The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Joe's Beach

"Heckscher State Park, field seven" never rolled off the tongue particularly well.   Now it has a much better name:  Joe's Beach.   Ask any of Joe Rocco's friends and they'll tell you how to get there.  Or look it up on the Long Island Windsurfing Map.   I've sailed at Joe's Beach about fifteen times, and Joe was there every time, so the name sure works for me.

From his love Marianne:  "The memorial service will be at 10:00 a. m. this Saturday at Joe's Beach, formerly known as Heckscher State Park, field 7. If there is any chance of wind, please bring your gear and sail in his memory afterwards. Please bring lawn or other chairs for your comfort. Let's send Joe off in the way he would have wanted. Be prepared with your stories and memories and share with us."

What Happened To Joe Rocco?

Joe Rocco, "the Mayor of Heckscher" died windsurfing Hurricane Irene on Sunday.  To meet Joe once was to have a great new windsurfing friend, generous with information, stoke, spirit, you name it.  The new article in Newsday begins "Joseph Rocco, the only Long Islander to die as a result of Tropical Storm Irene, was a friend and mentor to many in the local windsurfing scene, said those who knew him."  And he could sail!  So what happened?   In the Yahoo Long Island Windsurfing bulletin board, his very dear girlfriend Marianne tells this story: 

They drove to Shirley and found one windsurfer already there (James), sailing a 4.1 on a 78 liter board.   They took wind readings of 20-28 mph.  Joe rigged a 3.7 for his Dill, and Marianne rigged a 3.2.   Joe launched to take a few runs “to see if it was too much for me to handle.”  Marianne took another wind reading, and got 45-50.   James came back in as the winds were now too much for him, and Marianne decided not to launch.

Visibility was limited.   A nearby spectator with a telephoto lens on his camera said it looked like Joe was separated from his rig and was following it to shore.   Marianne and James tried walking along the shore to meet Joe where they thought he’d come in, but the beach was mostly gone or covered with debris so they walked down the road.  The police and EMT’s showed up, went out with James to look for Joe, and told Marianne to meet them at Brookhaven Hospital.

Neither the EMT’s nor the hospital was able to resuscitate him.  Marianne said Joe’s head “was very badly banged up, nose probably broken, bruising around his entire upper face.  Something had obviously hit his head very badly and he hopefully didn’t even know what hit him. “

Joe was a skilled windsurfer.    My guess is that he hit a piece of debris floating just beneath the surface, and was catapulted badly into something large and hard in the water.  Floating debris is the hazard we usually don’t think about when storm sailing.  I know I wasn’t looking for it at Mecox during my session, even though I remember things floating around out there after storms in the past.    

Like Rich Simons said in the Yahoo group, this could have happened to any of us.

(photo of Joe on a better day courtesy Bill Doutney)

Joe Rocco Drowned in Bellport Bay Yesterday

I am just sick.  Joe Rocco died while windsurfing off of Shirley in the bay yesterday.   If you know Joe (and most people know him better than I do) then you know this is particularly wrong.  

Here's what Newsday has:

"A man who drowned in Bellport Bay off Shirley was an experienced windsurfer from East Islip, police said Sunday.

The 68-year-old windsurfer, identified as Joe Rocco, drowned after Hurricane Irene had blown through Long Island, as strong winds and pounding surf lingered in her wake.

He entered the water off Grandview and Parkview drives in Shirley at about 4 p.m., said Suffolk Det. Sgt. Thomas Groneman.

Rocco was with a girlfriend and some other people, Groneman said.

"He thought he could handle it and went out in the water," Groneman said. "He fell over and wasn't about to stay afloat."

Rocco was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation and taken to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center in East Patchogue, where he was pronounced dead, police said."

It is inconceivable to me that the next time I go to Heckscher I will not spend a few minutes talking to Joe in the parking lot.  My condolences to his loved ones.

R.I.P. Joe.

Sailing Irene (at last)

We had no electricity (and won’t for days) and no cell service.  We’d taken the boards off  the windows and moved furniture and carpets back downstairs.  I’d cut and/or moved a reasonable portion of the downed tree limbs.   It was time to pop the question:

“Honey, can I go windsurfing?” I asked Sally

“You have to,” she said.   “You can’t be the Peconic Puffin and not windsurf Irene!”*

This is true.

I had no idea where the usual suspects were windsurfing (by the Wolf’s house, it turned out) but I knew my neighbor Bill’s car was loaded, so I drove over, said “let’s go to Mecox” and a few minutes later we were threading our way passed downed trees on our way to the Yacht Club.  Rigged a 4.5 (Bill went 4.7) and took off like a shot.  With winds due west the run headed straight towards The Cut.  Even a mile away we could see waves that looked to be 20 feet high on the other side, the wind ripping the tops off as they broke.

If you don’t know The Cut, it’s a spot in the narrow barrier beach between the Atlantic Ocean and Mecox Bay that is periodically cut open so water can flow back and forth.  Most times the town makes the cut, to drain Mecox if water levels get too high from rain.  But sometimes the ocean makes the cut, just for the heck of it.  

My plan had been to sail over to the cut to see if monster waves had opened up the Cut, but once I sailed a few hundred yards out the winds increased big time, so it was back to the beach to add downhaul and outhaul.   Tried again...was comfortably lit in the lulls (Bill was in the same shape) but the gusts were pasting me.

Rigged the 4.0 and gave Bill the 4.5 (well it’s a little smaller than his 4.7!  And he has 20 lbs on me.)    The 4.0 was good for a couple runs, but the windline in the middle of the bay still prevent a run to the cut.   Then I started tailwalking.  I have never had the 77 liter board tailwalk...it was out of hand.  The winds were building, not decreasing.   Sailed in, gave the 4.0 to Bill, but he was overpowered too.  

I was too tired to rig the 3.4.  Too much chainsawing and drilling and shlepping plywood sheets and carrying our possessions up a flight of stairs.   All the little irritating things you need to do when you think a hurricane might stomp on your head.  Still, it was a satisfying little microsession.  It felt great to hook in and rip on the little stuff.

May the windy season return.

(Bill didn't answer the door when the Fire Department came to evacuate him, so they hung a notice on his door knob like a room service menu.)

(*  “You can’t be the Peconic Puffin and not windsurf Irene!”  Even my wife is saying it now.  For the record, I am not the Peconic Puffin.  I write the Peconic Puffin.  I have explained this to at least one hundred people.  Two of them cared, about ninety didn't, and the rest now call me "pecuffin".   How can a Puffin get a little respect around here?)

Mandatory Evacuation? No Thank You...Irene Update #3

Our house is in a designated flood zone.  A big nor'easter at high tide will put salt water in our back yard.   So I was not surprised when the Fire Department came down the road yesterday telling people there was a mandatory evacuation.   I said "thank you very much, but we're staying."  Had to fill out a form, listing next of kin and everything, before they left.   Our friends Julie and Bill also ignored the evacuation order, and offered us their guest room if we needed it (they are several feet higher than we are)...thank you J & B!    But we decided to try the night at home, with me getting up every hour to verify we weren't floating away.  

We're partially boarded up.   Incredibly the power hasn't gone out (it's gusting 60 as I type)...we lose power during a typical big thunderstorm.   Everything we can move we've moved upstairs, and what we couldn't we've done our best to elevate.   The storm surge is still out there.  It's low tide at the moment.

The current fantasy is our house doesn't flood, and I get to sail this afternoon with the crew.   Would also love to not have to try out the generator I bought yesterday.

A tree branch just whacked the house.  Time to go.

Pre-Irene Saturday Sesh? Tracking Irene #2

I just got the word from Jon Ford:  Saturday afternoon there could be some good windsurfing.  Okay!   I hope I've finished my chores (boarding up the house, preparing to evacuate etc) by then. 

 

Tracking Irene #1

"Be careful what you wish for," Bill said in a recent comment about Hurricane Irene.   I pointed out that I'd specified 22 knots and  waves 6-8 feet.   The last time I checked the forecast, however, "they" were calling for 50 knot winds and 30 foot waves.   That doesn't sound like any fun at all.

 

Puffin Poetry

In the 1990's the Peconic Puffin was a three page weekly newsletter, published May-October, which recounted the windsurfing exploits of a crew of windsurfers and their friends ("the Puffins").  One feature in the newsletter was "Puffin Poetry," essentially the quote of the week.   I just saw this in the Yahoo Long Island Windsurfing Group bulletin board, and the Puffin Poetry bell rang at Peconic Puffin World Headquarters:

"Over the winter I bought two 3.3's (both great deals so I had to...)"

             -Chris (who has neither masts nor booms to rig the 3.3's)

This man risks serious injury at a swap meet.

Earthquake! Are we gonna get any waves out of it?

The floor just danced beneath my feet for a few seconds...a nice orderly back and forth.   The Twitterverse confirmed that loads of other people felt it too.   My question is:  Will we get any good waves out of it?

Come On Irene! Hurricane Whet's LI Windsurfers Appetities...

People are talking.  On Facebook Peconic Jeff and Chachi are going on about wave heights (and preemptive tree trimming).  Here at Peconic Puffin World Headquarters Scott is admonishing the staff to save it up for Sunday.   Me, I'm thinking about wave heights AND preemptive tree trimming.  I'm fantasizing about 22 knot winds and long period faces 6-8 feet.   As if the gods are listening!

In any event I've windsurfed so little over the summer that it's time to check all the equipment. And sing Come On Eileen (Irene).

 

Paddled Out of of a Windsurfing Sesh

The forecasts called for minor but surfable waves in the morning, and MAYBE some wind in the afternoon.   But when I arrived (late...8AM) at Flying Point Sunday the break was serving up decent lefts and rights 3-4 feet, and I joined Jeff and the Wolf (George Pav was leaving as I pulled up).  

I gorged like a starving man.   I have had one decent SUP session since May.   Two decent windsurfing sessions since the East Coast Windsurfing Festival in June.   Traumatized and delirious, without perspective or any thought of moderation I paddled and paddled and paddled.    After a few hours I was quite exhausted, but decided I wouldn’t say anything until Jeff wanted to leave (he’d been there longer than me).  Also the waves were getting bigger with sets of five footers rolling through.   Arms aching I paddled and paddled more.

Finally we were done.   A good sesh.

A several hours later it started blowing from the South.   I was toast.   My phone rang...Scott’s face appeared on the screen.  I didn’t answer...I knew what he was going to say:  “It’s cranking at South Jamesport get yer ass up here!” (which was almost verbatim the message he actually left.)  But had nothing left for the wind.   But I take it as an omen...wind will be returning to Long Island, and I must prepare to windsurf.

Cranking A Monster Jibe

That's New England's finest Josh Angulo pulling transorbital G's as he rounds a mark in Fuerteventura last month.   In the ongoing windless hell of 2011, my callouses gone and jibing a distant memory, this image jogged a recollection of jibing in days past (I jibe EXACTLY like Josh.  More or less.  Press "1" for more, "2" for less, "3" for more options.)   Photo courtesy PWA/John Carter...check out more on their mighty web site.  Additional props to James' blog for putting this image under my nose.

Five Good Minutes At Tiana

The shore break was nasty.  Three foot crunchers coming six seconds apart in on-side-on winds.  Scott and I stood with our gear (big boards, him with a 5.7 me with my mighty 6.2) waiting for the slightest pause in the wave barrage.

Then it came!   Immediately I had to bear off, sailing nearly parallel to the shore before the next line of breakers, looking for a hole to bear up through and get out.   And it came too!   Out I sailed through nice four foot swell, pleased with myself for getting out on my first attempt...no rejection for me!   Then I noticed that my uphaul was dangling, unattached to the base of the mast.  Always the kook.  No way was I going back to the beach to fix it, so I wrapped it around the boom arm a few times before jibing off of a lovely four foot bit o' swell.   It felt so good to be wavesailing again (first time since April.)

Scott was not out.  What happened?  Scott always gets out.   Well okay he'll be out soon, and then the gallery (CD and the Wolf) will see that it's just fine and dandy out here, and we'll have ourselves a solid sesh.    I enjoyed the wavy reach and jibed again (oh man does this feel good) reach, jump and jibe.   Still no Scott.  And what are the other guys waiting for?  Jibe.    Am I going to do this all by myself?  Then a five footer rose, and I thought about how to ride it...started to jibe, then changed my mind, then realized I had to jibe as it began to close in front of me, then layed down the sail as nothing good was about to happen.

This was a mistake.  I'd found myself a little impact zone.  Also, the wind had just dropped.  After two long minutes I finally got the sail up, but now I was nowhere good and quite underpowered, so I bore off and sailed/surfed to the beach, landing a hundred yards away from Scott and Bill Barber (the Wolf having left to check out Ponquogue, and CD derigging in the parking lot.)  We all ended up at Ponquogue, where the wind was even lighter...George Pav tried to get out but couldn't, and I never put my board in the water.  Everyone else watched (except for CD, still said to be derigging at Tiana.  If you see him there, please give him a hand.)

Sounds like a bad day, yes?   Yet I will tell you that in this windless waveless hell of a year, I had a good time during those five minutes, and am enjoying reliving the few moments I scored.  You take what you get.

Hopes and Dreams (for this weekend)

Emily is standing us up (bitch)…what’s a Puffin to do?   Look for love elsewhere:

The Coastal Marine Fantasy for Saturday includes the number “20” as of press time.   Maybe I’ll take the Mrs. Over to Mecox and get a little planning action in.

Surfline thinks there might be some wave conditions Sunday afternoon (though Swell Info demurs.)  Like a true wave serf I shall cling to the optimistic ‘cast.

As Scott would say, I need it bad!

Jeff is fantasizing about Emily

...and I'd respect his privacy if he hadn't sent out a group e-mail.   But Tropical Storm Emily is out there, and Jeff is eyeing the wavecast for early next week.  Me, I'll believe it when the Wolf calls saying "it's CLEEEEEEEN!"

We'll wavesail if there's a breeze, SUP if there ain't...

(The projected wave story for next Tuesday, courtesy Swell Info.)