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I so very much want a Kona. But it's just not practical at the moment. Also, as I own between four and eight boards (depending on how we count them) it may be a bit indulgent. Meanwhile Joe is looking for a deal on a sailboat. Joe, I got 'cher deal right here. Get a Kona!
(photo courtesy Exocet.)
I was toast...my third consecutive day windsurfing, now in an exhilarating but challenging shredfest at Sebonac Inlet (psychochop, major gusts and lulls...read all about it on Jeff's blog.) By late afternoon I didn't have the strength to do anything but hook in and hold on overpowered, so even though it was now blowing 25, I got off the water. An attempt at being sensible.
Fifteen minutes later, Jeff comes by. He's just had the best jump of his life. He is stoked. And he describes his newfound joy of the silence of catching air...that lovely hole in the sound of windsurfer blasting through chop, when the board leaves the water and flies...how great that is...how every moment of silence means a higher, longer jump...and how he wants more. He paints a perfect picture of the bliss of jumping, and then adds that it's too bad I'm too tired to get any more of that.
Bastard. I'M IN PAIN!
But of course I rigged a smaller sail and went back out.
(Photo by Jeff.)
Saturday marked the triumphant return of Slo to board and boom, windsurfing on the mother waters of the Peconic Puffin (Little Peconic, Pink Palace launch) on his Screamer and a 5.8, accompanied by Michael on a 6.2 and 7.0. This is Slo's first windsurfing appearance in the Puffin since we went digital, though of course he figured heavily in the Sheepshead incident.
Not only are Slo and his wife (the elusive Ivette) OG Puffins, but their son Eugene has been waving the flag lately in the form of some stylee new duds. Look for Eugene to soon join the second generation of windsurfing Puffins.
Who thought that this photo in an old post was a bit of Photoshop trickery?
For you doubters out there, here is another image from the same photo shoot, as well as the story behind the photos. I encourage you to click on the photo for the full effect. Thanks to Bonnie at Frogma for the details.
OG Puffin Steve is back from a recent eco-adventure in the Galapagos Islands. Besides verifying the theory of evolution, the good doctor also came back to share his newfound love for and comfort with sharks. Sharks are not a danger to humans, and are fine to share the water with, said he.
I'm sure he's correct. And as I've been swimming more I have been more comfortable with the fishies myself. Still, I'm going to check in with Steve the next time he blows a jibe on the outside in the ocean, to watch him take his time with his waterstart. No rush...
Check these out. Check out their website. If I was making the next Terminator movie, I'd slap a pair of these on robot prop legs to help some cyborg to look dubiously human.
But the question is: Are these good windsurfing booties? Inquiring Puffins want to know...
Our house is on a creek...technically a tidal inlet, but creek by name. It's about 50 yards across in the wide spots. When we bought the place I thought perhaps I might do a little longboarding and nonplaning freestyle on it, and over the years this has proved to be lots of fun when the wind is light and northerly. Everyone from our neighbor Remy to our former (and aspiring return) neighbors Melissa and Sam have tacked and jibed and pointed and reached with us on the little patch of water in the back.
While the Freestyle Frenzy was going on up in Cape Cod, this past weekend also saw a major Peconic Puffin extravaganza, as Steve (a founding Puffin) brought Jordan and Avery (Puffins since birth) into the creek for some windsurfing 101, while Sally and Michael sailed alongside. Avery shocked everyone by immediately assuming perfect form and sailing off towards the horizon (which on the creek means she ran aground after 20 seconds) and Jordan pulled off a tack within her first two minutes of windsurfing. Steve was advised to immediately pack his children off to Bonaire so that they might come back in a year throwing clew-first Chacho Libres and such moves.
But it was more than just these hot-shot half pints ("Say 'I'm an evil child with cool moves'" said Avery, who likes to micromanage her own press) as Sally was working on pivot jibes, Steve was experimenting with the Jack (backwind pivot jibe-duck to clew-first) and Michael was trying to hit his Radar Tack routine (subject of a future post.) Still, the young guns were the stars...check out all the action in this Peconic Puffin photo spectacular!
The beach at the end of North Sea Road has been described as a good windsurfing launch for a very particular set of conditions. They are:
Northeast wind, at low tide, when you don't have the time to go to Gardiners Bay.
Thursday evening filled that bill. Jeff and I were hunting for the chance of a little late-day planing on the day's allegedly building northeast winds. We decided to take a shot at North Sea Road, where we ran into ABK Napeague alum Robert, and lucked into low tide.
About a quarter mile into the bay the rollers started on starboard tack. Half way to Robbins Island they were hip-high and good on both tacks for jumping. I can only imagine how good it might get in 25 knots!
Two cautions about launching at North Sea Road. There are fin-busting rocks at the shoreline...I recommend getting almost waist deep before beachstarting. Also, there's quite a bit of chop at the shoreline...it's a tough spot if your beachstarts aren't wired.
Here's a link to a tide chart for nearby New Suffolk. It pretty much matches up with North Sea Road. Check out North Sea Road and many other launches on the Long Island Windsurfing Map
(Photo: Jeff rips into a jibe on the inside)
If a mast breaks and nobody is there to hear it, who cares? But if someone IS there to hear it, and they hear it out on the water, and they hear it while they're on their most exciting reach of the day and so on, and if it's me on the reach, well then you're going to hear about it.
First, the sound: "BANG!" Like firing a shotgun. Loud!
I was sailing with Jon Ford at Ponquogue, light wind wave sailing at what is the easiest and nicest wave sailing venue I've windsurfed on Long Island (I'd like to hear from others about their preferences). Three to five foot gentle waves, generously distributed and well spaced, with an orderly outside and reasonable inside for jibing. "Inviting" is what Jonathan called it. "Appealing" was the word that came to my mind. We sounded like we were reading some gourmet magazine.
Anyhow the east wind (side shore!) was light, so we were on 7.0's, just happy to be out there. My 7.0 takes a 460 mast, in this case my seven year old Fiberspar 6000 (100% carbon and NOT approved for wave sailing) but hey, I've never broken a mast* so I felt pretty good about the situation. I was having a great time, mostly planing, getting some decent jumps, everything just exciting enough for me who has sailed in waves all of nine times. Then finally the wind kicked in fully as a nice set arrived, and I started tearing ass towards shore from the outside, howling with joy and shooting upwind on the swell face. It was possibly the happiest moment I've had on the water all year.
BANG!
The last time I found myself in the water with a swim ahead of me all I could think of was sharks. This time all I could think of was that the bliss session was over.
It only took about ten minutes to get in. Jonathan (sailing Bill B's Kona) towed me a good bit of the way.
By the time I disassembled the broken rig and got it back to the van, the wind was up, and now on a 6.2 it was return to bliss.
Today I will buy an ocean-worthy 460.
* I should note that for several years I've been embarrassed that I'd never broken a mast. Anybody who sails hard in challenging conditions long enough is going to break a mast eventually. They're going to break several over the years. While I've trashed in battle at least one of every other windsurfing component, I've felt a bit unmanly for my pristine mast collection. I still haven't pogo'ed one in the impact zone, but at least I'm on my way.
(Top Photo: That can't be right.
Bottom Photo: Jonathan looks for his wave, inbound at Ponquogue)
It all started for want of a napkin. It was 1994 and my third summer windsurfing, out of a share house (The Puffin House) on the Great Peconic Bay. Steve and I were wolfing down sandwiches when I managed to get a blob of mustard on my face. I started to look for a napkin to clean up before getting back on the water, when it suddenly occurred to me...
"What's so funny?" asked Steve.
"Me. I'm worrying about a bit of mustard, as if I'm not going to be falling into the water repeatedly in less than a minute. You could put a scoop of ice cream on my head and there would be no trace of it five minutes after I begin windsurfing."
The thought appealed to Steve. He proposed that we in fact put a scoop of ice cream on my head. And as a gesture of puffinly brotherhood, he would also don some cream, even though he was a much better sailor who might not fall until his vision went vanilla.
Another day, another session at South Jamesport. It looked questionable when we got there, but soon the boys were out on seven, then six-meter sails (okay John V rocked his 5.8) while girls were on sixes and fives. Warm, sunny, and just about perfect, good fun was had by John, Jeff, Marni, Diane, and Huckleberry (a dog.) Late in the day the wind shut down all at once, just as Bill Barbour (my swimming partner in a recent sesh) arrived. Bill proclaimed it "Kona Time" and took his big beautiful longboard out for a spin. Heard later: "That's the first time I've uphauled in about twenty years."
SJ is becoming a no-brainer windsurfing launch as spring turns into summer. We keep going back on anything southerly, and as the big easterly showed a new side to the spot, I foresee more and more time parked at the end of South Jamesport Avenue (check it out on the windsurfing map.) John V warns that after July 4th the police become sticklers over day parking passes, the price of which will probably send us elsewhere. Mecox, anyone?
Waxing encyclopaedic on all the available launches on Long Island, John told Jeff and I about Mattituck...a nice place where you must hurl yourself off of a jetty with your gear into pitching seas to get to your session, and need assistance from land to get out. Oh yes, air temps are usually about 35 degrees when Mattituck is "good".
I am always relieved when reminded that there are crazier windsurfers than me. When are we sailing Mattituck?
(photos by Jeff, who has more from this session here.)
The Horse's Mouth has a regular Friday feature called Fish on Fridays, which is on the Peconic Puffin's required reading list. We like a good fish. But last Friday's FOF really caught our eye. Take a good look at the fish in the picture. Look familiar? For a number of Puffins and friends of Puffins, the answer may be Yes. It's a Sheepshead...Archosargus probatocephalus. A sheepshead figured heavily in a Puffin escapade a few years back...Slo and Jay caught it...Michael admired the character and countenance of the fish so much that he suggested we take it to a bar and buy the fish drinks (Radar Tom offered to get the first round,) but when it was all said and done Slo carved it into sashimi, which we washed down with a Viognier...at 10 o'clock in the morning.
We were in Cape Hatteras, which should be taken into account.
(Slo demanded that the tale of his sheepshead be immortalized in the Peconic Puffin, but at the time the print version had stopped being published, and the web version was still yet to be. Slo, here it is, 18 months after the last bite!)
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