The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

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.

Jeff Sneaks In Some Down The Line SUP Sailing

Don't fault yourself if you missed Peconic Jeff's blog entry about his mighty SUP wavesailing session...he is, um, sparing in his blogging activity (better to check out his excellent photo site, but even there the offerings have been thin lately).   It turns out that Jeff caught an excellent SUP surf sailing sesh at Road L on Saturday, which he hogged for himself whilst the rest of the regular gang only dreamed about such things.  Read about it on Jeff's Windsurfing The East End.

Earlier in the day (Saturday) The Wolf and Peter and I caught some 4-6 foot SUP action at Tiana, which was pretty darn good.   I kooked the van packing and forgot my leash, but managed by borrowing the mini leash off of Remy's boogie board and attaching a windsurfing uphaul to get some length.     

Mast Stick In The Soup (Good Photo!)

I'm grooving on this photo.   That's OBX Bill of the mighty Bill's OBX Beach Life blog, bending it most interestingly while throwing a goiter.   Bill tells the Puffin "Yea, the mast is in the soup, and I believe the mast/sail flutter is caused by the loose leech and lighter wind/rig momentum on the inside during the sesh."   I originally thought the mast might be in the sand, as it sure looks shallow to me, but his OBXness says no.

There many more photos worth taking a look at in Bill's post.   The above shot is by Keith McCulloch.

If It's Raining, We Must Be At The Bowl

 We often joke about how it’s always raining at our Bowl sessions (that’s what the requisite ENE-ESE winds usually arrive with,) but I will confess to being less than totally enthusiastic about rigging and suiting up in cold rain for a sesh.  What a wimp.

I arrived at the Bowl and walked through the driving rain to catch a glimpse of the Wolf launching towards a set of  clean, well-mannered waves, waist to chest high.    Beautiful and friendly.   So I quick rigged a 5.3 and the 93 liter FSW and launched, to join the Wolf, Frank, and on kites Hulse, Bill Barber, and the very stoked Andy.   The waves were nothing special to look at, but they were predictable smooth lefts that gave me more bottom turns than I’m used to, so I was a happy camper.   After an hour Peconic Jeff arrived, and the building wind soon had most of us switching out boards and sails, with me finally arriving at the 4.5/77 liter combo.   By this time Scott was on the water and Jon Ford arrived.   By this time also the wind backed a little more offshore, the inside became gusty, the outside overly choppy, and your editor wimpy.

“I’m not having fun anymore,” I told Scott.

“I know, me neither,” Scott agreed.   “I can’t see in this rain.”

“See?   Who needs to see? *   We couldn’t see before when it was Smooooooooothe!  It’s the bumps and the gusts that suck,” I said.

“Yeah well I like to see,” Scott insisted.

So the two of us derigged and left (along with Frank the Marathon Man…he never takes a break) whilst late arrivals Jeff and Jon went for the gusto.

(*Earlier, during the Smoooooothe portion of the sesh one of the things I didn’t see was Bill behind me when I started to jibe off of some swell.   I stuck the mast in the water to avoid the collision.   Maybe I needed to see.)

"Insane Big and Perfect!" Scott's Video Pick: Angulo at Cabo

As we get drier and drier...waiting for conditions...we can dream.

The Strangest Hookipa Windsurfing Video I've Ever Seen

What do you think? I think it's odd and compelling. Props to Will in the Yahoo Long Island Windsurfers Group for pointing it out.

SUP Wavesailing Video, by Dasher

So many things I like are connected to this video:   First of all, it's a beautiful bit of wavesailing (love that) on SUP boards (want to do that) in a video by Dasher (He Who Taught Me To Jibe, and a maker of fine video to boot!)   The video is a bit of an impromptu promo for RRD boards, which are distributed in the U.S. by Tony Kardol (great guy I met at Vela Aruba when he ran the place)...RRD is sponsoring the mighty Andy Brandt and ABK Boardsports this year (They Who Taught Me Many Other Things), they make a board (Frank B owns one) that a few months ago I declared to be The Coolest Looking Windsurfing Board I'd Ever Seen, and you can get RRD windsurfing equipment (and stand up paddle gear) at Hampton Watersports (where else would I want to buy anything?)

If only my first SUP wavesailing session had gone as well.  Topic for a future blog post...

Safety, and an otherwise fine session at The Bowl

None of us had windsurfed in waves since December.   Sweet long lefts were breaking 4-6 feet at the Bowl (with the occasional meaty seven-footer rolling through to really catch your attention) in side off winds.   The Wolf was out first, and he was back first, as he’d hit the water with his drysuit less than fully zipped.

This is hugely uncool.

Allow me to be alarmist for a moment (John is, was, and always will be fine, but please indulge me):    We’re sailing in water cold enough to induce hypothermia and kill anyone.   The drysuits change it into a playground, but only if they’re working.   Imagine launching with an unknowingly unzipped drysuit…you have a good run out, jibe off swell a few hundred yards out, and catch your first wave.   You don’t fall, remain unaware of your unzipped state, jibe on the inside and now head way to the outside where you see some big beautiful waves setting up.   Jibing a quarter mile out you fall, and take on three gallons of ice-cold water.   Realizing that you never zipped up (as you shout, crosseyed in discomfort) you set up to waterstart as fast as you can.  But the wind is a bit light, so you can’t get any power in the sail at all when you’re in a trough, and as some swell brings you back up into the wind, twenty extra pounds of water in your drysuit prevents you from getting back up on the board. The cycle repeats.

After a minute of this you are in trouble.  Maybe it’s three minutes before one of your friends (on shore, taking a break during the lull) comes out to check on you.    Now you are unable to sail, and your friend has to figure out how to get you on your board and somehow drag your icy ass back to shore before your heart stops beating.  (Hey while we’re having so much fun reading this post, hop on over here and read a bunch of stories about hypothermia deaths in cold water.)

Okay, you say, will you please relax?  Who hasn’t launched with an unzipped drysuit, Mr. Editor of the Peconic Puffin?  Haven’t you?

Of course I have.  We all have.    And like most all of us most of the time all I ended up with was a cold back and a quick scare.   But sailing in the ocean things can get complicated.   And at the Bowl yesterday with the currents swirling near the jetty, the winds up and down and forecasted to turn increasingly offshore, the Wolf’s little episode put safety front and center in our minds.

So to the great disappointment of the two seals hanging out on the inside and rating our jibes, we called it a day after a few hours.   “I’ve sailed the Bowl for twenty years…I know when to quit,” said the Wolf.    And we all resolved to double check our drysuit zippers in the future.

Ridiculously Huge Whitewater at Mavericks

What is it about Mavericks that makes it so especially intimidating?   When I see photos of Jaws going off I think "wow!"   When I see photos of Mavericks my stomach tightens and I think "that doesn't seem like a very good idea."

Full props to the surfers of Mavericks.   More photos like this are on the San Francisco Chronicle.   The amazing shot above is by Adam Lau.

My Latest, Greatest New Bit of Cold Weather Gear: Earplugs

I’d heard of Swimmers Ear, Surfers Ear, whatever ear…some problem with too much cold water in your ears.  It never happened to me windsurfing in winter…maybe a few drops would get beneath my hood but it never seemed like a problem.   Then two weeks ago I got rolled mightily by some waves during a SUP session, and the 41 degree water was a real kick in the…ear?   I’d get back on my board with my ear in some pain and a vague feeling of nausea.  After about fifteen seconds above water the badness would pass but I resolved to try some plugs for my next session.

So I wore a pair of wax disposable earplugs (the kind for sleeping) while SUPing a few days ago.  And while once again I got rolled in some very cold impact zone water, my ears were fine.   Yes they slightly reduced my ability to hear, but not so much that I'd consider not wearing them for cold water wavesailing or surfing (when the underwater experience is most intense.)  Also it seemed that the plugs helped keep the rest of my head a tiny bit warmer (that was probably just in my head...like the plugs) but hey I’ll take imagined warmth along with the real.

Sunday or Monday May Happen (Ambitionous Unreasonablus?)

Some wind and swell may be headed our way.  Maybe light wind wavesailing or SUP Sunday (low tide 3:30) and perhaps Dawn Patrol for Monday AM's NE 25?   I'm probably suffering from a case of Ambitiounous Unreasonablus, compounded by a chronic case of Water Time Deprivation.

I Live in a Windless, Waveless, Frozen Hell

It's been a bleak January so far.  And looking forward, the forecast calls for light winds, subfreezing temperatures, and flat surf conditions.

By this time last year I’d scored three count’em three wavesailing sessions.  The same for the year before.   Now even with the addition of SUPsurfing (wind?  we don't need no steenking wind) I only have one day on the water…and that was ten days ago.

I used to ski.  CD says I should snowboard.   But I’m obsessed with wet water.

A Little Bowl Video and a Blue Moon Wrap Up 2009

I'd been hoping for one more session this year, but I was (happily) landlocked with relatives these last few days and it ain't blowin' today.   84 sessions it is (was) and here are a few moments from my last session, as shot by the Wolf at the Bowl last week, and assembled by Jeff.   We see Frank, Scott, Jeff and myself.

There's a Blue Moon tonight for New Year's Eve.  See you on the water in 2010.  Maybe a SUP sesh tomorrow and Meschutt or the Pier on Saturday?

Oh CD Where Art Thou? You Missed a Fine Day at the Bowl!

 

We missed you, CD.   More importantly, you missed “it”…a classic Bowl session, and without rain!  What happened to this, bro:

"Sick puppies you have lost the true meaning of ChrisMasT thats Chris rigging up his mast with a 4.2 SAT CD"

        -CD's comment on "Visions of a Saturday Morning Sesh".

I shot out from the city at 6AM with it all timed perfectly to get me on the water at 8:30 (low tide was going to be 9:12).   But I’d forgotten that my van had twenty feet of unshoveled snowy driveway to cross, so by the time I arrived George Pav was tearing it up, the Wolf was reporting being overpowered on a 4.2, and Scott was rigging down (whilst somewhere in ‘Rico, Bill and Hulse were getting it too, sans drysuits.)

 The waves were peeling off nicely just at the end of the jetty…lots of four-footers with the occasional five and six to keep you focused.  A few hundred yards further out there was beautiful swell to jibe off of, and jibe there we did, as just past that a large, gnarly-looking barge was pitching and rolling.  It looked like trouble to me.

“Have you gone and checked out that barge?” Peconic Jeff asked?
“I have not, and I have no interest in doing so.  I don’t like the looks of it,” I replied.  

I of course then went closer than I had on previous runs, but that sucker was rolling and bouncing and no good could come from it, so I kept a 100 yard rule in place for my sesh.

The gang was on quite an assortment of gear…the Wolf and Scott were conventionally rigged and boarded (on 4.2’s) but then you had Pav on a big Joker, Jeff carrying a 4.7 (he had to be nuked) on a 77 liter board, me sailing a 4.0 on my 93 liter (I left my 4.5 home) and Frank was showing off his new RRD twin fin, which is my current choice for Coolest Looking Windsurfing Board In The World.  A seal popped up occasionally to express confusion and wonderment at our choices.   Seals don’t know much about windsurfing gear…they know about fish…so when Fisherman showed up later, rigged appropriately AND knew about fish, there was nothing left for the seal to do but leave to go eat, which he did.

We continued to have fun with the waves, which all but disappeared at one point before returning with gusto (I had to leave early, but Jeff reports seeing Fisherman jibe off some huge outside swell.)  Speaking of which I should report that Jeff had one of the tastiest cutbacks I’ve ever seen, right off the top of a pitching lip maybe 50 yards from shore.  T’was nice!

So that was my first official winter session.  Most of us hadn’t been on the water for a few weeks, and we were griping about tired arms.  We need more sessions to stay in shape!     At one point Scott was sitting on shore, telling me how run down he was from a cold, on top of the sore arms from the lack of sailing, painting a picture of how beat he was.  Then he picked up his gear, walked to the water like an exhausted laborer, got on his board...and boosted a six foot jump off the first bit of chop he encountered.

It was a fine day.  Lord Chimpleton...you missed it!

(Top: The dredging barge helped define where our "outside" ended. Middle: George Pav rides one in. These and other photos by Peconic Jeff are on his Flickr site. And there's a rumour that Jeff might even update his blog with his version of the day, which will be more complete than mine as he arrived earlier and stayed later!)

My Vision of a Saturday Morning Ponquogue Session

Or maybe the Bowl.  One of them, please.  Even Scott is optimistic ("oh yes a balmy 40 degrees" he says, but he longs to howl the cry of the wind chimp:  "itspickinUUUUPPPPP!")

The editorial board of the Peconic Puffin is making a mess of wrapping Christmas presents, as we salivate over these forecast items:

Saturday air temp:  A high of 48.
Saturday wind forecast:  E winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 3 to 5 ft.

I am optimistic.

(Photo by Jeff from a fine Ponquogue winter session when it was authentically snowy and cold.  So let's not have any candy-ass whining about sailing on Saturday!)