The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Low Riders

In 2003 some friends and I drove down the East Coast for a ten day windsurfing tour. Three days were spent in Dewey Beach, Delaware, sharpening our skills in an ABK camp, and then we continued on to the Outer Banks, to spend a week sailing brilliantly out of a rented house in Avon. But of course, it didn't turn out that way. On our first day in Hatteras it blew with gusto, and as I sailed overpowered on a 4.1, ABK-meister Andy Brandt swooped in behind me to encourage me to jump jibe, a move I'd learned two days earlier in somewhat lighter conditions. I jumped, I jibed mid-air, I didn't get my foot out of the strap, and I came down badly. It was the only time I ever gave a "thumb's down" signal to other sailors. I spent the rest of the week learning Apple's iMovie software, and making this clip. The sailors are Steve Marks, Jay Edson, "Transition Tom" Hazel (a brilliant freestyle sailor whose home waters are Marsh Creek PA) and myself. The ankle, originally thought to be broken, was just a bad sprain. Eight weeks of physical therapy to fix, which in my book is a slap on the wrist!

The Family that Freestyles Together...

We're not talking Gekko Flakas or Spock 540's. We're talking much cooler than that. When the wind dropped to subplaning in Aruba last week, Dana Tang and Andy Darrell showed the crowds how they do things back on their home waters. Daughter Una ("I'm not as good as my mother...yet") showed off her noseriding skills. It was impressive, it was cute, and it drew more sailors out on the water.

When the wind gets light on those summer weekends, some of us still like to get out on the water and have some fun. Props to ABK for spreading the lightwind gospel on Long Island (where we surely need it.) And check out a nice selection of basic nonplaning tricks on ClewFirst.com.

"The Windsurfing Movie" update from Jace Panebianco

Windsurfing hasn't done too well in movies. There is the outstandingly bad "Wind Rider" best known for the half-second of Nicole Kidman naked. Then there's "No Way Out" in which Kevin Costner's car is followed by a station wagon with an original Windsurfer and rig on the roof. That's about it. But soon Jace Panebianco (pro windsurfer, newlywed, and old-school Peconic Puffin) plans on completing a film we've all been hearing about, in his role as co-director of the windsurfing movie titled "The Windsurfing Movie". The Peconic Puffin pestered the following out of Jace:

"Things are going really well. Johnny (DeCesare) is in Africa with the crew filming in Cabo Verde and Morocco. They have been scoring every day! He's been shooting on 16mm film and with the new HVX200. I've been taking my HVX200 in the water with a housing and have been getting some great shots of Robby Naish and Kai Lenny."

"We're working on doing a release tour stop in NY. Jon Ford of Windsurfing Hamptons is helping to organize it with Red Bull and Naish
International. We're shooting for the last weekend of May."

The Peconic Puffin will keep you posted on Long Island tour events. Meanwhile check out www.thewindsurfingmovie.com for updates.

Pull A Bethany

Inspired by a great photo of her in The Horse's Mouth I did a little web surfing on Bethany Hamilton. If "Bethany" isn't enough for you, she's the teen surfer who at age 13 lost her left arm to a tiger shark. Her response was to display so much Right Stuff that Chuck Yeager surely pumped his fist in the air, when ten weeks later she was back in competition!

The Wetass Chronicles proclaimed "Her name should be incorporated into surf lingo, to describe a jaw-dropping recovery, as in: "Dude, he was going to face plant on the coral, but pulled a Bethany and shot the tube to daylight."

The Wind is Just Fine in Aruba

There have always been wind shadows in Aruba for the sailor who heads south of Vela's launch (where the high rise hotels play havoc with the trade winds) but had things got worse? What about the talk of a new hi-rise hotel being built straight upwind from the Fishermans Huts sailing area, where the wind has always been clean and steady?

After a six year hiatus (including 3 years with trips to Bonaire) my wife and I headed back for a quick vacation with friends, and while the wind was rather light (6.2 to 7.2 sails for me @165 lbs) I had plenty of opportunity to check it all out.

First of all, plans for the Ritz hotel that would have been built upwind of the windsurfing beaches have been cancelled. You can still find some old "our turf, our surf, no Ritz" bumper stickers on some local sailors' bumpers and trailers, but that's the only sign that the winds had been threatened.

And while there has definately been new construction down in the high-rise hotel stretch of beach "below" where people windsurf, the effect of that has been to jam the beaches below the Marriot. The Marriot marks the border between the commercial, built up mass-vacation culture and the wide open sailing beaches. (A note re kiting, which I rarely saw back in 2001: at the Huts area kiters are only on the the water before 11AM and after 4PM.)

The only construction we saw at all of note to windsurfers is the addition of a boat ramp just North of Vela. Boats have been launching there for years, but now will not have to gun their engines (and blow out the shallow sand) to get in or out. Tony in rec.windsurfing adds that this boat ramp "is only a temporary ramp to allow them to remove the rocks that used to protect the Hadicurari marina. The whole project will take a few weeks and the ramp will be removed when they are done with that. They are planning on building a new boat ramp for the watersports guys with waverunners and boats just south of the Aruba Phoenix, more than a mile away from the nearest windsurfer. Just did not want people to think that there is a permanent boat ramp being built right next to Vela."

Thank you, Tony!

Coming soon: reports on Puffins in Aruba, and a first date with the Exocet Kona.

(top photo: walking a sail from Vela to the water...the Marriot hotel to the right marks the end of the wind-muddling buildings.)

(bottom photo: Don't worry about the crane! It's lowering foundation blocks for a boat ramp, and word has it that even this ramp is just temporary. Behind, the clear shoreline of Fishermans Huts still lets the warm winds blow free. Fine me for the cliche.)

Three Foot Wave Overhead...

On a trip to Maui several years ago I came upon the phenomena of local surfers and windsurfers drastically understating the size of waves. I'd look out at walls of water six to eight feet high, and later hear locals referring to the waves as having been three to four feet. At first I thought this was a function of Maui being laid back to the verge of insanity, but later I heard that wave height was judged from BEHIND the wave (how this worked watching the waves from shore I had no idea.)

Bill at Pono House explains how when the Hawaiin surf report says three feet you should be prepared for overhead. I also found this article looking at the clash between Hawaiin surf forecasts and the National Weather Service forecast.

Good to know. For myself I like to relate them to myself on the board (ie chest-high) or rig (logo high.) I prefer to leave mast-high waves to video.

P.S. After three weeks in Maui I realized that I'd been the insanity was mine. Lunch at the Fish Market, anyone?

Beautiful custom board...for ice

In Sweden there appears to be quite a bit of ice windsurfing. Take a look at Patric's board, designed and built by him in his garage. Great photo detail on his website.

Introduction to Ice Surfing

In our previous on-the-water session, ice was something we crashed into at peril to fin and board. This day would be about windsurfing on top of ice, something I never thought I'd do. But Jonathan Ford called and said it would be fun, and he has never steered me wrong, so I found myself gingerly walking out onto Cold Spring Pond (which is actually a tidal inlet) to meet Jon and John and Jeff to check it out. Jeff and I were the newbies.
The boards were fascinating...I've seen a Snowfer once, but never boards like these. Jon's is essentially a landskating longboard fitted with blades instead of wheels. John's board ("IceSurfer" the nametag said, made by a Long Island welder who has long since moved to Florida) feature rear blades, a single round runner in the front that provides no lateral stability, and a footbrake. Big and wide, Jeff compared it to a Starboard Go.

Jon and John had been sailing earlier in the week, when 25 knot winds had them out on 3.5's, barely sheeting in as they flew across the ice. But this day was light, and 5 meter sails were rigged...perfect for a first try.

Jeff took a quick run on Jon's board, which promptly suffered a broken pin. John invited me to take a spin on his yacht, lent me his helmet, and away I went. Once I mastered my fear of falling through the ice, it was lots of fun. John's board steers by a combination of sail position and foot pressure...very much like nonplaning freestyle. Speaking of which, while I had trouble getting comfortable jibing the thing, I had some great "planing" helitacks...I say planing because I was moving 20mph upwind through the move...that never happens on the water. After a few runs I returned the rig, and John promptly let Jeff take a spin. Generous with his gear is John.

In short, it was much more fun than I'd expected. Big thanks to Jon and John. More gear to get!

Wave Sailing and Baboon

Peconic Puffins have always liked windsurfing videos that are stylistically out of the mainstream (Mark Skelton's "Kooks of Hazard" series, anyone?) The video below features big air, strangeness, and some baboon.

It is said to have been shot in South Africa. The director is Capepoint 2005.

Why I Love Aruba

(An impending trip to Aruba after six years away has brought past adventures to mind. In that spirit, Peconic Puffin Classics presents:
Why I Really Love Aruba The Unexpergated Version, for the Discerning Puffin (In the summer of 2000, Windsurfing Magazine asked the editor of PP to write an article entitled “Why I Love Aruba” and provided a basic description of what they were looking for. PP happily complied. Upon receipt of the Puffin piece, an editor decided to “improve” the article to make it “more suitable” for their readers. Horrified by the changes, PP felt it crucial to get the Original Words out to fellow Puffins. Here, for the first time, is presented the original piece, Puffin-style, and all the “more suitable” stuff left out. But I am using the magazine photo that accompanied the article, showing someone getting fine air off of nonexistent chop. I hope everyone thought it was me. It was the amazing Jason Voss).
Why I Love Aruba.
As the plane banks towards final descent, my wife and I have our faces pressed to the window. "Look at everyone on the water!" We’re giddy…we can’t wait to Get There. What did we check a bag for? We’re idiots! We could have easily brought everything as carry on.
We land. We pick up our bag. Emerge from the airport into the breeze, grab a cab. Fifteen endless minutes until we get to our room. Drop everything on the floor, change to bathing suits, grab the harnesses, race to the beach. Get a 45-minute session in before the day ends, then grab a beach chair for the question and answer session with instructor Eddy Patricelli.
With a Polar beer in tired hand, I glance at my wife, who is reflecting my own huge stupid smile. We are Happy. We are back in Aruba.
Five days later it’s Judgement Day. All week it’s been blowing a beautiful 5.5 with three-to-six inch chop on the inside. My jibes are getting wired, I’m ripping upwind, my wife has elatedly hit her first waterstart, but still, today is the Day. The day the instructor Dasher videotapes everyone sailing, and edits it into his weekly windsurfing spectacular, complete with soundtrack, to be shown to any and all at the Thursday Night Party. If you sail well for the camera on Judgement Day, you feel like a million bucks. In my four previous trips to Aruba, I’ve always been so exhausted by Thursday that I, well, felt like 1000 bucks…good but not great. But this time I’ve planned. I’ve rested for this day. I want to see myself on the small screen sailing like I sail in my Aruban dreams, the way I’ve felt all week.
I get to the beach early, check out a board and sail, and take a quick run to get the harness lines and footstraps dialed in. I make peace with my maker, accept my karma, run through my lessons in my head, and hit the water.
Cameraman spotted. I’m flying across the crystal clear water, seeing the shadow of my rig zipping over the undulating white sand four feet below. It feels so great just to be Here, Now, that all of a sudden it doesn’t matter, I’m just going for it, and so bank the board and rig hard over…switch feet…flip the sail…catch rig on broad reach, sheet in…and complete the best jibe of my life. I look back and Dasher’s lens is locked on me…he got it! I howl, tear back from whence I came, jibe (well again!) and return.
More great jibes. This is unbelievable. I’m having the best session of my life, and it’s just too easy. Teacher is smiling. Okay, let’s get wet…let’s try a duck jibe.
Earlier in the week I’d taken a duck jibe lesson, and had even succeeded in catching the rig on the far side of the duck without falling, but with the board dead in the water. Ugly, but the first step. Now I’m flying again towards the camera, the board and sail just perfect for the perfect wind and perfect water, bank in, flash back to lesson (don’t think about the sail, just keep carving) and catch the sail on the plane. Don’t switch the feet too soon! I don’t, and come ripping out of the duck jibe, and look back. Dasher’s jaw is dropped…I am sailing way too well.
That night in the video, I get my own montage.
We’re booked for next year.

More Bad Fish

Bull sharks disable, then sink a shrimping boat off of the Florida coast.

All sharks please take note: I have no issue with sharks...be you tigers, bulls, the landlord, whichever. But these PARTICULAR sharks...it must be said that they have crossed the line.

Adventures in Cold Weather Windsurfing, Part Two...

...in which we get even further from the Rule of 100, and begin to learn the ways of sailing around and through ice.

With air temperatures in the mid 20's, we knew today could be a challenge. Arriving at Mecox Bay, the sight of the southeast corner frozen underscored the situation. But the sun was shining, there were whitecaps, and neither Jeff nor I had ever sailed on Long Island in February, so it was time to get down to business.

A preliminary run (6.2, JP 109 "Calamity Too") found beautiful steady wind, and a few hundred yards out: floating patches of what looked like iced water. But how much ice? I sailed alongside one patch, and it looked like snowcone slush with a few small slabs in it for fun, so when a white bit of bay appeared in front of me a moment later, I decided to sail right through it. No problem...the fin sounded like it was negotiating a frozen drink. Back in all liquid water everything was gorgeous...sun shining, some puffins flew by...conditions were just about perfect so I jibed to go back in and give Jeff a report.

I came up to a new patch of ice, and snapped a photo of it before I went for another margarita reach.

This was a mistake.

I couldn't really make out the slabs until I was practically on top of them, and apparently I imagined that I'd gone through some on the last reach. My fin hit the first one and I was nearly thrown. Then I hit another and again almost flew off. Sheeting out until I was doing more of a power-shlog, I cleared this patch, made my way back to shore, and advised Jeff thusly:

Slush good. Slabs bad.

I checked my fin for damage, but it was fine, and went back out. I should have also checked the bottom of my board, which in fact was not fine, instead sporting two long thin slices through the skin (my JP is a "pro edition" which means it can not take any hit of consequence.) Anyhow I noticed the slices later, and the board is now thawing in my living room so I can later drain it if it proves to have taken on water.

I'd like to compare notes with the Turnagain Arm windsurfers in Alaska, who sail across the backs of whales and salmon (the whales are said to be fine with this, the salmon not so much.)

What else did we learn? The icey patches get blown downwind, so the beam reach that was no hassle last time may now require some pinching and bearing off (bearing off in a gust to thread your way through ice...this is not boring!)

Also tried out Dermatone for the first time, as a lower hassle and nicer smelling alternative to the neoprene face mask (see Adventures in Cold Water Windsurfing, Part One). It seemed to work well, but the sun was shining brightly, so even though it was colder than last time, it may have not been colder than last time.

About that:

Old record temperatures:   Air: 31, water: 35.5.  66.5 total.
Today: Air 29, water 35.7. 64.6 total...a new personal record.

Jeff goes back for more of that slushy stuff.

Giampaolo's Truly Awesome Laird and Robby footage

Laird Hamilton stand up surfing, and Robby Naish wavesailing, in huge wind and massive waves at Lanes, Maui. If you haven't already checked this out, go now to Giampaolo's blog.

Pete Dekay Grabs the Boom at Windsport

("...grabs the boom at WindSport" Only the finest writing will be brought to you by the Puffin.)

Pete DeKay is the new editor at WindSport Magazine. He is stoked, we are stoked, you should be stoked.

After years as an ABK instructor teaching thousands of students everything from uphauling to jibing to fin-first reverse monkey tacks (well, almost) he's bringing his enthusiasm, tenacity, and great attitude to the windsurfing magazine ("My goal is to present windsurfing as an exciting lifestyle to keep people feeling young and alive" Pete told the Puffin in an exclusive interview. Friends of Pete will be happy to know that we have verified he has a desk and a phone in Toronto, but he would not reveal whether or not his home still has license plates.)

See Pete, bottom row all the way to the left, in the green sweatshirt, at an ABK camp in Peconic Puffin country. Photo stolen shamelessly from ABK's web site.

Pete and Andy Brandt are still working together, by the way...look for Andy's article on looping in the new issue.

(Pete can be heard yelling me through the finish of a push tack) at a Bonaire ABK camp.