missed the festival. Every day sailing is a great day sailing.
Okay start the countdown for next year.
Special thanks go as always to Mike Burns, Thom Hering, and Chrissy Burns.
Reporting by King Mike and MC Thom.
Photos by the mighty Bill Doutney.
We race. We freestyle. We SUP. The good times they do roll.
The fifth annual East Coast Windsurfing Festival takes place June 9-10 at Joe's Beach in Heckscher State Park on Long Island. His Highness The King of the East Mike Burns hath said it is so, and Master of Racing Ceremonies MC T-Bone Thom hath seconded the decree.
So it is so.
To register, send Mike Burns an e-mail and say "I'm coming" and "I'm gonna (race, freestyle, or both)."
To learn more, check out the East Coast Windsurfing Festival web site.
For a dubious accounting of the previous four ECWF's, read the Peconic Puffin's coverage of the East Coast Windsurfing Festival through the ages.
June 9-10...save the dates!
(Race photo courtesy Bill Doutney.)
Where: Lazy Point @ Napeague, on the water and on the beach
When: May 18th-20th, 2012.
Any questions?
Of course you have questions, and there's nobody better than Andy, Brendan, Tom and friends to answer them and get you sailing better on the water! So sign up already!
Remember last year when a dozen people who planned to come didn't sign up in advance, and ABK cancelled the clinic because they thought they were going to have a poor turnout? You don't want that. AND you don't want what happened to some people in September of 2010, when a few people who planned to come didn't sign up in advance, arrived at the clinic only to find out that the clinic was FULL and so they couldn't join! Avoid these disappointments and sign up. Every day sailing is a great day sailing as it is...every day sailing in an ABK clinic takes it to a whole new level. You want to be in a photo like the one here, believe me. And you DON'T want to be like the guy in the top photo, standing on the wrong side of the sail and facing the wrong direction. ABK can fix that. Seriously though, if you've never windsurfed before, if you're a competitive freestyler, or if you're anywhere on the windsurfing learning spectrum, if you want to learn more, this is the place.
(photos swiped from Facebook)
For five years awhile back the wife and I went to Aruba at least once per year (all the way back to when she was "the girlfriend") and had a lot of good times and good friends there. When I stumbled across this compilation of local TV coverage of Aruba's Hi-Wind races (1987-2006...this is one of several pieces from the collection on Youtube) I started looking for Aruban friends.
I was surprised (just a little) when the first person I spotted was Long Island's mighty Bill DeGeorge, who always does serious damage to competing egos at the East Coast Windsurfing Festival, Fall Regattas etc. (He was top-five in the Masters division in the clip above). I haven't sailed in Aruba in a few years, but this clip reminded me of how much fun it was to rip in the Blue Highway when Fishermans Huts was going off.
It was practically November, but Rocktober Racing got raced! It happened Sunday at West Neck, site of the Fall Race in 2009. I missed the entire thing, wheezing at home with a wicked cold, arm in a sling with a dinged tendon, I got to read the email about it and piece together this post. First the results (all editorialization is Pete's):
1. Brook...nice job Gilligan :)
2. Florian...we need to get you some glasses :)
3. Kurt...you beat me by 2 points...next time!
4. Pete
5. Ted
6. Sasha
7. Joe
Jeanne came in first for the lady's.
There's a story out there that Florian was "taken out" by a motorboat, hence the need for glasses mentioned by Pete. Scoring was handled by Devon Roesch, Scott Yanuck and Marianne Rantala if I have it right (what are the odds of that?)
Congratulations to all racers on a fine event, and big props to Pete!
(photo by Scott Yanuck. More of his imagery and videos can be found here.)
Notice of a Scheme to Race: Given the popularity of the races at June’s East Coast Windsurfing Festival, and the great time that was had at the 2009 East Coast Fall Regatta, Pete Roesch (who always does well in these things) is hatching a plan for a Fall racing event this October on the north shore of Long Island. The name: Rocktober Racing!
(cue Led Zeppelin. I'm thinking "Whole Lotta Love"...)
Bringing back the formula that worked in 2009, the plan would be to pick a weekend and pick a few locations (one location that’s optimal for each potential wind direction.) If the forecast looks good on Thursday for the coming weekend, then on Friday night the day (Saturday or Sunday) and location of the race is announced. If the forecast stinks on Thursday or Friday, then we pick another weekend.
What kind of races would there be? And what classes? A preliminary list of fleets includes:
Unlimited
7.5
Men Who Find Tacking Unmanly
Beginner
These potential fleets and races (course or slalom) are open to discussion, and will hopefully be debated in the Yahoo Long Island Windsurfing Group forum. Posts here at the Peconic Puffin will also be thrown into the mix.
Rocktober Racing: It’s a glint in Pete’s eye, a neat idea in mine, and hopefully something you’d like to be a part of (as racer or volunteer).
Whaddaythink? Send your comments to rocktoberracing@gmail.com
Rock on, Garth!
That's New England's finest Josh Angulo pulling transorbital G's as he rounds a mark in Fuerteventura last month. In the ongoing windless hell of 2011, my callouses gone and jibing a distant memory, this image jogged a recollection of jibing in days past (I jibe EXACTLY like Josh. More or less. Press "1" for more, "2" for less, "3" for more options.) Photo courtesy PWA/John Carter...check out more on their mighty web site. Additional props to James' blog for putting this image under my nose.
The winds were light and off-shore for day two...yeah boy! The standings as of Day One were on display, but things were going to get shaken up.
Racemaster Tom set up a modified course. I thought “I could do well on this course if I had a longboard,” but I’d left my Superlight home like an idiot. “Bring EVERYTHING to a race!” Pete Roesch had said (always listen to the guy who wins at these events). But I got lucky when Bill DeGeorge (who would have won Open Class except for a certain Mr. Angulo) lent me one of his 75 boards...a Mistral Comp (thankyouthankyou thankyou.) Then I realized I didn’t have a suitable uni. Peconic Jeff had an extra one (thankyouthank youthankyou). Special thanks to P-Jeff, who might have finished third in 7.5 instead of me if he hogged his unis and left me marooned on my Techno (Jeff remained highly competitive sailing a SUP board...mad props!) But now equipped with other people’s stuff plus my mighty 6.2, I joined the racers and managed to eek out a trophy.
Barely.
My best move in the days races was leaning out to catch Peter Richterich mid-fall. I did it for the karma points, to use against the bad karma I planned to accrue ramming Pete Roesch in the next race. But tragically I not only never got close enough to Pete to prevent his ultimate victory, but in the final reach of the final race I was ignominiously passed and left in the dust by his son Devon. I now have two generations of Roesch windsurfers to fear and loathe on the course.
Then came the relay races. Four teams of knuckledragging guys stood in the water waiting for the start, whilst the self-selected all-girl team put one sailor on the board, one at the luffed clew to steady the rig, and two at the back to give a push at the start. When us guys woke up and began to replicate their set-up the girls hooted and hollered, but hey, they should have kept their brilliant plan secret until a few seconds before the start. I believe the team I was on was the first to steal the idea; as punishment Jill rammed me at the buoy. Peter has a video of the complete race on his blog.
As the wind lightened a new event was added to the East Coast Windsurfing Festival: SUP relay races: A short paddle out to a buoy, go around it, paddle back to the beach and hand off paddle to the next person. I will confess that this sounded like a yawn to me...then it started.
Josh began with a running jump onto a board and soon everyone was experimenting with ballistic starts. Some stood, some kneeled, everyone paddled like a demon. There were four teams...two contests...but also a stopwatch timing the winning team of each heat.
The fastest team would triumph. In what seemed like a splashy, sloppy, laughy pair of heats, the team with the best time won by all of four seconds! Pretty darn close.
There was no more freestyle competition on Sunday due to the light winds. People who know me might wonder why I’ve not written about my freestyle exploits...fact is I did not compete. On Friday night I started with a sharp knife but a tough lime, and ended up with a deep cut in one finger. When this finger began bleeding during the first Saturday races I had to make a choice, and I figured racing to be easier on the hands than freestyle. Next year I’m a’doing no cooking the day before the event!
It all ended with giveaways of goodies donated by event sponsors, the presentation of trophies, and talk of next year.
Huge thanks to Mike Burns for organizing a great festival four years in a row! And to MC Tom T-Bone Thom Hering for brilliant race orchestration. To Chrissy, to the jet ski guy, to everyone who helped out. To Jerry Evans for the stylee trophies.
Who am I forgetting?
Mr. Angulo. Thanks to Josh for doing everything and anything to make the festival as enjoyable as possible...bringing a van load of equipment for people to try, putting on a windsurfing display like the champion he is, spending time with anyone and everyone who wanted to chat, and bringing his oversized great attitude, enthusiasm and cheer to every bit of the event. Dude, you’re an East Coast windsurfer now...come back next year!
(The results of the competition can be found here. We're seeing about getting a complete breakdown of the racing results. Peconic Puffin coverage of day one of the East Coast Windsurfing Festival is here. Other bloggers who have posted on the festival include James Douglas and Peter Richterich.
Photos graciously shared by Alphonso, Jeff Schultz, and Jimmy Rivera.)
(A semi-coherent description of the events of day one of of the festival may be found here. Tomorrow a second helping of scattered recollections and thoughts, focused on day two may be found on the Peconic Puffin as well. Here now are the names of all the good people who participated:)
Complete list of racers (Open Class)
Matt Allen
Josh Angulo
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