The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

The East Coast Windsurfing Festival Is A Win

As a storm approached from the south with thunder and lightning crackling, the organizers of the East Coast Windsurfing Festival tried to round everybody up to announce the winners and present trophies.    But everybody already knew the big news, which was that Long Island could have a successful windsurfing festival.    With 45 people racing and 20 competing in freestyle (with many people participating in both) and a healthy crowd of supporting fans and onlookers, the "totally unofficial" event was a hit.   Even with the unseasonably light winds (what happened to the thermals?) there was never a break in the windsurfing action, and everybody had fun on the water and made new friends on the beach.

A full list of all the winners and the complete standings from the first East Coast Windsurfing Festival is coming soon (along with stories and more photos.)   For now, here are the top finishers of the event:

Freestyle Pro
1.  Mike Burns (The King of the East!)
2.  John Sasson
3.  Larry Hoff

Freestyle Sport
1.  Kurt Veith
2.  Michael Alex
3.  George Pav

Freestyle Youth
1.  Alex Hering
2.  Xavier Campos
3.  George Marr III
4.  Katie Pav
5.  Douglas Marr

Racing Unlimited  
1.  Pete Roesch
2.  Bart Kornas
3.  Michael Alex

Women's Racing
1.    Jill Marr

Women's Freestyle
1.    Jill Marr (you gotta think Jill's pretty pleased with herself!)

Youth Racing
1.  Alex  Hering
2.  Xavier Campos

Rocket Award (Speed)
Bart Kornas

(Photos by Bill Doutney)

East Coast Windsurfing Festival Day One: Light Winds, Lots of Action

Though the winds were light we had plenty of racing and freestyle competitions.   I don't have time to give any more detail...must resuscitate my old longboard so I don't get creamed by Pete and his UltraMegaSupercat again!

(Photos:  Once the racers had left the beach, conditions were ideal for beginner lessons.   But not during the freestyle competitions, which were just a few feet from the beach!   Photos by Bill Doutney.)

See You Tomorrow At Hecksher!

The East Coast Windsurfing Festival is upon us. We're going to have fun!

(Hecksher is fun. Bill Doutney photo.)

Everybody Should Try The Speed Check On Saturday

It doesn't matter who you are...you want to know how fast you're sailing when it feels really fast.   So come get your fast on at the East Coast Windsurfing Festival on Saturday!  The organizers are happy to announce that they'll have GPS's to share (courtesy of Ocean Air in Hatteras) so everyone who wants to can join the speed contest.   Mike Burns reports:

How do we get these things to get a higher number on them?  First off, move those footstraps out and back.  The less board in the water, the faster your going to go.  Second, head off the wind!!!  You go way faster going downwind than straight out and back.  Third, carry as big a sail that you can control.  Control is the key.  If you're barely holding down your 7.0 and starting to tailwalk, your going to get smoked by someone with a 6.0 that's in control.  Also try and pick a path through the chop with as little bumps as possible.  Sailing smooth is sailing fast.  We have tons of people signed up for the GPS speed competition, so your time will be limited.  Get your gear tweaked before you pick up the GPS to make sure you get your best runs on the GPS.

The East Coast Windsurfing Festival Festival takes place Jun 7-8 at Hecksher State Park...skippers meetings for racing and freestyle start at 10AM.  How about directions?  Here is a link to directions from the Long Island Expressway.   The parking lot is Field #7.

Here's What To Bring To The Windsurfing Festival

The East Coast Windsurfing Festival starts Saturday at Hecksher (10AM skippers meeting.)   Please remember that this is a totally unofficial festival, so if you ask the lady who takes your six bucks for parking where the event is, she'll look at you like you're from Mars (yeah, so if you're from Mars and are gonna get the look anyway, might as well ask to see what planet she pegs you for.)  

Ladies, gentlemen, puffins and martians...here's what to bring:

Food and drink.
$6 for parking.

Weed fin.

Chair.

Suntan lotion.

All your gear.

3/2 wetsuit.

Camera.

Your friend who windsurfs but doesn't think he/she is good enough to sail in a festival.
Your friend who doesn't windsurf but would want to if they saw a bunch of people on the water.

Hope to see you Saturday!

Notes For Racers And Freestylers For The East Coast Windsurfing Festival

The East Coast Windsurfing Festival starts on Saturday at Hecksher!   Here are some details from the organizers:

If you're competing in either the racing or freestyle, you need to show up at Heckscher at 10am on Saturday June 7th to sign in.  Skippers meeting will be at 11:00.  This way we can set up the freestyle heats and get the racing groups together.  The plan is to start competition at High Noon on Saturday and continue until about 6 PM  then repeat the process on Sunday.  We will alternate between racing heats and freestyle heats.   Sunday afternoon will be the freestyle finals and the races will end.  Trophies will be presented on Sunday evening at the end of competition.  We're looking to hold the Pro Men's freestyle in high wind, so the timing on the pro men's freestyle is subject to change with the forecast. 

 So what's it take to win a freestyle competition?  Other than landing the biggest tricks of course.  Well first off the judges will be looking for a variety of tricks, so instead of doing the same trick over and over, try and mix it up.  Second, it's a lot easier for the judges to spot you close to the beach.  You won't score any higher by doing the trick close to the beach, but you'll be sure to get noticed.  Watch the start flags to know when the heat starts.  You can get that extra move in that makes the difference if you time it right.  Third, start off with the tricks you know. Get those under your belt before going huge on something you probably won't land anyway.  Keep in mind that you will earn some points by going big even though you might not land it.  Go for that first forward, vulcan, whatever.  The last secret is to do really short runs out and back. If you do half the length of your normal run, you end up doing twice as many tricks. 

More details on the East Coast Windsurfing Festival can be found here.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Leaving Wind To Find WInd...We Get Away With It Saturday

Peconic Jeff and I were sitting in our respective vehicles at South Jamesport.   Staring at whitecaps, I was contemplating the pouring rain (like that was going to stop us) while Jeff was checking for lightning reports.  Meanwhile the Wolf et. al were headed to New Suffolk.    Just as Jeff determined that electrocution was not in our immediate future, word came from the crew that New Suffolk was windy too.   I called Jeff to discuss.   He pointed out that we'd be "testing the adage" of leaving wind to find wind.

Of course there's nothing like an onsite report.

So we went, and joined John Hulse, Scott, the Wolf, Bill Barbour, and Stefan on the water) for some excellent 5.2-4.7 sailing on SSW, playing in the  mogul field for awhile, then switching to the peerless jibatorium behind the sand bar (playing Scott's "broad reach or die" game hugging the bar at the end of the port run.)   Every once in awhile the wind would die and we'd head to the beach...then it would kick back again.    One such drop cleared all but one of us from the beach and succeeded in getting Bill, Van Der Wolf, Hulse and I to derig, when Jeff came up, saying "what are you, CRAZY?  It's great out there?

Just then Jon Ford and Eric arrived and started rigging, and Scott headed back out with Jeff.   I was reasonably toasty and so called it a day.