The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Mike Burns Freestyle Video

Starring/Produced/Directed by the defending King of the East, here is a taste of what Mike Burns will be bringing to the East Coast Windsurfing Festival next Saturday. I'm heading out to practice with Peconic Jeff right now!

East Coast Windsurfing Festival: We Got Yer Number (bring duct tape to put it on!)

The races, the freestyle, the fun and the folly are practically upon us (the East Coast Windsurfing Festival is June 6-7 at Hecksher Park) so if you haven't registered yet, go to information page and take care of business.

The organizers (Mike and Tom) will be assigning numbers on Saturday morning to all competitors that will need to be displayed on all sails (if you have a US Windsurfing or other established number you can use it as long as you include the country code.)   The fastest way to do this is duct tape, so please bring a roll!

(Number 47 used electrical tape at last year's event.  Photo by Bill Doutney)

Beautiful Windsurfing Wind Vane

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
(Photo taken in San Francisco by...and swiped from...The Horse's Mouth.)

The Wolf and CD’s Excellent Wave

It was a picture perfect day.   Warm and friendly waves 5-7 feet rolled invitingly under the sun at Ponquogue, the wind was fine (the Wolf on a 4.7, CD, Jimi Sobeck and I on 5.3's, and Jon Ford on a 5.8), and everyone was sailing well.   Even I was sailing well.   It was All Good.

But the session belongs to the Wolf and CD.  They caught a wave and worked it together with such perfect timing and joy that they were blissed out later just talking about it.   CD said it began when he lined up next to a shapely six-footer (wave), carved a sweet bottom turn just about perfectly, and then looked up to see the Wolf drop in.   CD snaps his cutback and shoots down the wave again, "and I see vanderWolf back above, grinning through my sail window" and now they're talking to each other as they work the wave together, weaving flawlessly.

It was just about perfect.   "Let's do it again!" the Wolf said to CD when the wave was done.

That's what I say about the entire day:  Let's do it again!

The Early Bird Gets the Wave

There was no wind in the forecast for early Saturday. Yet three people caught it at Ponquogue…how did this happen?

-Jon Ford checks the forecast at midnight.
-The Wolf wakes up at 5AM.
-CD runs his dog on the beach early.

Contrast this to me, who (when looking at a windless forecast) has another glass of wine, stays up late watching a movie, and wakes up at 8:30 to Jon Ford’s call “It’s blowing 4.5 for you here…you gotta get to Ponquogue!” After a solid hour of dragging my tail, making coffee, loading the van (unloaded so I could do some cleaning, because there was NO WIND IN THE FORECAST!) etc I finally arrive at Ponquogue, Jonathan has already left to open his shop, while CD and the Wolf are now getting 5 meter conditions, with waves 3-4 feet. The new forecast has the wind dieing in a few hours. In a rare moment of good decision-making, I rig my 6.2. I refuse to completely miss this day, the primo portion of which has already passed. Within 30 minutes I’m the only one on the water. An hour later it’s over on the ocean. But as always, it was worth it.

Rediscovering Mecox

Thursday’s session at Mecox was a warm bucket of water, poured gently over the head.

Just two years ago Mecox was my most-sailed launch.   Whether working on freestyle with Jeff, jibing with Sally, or just joining local friends for fun in moderate southerlies, the Yacht Club launch at Mecox was my default Place to Windsurf.

But 2009’s nuke-or-nothing SW windy season basically kept me off the water there, and mentally Mecox began to slide down the list in terms of desirability for southwesterlies, in favor of South Jamesport or New Suffolk.

Thursday popped me out of that mindset.  On a lark I drove over to take a look as the trees began to make noise.   Steady 16mph wind crossed the exceptionally flat bay (I’d forgotten how Mecox is flatter than Napeague) and in no time I was out having my own East Coast Carve Festival, cranking 360’s, backwind jibes, ducks etc.    After an hour of this Keith  (first met at last week’s Meschutt session) arrived with his dog Chowder and another animal that I’d describe as a cross between a dog and Secretariat.  A large creature.

The wind lightened but was still planeable, and more fun was had.  Imagine Bonaire two feet deeper and 20 degrees cooler (and without the little bar on the beach) and that was the day.

I will be back.

(Photo:  Ain't no yacht club at The Yacht Club...just a decrepit shack belonging to a Sunfish sailing club from yesteryear.)

Why is Windsport Magazine lurking around Long Island?

Readers may have noticed that we had one of the big cheeses in windsurfing editorial on Long Island last week.   In a post about a Napeague sesh we noted that the mighty Pete DeKay was on hand and on the water (along with some of LI's finest, as well and Andy Brandt's ABK instructor mob.)  Readers knowledgeable in things ABK may have surmised that Pete (a former ABK instructor) was lending a hand.   But he was not.

No indeed.  So what was the pride of Canada doing in our parts?  "Working on a feature for Windsport," said Windsport's editor. 

"About what," inquired the Peconic Puffin's editor?

"The coolest spot on the East Coast," Pete replied.
"The coldest spot on the East Coast," Andy Brandt chimed in, shivering between runs.
"The top spot for bikini-clad babes," added ABK instructor Brandon, surveying the collection of men wrapped to the gills in neoprene.
"Well it's pretty darn good," finished instructor Tom Lepak, who is always happy to sail.

Pete went on to explain that he's looking to highlight vibrant windsurfing communities, and Long Island's windsurfing scene is certainly alive and kicking.  In fact Mr. DeKay is hoping to return in two weeks for the East Coast Windsurfing Festival (June 6-7th at Hecksher Park).  We're hoping he comes!

(Wanna help get Pete here?   Windsport needs a place to stay for Pete and a photographer somewhere near Hecksher.  If you've got a place for them, leave a comment or email me directly (click on the link in the right hand column towards the bottom of the blog) and I'll connect everyone.)

What Hecksher's wind meters REALLY mean...

(In part one of his guide on reading the tea leaves of Joe's Beach at Heckscher, Mike Burns shared his experience and wisdom in forecasting when Heckscher will be windy. Here in part two Mike deciphers the iWindsurf wind meters and translates their readings into news you can use.)

There are 2 meters that are useful for reading the wind at Heckscher.  The Great South Bay meter and the Bluepoint Meter.  The location of the Great South Bay meter is about 15 miles west of Heckscher at Tanner Park.  The Bluepoint meter is very close but is blocked from the S and SW a bit, so I'll list the wind directions that we would sail Heckscher and what to expect the wind to be on the water based on the readings from the meters.

 
From S and SW:  The Great South Bay meter can be pretty accurate.  The only problem is that the wind mixes better when it's having trouble mixing to the west so sometimes the GSB meter is a little high.   For the most part it's very accurate for S and SW and is a very good indicator of the real wind on the water.  The Bluepoint meter is blocked a bit form the S and SW, so go by the gusts for the average wind reading.

Easterly readings from the Great South Bay meter are incredibly low.  You have to go by the gusts and then even add a few knots depending on wind strength.  The more wind, the more you need to add onto the gusts.  The Bluepoint meter seems to be much more accurate to read for an Easterly at Heckscher.  The launch is more exposed to the wind than where the meter is located so this meter might read a little low, but is a better indicator of the real wind than the Great South Bay Meter.

A westerly is what it is on the Great South Bay Meter.  The Bluepoint Meter hasn't been around long enough for me to really say how accurate it is from a due west reading.

Example of real wind and meter readings:

Meter Readings from SW:          Expected real on water SW wind:
GSB:   SW ave 18, gusts 22.       SW 18, gusts to 22
BP:     SW ave 18, gusts to 22      SW 22 with higher gusts.

Meter readings from the E:       Expected real on water E wind:
GSB: E ave 10, gusts to 17     18 to 20 with higher gusts
GSB: E ave 17, gusts to 25      about 30 with higher gusts
BP:  E ave 17, gusts to 25       about 19 with gusts to 25

Meter reading from W:             Expected real on water W wind:
GSB: W ave 20, gusts to 25     20 gusts to 25
BP:  meter is too new, not enough testing

If you missed part one (in which Mike tells you how to forecast the good days at Hecksher) here's a link.

(Image:  iWindsurf's map for Long Island waters, with the Hecksher meters pointed out.)

How To Forecast Joe's Beach at Hecksher

As the most popular and most consistent (in the summer) windsurfing location on Long Island (not to mention the venue for the East Coast Windsurfing Festival) Joe's Beach at Hecksher is a spot you ought to know.  Perhaps nobody is more familiar with Joe's Beach these days than Mike Burns, who in response to a request by editors at The Peconic Puffin wrote a two part feature on forecasting the winds of Hecksher, as well as on how to interpret iWindsurf's meters for the venue.   Here we present Part One:  Forecasting Hecksher for windsurfing, by the 2008 King of the East, Mike Burns:

Ah Heckscher and all the factors that attribute to those amazing thermals. If you bear with me, you'll very rarely get skunked going to Heckscher. Luckily we now have 2 meters that are pretty good for getting an idea of what's going on there.  Let's start off with how to forecast Heckscher.  I'm not talking about looking at Iwindsurf and waiting for them to say there will be wind, I'm talking about an accurate forecast for Heckscher. Iwindsurf is sketchy to get a good forecast from at Heckscher because depending on who is forecasting, they either realize the thermals kick butt and up the numbers accordingly or others are very conservative and miss the forecast by 10 mph consistently.   Matt Corey is the best forecaster for Heckscher.
For S and SW winds check NOAA's forecast.  If it's going to be a cloudy day, just go by the numbers they post.  If they say 10-15 SW and it's going to be cloudy it'll be 10 to 15.  If NOAA says 10 - 15 and it's going to be sunny, you're getting at least 20!  So if it's sunny, you can tack another 5-15 onto whatever the highest # NOAA is saying from extra thermals kicking in.  I've also seen it hit a steady 30 more than once from a 10 - 15 knot forecast from NOAA from pure thermals.  The only thing you have to watch out for is lifting. This will happen if there is too much of a temperature difference between the water and the air.  The dense cold air close to the cold water prevents the wind form mixing down.  This is what happened at the East Coast Windsurfing Festival last year when the air temps were in the mid 90's.  If it was 10 degrees cooler, we would have had 25 knots both days.

Another good direction for Heckscher is something from the East.  E, ESE, and ENE work very well.  If you have time, whatever the forecast says, an Easterly will almost always be sailable at Heckscher.  If they are forecasting good wind, you'll get good wind.  If they're not forecasting good wind, you'll most likely still get good wind sometime during the day so watch the meters or set up camp at the beach for the day.

Southeast.  An ugly word for Heckscher. When it's there it's great sailing, but in over 15 years sailing Heckscher I've only sailed 4 or 5 good SE days.  Even if the forecast is for 35 knots from the SE, it might not fil l in to the point where you can even sail.  It's definitely not worth taking a day off to sail Heckscher if the forecast is from the SE.  I don't know why it never fills in from this direction, but it's almost hopeless unless we're dealing with a passing hurricane.

Westerlies are good but usually gusty as with anywhere else when you sail a westerly.  Check the NOAA forecast for a pretty accurate prediction of a westerly at Heckscher. 

NE, N, and NW, and you're better off going somewhere else although you can sail NW and NE.  Just be prepared for a bit of a shlog back to the beach on the inside.

(In Part Two, Mike explains how to read the iWindsurf meters at Hecksher so you know what the sailing conditions are right now.  In the meantime if you need to find out where Hecksher or any of fifty other windsurfing spots on Long Island are, check out The Long Island Windsurfing Map.)

Bumpin' Sunday

The wind was up before dawn but supposed to die early, so I passed on the drive to Napeague in favor of nearer-by Meschutt. (Also I’m still fairly trashed from Thursday’s adventures in Vulcan attempts, and figured that if I showed my face at Napeague, Andy Brandt and his ABK mob would insist upon my continued abuse,)

So I went to Meschutt.   NW blowing mid twenties (me on 77 liters and a 5.3 lit,) classic M-spot rampage outbound plus the jibatorium by the jetty…what more can you ask for on short order?   CD, Scott, the Wolf, Joe Natalie, and Keith (with his dog Chowder) caught the jumping and jibing action while it lasted (Chowder only watched, despite my encouraging him to take my rig out for a spin.) . 

(Photo: Scott demonstrates his no-handed phone technique whilst advising a fellow windsurfer that he totally missed it.)

Three Pieces of Windsurfing Gear I've Owned More Than Ten Years

I love old gear.  This is one of the things that draws me to swap meets...I think of all the adventures each board and sail and fin screw has seen.    While I usually upgrade my gear once a piece is five years old or so, a few items have been with me for quite awhile, and it's been on my mind to honor them, so here it goes:

#3:   My reactor bar.   This bar came to me used in 1999, thrown in free with my first waist harness, so I don't really know how old it is.   That harness (and the one that replaced it) have since gone to the great sesh in the sky, but the reactor bar is none the worse for wear, except for some chipped paint.     Every few years I put the thing away and switch to a conventional hook, but I find I come back to the Reactor after a few weeks. 
 

#2   A 10.5” Ian Boyd fin.   Given to me in Cape Hatteras by Mark Skelton in 1996 for Learning to Fly (a F2 258 Axxis) my oldest fin now is the mainstay on Candy 77 (a 77 liter Fanatic Freewave.)   Mark has always provided sage fin advice, and the fin he gifted me may be bucking for immortality…it receives a lot of abuse but shows none of it.

#1  An EZ-Rig.   Note how 17 years of squeezing it has bent the metal!  This is the first new piece of windsurfing gear I ever purchased.   In 1992 I asked Jon Ford (who I think was just working at the shop that he now owns) which EZ rig I should buy.  “Get the all-metal one” he said, “it will last much longer.”     A friend suggested I tied a bit of bright line to the thing to make it easier to find.  I’ve lost it on the beach twice, but the line has helped me find it days later.

If I hadn’t switched to RDM masts a few years ago I’d probably be including a pair of Fiberspar Tidal Wave masts.   I’ve been fortunate with carbon masts…if you don’t abuse them (or pogo them in beach break) they’ll last a very long time.   New carbon masts are worth it, imho.  

I also own an early 1980’s Mistral Superlight, but that was over ten years old when I bought it.

(Images:  the Reactor bar in situ, the fin unsitu'ed, and my bent EZ rig, which I really should pry apart...I have to thread my downhaul line at times.)

Getting’ Trekkie at Napeague

Spocks.  Vulcans   Clew-first switchstance assaults on the Romulan empire.   That’s what the ABK crew (in town a day early in preparation for their clinic) were throwing.   I was just going to fool around with carving freestyle and leave the extraterrestrial stuff be, until George Marr said “C’MAAAAAAAHN!”

What was I gonna do?   So I got a quick refresher lecture from Radar Tom, mounted a 4 inch fin, and then joined George, ABK’s Tom, Andy Brandt, and Brandon (and later Jon Ford an another Tom) as well as Special Guest Star Pete Dekay (editor of Windsport) out on the water to twist and jump and spin…or tried to.  The 20+ knot blow at Napeague, and all the freestyle talent (plus Megastoke Marr) finally got me to make more than a few token Vulcan attempts.  I went for it about 30 times, and felt like a rag doll from the better attempts (which ended in undignified crashes.)   The poorer attempts were so pathetic that nothing happened at all.

They say it can take 500 attempts to land one…I doubt I’ll be that lucky   Hopefully I’ll live long (and prosper) enough to land one.

How Come Your Name Isn't On the Festival Website?

What’s up with that?    We got  Chachi, King Mike, Caesar, Terminator Pete, and the Marr’s (Superstar and Stoke).   We got Tiger and Peconic Jeff and Upwind Mike.   We’ve even got people without nicknames.  

But we ain’t got you.  

This makes absolutely no sense, as the East Coast Windsurfing Festival is so much fun that anyone who can tack should be in it for the races (and if you can do tricks, sign thee up also for freestyle.)   I stink at both and still managed to have fun in both last year, so you surely should be a part of this.

Click on this line to sign up.

Click on this line to see all the people who are already signed up.

Click on this line to sign up for the ABK clinic with Andy Brandt this Friday-Sunday if you’d like some extra skill polishing.


(Why isn't your name here?)

Want to Teach Windsurfing on Long Island? Get Certified!

Not certifiable, as several of my regular readers are (okay fine me for the third-rate cliche attempt at humor) but Certified!   Let's try again:

Want to spread the windsurfing love?  Become a US Sailing Certified Windsurfing Instructor.   The Oyster Bay Waterfront Center is hosting a Level I instructor course June 11-14th with trainer Ned Crossley.   Ned will also be giving the course June 18-21st at the American Yacht Club in Rye, New York.   For details check out:

http://www.ussailing.org/training/calendar/windsurfingcal.asp

More certified instructors should only help grow and promote our sport on Long Island, so you think you have what it takes, sign up.

Who WASN’T Tearing It Up at Sebonac?

I’ve never seen parking become an issue at Sebonac Inlet before, but yesterday’s turnout meant some people had a bit of a walk with their gear.

The place was packed.  A sunny Sunday session with a forecast that only got better for the three days leading up?  “Count me in!” was the battle cry, and the saying that we always get wind on Mother’s Day held up.  So what did we get?

It was consistently windy (I sailed 4.5 all day, always a bit overpowered.)

It was warm (put away your gloves until December, if you like sailing sans booties, now is the time.)

It was classic Sebonac rampalicious, with rolling wave action down by Cow’s Neck.    We had Curtis throwing loops, a guy on 80’s slalom gear getting worked (but still having fun) and the triumphant return of Peconic Jeff (who busted a boom in his Peconic glee.)   I’m not sure of everyone who caught it, as windsurfers were everywhere but on shore (Bill asked me for a Late Note when he saw me tuning my sail…an hour and a half into my session, and I didn’t get to say Hi to the Wolf until he was packing up to leave (though being the Wolf,  he then changed his mind, got back into his wetsuit, rerigged and went back out.)

Seen on the scene:

Bill
CD
CPU John
Curtis
Frank
Glen
Jan & Bruce
Jeff Slechta
John Hulse (on a kite)
Jon Ford
Peconic Jeff
Scott
The Wolf
another kiter,

And basically everyone who has appeared in this blog’s local sailing posts except for Fisherman, (who I hope caught his limit.)

(Bumper to bumper at the inlet.   Photo by Peconic Jeff.)