The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Never Leave Wind to Find Wind, or Why I'm Still Not in Hatteras

"I'm planning a trip to Cape Hatteras. Really."

That line gets an increasing number of laughs from people who know me. Even from people who don't know me. I've been saying that I'm going to Hatteras "next week" since March. March! I was DEFINITELY coming down in April. Absolutely coming down in May. June has the best waves, I was told. "I'll be there".
Well, it's frickin' July and there's still no Outer Banks sand in my van.

The problem has been that every time I've nailed down a time to go (wife approved, van loaded, home schedule cleared) the forecast for Long Island has sweetened up. A lot. The choice of driving 500 miles for a forecast of 20+ knots vs driving 5 miles for 20+ knots, well...

But Hatteras isn't just about the wind. I am goofy in love with being in Hatteras (all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.) I've been emailing OBX Bill for the better part of three months, planning a combination windsurfing blog summit/loop fest (he loops, I watch enviously in between bouts of self-destruction) but I keep not showing up!

"Bill,

It's looking like I'll be in OBX no later than Saturday, and as early as Friday, for about 4-5 days of whatever natures gives."

-typical example of my empty words.

At this point he has filed me in the "yeah, right" bin. But Long Island has been so good this spring, and I've sailed in a dozen new spots, and met a lot of windsurfers, and been having a great time up here.

So now it's about October. Really.

Psycho-chop? No Thank You.

What do you do when oncoming ramps are five feet apart (and of course the good one is never first)? Today on the Little Peconic the psychochop made windsurfing an excercise in having your bones rattled, as Slo, Sally and I tried to make the best of 18-20 knots. I tried pre-jumping early ramps to get better position for the steeper chop, but there just weren't enough fractions of a second to really wind up the board. At least Slo had the maiden voyage of his new Fanatic Skate. We were sailing about an hour after low tide, with the incoming tide moving against the wind.

After 90 minutes, Sally and I headed to Mecox. I'd like to try the Little Peconic launching from Bittersweet Lane and see if the chop is more organized on southwest winds. If it isn't, then South Jamesport is top of the list.

Freestyle under 10 knots: Video/Web/Book Resources

Why do nonplaning freestyle?

If your answer is "duh!" scroll down a bit. But if your thinking is more along the lines of "that's not for me" then consider that even the most basic nonplaning freestyle can do the following for your planing skills:

-improve your waterstarting,
-get you planing in less wind,
-make tacking easier,
-help you save blown jibes,
-make launching in surf easier,
-help your body synthesize vitamins and minerals. Okay, maybe not that. But there is at least one more good reason to do nonplaning freestyle: It's fun.

(Here the "duh's" should rejoin us.)

On Long Island the winds will be lighter over the course of the summer, so I'm listing some places and things to help you and me have fun on the water when there's not a whitecap to be seen:

Websites

Clewfirst.com. Check out the Moves section for a summer's worth of basic freestyle moves within reach of anybody.

Royn Bartholdi is mostly focused on planing, but he's got nonplaning stuff in there as well (including a forward loop drill!)

Online Video

The very talented Ceasar in Bonaire can get anyone excited about an eight knot day. In the first clip we basically see backwinded pivot jibes and helitacks turned into something extraordinary as they get linked with some sail/body 360s, duck moves, and back to back sailing.

In the second clip our talented windsurfer takes it up several levels.

Twenty-something years ago, this is how freestyle looked. Pretty amazing stuff, and these moves are still legitimate today!

Here's a clip on Broadbandsports.com of a guy having fun with helitacks and various backwinded pivot jibes. I like this clip because the sailor isn't spectacular in the least...he's just an amateur doing some basics nice and slow.

Books

Yeah, you already know about Tricktionary. But there's a gem of a collection of old-school nonplaning freestyle just waiting for you to discover it. "Freestyle Windsurfing" by Roger Jones was written in 1987, and is out of print, but it's easy to find through Amazon and Ebay. Check it out on Amazon, where it's accompanied by this review:

Brilliant Antique technique! Written when the "Windsurfer" board was THE board, this book contains lots of information and illustration of freestyle maneuvers that work on that huge old board and rig. I bought it to see what it could add to my non-planing freestyle repertoire, and the moves range from easy to extremely challenging. It's a great find for anyone who enjoys goofing around on a longboard (or who has extreme shortboard ambitions!)

I posted that back on Amazon in 1999. For years I thought that some of the moves in "Freestyle Windsurfing" looked too silly to try. But when I attended the wind-starved King of the Cape freestyle competition in 2001, I was stunned and dazzled during the battle for top amateur, when Long Island star Mike Burns and Marsh Creek, Pennsylvania's Transition Tom Hazel pulled out all the stops, throwing every move in the old book at each other (Mike won.) I went home and reopened the book, and found new and exciting ways to make people say "what was that?"

Jeff's a Helitacking, Flick-Flacking, Freestyling Fin-First Fool

Jeff has heard the call of the light-wind freestyle sirens. Yesterday he came to the creek and worked on backwinded sailing, helitacks, fin-first sailing, and the escape from fin-first known as the flick-flack. Jeff nails it all in the clip.

Summertime, and the Windsurfing's Easy

Sun bright,
Spray warm on my legs,
Smell of suntan lotion,
Seven-Oh nicely powered,
and it's Sunday.