The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Waterspout at Hecksher!

I never get to see the cool stuff.

Just this last Sunday we had a warning that waterspouts might materialize whilst the east end crew were tearing it up at The Bowl.  Didn't see any, though.   Now we learn that yesterday at Hecksher a waterspout came through about one third of the way across the bay ("Awesome but it killed the wind!"  said John Sasson in the Yahoo LI Windsurfing Group.)    Mike Burns says "it was so sweet because we actually saw it form.  The water just started lifting in a spiral and did make it all the way up to the clouds from the front.  The back side of the front looked like the eye wall of a hurricane.  Really cool stuff."

ABK Windsurfing Clinics Come To Napeague This Week

Top five questions I hear regarding ABK windsurfing clinics:

Q1:  How good do I have to be to take the clinic?
A1: Ideally you've never windsurfed a day in your life, and so will learn the right way from the start.   Barring that, people who have tried windsurfing a few times and been frustrated are ideal.   After that, anyone from folks working on basic tacks and jibes, through people who want to loop are best suited.

Q2:  Wouldn't I be happier with a few private lessons? 
A2:  Private lessons are great!   But a group setting has three major advantages:   Watching other windsurfers try to learn the same stuff you're working on, you gain insight.   The struggle with  windsurfing's challenges are a lot more fun when shared, and you'll make new friends of similar ability with whom you can sail with and practice in the future.    Also, Andy Brandt and his team are probably the best windsurfing instructors in the country ("don't forget Bonaire" Andy says!)

Q3:  Wouldn't I be happier  spending the money on a new sail?
A3:  No.  (I learned this lesson the hard way, believe me...for years spending my money on better equipment rather than better skills.)  Ask any ABK graduate about the value for the money.

Q4:  What if there isn't enough wind...won't I be wasting my time and money?
A4:  No.  ABK has an enormous amount of technique to teach (both onshore on windsurfing simulators, as well as on the water) that requires almost no wind.   Whatever the weather is (barring tornados and hurricanes) there will be a full clinic's worth of stuff to learn.   Ask any ABK graduate about this.

Q5:  Will a harness make my butt look big?
A5:  No.  Your butt will look fantastic planing across Napeague Bay!

So pick your weekend and sign up now, joining Andy Brandt and company either for this coming Friday-Sunday as well as September 19-21 (which will feature a separate group for freestyle students.)  The editor will be skulking around...please don't throw things at him.

Hannah At Sunset: The Bowl Goes Off

We waited all day.    The forecast said Tropical Storm Hannah would arrive "later in the afternoon."   Windstarved and bitter, some of us began to fear that the wind would never come, or come after dark.    Then at 4:30, Jon Ford and the Wolf decided that while there was still no wind, by the time we got to The Bowl and rigged the storm should arrive.

It did, and we hit it hard!   Scott, Bill, Jimi, Eric, Bruce, Fisherman, Peconic Jeff, Jon, the Wolf and your editor were on the water fast and furious, getting our first wave day since who knows (May?) and working it for every second we could.   Pouring rain?  Who cares!

The early call was 5.8's and bigger boards, but as Hannah moved further in there was rerigging and reboarding (by the time it was too dark to sail 4.7 was way too much wing.)   The waves got as big as overhead, and the jump ramps were sweet and verticle.     

What stuck out to me (besides how utterly fantastic it felt to be windsurfing in primo conditions) was how everybody was on the water all the time.   With the exception of two moments (when the wind came up ten knots in ten seconds, and during a brief spell of blinding rain) we were all on the water at once.  Between the impending darkness and trying to make up for the windless summer there wasn't a second to waste.

All in all it was a great session that ended way too soon.  Let the fall windy season begin!

(Top photo:  Running with the waves at The Bowl.

 Bottom photo:  Fisherman, Scott, Bruce and The Wolf during a squall.  Photos by Peconic Jeff.)

What Lurked Offshore

While we were having our great time with Hannah, the National Weather Service put out this message:

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SPECIAL MARINE WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE UPTON NY
700 PM EDT SAT SEP 6 2008

* SPECIAL MARINE WARNING FOR...
WATERS FROM MONTAUK POINT NY TO SANDY HOOK NJ FROM 20 TO 40 NM...
SANDY HOOK NJ TO FIRE ISLAND INLET NY OUT 20 NM...
FIRE ISLAND INLET NY TO MORICHES INLET NY OUT 20 NM...

* UNTIL 730 PM EDT...

* AT 655 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
RAIN BANDS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING WATERSPOUTS 14 NM WEST OF BUOY
44025...MOVING NORTH AT 25 KT.

THUNDERSTORMS CAN PRODUCE SUDDEN WATERSPOUTS. WATERSPOUTS CAN EASILY
OVERTURN BOATS AND CREATE LOCALLY HAZARDOUS SEAS. SEEK SAFE HARBOR
IMMEDIATELY.

I'm glad we didn't get waterspouted.   It would have been cool to see one, though.

(Bulletin and post title courtesy Peconic Jeff.)

Are Those Whitecaps? Six Week Drought Ends One Day Early

Tomorrow begins (hopefully) the Weekend of Hannah.   All day today posts were going back and forth about tomorrow...I even ran into the Wolf at a deli (during which I was tutored on how much East we'd need in order to sail the ocean instead of the bays) with full focus on Saturday.   But then late in the day whitecaps were spotted on the Peconic.  I called Peconic Jeff, and the rush to South Jamesport was on.

It wasn't much (caught about an hour of 6.2 sailing...in the gusts) but if you have forgotten how good it feels to get into the footstraps and plane after a long time without, I am here to tell you it was magnificent.   I howled with joy.  I was laughing at myself for how stupidly happy I was just to sail in a straight line for half a minute.  Not a good session by usual standards, but to a man emerging from the desert, the first sip of water is exceptionally sweet.

I love windsurfing.  

A Windsurfers Prayer for Tropical Storm Hannah

Let us pray.

(The latest forecast is here.)

www.augustsucked.wind

August 2008:  Worst Windsurfing Weather in 16 years (that's as long as I've tracked it) on Long Island.   Number of planing days available to me in Peconica:  Zero.   Frickin' NONE.    While it's possible that there was an hour here or there where if I'd been in the right place in the right time I might have been able to hook in for a minute, this August was a complete bust.   My van is bone dry.   The Wolf never called to tell me to head to Sebonac or South Jamesport or Ponquogue or whereever.   Nothing.

"I need wind really baaaaaad."

     -Scott, commenting in the Peconic Puffin.

Me too, bro! Scott's biggest sail is a 5.8...I KNOW he didn't get out if I couldn't catch a ride on my 7.0 (we sail the same sized gear.)    August is usually a weak month for windsurfing, but we got out h dozen times last year, including some wave sailing at blessed Ponquogue.   There appears to be a real forecast for wind this coming weekend, but Peconic Jeff has reminded me that they lie...

Back to Back Backwinded Butt-through 360

Yeah, I said it.  The cool guys refer to it as the B2BBB3.  Even cooler guys (and ABK graduates) call it the Siamese.    That's Andy Brandt throwing the B2BBB3/Siamese...he'll be teaching this madness (and lots more freestyle windsurfing besides) during the second week of ABK clinics on Long Island out at Napeague September 19-21 ("regular" windsurfing instruction also goes on this week.) Or catch up with Andy and the funk mob the Friday-Sunday before for a windsurfing instruction extravaganza (WIEX). I know the missus and I will be checking it ALL out. (CiAo!)