The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Safety, and an otherwise fine session at The Bowl

None of us had windsurfed in waves since December.   Sweet long lefts were breaking 4-6 feet at the Bowl (with the occasional meaty seven-footer rolling through to really catch your attention) in side off winds.   The Wolf was out first, and he was back first, as he’d hit the water with his drysuit less than fully zipped.

This is hugely uncool.

Allow me to be alarmist for a moment (John is, was, and always will be fine, but please indulge me):    We’re sailing in water cold enough to induce hypothermia and kill anyone.   The drysuits change it into a playground, but only if they’re working.   Imagine launching with an unknowingly unzipped drysuit…you have a good run out, jibe off swell a few hundred yards out, and catch your first wave.   You don’t fall, remain unaware of your unzipped state, jibe on the inside and now head way to the outside where you see some big beautiful waves setting up.   Jibing a quarter mile out you fall, and take on three gallons of ice-cold water.   Realizing that you never zipped up (as you shout, crosseyed in discomfort) you set up to waterstart as fast as you can.  But the wind is a bit light, so you can’t get any power in the sail at all when you’re in a trough, and as some swell brings you back up into the wind, twenty extra pounds of water in your drysuit prevents you from getting back up on the board. The cycle repeats.

After a minute of this you are in trouble.  Maybe it’s three minutes before one of your friends (on shore, taking a break during the lull) comes out to check on you.    Now you are unable to sail, and your friend has to figure out how to get you on your board and somehow drag your icy ass back to shore before your heart stops beating.  (Hey while we’re having so much fun reading this post, hop on over here and read a bunch of stories about hypothermia deaths in cold water.)

Okay, you say, will you please relax?  Who hasn’t launched with an unzipped drysuit, Mr. Editor of the Peconic Puffin?  Haven’t you?

Of course I have.  We all have.    And like most all of us most of the time all I ended up with was a cold back and a quick scare.   But sailing in the ocean things can get complicated.   And at the Bowl yesterday with the currents swirling near the jetty, the winds up and down and forecasted to turn increasingly offshore, the Wolf’s little episode put safety front and center in our minds.

So to the great disappointment of the two seals hanging out on the inside and rating our jibes, we called it a day after a few hours.   “I’ve sailed the Bowl for twenty years…I know when to quit,” said the Wolf.    And we all resolved to double check our drysuit zippers in the future.

Freezing Freestyle, Oksana Bauil

It looked windy at Sebonac Inlet on Sunday, but when we launched on 5.2’s and big boards, not much happened.   At first it was Scott and I shlogging ¾ time and planing the rest, then Jeff and the Wolf joined us, and there may have been a few good minutes scattered amongst the lulls.   Any time Peconic Jeff and I are on big boards when the wind dies you can pretty much count on us starting up with some freestyle tricks, but in sub-40 degree water temperatures there is cause for pause:  Freestyle works best with a devil-may-care attitude…when the water is so cold that said devil’s snowballs will stay frozen in hell the tendency is to hold back a bit.   Still, the season’s firsts helitacks, fin-first sailing, upwind 360s, push tacks, ducks etc were seen.   And if they were shaky, blame it on the 7mm boots and heavy gloves (and lack of winter practice.)

While talking about winter styling, I’d like to say a word about the winter Olympics.  They’ve been tremendous fun to watch, particularly the downhill ski races and Shawn White’s megadomination of the snowboarding events.   But you may be surprised (or may not, or may not even care) that I’m a big fan of women’s Olympic figure skating. 
My all-time favorite skater is Oksana Bauil, who back in 1994 when everybody thought the big battle was going to be between Nancy Kerrigan and Tanya Harding, came out and just blew away the competition athletically and artistically.    It was the best thing I’d ever seen in skating, and nobody has touched those performances since.

Anyhow ten years later I was talking with a Russian friend at work…somehow the Winter Olympics came up…somehow I mentioned how spectacular I thought Oksana B had been a decade earlier, when my friend said “really?  You’re a fan?  I’m friends with Oksana Bauil…I’ll bring her in to say Hi!”

“Okay” I said.  What do you say to that?

About a week later there’s a knock on my office door, and in comes Oksana.    I raved about her uncontested genius, but as I was apparently the ten-millionth person to say it all to her, she had to work to get a decent smile going.   But she did.

I own three autographed photos.  One of Robby, one of James Brown, and this one of Oksana Bauil.

The Ice is Gone but the Wind Remains at Sebonac

Another sweet day at Sebonac Inlet.   Remarkably steady winds for the most part (sail sizes began at 4.7-5.2, building to 4.2-4.5 by days end) with the sun warming up our drysuits, decent ramps at the sand bar, and the special beauty of Sebonac under full sun.   It was one of those magical sessions where you get caught up in the wonder of the sport...the Wolf was waxing poetic about the light on the water, how every second is a new decision/new navigation/trim the sail/the board/jump/breathe and just love life etc (I was right there with him.)

 T’was Scott, Jeff, Mr. vanderWolf and I (Jon Ford stopped by to watch…he’s still nursing a dinged wrist) with no snow on the beach or ice in the water to fret about.   The water was see oh el dee cold, though…my booties need replacing…I could stand in the water for about seven seconds before the icewater started to trickle in.   I’m liking my new gloves a lot, though…from Mystic Boarding (I’m not linking to their website because it’s slow as molasses) Jon is carrying them at Hampton Watersports (formerly Windsurfing Hamptons).  The wrist seal is very, very good without being overly tight or constricting.   I had zero leakage yesterday even after some quality falls.

Now I’m hoping for more wind on Sunday.  Bring it!

(Top:  Heading for the sandbar, where there be ramps.  Left:  The editor contemplates exactly where he's going to place his board.   Three feet from the beach the inlet is dredged to overhead depths, and as many of us have learned from experience, dropping into the inlet while the current is flowing will rapidly land you in either Bullhead Bay in flood tide, or fifty feet out into the Peconic during the ebb.  Photos by Peconic Jeff.)

Navigating by Shell and Stick (Random nautical geek item)

That is a navigational chart of the Marshall Islands, showing "directions & interactions of the ocean swells as they pass through."   For real.    I learned this from Bonnie Queen of the Kayak Bloggers, who has a post about the chart and links to all sorts of info about these "paperless charts".  Bonnie wrote:

I think it's safe to say that almost anyone that grew up in (or has even just spent some time in) the Pacific Triangle has seen one of these.

I grew up in Queens, New York, and most assuredly have never even imagined such a thing, much less seen one.   More info at Frogma.

Windsurfing Fashion from Life Magazine, 1981

I was digging through some boxes of old magazines that I've saved over the years, when I found the February 1981 issue of Life.   I'd saved it for its John Lennon photo essay (this was two months after Lennon had been murdered.   As it was ten years before I'd first try to uphaul, it's an amazing coincidence that the cover image was from a photo essay “Ideally Suited:  Sexy Stripes for Riding the Wind” featuring Rhonda Smith, Kelby Anno, Marina Polgar and Lisa Neuburger  sailing original Windsurfers.  Back in the day Life Magazine was quite the oversized publication (and a spectacular showcase for photo essays) so there wasn't a chance I could scan any of these images.  Instead I hope you will endure my iPhone snapshots as I try to present the outstanding photography of Co Rentmeester.

Ridiculously Huge Whitewater at Mavericks

What is it about Mavericks that makes it so especially intimidating?   When I see photos of Jaws going off I think "wow!"   When I see photos of Mavericks my stomach tightens and I think "that doesn't seem like a very good idea."

Full props to the surfers of Mavericks.   More photos like this are on the San Francisco Chronicle.   The amazing shot above is by Adam Lau.

Slashing Slush at Sebonac Inlet

I’m back, baby.   Seven weeks and one day after my last windsurfing session and over three weeks since SUPsurfing, I had my triumphant return.   Me on a 5.3, the Wolf (who else) fully powered on a 4.7.   It felt so good to get back out there…hook in, feet in the straps, lean back, close the gap and take off like a shot into the blue waters at Sebonac Inlet.

Blue and white, yesterday, actually.    We arrived in the middle of  the ebb tide, while Bullhead Bay (the water to which Sebonac Inlet leads) discharged its frozen and snowy slabs.   The section of the Peconic that’s usually extra choppy right outside the inlet was instead a slush and ice field…you had to slow down and weave a path outbound to avoid hitting the larger pieces of ice, while sailing through the pure slush sections sounded like you were playing with a straw in a frozen margarita.   On the outside the water was mostly clean with moderate ramps, though we still had to (as the Wolf described it) do some “ice slashing” to avoid getting launched by a berg.

Air and water temps were both 36, though I’ve got to think the water was darn near 33 in the slush.  Still, sailing in the full sun we were quite warm.

(Above, the Wolf points upwind to avoid the inlet's icy outflow.   Below is a little vid of the frozen offerings.)

Top Ten Reasons For Women To Date A Windsurfer (Valentines Day encore post)

Ladies, are you still searching for that special someone?   Consider looking amongst the windsurfers:

10. The ratio of men to women is 4 to 1.
  9.  They can talk about something besides football.
  8.  They don’t smell too bad because it’s a good bet they’ve gotten wet recently.
  7.  They have another interest besides sex.
  6.  You know they’re rich enough to afford windsurfing equipment.
  5.  You always get the latest weather report, several times a day.
  4.  They are capable of commitment, at least to their sport.
  3.  They have no issues about wearing rubber.
  2.  You always know where they are, at least when it’s windy.
  1.  Windsurfers are generally fit, tanned, and have cute butts.

Non-windsurfing men should NOT...repeat NOT...pursue windsurfing women, unless they are prepared to immediately throw themselves into the sport.  Otherwise such men will be surrounded by angry windsurfing men who all seek the great and rare prize:  the girlfriend or wife who windsurfs.    To squander such a find on a landlubber is an offense to those of us who sheet in!  

(There is the opinion held by a small minority that it is a drag to be a man whose significant other windsurfs...you probably have to rig for them, they use your equipment etc. but generally speaking the willingness of such wahines to make every vacation a windsurfing vacation, to understand why the garage needs to be packed with tons of expensive wet gear etc. outweighs the rigging/sharing concerns.  Discussion of such matters is encouraged.)

(Since running this feature last year, the Romance department at Peconic Puffin HQ has received a number of additional reasons to consider :

11.   Ladies, if your man isn't home during the day, you'll know where to find him.

12. He'll be on the water so often won't have time for anybody else besides you.

(#'s 11 and 12 submitted by Ian of www.hudsonwindsurfer.blogspot.com)

Monofilm is the Worst

Proper Course, the blog of a Laser sailboat sailor whose nom de splash is Tillerman does occasionally invite other bloggers to write on a specified topic.   He’s doing this now, with the topic being “Worst Sailing Innovation Ever”.   I had been thinking it wasn’t a good topic for me, as “worst” doesn’t really come to mind when I think of windsurfing innovations.  Yeah there have been some short lived and/or goofy developments (flappers, football fins) but nothing really bad.

Then it hit me.  Monofilm.  Monofilm sucks.  A brand new monofilm sail can not be removed from its bag, rigged, sailed once, derigged, and put back in its bag without being visibly dinged.   And that’s if you handle it perfectly.   Of course you don't even have to touch the thing for it to degrade.   There are monofilm sails sold with instructions that actually say “keep out of sunlight” which should be followed by “do not rig” and perhaps “do not buy”.     Yeah I know monofilm sails are light and sail well, but they are an exercise in “accelerated decrepitude” (as Darryl Hannah’s character says in Bladerunner.)

Just gimme X-ply or Cuban fiber or grid or just about anything else.

(See all those stickers on my sail?  I'm not sponsored by anyone...those are all patching rips and tears and creases and dings, holding my monofilm 7.0 together. )

About that fatal shark attack

I’ve spoken to quite a few windsurfers since the terrible news about Stephen Schafer, the kite surfer in Florida.   There’s probably nobody who’s ever sailed the ocean who hasn’t had The Fear at one time or another when a waterstart wasn’t coming together.   We all hear about the overwhelming odds against being attacked by a shark, though we also know those odds don’t take into consideration all the things we waterpeople do to drop our silly asses in front of sharks.     Locally on Long Island you rarely hear about a shark siting (my one experience at the Bowl last June notwithstanding.)   But still, we know we’re taking a variety of risks out there, and this is a ringing reminder that sharks are on the list, however remote the odds.    According to news reports, the kiter Schafer was known to believe in the buddy system…friends were puzzled to learn that he’d been out alone.

This merits particular attention given one amazingly positive note about the incident: A local lifeguard named Daniel Lund spotted Schafer floating in the water 400 yards off shore.   Lund paddled out with a rescue board, saw that Schafer (still alive) was surrounded by circling sharks, and went in to get him anyway.

What commitment.  What balls.   Let’s hear it for Lifeguard Daniel Lund.

Beyond Lund’s heroism, it’s worth noting he was able to approach a badly bleeding person in the water, drag him onto a board, and paddle out of there, even with sharks all over the place.    This is all the more reason to value the buddy system:  if one of us somehow manages against the odds to get hit by a shark, the rest of us have every reason to believe we can get in there and get our friend out without becoming victims ourselves.

That's my .02

R.I.P. Stephen Schafer.

(If you're not familiar with the blog of windsurfer/kiter/marine biologist James, this happened in his local waters, and you may want to check out the several posts he did on the incident.)

A Mast Full of Beer

This is what we came up with one summer night after a day of windsurfing:  Pour several bottles of beer into old fiberglass one-piece masts, then carefully tip the mast to pour the beer into your mouth.  Repeat.

Beginners should hose the mast out first before adding beer until you develop a tolerance for the sandy clumps stuck deep down the spar.    After you've done this a few times you'll find the sand doesn't matter.

Raise gently.

Someone who  knows wave theory may care to expound on why (no matter how slowly you tilt the mast) the moment comes when a breaking wave explodes out of the base and into your face.   The discerning mast drinker will hear the telltale rush of oncoming foam, close his or her eyes, and open wide.

In my opinion this beats board tossing any day.  Try on windless days, too.   We did this two at a time, the idea being...well I don't remember what the idea was (shocking) but it seems like a self-evidently worthwhile thing to do.

(Photos from the original Puffin House, circa 1993.  That's Jay with the face full of foam while the editor looks on approvingly)

Groundhogma

All sorts of press are hassling a groundhog named Phil today.  Word is if sees his shadow when he emerges from his burrow today (February 2nd) there will be six more weeks of winter weather.   If he doesn’t it portends an early spring.

As I’d imagine that groundhogs don’t have particularly keen eyesight, it seems a question of a sunny day.

Hey I just want to go windsurfing…can we get some sun on Phil?

Perhaps I should call my windsurfing buddy Phil and ask him if he saw HIS shadow this morning (he lives in Florida…that could work out.)  I can just imagine the conversation: 

“My shadow?  What the **** are you talking about?  I wasn’t looking for my shadow, I was looking for my car keys.  Didn’t see those either…Jen found them.”

So Phil didn’t see his shadow, but he wasn’t looking for it either.

A Winter Windsurfing Prayer