I missed it, but Jonathan, Artie, Rob, Frank, Rock, Chris and Aurelio did not! Artie reports classic Meschutt: great ramps and the jibatorium set up for gold medals! 42 degrees (balmy!) 4.5-5.6 sails. Wish I'da caught it!
(Artie took the pic too.)
Bonnie, Queen of the Kayak Bloggers and author of Frogma, has passed away after a battle with cancer. Years ago when a loose network of New York waterbloggers…windsurfers, kayakers, tug boat captains, nautical artists etc. formed, Bonnie pulled together a waterblogfest (or two or three. )
She was a wonderful and mad illustrator and a champion of good things happening on the water. It was a privilege to know her. Thanks for everything Bonnie!
(Top: Bonnie in her element. She described her blog as "Being the Continuing Adventures of a Woman and her Trusty Kayak in New York Harbor, the Hudson River, and Beyond."
Middle: Bonnie's artistic response to my mentioning windsurfing boards with flappers (the anti-cavitation tail device).
Bottom: Self portrait with dolphin. Wherever Bonnie is I hope it's like this.
The windchimpage was extraordinary. 9 of us! “Most I’ve seen at Webby’s at one time” Scott said. As it was only my second Webby’s session ever I didn’t have much to compare it with, but we had a crowd: Joe and Shelley, Chris, Artie, Rob, Slalom Frank, Scott, the Wolf and your editor. When I arrived Joe was launching on a 5.0…seemed moderately powered so I put up my 4.7 and a 93 liter board, hoping to plane in the gusts. This setup worked for two runs before the wind jumped and I switched to a smaller board (77 liters).
Not enough adjustment. Add downhaul and outhaul. Now I was ass-hauling!
Scott rigged 4.2. The Wolf rigged 3.7! And it was good. But whilst they were on the small stuff, Artie went with his 5.4 (“all I brought” he said…and he made it work) while Frank was blasting on 6 meters and a slalom board, passing everyone. “Too fast” I complained!
The water was cold (“don’t fall” Scott advised) but the wind and swell were just right…a fine January session.
(Top: There was proper traffic on Sunday! Bottom: A portion of the gang leaves the beach to huddle in the lee and discuss the next runs. Photos by Artie.)
(dropping some alliteration on yo' ass is P. Puffin)
Scott wouldn't do it, and I couldn't make it, but Arctic Artie caught some at West Neck, along with Chris from Connecticut braving air temps in the low 30's. The Art of Windsurfing described it thus in a text thread:
"Killer session! Nuked on a 4.7 crazy powered at times beautiful rolling swell...Gorge-like...sick!!!
With apologies to the Clash, and a throw back to a Peconic Puffin post from 2011:
"We rig in ice, we rig in snow,
We windsurf when it’s really cold,
Icy sails can give you trouble,
Wind chill makes the cold seem double,
Don’t matter, ‘cause when it blows,
We rig in ice, we rig in snow."
(Photos by Artie)
...or a gift from Santa. Artie couldn't decide how this late year session should be attributed, but sail it (or wing it) we did. The northwest wind had set up a classic Meschutt session complete with color by number ramps, though the wind was up and down. Scott was on a 4.7, Joe Nat a 5.0, me a 5.4, and Christian a 5.7 we were all good at some point. Jonathan was on a wing...I don't know what size wing or how they translate, but he was up and foiling. Christian had a boom tailpiece failure...the good news is that he was fairly close to shore, the bad news was the water is Cold. He managed to tie his sail's clew to the boom and shlog in without too much drama.
A far from perfect session, though there were jumps and jibes to be had. Windsurf we must!
(Scott inbound. Photo by Artie.)
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