The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Find The Windsurfer In This Photo

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He's in there.

One of many great images in a post on OBX Bill's Beach Life about a bitchin' Thanksgiving Day sesh on the Outer Banks.

Photo by Keith McCulloch

Puffins Appear at the Pier

When The Wolf called to say that some guys were heading to the Pier my response was reportedly less than enthusiastic. I distinctly remember saying "okay, see you there!" But hours later as we reflected on the fine session, John said to me "so you like it here now? Because you sounded tentative when I called."

"I was intimidated" I confessed.

My first Iron Pier session had been some of the most challenging windsurfing I'd ever done. There was the occasional spectacular reach or good jump, but mostly it was survival sailing for me (the Pier vets did well.) So when John called and said "Pier" I may have agreed, but what I wanted to do was whine "doesn't anybody like Sebonac Inlet anymore? Doesn't anybody like Meschutt?"

(Shut up and drive, Michael.)

But when I arrived at the Pier, conditions were blessedly a hair lighter than last time, and I was grateful. Sailing with the Wolf, Jon Ford (fresh back from Maui,) John H and Frank, sail sizes on the water were 4.2 (Wolf) to 5.4 (Mr. Ford) with me overpowered on a 5.0 and 77 liters of aircraft.

I'd taken a few exploratory runs and was standing on the beach (working up the nerve to go back out and really charge) when about a dozen puffins flew by, only about 50 feet away. Talk about an omen! They were the first puffins I've seen this fall, and I've never had them fly so close! Their message was clear: Time to fly!

So I did. While not sailing particularly well I proceeded to have plenty of fun anyway. The puffins also buzzed Jon Ford, who told me he too took their appearance as a commandment from the cosmos to shred. Jon showed off his best Maui-honed chops as he rode wave after wave (we lesser beings also played with the waves, but Mr. Ford was on top of his game.)

So now I like the Pier.

(Inset: A newspaper photographer (Barbaraellen Koch of the Riverhead News-Review) had shown up at the previous Iron Pier session and graciously provided the Peconic Puffin with photos from the day. It got even better when they slapped that photo on the cover of last week's newspaper.)

The Windsurfing Movie: Jace Has a Deal For You...

You say you don't have your own copy of the Windsurfing Movie yet? You weren't moved by the Puffin review to acquire the good work of OG Peconic Puffin Jace Panebianco? Well then...

Just in time for Christmas there is a Special Deal! Jace tells the Puffin: "Its pretty cool a limited edition signed box, plus a free Video Evidence DVD, free beenie, Free Windsport subscription, and free Naish Poster all for $39.95." Click on this link to get the holiday special deal.

Jason Polokow has a bit more to tell you about it.

Bonaire Windsurfing Vacation Synopsis

A great trip!

How much we windsurfed: Twelve sessions in six days.

How was the wind: I sailed 5.9 and 6.6 sails the entire week (should have been on a 4.7 during the storm but that's another story.)

How many jibes did Surfergirl777 hit during the week: Fifteen (twelve on starboard, three on port.)

Favorite restaurants: Cappricio, Mona Lisa, Bistro de Paris, Casablanca.

Best equipment rental: Windsurf Place. We have had good experiences with both Windsurf Place and Jibe City, but Windsurf Place is really stepping it up with the rigs, boards and fins.

Did we meet great people? Yes.

Did we see world class freestyle right in front of our noses performed by world champions? Almost every day. In the clip below, Kiri Thode (PWA ranked #3 in the world) practices next to Sally while she adjusts her rig.

Storm Session in Bonaire

As black clouds hung over a substantial rainstorm just a couple of miles upwind, a few windsurfers stayed out on the bay reaching and jibing, while others began to drift towards shore. Elvis and Roger of The Windsurf Place were discussing the oncoming storm in a language other than English, so I couldn’t eavesdrop…I had to ask: Is the rain going to kill the wind or (please let it be so) is it going to really blow?

“I’m not sure,” Elvis said, “but if it blows it will be strong but brief…maybe ten minutes.”

There was going to be no time to gauge the wind and select gear. I needed to make a decision about board and sail size now, and live with it. I had about a minute to sort it out.

No I didn’t.

WHAM came the pouring rain in what the meter later confirmed to be 30+ knots of wind. While everyone on the water was getting flattened I grabbed the first smallish stuff I saw…a 100 liter board and a 5.9 sail. I hit the water and took off like a bat out of hell, of course immediately overpowered. I’d have been blind as well, but sunglasses prevented the 30 knot power wash from shutting me down. Lac Bay is so flat that keeping the board on the water wasn’t a problem, but with visibility only about 70 yards things were well past exciting.

After about five minutes of tearing around, the wind dropped and the rain subsided. I headed in, but Elvis waved me off. “It’s going to come again!” Bless his local knowledge…

WHAM

By now my harness lines are adjusted and I’m as dialed in as I’m going to get. And as the first blast cleared the bay of sane people, the second five minute session saw the water sailed only by Kiri Thode, Cesar, me, and one other vacationing lunatic (he never even rigged down.)

(photo: The storm, ten minutes before it hit.)

Surfergirl777 Hits Her First Jibe

And her second, third and fourth. But we came to Bonaire so she could get her first, so let’s talk about that one.

Sally and I were supposed to be spending this week on a more traditional Wedding Anniversary vacation (something not centered around windsurfing) and we’d spent the better part of a year planning said vacation at a suitably fancy location.. One week before our departure, my wife grabs her superhero windsurfing outfit (in which she is Surfergirl777) from the closet and proclaims “Let’s skip the carefully planned fancy vacation. I want to go to Bonaire and hit my first jibe!”

She really knows how to twist my arm. Seven days later we were on the water in Bonaire.

My bride got bit with the jibing thing back in September, and the ABK clinic that month really got her going. But Long Island conditions since have rarely been suitable since (too much wind or not enough) and then drysuit season broke out…not her thing. Hence Bonaire.

Sunday was warm-up day (we arrived on the red-eye from Newark, and were not our best.) But out on the water Monday Sally was looking good. It seemed like it might happen. And then it did! Planing on starboard she carved into the jibe, flipped the sail and switched her feet…and then sailed away with a big beautiful grin on. What did it feel like?

“You know that tingling you get when you hear a great piece of music or try on a great pair of shoes? I felt like that all the way back crossing the bay.”

With her groove on, Sally hit her second jibe. Then her third and fourth.

If I remember correctly, it was about a month between my first and second jibes.

Iron Pier

"You haven't sailed here?" Scott said with some surprise when I asked him if there was anything I needed to know about the spot. No, I hadn't. I'd heard Iron Pier mentioned once or twice, but I'd never sailed there. The windows were rattling Friday morning. Actually rattling. That doesn't happen much, and I thought Meschutt would be huge, and discussed a Meschutt sesh with Jeff. But the Wolf had bigger ideas.


It was just about low tide when we got there, with 5-7 foot swell packed very tight. The crowd included John H, Scott, Jason, and later Bill (in addition to the aforementioned Wolf, Peconic Jeff and myself.) Shorebreak wasn't too bad given the size of the waves...still we launched from the bit of sand right next to the jetty, which automatically gets you about ten feet of sea room from the rest of the beach. That was important, because we had about ten seconds to get going before we were in the waves.



Sail sizes were 3.7-4.2 for most of the day...I ranged from lit to well overpowered on a 4.0. There were a number of moments when we all just stood on the beach while 40+ knot gusts blew sand clear across the island. NW is on-sideon sailing at the Pier, though you've got to pinch upwind when heading out as there are some big rocks a few hundred yards east. Most of them are visible at low tide, but some are only exposed in the low points between passing swell. So I prudently headed up on my way out, catching lots of air (as if I had a choice). Once outside, the problem was to bear off overpowered coming down big swell faces.

I have never intentionally beared off in so much wind in my life. Combined with the downward slope, speed was not in short supply.

All in all it was an epic session. I will be returning to Iron Pier!

(Photos from the top: Puffin in flight, John H flashes the gold, Scott jibes between waves, the Wolf inbound. All photos by Barbaraellen Koch of the News-Review of Riverhead.)

(Iron Pier has been added to the Long Island Windsurfing Map.)

(Also check out Peconic Jeff's photos from the day!)

That's Swell

Photo by Dale McKinnon, as seen on Andreas' blog. They were having quite a blow in Bellingham Bay up in Washington State on Veterans Day. NOT the San Francisco Bay area, as the Puffin had previously and sloppily implied/reported. Thank you Horse Joe for pointing that out.

It's Getting Colder

Here's what it takes at Wabigoon Lake, Ontario.

Canadian windsurfers will not be denied.

As the season progresses, the Peconic Puffin will return to experimenting with all things that might keep us warm, including the "poor man's hot tub" demonstrated above.

(Get a taste of windsurfing the Great White North on one of my favorite blogs, Windsurf Woody.)

It's the Time of the Season for Gardiners Bay

Keep on bringin' that Northeast wind! Except for those few days when it's so windy that NE is best enjoyed further west Gardiners is the choice with its big rolling swell. How big can it get? On Saturday (as I sailed a 5.0 a bit overpowered) the best rollers were head high. Fisherman was talking about days when the swell was well over mast high. I hope to sail those conditions (and not get dinged.)

An entire week went by between my last session and this Gardiners sesh...that's not much to complain about, but it felt like a long time. While derigging I met Mustang Steve, a Long Island sailor who recently returned to the water after losing over half a year following a serious shoulder injury. I've been there myself, and his story reminded me to adjust my attitude.

PeconicPuffin.com Is One Year Old. Blah Blah Blah...

Not the Peconic Puffin, though. The Peconic Puffin is fourteen ("fourteen and a half!" says Avery.) Version One was a weekly three page newsletter (a few details can be found in the about section of the blog) that I'd do from May to October of each year (the months we had our weekend share house on the Little Peconic Bay.)

To amuse myself, as well as those first-generation Puffins who still poke around and anyone with too much time on their hands, I'm including the original Peconic Puffin (click on the images to read) from May of 1993.

Cast of characters:

Ann and Tony are the landlords, living next door (sometimes Ann made us muffins.)
Alvin is a chipmunk
Pinky is a six-toed cat, and a local legend.
Dave, Gabriella, Jay, Karen, Cindy, Steve, Mark and I shared the Puffin House.
John at Sail Action is the nascent proprietor of Windsurfing Hamptons.

These, along with a collection of people who appear in subsequent issues--neighbors Bob, Nancy, Eileen and Steve, Slo and Ivette, Sally the girlfriend (now my wife of ten years) and a polite teenager named Jace Panebianco who worked for Jon Ford--were the original Puffins. (Steve and Cindy's girls Jordan and Avery, as well as Slo and Ivette's Eugene were born as Puffins, but that's for another time.)

Anyhow that was then. About fifteen people read the thing, and it was about those fifteen or so people.

The blog is still about windsurfing and the people I sail with, along with whatever else comes to mind. Over a thousand people read it, almost all of whom I don't know. Every once in awhile someone walks up to me and says "Are you the puffin?" (It's almost always somebody recognizing my gear or the van. And it always shocks me.) I've met lots of windsurfers on Long Island (most of whom are better sailors than I) through the thing. And I have friends I've never met from Malta, Australia and the UK to the Bay Area and Brooklyn (I got to meet OBX Bill a few weeks ago...that was cool, and totally not digital.) More windsurfing friends=good.

Okay, time to go. Hopefully we'll get some wind on Saturday.

The Silliest Freestyle Move of All Time? Who Cares...It's Fun!

Watch the video.

I know it looks stupid. But incredibly, it's a lot of fun!

I'd tried a few Gecko Flakas in an ABK Windsurfing instructional camp and decided that, despite my desire to learn new nonplaning tricks (not to mention how cool the Gecko Flaka looks), it just wasn't worth it (in other words, I wasn't getting close, so the heck with it!) Then the instructor Tom shouted out "try a Gecko Loop!" Chief instructor Andy Brandt got excited and demonstrated one. It had the dignity of a father trying to ride his kid's tricycle and falling off.

"You've got to be kidding" I said.
"No, you've got to try it, it's really fun!" replied Andy.

Immediately Jeff (who will try anything) started working on them. He hit his first after perhaps 90 seconds of effort, and he came up with a big grin, saying "that was great!"

Then he did another. And another.

I wasn't up for Jeff solving one of the mysteries of the universe while I hadn't, so I started working on the move, with Andy feeding me suggestions, hints, and general encouragement.

It took me five minutes to hit my first. That's about as fast as I've learned anything (I'm seven years into push tacks, and while they're dry, they still aren't pretty.)

"Pretty" and the Gecko Loop

As seen earlier in the video, this thing is not pretty. It is not radical. It is not extreme. It does not inspire awe. Zero style points are accumulated. You get the idea. Andy Brandt says throwing the Gecko Loop reminds him of the old line about riding mopeds, the one that says "it's fun to do, until somebody sees you."

Here's another look:

(Video by Jeff.)

Andy Brandt Says "Shove It"

Andy Brandt shows us how it's done, in Key West. This photo graced the cover of the Key West Citizen last Friday. In an exclusive interview with the Peconic Puffin during which the merits of Long Island winds vs Key West winds were debated, Andy wrapped it up with "I am sailing in lycra, and you are not."

Andy teaches the shove-it, and everything else from uphauling to double-backwinded leopard loops (reportedly clew-first!) at his ABK windsurfing instructional clinics.

(Photo courtesy The Key West Citizen)

Noel, and Center Island Beach

Pretty windy yesterday, yes indeed.

The conventional wisdom tells us that when the wind is NE, you can always sail one sail size smaller by heading to Napeague and Gardiners Bay. Yes, you can (and I usually do) but when the forecast is calling for 50 knot gusts, do I really want to look for more wind? My answer is nyet, but of course I have friends who say da.

Jon Ford, the Wolf, and Scott were at Gardiners Bay at sunrise...Jon reported sailing his 3.7 in mast high breaking waves, getting air so big that controlled crashes were the goal. And this was before the wind built. Scott was quoted as saying it was the most wind he's sailed in ever. So skipping Napeague was a good call for me, because Jon on a 3.7 means I would have needed a 3.0. My smallest sail is a 3.4.

Twenty-five odd miles west, Jeff, George Pav, Joe and others were sailing 3-point-whatever wings at East Landing. Jeff reported brutal shore break.

I was quite sanely much further west, checking out a spot I'd been hearing about all year. Center Island Beach, which everyone calls "CIB" (and that's how it's listed on the Long Island Windsurfing Map) was the call in the Yahoo Long Island Windsurfers Group, and I'd been wanting to check out some of the mid-island windsurfing spots (and windsurfers) that the Group is all about.

Arriving at CIB, I was greeted first by the site of at least twenty sails on the water. Nice! As I got closer I saw several people getting healthy air, and one guy throwing loops. Nicer! As soon as I walked out onto the beach for a closer look, a smiling fellow walked up to say hello. It was Ely, founder of the Yahoo group (and occasional wave-mate of Kevin Pritchard). We've been chatting online for a year, but had never actually met or sailed together. Nicer still!

People were rigging 4.7's in the parking lot, commenting about how up and down the wind was. I started with a 5.0 and a 93 liter board...I thought these conservative choices. On the water my sail was not overpowered...it was Abused. A 4.5 and 77 liters of happiness worked much better, and off I went for some CIB fun.

In 28-30 knots of Northeast CIB sailed like a nice little half-moon bay, with good starboard ramps outbound, enough rolling swell to make port tack entertaining (if you need additional entertainment in 30 knots) along with the occasional ramp. It seems to me that everybody on Long Island favors starboard jumping except me (which is why I love Meschutt and Ponquogue for their blessed port ramps). I must learn to jump starboard...currently I either wimp out and avoid the jumps, or go for it and fail. From a post-sesh parking lot conversation:

Rich: I saw you get a really big jump heading out.
Me: Did I land it?
Rich: No.

I remember that jump. It felt so promising on the way up...

4.5 is a great sail size for jumping. Pete said "you should have been here this morning, when it was really windy!" Pete was on a tiny glass waveboard that looked ideal for nuking conditions...for myself I was finding the gusts to be just about all I could handle.

What I almost didn't handle was my rig, crossing the street from the parking lot to the beach. Coming over the top of the parking lot stairs a gust nearly gave me some unwanted air (and might have thrown me back down those stairs.) Later I would learn that there's a perfectly good tunnel that goes underneath the road.

CIB was lots of fun, and just a one hour drive from downtown Manhattan. George said "we really should be at Hobart!" and if he says so I'll be happy to check it out, along with all the other fine spots between the New York City and Peconic paradise.

(Top: Napeague wind reading from iWindsurf.
Lower: iWindsurf reading from Bayville, close to CIB.)

Here Comes Noel

"Do you like hurricanes?" a woman asked me a few weeks ago, after she had determined that I was one of those crazy windsurfers. I was being asked to represent my species, not my personal opinion. I said:

"We like tropical storms. They're more than enough."

I thought that statement was reasonable and true, and that the woman would realize that windsurfers were practical and sane people who liked a lot of wind. But judging by the nervous laugh accompanying a shocked facial expression I received in response, I had actually convinced her that we are reckless crazies who live in disregard of the destruction and even death they can cause.

That is not true.

Storms and hurricanes happen whether we like them or not. We're going to sail them.

Here comes Noel.

The International Red Cross is already on the scene in the Dominican Republic. Here's a link to make donations and for more information.

(image and forecast courtesy NOAA.)