The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

The Strangest Hookipa Windsurfing Video I've Ever Seen

What do you think? I think it's odd and compelling. Props to Will in the Yahoo Long Island Windsurfers Group for pointing it out.

Bruiser

There was an opportunity to windsurf this morning, but I had to pass.   My thigh was smashed mightily by my SUP board when I got rolled in a closeout (See "I'm Going to Have The Biggest Bruise") and in the 2.5 weeks since then the healing has been slow.   The launch call for today was Iron Pier, and if you're sailing Iron Pier in 25+mph winds, you're going to get at least six feet of air whether you want to or not (the good fun begins at ten feet) but I'm not in shape to land that right now.    I want to put another week of healing in before my next jumpfest!

(Photo:  The inside of my left thigh.   The right side is entirely red and brown, but doesn't contrast well when I take pictures of it.  The top of my thigh (where the board actually hit) is pristine.  Go figure.)

SUP Wavesailing Video, by Dasher

So many things I like are connected to this video:   First of all, it's a beautiful bit of wavesailing (love that) on SUP boards (want to do that) in a video by Dasher (He Who Taught Me To Jibe, and a maker of fine video to boot!)   The video is a bit of an impromptu promo for RRD boards, which are distributed in the U.S. by Tony Kardol (great guy I met at Vela Aruba when he ran the place)...RRD is sponsoring the mighty Andy Brandt and ABK Boardsports this year (They Who Taught Me Many Other Things), they make a board (Frank B owns one) that a few months ago I declared to be The Coolest Looking Windsurfing Board I'd Ever Seen, and you can get RRD windsurfing equipment (and stand up paddle gear) at Hampton Watersports (where else would I want to buy anything?)

If only my first SUP wavesailing session had gone as well.  Topic for a future blog post...

Kielt Air On the Cover of the Rolling Stone

Look at that fine photo!  That's Scott at last week's blown out session at South Jamesport, as photographed by Peconic Jeff.   So not only is Scott the latest in the crew to grab the front page of a newspaper (I was so lucky a few years ago, and the Wolf tells me others have scored as well) but there's the added bonus of Jeff shooting a front page photo.  The clan scored!

Some may question my comparison of the Riverhead Times Review to Rolling Stone.  They may have a point.

(Top:  A great photo of a fine jump.  Right:  Not as good a jump, but I'll take it!)

Winter 2009-2010 Windsurfing: Weak

Thank goodness for Spring, and good riddance to this particularl winter.  It was the weakest winter for windsurfing in memory (my memory, at least.)   I went back and checked my sailing logs for a three year comparison:

Winter ’07-’08:  20 sessions

Winter ’08-’09:  12 sessions

Winter ’09-’10:    6 sessions

What happened?  Sometimes we were frozen out (too cold to sail with temps below 30, and sometimes iced out of the bays) and other times there just wasn’t enough wind.   There were a few decent sessions (for which I am thankful) but overall it was disappointing.

Not enough good conditions…so what else is new for windsurfers?

Bring on the Spring!

(The flower is a snow crocus, which popped up in our yard a few days ago.  It's about the size of my thumb.   It heralds the coming of days without drysuits.)

Weekend Wahine

 
Weekend Wahine and unusual surfing photos are two of the trademarks of the eclectic waterblog The Horse's Mouth.   For years I've been availing myself of the wonderful photos and pithy captions delivered by Horse Joe...exclusively by Horse Joe, until now.    There's a new blog in town, Just Messin' Around, who on occasion brings the wahines, and as I type this, a surfing alpaca.   No Fish on Friday, though.

We have an abundance of riches.  

(Top: From Just Messin' Around. Bottom: Sometimes Horse Joe combines wahines and fish.)

The Wolf...the Movie

With apologies to everyone.

Thermonuker! Blown off the beach at South Jamesport

“It’s a bagful of crazy out there,” Christian said.   And that was when it was still possible to sail!  

The day had started auspiciously enough...I ran into Alec Baldwin at Starbucks early Saturday morning.  "I gotta go windsurfing...what the heck are YOU doing up so early?"   He didn't answer.  Then again, I didn't really ask, but I was thinking it.   Afterwards I called Peconic Jeff to verify the location.

For ENE winds we’d usually try the Bowl, but the sea was chaotic so a retreat to the bays was decided.   Sailing from South Jamesport Scott and the Wolf were on it early on 3.7’s.  Then Peconic Jeff, Christian and I showed up…like an idiot I rigged a 4.0.  Between being grossly overpowered (on shore the guys were rigging down to 3.3’s) and my bum leg you couldn’t even call what I was doing windsurfing…I just was blown out a few hundred yards before I sat down in the water, kicked the gear around and got blown back.

Dragged myself up onto the beach, got laughed at by Scott, rigged my 3.4, and actually got 30 good seconds in.  Comfortable, dialed in, yes we were going to have a great time!  

Then the big gusts started, punctuated by lulls.    For about an hour the drill was:

1.  Stand on the beach and bitch for five minutes
2.  Tweak gear and launch again.
3.   Blow jibe, come back, and wait for the conditions to settle down.
4.  Notice that every time you go out, you find yourself hankering for how it was ten minutes earlier.

By and by were found ourselves all standing on the beach together.  It was blowing 30, gusting to 40+.   The gusts were so strong that you could lean into the wind and have it hold you up.  Carrying gear was becoming dangerous.  Being us, we tried launching again.

Fortunately nobody was hurt.   Scott proclaimed that the day was no longer fun, and we very carefully got our gear off the beach.  

(Leaning into a nuclear gust.  Photo by Jeff.)

Spring Forward

As in "change your clocks already!"   Daylight Savings Time is upon us...we lose an hour of sleep so that we may catch afterwork sunset sessions.

(Scott points the way.  Photo by Peconic Jeff.)

Saturday...can you say "nuking"?

Thus speaks NOAA:

Sat

E winds 25 to 30 kt with gusts up to 40 kt.

Could mean the Bowl, could mean somewhere on the Peconic Bays.   What say ye, windpeople?

Why Kant Scott Wait?

Scott wants video from last week's SUP sessions.  Jeff has it, but it takes time to "wade through" three days of footage.  Me I'd just grab the first thing that looks good and throw it up here.

Scott is impatient.  ("HEEEEEYYYYYYYYY!" I can hear Scott say.)   I am too, but Jeff has learned he can get me off of his case by sending me a few stills.   So we must be patient.  In the meantime, here are two pics from Peconic Jeff:

(Top: Jon Ford goes right, Peconic Jeff goes left, and Scott goes wherever the hell he damn pleases. Listen for the chimp cackle! Bottom: Jeff and Scott discuss how long it will take Jeff to edit a video. Images pestered from Jeff.)

I'm Going to Have the Biggest Bruise

I learned an important lesson yesterday about riding waves.   I knew it before, but yesterday I had it tattooed on my leg:

Do not stay on an overhead wave that is about to close out on you, no matter how much fun you're having.

Here's how I learned:  On my third wave of the day I was shooting down the line (that's what it felt like...it's more likely I was modestly riding a nice right) 6-7 feet high, when I saw the closeout coming.   But I felt so good I thought "maybe it will all work out," and stayed with it instead of kicking out or diving off.

The board with me on it inverted and then crashed down, hard.  I rolled up into a ball with my arms around my helmeted head.  About two seconds into the wash cycle my board hit my left thigh hard.  There was a goodly amount of pain, and after I managed to get back to the outside I needed to sit on my board for five minutes until the pain mellowed.     For the rest of the day I excelled in kicking out, jumping off, changing direction and petitioning the gods to keep me from riding into a close out.

Driving home after the sesh I noticed the thigh throbbing.   When I got out of the van twenty minutes later, I could not walk.  Nearly 24 hours later and my thigh is still swollen and in pain.

Do not stay on an overhead wave that is about to close out on you, no matter how much fun you're having.

Jon Ford and Scott have advised me thus every time we've been out in the waves, windsurfing or SUPing.  I no longer need to be told.

I am in pain.

Cold Water in a Puffin's Ear, and Peconic Jeff Rules Road K

After my recent discovery of the wisdom and comfort provided by earplugs when being rolled in sub-40 degree surf, six weeks went by before my return to standup surfing.    I managed to forget to plug ‘em up before yesterday’s SUP sesh at Road K (6-7 feet with the occasional 8 footer).  This was particularly unfortunate because I spent a lot of time being tumbled in the impact zone, the water so cold that ice-cream headaches were frequent.

I didn’t have a good day…only one wave I truly was happy with, but even when I managed to peel out of it before it broke I still got thrashed  by the monster right behind me.   Who DID have a good day was Peconic Jeff.   He was tearing up plenty of big waves, and shooting video to boot (we’ll link to the footage ASAP) .   

Anyhow the extremely cold water in the ear was unpleasant (and I'm mindful of avoiding Surfer's Ear) so I will most definitely be back with the earplugs for the next SUP sesh.

(Thanks Tillerman for finding this photo.)

March is here/Countdown to Spring/LI blogs

If only it was a countdown.   And what’s the difference between winter and spring for a windsurfer in these parts, anyway?  It’s still drysuit or heavy wetsuit season until June.   There’s no ice sailing, it’s true, but the inner bay launches should not be iced over (hello Mecox, hello Meschutt!)    The best thing I can see (and can see it already) about the end of winter is that the sun is out longer.   Catch a little après-work shred, if you’re in the right spot.

Let’s take a quick tour of the other Long Island windsurfing blogs:

Mike Burns recently got back from Bonaire, and is now in the midst of switching from his beloved Mistral Jokers to new JP Freestyle boards.  

Frank bemoans the lack of windsurfers at hearings to keep Heckscher Park open and available to windsurfers.   As it is, New York State Parks on Long Island officially have a no-windsurfing policy, he says.  Out east this doesn't affect us, but Heckscher is the most popular single windsurfing destination on Long Island, and keeping that park open (and available to windsurfers) is important.  Check out Frank's reports.

Dennis is excited about the approach of Spring, and looks forward to (in addition to improving his jibes and top end speed) finally taking my old Naish 8’5” out for a spin.   Boy will that be a learning experience for him (not to mention enormous fun!)

Tony hasn’t posted on his blog since December. 

Peconic Jeff continues to experiment with his GoPro camera…he has a new video from our last session at Sebonac Inlet.

I know I’m missing a windy Monday…hopefully one or more of these guys got some!