The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

The Fastest Lake in the Nation Sails (and Partys) Hard Next Week

I wish the fastest lake in the nation was on Long Island. But it's not...it's in Worthington, Minnesota (says them and we believe 'em!) and there's a windsurfing regatta and music festival coming soon to the might shores of Lake Okabena.

The Worthington Okabena Windsurfers (WOW) welcome one and all June 8-10. "On these dates any and all windsurfers showing up in Worthington, Mn will be treated as 'Exhalted Rulers of the Universe.'"

That would not suck.

Of course The Fastest Lake in the Nation can't save it all for one weekend...they've also got The Midwest Speed Quest running all season (April 15-October 15) that anyone can compete in. If you're a speed sailor, you should consider throwing down in Worthington. And if you're any kind of windsurfer and can get there, check out the Worthington Windsurfing Regatta and Unvarnished Music Festival and let the Puffin know how it was.

Everybody's Looping

Actually, I don't sail regularly with anyone who loops, but they seem to be in the air, so let's roll through some looping news (send pun complaints to [email protected]):

*OBX Bill threw his first loop. Congratulations Bill!

*Andy Brandt is now teaching the forward loop. Sign up for an ABK clinic to receive his wisdom.

*Peter Hart looping video expected soon. Promised for March, then May, it's almost done...probably. The director has abandoned his wife and young children for the editing room where he is this minute putting on "finishing touches." Will Nobby ever go round? Hopefully we'll learn that (and how to loop ourselves) this year.

*Take a look at this loop into loop video clip of Kauli Seadi throwing a push loop into front loop combination:

Makes your head spin, doesn't it? (see above re "whowritesthiscrap"...)

Four Sails

This would make a great painting.

Originally from Steve Bodner, best captioned in Sailing Anarchy, and noted by the Dog in in rec.windsurfing

Were You On The Guest List? A Puffin Party Exclusive!

The glitterati joined the winderati Sunday night at an exclusive bash at Sally and Michael's place. Advance word of the event was strictly hush-hush, and admissions at the door were kept strictly A-list Puffin celebrities.

Our photographers brought back evidence of a sumptuous feast followed by a private fashion show. Enjoy our photo spectacular...

Iowa Regatta Windsurfing Poster

A beautiful windsurfing poster. Here's a link for the event which took place a few weeks ago. I learned about it on Fred and Kara's blog.

If you like this sort of thing, check the post on the Association Française de Funboard. We need more windsurfing art!

Old School Freestyle Video

One handed pirhouette helitack, anyone? It amazes me that back when windsurfing was this young...heck, in the days before footstraps...that sailors developed all these gratuitously crazy moves.
At the 2001 King of the Cape freestyle competition, I saw Long Island windsurfer Mike Burns throw moves in this vein when there wasn't enough wind to plane. He won the amateur class.

Bad Accident Waiting to Happen?

Everyone gets catapulted, particularly in the early harness days of their windsurfing careers.   There are brutal catapults of course, but most of us are also familiar with that particular twist on catapults: the "I've just been slammed into the water, had my breath knocked out of me, and now I'm hooked in underneath the sail" catapult.   It's alarming, even scary for that first moment until you calm down, unentangle yourself, and swim out from under the rig.

Now consider what Stu Snodgrass posted in rec.windsurfing last week:

I though that I should alert everyone of a possible safety issue.  Yesterday at our lake one of the guys had adjustable harness lines with the  plastic toggle to make shortening them easier.  He fell and the toggle went between the bars at the back of his harness hook and then twisted as it went up toward the hook.  It took him a minute or so before he could release it.  Lucky for him that he was on top of his sail and not under it.

The fix was easy.  Duck tape over the wide opening on the hook so the toggle win't fit through.

It is no problem with a reactor bar because the hook is a solid piece of metal.

In the thread that followed there was some back and forth about how long it takes to get out of a harness, which harnesses may be easier to get out of than others etc.   

It seems to me that anyone using harness lines or adjustable outhauls should make a point of checking for the potential of this snag, as unlikely as it seems to occur.   I found a combo that could do it on one of my harness lines (pictured).    Also, whenever I put a newbie on a board (or a loved one who hasn't been on the water in awhile) we have the conversation about what to do if you get slammed under the sail.   Adding a bit about how to quickly get out of the harness seems called for.

ABK Does Napeague

Andy Brandt and crew came through Napeague last Friday-Sunday, putting on a three-day windsurfing clinic for everyone from brand-newbies to sailors beginning loop instruction. The editors of the Peconic Puffin were not in the clinic ourselves, though we sailed nearby, Friday in outstanding conditions in Gardiners Bay and Saturday on the periphery for some nonplaning freestyle with George Pav (picking up the nonplaning donkey jibe.) The Puffin WILL be signing up for one of the upcoming fall ABK clinics at Napeague, either September 14-16 or the following week (September 21-23, the week featuring the special freestyle clinic within the clinic.)

There were many familiar faces in last weekend's clinic, including Puffin regulars Peconic Jeff (check out his clinic photos here,) Jason, Dana and Andy (The Family That Freestyles Together) with their daughter Una (the key figure in The Mystery of the Blue Ray,) as well as Lily and Wilson, who are surely destined to have some of their windsurfing adventures poorly told in the Puffin.
(Photo: During a break in the clinic, ABK-meister Andy Brandt points out trespassing Peconic Puffin photographer to security.)

Get Well Soon, Scott

East end sailor Scott Kielt got hurt this week working (moral of the story: work less, shred more?) and may be out of the picture for several months recovering from a broken arm.

The Peconic Puffin knows first hand what a drag an injury can be to work, play, and life. Get well soon!

Gardiners Bay Goes Off

Napeague Bay is the flatwater capital of Long Island windsurfing (though Mecox is a respectable second), but lately I've been wanting to join the sailors who head up to the northern shore, portage across, and hit the waters of Gardiners Bay, where it was said "it gets really big and really good" in a solid northerly (not to mention getting to sail in sight of Gardiners Island, where Captain Kidd once buried pirate treasure!)

I'd sailed it before, but never like this. Winds NNE 25 were sending gangs of rolling swell tightly spaced towards shore. It was side-on wave sailing with 10 yards between each wave...outbound it was all I could do to find a path, then a tight jibe squeezed in between eye-high gray walls of water, and now shooting back downhill, either blasting between swell, surfing up and down them, or catching air off of some major ramps (I got considerable height, but as John V said "they don't count unless you land them." My big ones didn't count. At least a half dozen sailors were doing better than me, including John, Jan, Bruce, Frank, Jonathan, and Fisherman.

Beyond the excitement of windsurfing in such conditions, I was in awe of how extraordinary the water looked. Everything was gray and stormy, and the waves seemed like they were marching in a giant army. I thought it looked like some painting of the North Sea on a bad day. I tried to take photos while sailing in the big water, but it was out of the question...it was all I could do to stay on the board.

If you've been there and done that at Gardiners, all I can say is "It was new to me." It was a spectacular thing to see, much less sail in. I am so very much going back for the next nor'easter!




(photo: John V flashes some old-school style on the inside at Gardiners.)

A Swim With Gear

The morning featured 4.7 sailing through eye-high swell at Cupsogue.

The afternoon saw a second session (4.7 again!) in tightly spaced chop, windsurfing South Jamesport.

But the memorable portion of the day was next to the board, not on it.

Heading out from the beach behind John V, the wind suddenly dropped considerably. John stepped off his board while I kept shlogging, and when I heard him say "that's not good", I wondered if I shouldn't reconsider sailing out into the waves. But I looked out and saw Bill still forging ahead, and so thought: "nah!"

I shoulda listened.

I continued to follow Bill for about two minutes, but when semi-shlogging turned to pure shlogging, I went for a pivot jibe on an 84 liter board, and failed. Then spent five minutes in futile attempts at waterstarts. Tried uphauling, but when I got the sail up there was no wind at all, and fell again. Looking out to sea, I saw that Bill had started swimming his gear in. So I started swimming with mine as well.

This was going to take awhile (it took about thirty minutes). Stuff to think about on the way:

-Sharks (of course.)

-A conversation I'd had with my friend Steve, in which I'd explained "there's ALWAYS enough wind to shlog."

-How far would we drift downwind (about three hundred yards.)

-How I would pay strict attention to John's warnings in the future.

-What would happen when we got to the impact zone, now in an area I'd been advised to avoid because of the brutal break.

I got lucky with the impact zone, only got hit by one heavy breaker, and finally made it to shore. Bill took a few more waves but was soon out as well. After the long walk with gear back to the launch site (and requisite ribbing from all those smarter than us when the wind had dropped) we found out that another sailor was carried further down the beach than us. "Kaiser" Andre, who drove a few hundred miles from the Hudson Valley to catch the SW ocean blow this morning, was out on a 70-something liter board when the wind died. We could see him as a speck way down the beach, carrying his gear with what looked like a mile yet to walk.

Someone said he'd be smiling when he finally made it back, and he was.



(Smarter windsurfers look out at those less fortunate.)

Wind Suffering

First, a week without wind.

Then Sunday, the tease of limp whitecaps...two minutes of shlogging for every twenty seconds of planing. But Jeff and I went for it, on a beautiful patch of Flanders Bay.

Monday the whitecaps were there on Tiana Bay and the ocean across from Tiana...and lasted maybe 25 minutes. I've never seen the ocean so flat...Scott compared it to Mecox Bay...but I'd still rather get a few minutes in on the ocean than anywhere.

I can't remember the last time my arms were sore. Maybe they'll be tomorrow? iWindsurf is seeing red, but as a seasoned windsufferer I must prepare for a cruel morning update.

Ya gotta believe.

Windsurfing Freak Festival…The Video

In the early days of the sport, windsurfers had overdeveloped senses of humor (perhaps to compensate for unstable rigs?) What is it possible to sail as a windsurfing board? Or use as a rig? Expand your mind (or recoil in horror) and witness the envelope being pushed in earlier days.
These people are having fun, and there are some stone crazy ideas here to boot!

Other People's Wavesailing

Doesn't that look like fun? It does to me...I've only sailed in ocean waves* three times (barely) this year, and I envy everyone who is getting more than me. I snagged this photo from Tatiana Howard's blog, which I've only recently discovered. Tatiana is in that photo...somewhere...we thank her for sharing a moment we can relate to!

I keep planning on going down to the Hatteras* for some ocean sailing, but either the Long Island forecast has been comparable or I've had things keeping me up north. Meanwhile OBX Bill reports that they've had maybe too much wind down Hatteras way, describing the prospects of wave sailing a few days ago as "suicidal". I have no sympathy at all for Bill...he LIVES on the Outer Banks.

I must get down there soon, and maybe on some Long Island waves even sooner.

*I've had great fun in the rollers that appear at Sebonac Inlet...low tide and west winds >20 knots is the magic formula. Sebonac is on the Long Island Windsurfing Map.

**Access to Cape Hatteras is becoming an issue, as the only bridge that will get you there is darn near falling down. If you love windsurfing in Hatteras (or doing anything in Hatteras) check out this web site which makes sending a letter to the appropriate goverment agencies quite easy.

Shove It Up Your Mast!

What windsurfing equipment can you get for $3? There used to be only one answer: a downhaul line (though I hope you're going for the better stuff) but the Peconic Puffin has discovered another item worthy of your gear bag: the drinking glass cleaner (sometimes sold as a fluted glass cleaner or bottle washer.) It's a round bit of foam rubber on the end of a plastic handle. What do you do with it? You shove it up your mast.

What it does: Wipes clean (or at least pushes up the inside of the mast) sand, mud or grit that will grind against and stick to your extension or mast ferrule.

Good question: Shouldn't I take the mast down to the water and rinse it out properly?

Equally Good answer (says the editor:) Of course you should. So should I. But if I'm rigging a few hundred yards from the beach, that may not be practical. This is a great short term solution (be sure to clean the mast later.)

Also note: If you've just a small amount of grit, sand, mud or whatever in your mast, it usually will stick to and come out with the foam rubber head.

Another question: Will it work with RDMs?

Answer: Yes.

Advanced mast cleaning tool stuff: After using one for a year or so, I became concerned that one day I might leave the foam rubber head stuck up the mast. I pulled the thing apart and found the construction illustrated in the photo, and have since added a plastic cable tie to ensure I don't end up with my head stuck up my mast.