The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Found: My Beloved Downhaul Cleat

Oh Happy Day!

For a year and a half I've been downhauling with a backup tool...a cleat screwed to a bit of broom handle...drill a hole for your line and there you go...but I've been beating myself up for losing my beloved downhaul  cleat (can you tell I've not been getting any water time?)   The downhaul cleat I bought in 1992, the very first piece of windsurfing equipment that I bought new.   That after 18 years of faithful service I'd somehow left at Napeague.

I was digging around behid the panel of the back door of the van a few days ago when I spotted the orange line peeking out.  Oh Happy Day!

(Photo:  Check out how the metal sides of the cleat are bent in from decades of being squeezed by hand.  When I first bought it I was advised to tie a bright line to it "to make it easier to find".  That line ultimately did its job!)

Robby Naish's Incredibly Long Wave Ride

While I nurse my arm and dream about catching a sesh locally, Robby is doing...what else...the amazing.  At least it's Robby!

Freestyle Photos Courtesy Peconic Jeff

Mike Burns throws a shuv it for Peconic Jeff at Heckscher last week.   That's Jeff's story, at least.  I think Jeff popped up out of nowhere and this is Mike's evasive maneuver to avoid dinging that beautiful board!  If I'm right (and I rarely am) Jeff Schultz was getting in the way a lot that day, as his collection of outstanding closeup windsurfing photography will attest.  Check out his blog post for more.

Hell Is An Injury On A Warm Windy Sunday Afternoon

The right bicep has been bothering me for weeks, but there's been little or no wind, so why worry?  Why save myself?

Stupid stupid stupid.

It's been me with wheelbarrows full of gravel, carrying dozens of bags of topsoil, doing my lumberjack imitation removing dead branches from trees.

Stupid stupid stupid.

So of course the burning pain became constant on Saturday, and Sunday came the wind (along with torturous emails from Peconic Jeff proposing any number of great places to shred.)

Windsurfing on a warm Sunday summer afternoon:  priceless.

Missing it over gravel?  Quelle horreur!

If you've got tips for mending a biceps strain (besides rest), please send 'em!

Dawn Patrol on the 6.2 Haiku

Early sesh alone,

Starboard ramps and warm water,

Much better now for work.

The Sale of A Trusty Board

I sold The Millenium Puffin yesterday.   She's a Bic Techno 283, purchased in 2000 on the advice of Andy Brandt.  I've raced it, free rode it, freestyled both planing and not on it everywhere from the Cape Cod-Cape Hatteras corridor to Arkansas.   Just a few weeks ago it helped me win Third Place in the East Coast Windsurfing Festival races.  And for years it's been a brilliant board for nonplaning freestyle in Davis Creek.   I never planned to sell TMP.  How could I?

About a week ago a guy named Jack asked for help putting together a full used equipment package for himself, and a Techno was perfect. Still, I wasn't selling mine.  So I went to my neighbor Remy (contributing photographer to the Peconic Puffin and more recently The Southampton Press)...she's been talking about trading in her Techno for a SUP board.  Unfortunately SUP boards cost 2X+ what she could expect for her Techno, so she passed.   Then I had the brainstorm:  Sell my board, borrow Remy's for races!  

So I did (sell the board.)  Haven't asked Remy about racing yet, but there's plenty of time to lend her my SUP board in the interim.

Meanwhile, "The Millenium Puffin"?  I learned to windsurf with a crowd that named their boards.  Still in the van: Candy 77 and Calamity Too.   The freestyle wave board belongs to my wife, who has yet to name it.  The old Superlight (now the longest owned board in the fleet) is Mister Al.

(Photo:  The Millenium Puffin in action racing at West Neck, 2009.)

 

Grabbing Every Whitecap

4:45 PM.  The phone rings.  I answer, and hear a wind-starved lunatic:

“Do you see tree branches moving” Peconic Jeff asks?  “I’m gonna rig.”

I am also a wind-starved lunatic.  “I’m working until 5.  Are there whitecaps?”  I mentally map out the shortest path to water I can think of.  I could rig the 6.2!

“I see one, yes!” 

“Then I’m going to sail too!”

And we did...Jeff at Red Cedar by himself, me at Towd Point along with a kiteboarder.  Just for an hour before the wind died.   The Little Peconic Bay was so warm and friendly that I went for inappropriate moves just for the pleasure of falling.   Yes it only lasted an hour, but it tasted so good.   A meal to a starving man.

Cooper Beach Cam Now Streams Video (Check out da waves...)

The new Cooper Beach Cam is much more useful than the old periodic snapshot model.   Now if there was only some swell to admire!   Peconic Jeff points out that because it's a Flash application you can't watch on an iPhone (darn) but at least from home we can take advantage.

Check it out.