The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

ABK Windsurfing Clinic Coming to Napeague May 18-20

The best time to take a windsurfing clinic is:

A. Towards the beginning of the season, so you're tuned up for the year.

B. In the middle of the season, so you're already warmed up a bit, but still have time to work with what you've been taught.

C. Towards the end of the season, when you've worked out all the kinks you're capable of working out without professional help.

D. All of the above.

I'm a "D" man myself. Life is too short, wind is too rare, and my talent is insufficient to get me to where I'd like to be in this sport. Also, ABK clinics are fun, and you get to make new friends and renew old acquaintances.

If you're even remotely entertaining a thought of participating, just do it! Sign up already at ABK's website, for May 18-20th (Friday through Sunday.)

This clinic is at Napeague, a beautiful shallow bay that gets more wind than just about anywhere on Long Island. If you want to introduce a friend to the sport, this is an ideal place. If you want to be introduced to planing through a duck jibe, this is the place. If your skill levels place you somewhere in between the two, this is the place.

Would you believe that I'm just a satisfied customer? Satisfied clinic junkie might be a better description, but seriously folks, ABK clinics are highly recommended by the Peconic Puffin. If you have "what's it like"-type questions, leave them here as comments or email me directly.

Be a Good Fish and Go Away. Please.

(Photo from fresh99.com.)

Swap Meet on Long Island, May 12th

I love swap meets. When I look at all the boards and sails I feel the energy from the wind and water they've seen, and all the adventures they've had. Or I imagine that I do. And I like the people that you meet...great windsurfers, average windsurfers, wannabee windsurfers, people coming back to the sport after years off...it's all good!

The Spring windsurfing swap meet on Long Island is a-coming, and I'm a-going (selling a Starboard Start in great condition if you need a beginner board, looking for a good storm board if you've got something under 80 liters that only a year or two old) and also pawing through all the other good stuff, because it's fun! Maybe I'll meet you there.

Jonathan Ford, proprietor of Windsurfing Hamptons tells us this:

"SWAP:*_* *May 12th - Saturday 9am - 4pm.* At the shop. Buy or sell used Surfing, Kiteboarding and Windsurfing gear. Buying - '06 closeouts available, specials on New '07 equipment, and loads of used gear to choose from. Selling - Please drop your used gear by the shop from the 5th of may thru the 12th (swap day) before 9am. Rain or shine, windy or not, swap will run. See you then."

The shop has several employees who will help you find appropriate used gear if you don't know what you need or don't see what you're looking for. They're also great at suggesting prices to sellers. Some people have been showing a particular board or sail at this swap for YEARS without selling it, because they're sellling them for what they optimistically think they're worth. Please do yourself (and someone else) a favor and sell low. Get the thing out of your garage and into someone else's, before it loses value and you have to sell it in 2009 for less than you could have sold it for now.

If you need more information, call Jon at the shop at (631) 283-9463. You can find the shop on The Long Island Windsurfing Map.

Tricks Are For Kids

Elvis is in Bonaire. And Elvis has a message for us: Tricks are for Kids! Three-year-olds can windsurf. Eight-year-olds can do a world of moves. Twelve-year-olds will blow your minds. Fifteen and sixteen-year-olds rule! (Check out this excerpt from "ProKids")

Anybody who follows freestyle knows about Bonaire as a capital of the discipline. Tonky and Taty Frans have dominated enough competitions in enough venues around the world, and Kiri Thode...young Kiri was brilliant BEFORE the day he raised the bar for the entire windsurfing world by introducing nonplaning loops (the Gekko Flaka) leaving every freestyler on the planet in slack-jawed WTF-ment, and he's only gotten better since. But perhaps not everybody knows that an instructor named Elvis Martinus has been nurturing windsurfing culture for local kids on Bonaire for well over a decade, and freestyle has been a big part of it. Dasher has been videotaping that remarkable scene for nearly as long, island hopping from his teaching gig in Aruba back in the 90's to capture some of the early days of this unique culture. So in 2006 when an all-kid freestyle windsurfing event was announced for Bonaire, Dasher was there, and earlier this year released "ProKids," featuring way-hot sailing from the littlest of sailors up the amazing talent of windsurfers like Sarah-Quita Offringa, Jaeger Sint Jago, Arturo Soliano, Kiri Thode, and of course Tonky, Choco and Taty Frans. But it's not a straight portrayal of competition; instead it's more of a celebration of freestyle windsurfing and kids on boards in Bonaire. It's a great DVD to get your own stoke going, and if you want to get the attention of someone who thinks windsurfing is for mom and dad, this is the ticket. There's also a bonus "movie" called Just Tricks, which includes more sailing, a great night freestyle session, bloopers and such. Much windsurfing fun. You can buy the DVD and get more information on the ProKids website. As Dasher says, Bonaire rules, and these kids rule! For fun I'm including some stills taken from a video Dasher made of "The Bonaire Kids" back in 1997. Somebody is working on something like a Grubby before Grubbys were invented. And look at those Disney kiddie sails...if they put Goofy on adult sails, I'd buy one.

A Day Without Gloves Is A Day With Enough Sunshine

We had to wait all the way until April 23rd until it was warm enough for no gloves! That's too long. At least we ushered in the first day over the 100 Rule not with a 16 knot reasonably good day on a 6.2, but with 22 knots and a 4.7 at Napeague. The day was so picturesque that the bay didn't look as windy as it was (thank you Jeff for walking to the Point with a meter.)

Shared the session with Jeff, Curtis, and "CPU" John (we've got a lot of John's.) Jon Ford stopped by but didn't sail (he was on the way to a biz appointment). Afterwards he confronted me: "but you didn't tell me you were on a FOUR SEVEN!"

Sorry Jon!



(Peconic Jeff blasts by the head cam.)

Bowling for Puffins

The Hinterland Who's Who section on birds doesn't quite seem to get it about puffins:

"Puffins are poor fliers. They have difficulty becoming airborne and flap their wings at an amazing 300 to 400 beats per minute to maintain flight. They also have trouble landing and often crash onto the sea or tumble onto the grass, bowling over other puffins that get in their way.

Let's be clear: Puffins rock those beats to hit air speeds in excess of 50 mph, and they turn on a dime. As for landing, they splash into the sea or tumble onto the grass because they can! Wouldn't you?

"On land puffins stand upright and walk or hop about with apparent great care over the uneven terrain of the colony."

See? They can be refined and deft in movement when they want to. But they'd rather send their buddies rolling down the hill.

(Trying to avoid the pesky 7-10 split, a puffin lines up carefully, hoping to make contact between the 1 and 3 puffins.)

Grab Bag #2

Feast your eyes. This very limited edition Mistral Screamer belongs to the gentleman next to it, a windsurfer named Woody. Learn about Woody's Woody on his blog. Warning: Woody has just concluded a week of windsurfing in great conditions in Cape Hatteras. He owns the woody, he just had a fantasy week in Hatteras. If you're looking for your windsurfing luck, he's the guy who probably took it.

A more humble board intended to help beginning windsurfers appears to be desperately in need of someone more familiar with the sport. Consider the footstrap arrangement on this Naish. A Naish! The board's spirit must be cross-eyed with frustration and embarrassment..."Will someone PLEASE fix my footstraps?!?!?!" As seen on eBay. Somebody buy it and help!


In an entirely different vein, I want to note that this afternoon two people are getting on a sailboat in Hoboken, heading out to sea, and once at sea intend to sail for, oh, one thousand days non-stop. They do not plan on pulling in anywhere, nor are they planning on resupplying at any point, likening their adventure to a mission to Mars. This sounds extremely stressful and not much fun. I would rather try and climb Mount Everest, (which is an insane proposition itself). But understanding them is not required for me to root for them, so I will, and wish them well. Good sailing, Schooner Anne!

Do You Know This Board?

Steve pulled this blue board from the insatiate maw of the local garbage dump several years back. He admired its beauty, but wonders, as do I, as to it's origins. It's manufactured, but by whom? Do you know? Can you help?

The first person who succesfully identifies the blue barge (I mean board) to our satisfaction will have their praises sung in the Peconic Puffin. So will the second and third...maybe more. So if you know, let us know!

Adventures with Waterproof Video Camera, Part Two

More learning with the ATC-2000 camera since my first post on the thing: Good News: It's waterproof, or waterproof enough. I have followed the instructions and smeared silicon grease (supplied) on the seals...I've also crashed the camera hard several times (a combination of blown jump landings and blown jibes) but have yet to see a drop of water inside. Also, the mount holds up to on-the-water abuse, and will hold its position if you use a piece of rubber (supplied) inside the mount to prevent it from twisting on the boom.
Not So Good News: Boom mounting leaves much to be desired. The "handlebar mount" only fits over the average boom tail section, so mounting more forward is problematic. And whereever you aim the camera, it is perpetually being affected by how you rake the rig and pull it towards you past verticle (this also means that on reaches when sailor and camera are on opposite sides, you don't get a mirror of the same side framing. For me the camera is mostly looking at sky on the opposite reach, even when it's shooting beneath the boom on the same side reach. And the audio is worse than useless. You hear nothing except boom impacts.

(the above clip quickly shows the camera underwater, the change in perspective depending on whether the camera is on sailor-side tack or sailor-opposite tack, plus some slow motion of the jibe for fun (maybe.) Next Steps: While the supplied headband/helmet mount does not hold the camera at all steady (it bounces at every impact enough to ruin the image) I think headcam is the way to go. I have an old helmet that I'll be drilling, taping, and otherwise experimenting on with duct tape and cable ties to see if I can improve the situation. The Mast Tip cam mount is still being developed in my limited imagination.
(Jeff imagined as a great still image the view from the boom camera mid-jibe, seeing both the jiber and the carved wake behind him/her. Here is the best shot of that frame I've found...note that you can only see one side of the wake as the board carves.)

Neoprene is Scary

It began when my father-in-law briefly thought that a body was hanging in our bathroom (a wetsuit.) Then at the site of these booties my mother-in-law believed I had passed out in the bathtub. But once The Horse's Mouth picked up the Scary Neoprene thread, things started to roll. His latest evidence is this wetsuit. I counter with an item from the same era, which my wife ordered me to take to the dump but which I've had secreted in the shed against such a moment. Behold!


If I'd been wearing this when Christie Brinkley drove by, I don't think she would have stopped to chat.

Storm Sailing, Part One

I'm a loser for getting to ocean too late on Storm Day. By the time I arrived at the Bowl (the inside of which is semi-sheltered by a jetty, making it the choice launch when the wind is howling from the East) the good guys were taking short runs on three-meter sails, and Jon Ford suggested that I consider sailing one of the inner bays (the last time I launched in the ocean against Jon's advice, I washed up down the beach bleeding and semi-incoherent after the shore break had its way with me.) These days when Jon suggests passing on the ocean, I pass.)

I stuck around and watched for awhile, and it was genuinely awesome. Every second a windsurfer was sailing in control looked like a victory to me in the 40 knot gusts. One sailor (Bill) launched a modest jump, going up perhaps only six feet...but then hung there, and floated and floated and floated like a glider in a thermal before slowly coming down. What a gust!

Jeff was the first one on the water ("I had to get out before the wind really came up...I don't have a small enough board for this!") He had derigged and switched to snapping photos by the time I got there.
I did get my share of storm, though, as described in Part Two...

(Top photo by Jeff.)

Storm Sailing, Part Two

After leaving The Bowl, Jeff and I went to Flying Point on Mecox Bay for the clean wind usually available during big Southeast blows. Unfortunately it was East, not Southeast when we got there, but sail we did anyway. The wind was quite gusty, the water was kicking up two foot ramps (on Mecox we bet on 6-12") and 4.0's were the call.

With the normally placid bay covered with rolling whitecaps, and a media frenzy around the nor'easter, we got more than a little attention from drivers by who were pulling over to catch ten minutes of lunatics windsurfing the storm. And when we were on shore grabbing gear or whatever, cars would pull over to chat. Usually when you're storm sailing, people who stop will say one of two things. Either they will ask if you're crazy, or tell you that you in fact are crazy. But not today...today for some reason people said things like "we really enjoy watching you," or asked if we were having fun. It was quite nice.

The peak moment came as I was carrying my 4.0 across the road to the beach, when a car pulled over and 40-ish shiny blond with a car full of family wanted to know if we were actually going to windsurf. I smiled and said we were. That looks quite wild, the driver said...were we really going out right now? I confirmed that we were, at about the same time I realized that Christie Brinkley was my inquisitor. I managed to not start babbling, nodded my regards, and carried the sail past her car to the beach and my waiting board.

I've been sailing in Southampton waters for fourteen years, but I've never had anything that could be remotely considered a Southampton "moment." Now I have. My full report: Christie was very nice, and very pretty.

But even her magnificence was dwarfed by the strengthening winds. It was soon time to rig the 3.4, (Jeff was on a 4.0) and even that wasn't small enough for long. Three runs after rigging it, a series of gusts slapped us silly, a nasty mix of tailwalking, backwinding, and generally being madly overpowered. Got back to shore and agreed that it was time to get off the water. The closest windmeter shows a gust of 61 mph at the time. The good news is that they're calling for wind tomorrow.


(We were not on the water for the 65mph gust, but we got flattened by the 61.)

Top photo by Jeff.

Catching A Wave with Kevin Pritchard

One of the many great things about sailing in Maui is that you're often sharing a patch of water with a pro. Ely (Long Island Ely, Yahoo Long Island Windsurf Group Ely, wave kook Ely) shared a wave with KP a few days ago, and has a great helmet cam clip of it to boot! Here's Ely's description of the day:

Monday, April 9th.

My last day on Maui, my flight leaves at 10:30pm. Despite arriving in paradise 10 days ago, this was the second day of sailable wind, the first being the previous day, Sunday. Yesterday's sailing was epic, with occasional bombs over mast high (14 foot faces). No one was sailing at Ho'okipa that day since it was all closed out, so all the pros were at Kanaha. Being easter Sunday and having quite the dry spell for wind, parking was really tough, but we got really lucky, another friend Gary was pulling out from my favorite parking spot under the tree! With such big waves on Sunday, you really couldn't go for it as you would if the waves were a little smaller. It was an extremely fun day though, my buddy Brook who I was travelling with called it his best day of sailing EVER! It was his epiphany, he finally "got it" and became a self-confirmed wavesailing freak! Monday's sailing, captured in the video clip, promised to be even better, with more consistent winds and slightly smaller waves. When we first arrived at Kanaha, the waves looked like they decreased in size by half, and the wind was on the light side. Brook could only lick his lips since he had an early afternoon flight (Never leave Maui on your last day before 9pm!). Surprisingly, by the time I got on the water, the waves were consistently head high with many sets logo high (6 to 10ft.). My first session on the water was great with my 83 liter quattro and 5.6 Simmer wavesail, it was shaping up to be my best day at Kanaha in 6 years. You could really commit to the entire wave, it wasn't scary big like Sunday. After 1 1/2 hours of fantastic wavesailing, I came in and took a break, and had something to eat. When I got back on the water, the wind was pretty fluky and I was only planing 30% of the time. It was beautiful to be out on the water anyway, schlogging out past the reef and waiting for the big ones to come through. You would just stand there on your board and wait, looking towards the horizon until you would see the sea level rising in the distance and ramping up into a nice downhill slope of water. Then, if you were in the right place at the right time, you would pump onto a plane, catch up to the wave and accelerate down the face, bottom turn and ride back up the slope to meet the breaking crest. If you were lucky, you could get 3 or 4 bottom turns on a wave as the peak of the wave travelled downwind.

To make a long story short, I decided to record my last sesh on the water for posterity. I hate having to go home without nothing to show from my trip! as the afternoon progressed, the wind got lighter and lighter. I was shouting out to the wind gods to give me one last big fat juicy wave, and all of a sudden, I see the sea level rising in the distance with the promise of a nice swell heading in towards the reef. With no one else competing for this wave, I pumped onto a plane and my board started pointing down the wave's face. In the distance downwind (about 20 yards away) I see world champ Kevin Pritchard on the same wave. Having rights, I chase down the face of the wave and bottom turn. When I get to my turn off the top of the wave, there's Kevin, now upwind of me with a big smile, ready to head down the face of the
wave behind me. We're perfectly set up to share this wave! I do my top turn while he bottom turns below and downwind of me. I head down the face of the wave again as he hits the lip. As I ride up to hit the lip he flies down the face of the wave and heads upwind for more! There I am, the wave passes under me, and I can't stop laughing, hooting and hollering! Pure bliss! The wind gods delivered big time!

Ely
wave kook

Thanks for sharing that, Ely!

Association Française de Funboard

I like this poster. I want one! It's from the Association Française de Funboard's 2007 tour.

Note that their website isn't working very well. But I'm loving the poster.

E-mail to Peconic Jeff

From: Michael
To: Jeff
Subject: re: East winds tomorrow - Oceanside?

Just got back from a comically brutal day. You missed comedy and punishment only. The short version is this:

Part one: The Bowl. Guys sailing 3.7-4.7 when I got there, wrestling with pouring rain, huge gusts and lulls, getting sandblasted on the beach etc. Bill looked pretty good, but he got out of the water after an hour or so, said "enough punishment" and left. My smallest board (84 liters) was too big, and I was overpowered on my 4.0. (Also there: John V, Scott, Jason, Bruce, Jonathan.)

Part two: East Landing. Surely bay sailing should be easier? Scott and Jonathan took a look and decided to go home. Jason and I hadn't been sufficiently punished yet, so we took some runs. The rain hit my face like needles and jibing was impossible, but I was excited to sail a new spot (for me). Imagine my surprise when a five foot wave jacked up and broke like an ocean wave on my head (there's a sand bar that really comes into play when the wind hits 40)...I thought I was on a bay (actually I thought I was on the Shinnecock, but Jayson straightened me out...it's the Great Peconic.) Must add it to the map.

The only thing to do was laugh.




(I got on the water at 10:30. )