The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Jibe City Scene: Too Windy For Caesar, Torturing Brendon. Bonaire Report #2

There's no such thing as guaranteed wind.   Doesn't matter what a meteorologist tells you...all you need to do is ask a group of windsurfers who have flown great distances to get to Sure Wind...the skunk stories come out, or at least long stretches of barely planable conditions.  I've had the experience in Aruba, Bonaire, Hatteras, even Maui.

But not last week in Bonaire.   For our seventh trip to Lac Bay could sail any time I wanted to.   One afternoon I needed a 7.0, one morning I needed a 4.5, but the rest of the time it was all 5.5-6.1.  Morning and afternoon sessions.  Wind wind wind.  

Such conditions have side effects.   One positive effect was the daily opportunity to torture ABK instructor Brendon, who could be found every morning by the Jibe City rental center. 

"Hi Brendon!  What's the sail call?"

The first few times I asked he'd make a recommendation.  About the fourth time he responded: 

Brendon:  "How long have you been windsurfing?"

Me:  "Twenty one years."

Brendon:  "So what do YOU think the sail call is?"

Me:  "Come on, Brendon...you're sitting watching everyone sail, you know the idiosycracies of Lac Bay, you have the Keen Eye!  What should I take?"

And invariably he'd make a recommendation (an excellent recommendation, btw).  This was so much fun that I continued to ask him for sail advice daily, even when I knew exactly what the wind was doing.   He'll take his vengence on me later this year at an ABK clinic, I've no doubt.

The one downside to all the wind was the lack of the Caesar Flowstyle show.  Just about anybody who has been to Bonaire has had the pleasure of watching Caesar Finies do the seemingly impossible with a dancing rig in a light breeze, right in front of Jibe City (where he works).

On the off chance that you've never seen him do his thing, here's a video I shot in 2007:

 (Photo:  Brendon at the beach bar, wondering where he has to go to get away from me.   Hey Brendon...you think a 5.5 will work?)

Can I Get a Witness? Bonaire Windsurfing Report #1

“Did you see my ____?"

“Did you see mine?”

Such was what could be heard in the air at Lac Bay in Bonaire, and not because we were staying at a former nudist colony, where everyone saw your ___ if you stayed there.   No, the Did You Sees were all about friends enjoying ideal conditions and pushing their windsurfing limits.   Sailing with our friends Lily, Wilson, Dana, and Andy, the women were closest to new frontiers.  

There was Dana, in pursuit of planing duck jibes, exploding in her attempts (more on Dana in a subsequent post).

There was Lily, who on her last day hit a jibe so near picture perfect that she declared the session over.   “Now I can go home on a positive note!  Otherwise if I try another and fail I’ll be thinking about what I did wrong the entire flight back to New York.”

There was my lovely wife Sally (Jibe Sally Jibe), who, armed with some tips from Andy Brandt, was getting closer and closer but still finding a Bonairian jibe elusive on this trip.  An inches-away-from-successful attempt late in the week caused her to ask if we could count it as a jibe.  It was a moment of weakness.   “Take one more run, then we’ll go in,” I suggested.

She did.  And she hit her jibe.   Jibe Sally Jibe!

I saw Thandi (Long Island ABK regular) who just started windsurfing a couple years ago, on a speeding beam reach clear on the other side of Lac Bay, by the mangroves.  I thought “I’ve got to step up my game!  The women are kicking ass!”

That’s because they’re tougher.  

Did I say I’d write more about Dana in a subsequent post?  The heck with that.   I was giving Dana some duck jibe tips, most of which sounded like “you don’t need to carve like a bat out of hell!” (how many people need to slow down?) when during a particular attempt the attending spectacular crash left her hanging out in the water for a bit.   I jibed and came back to smiling Dana, thinking she was just taking a moment to enjoy it all.

“I hit my side pretty hard,” she said, smiling.   Her eyes said “I think I just broke a rib” but the smile stayed.

So we hung out in the water for five minutes, until she felt up for trying to sail back to the launch, which she did.    That night over dinner she was still feeling a bit dinged, though talk of sailing the next day took place.   Smiling.

After her return to New York we got the news.  Dana’s got a great smile, but the eyes had it:  Two broken ribs.

“I hope they heal fast.  I want to go skiing in four weeks!”

For myself I had a few Did You See My’s.   Hit a good (for me) backwind jibe, and then heard a shout from Andy Brandt!   Hit another one that was fairly good, seen by several of the New York contingent on hand.    And I went for a duck jibe at full speed in which I somehow stuck the clew straight down into the sand, the subsequent explosion from which cleaned my clock, my plow, and everything in between.   This my bride Sally saw.

So the next time I tell her I exploded, she won’t think I’m big talking.

(Top:  Dana with the smile, tearing it up before le crash.   Bottom:  Sally anticipating her jibe.)

 

Sally is Ready to Shred (she has a new wetsuit)

Sally and I will be going to Bonaire in the not too distant future, to windsurf with some friends.  Amongst those friends will be Lily and Dana, Napeague shredettes whose wetsuits Sally has long admired.  A couple years ago Sally told the Peconic Puffin "if I had the sleeveless shorty that Lily and Dana have, I would sail faster and with more control, and my jibes would improve."  Thus began a two-year search for a particular Excel wetsuit in a particular size.  Of course the thing was no longer made, but on the search went.

Yesterday Sally came home from work sporting a huge grin.  It had been Found. Not only that, but when she tried it on, She Liked How She Looked.  (She looked smokin, btw.)

It was a Great Day.

Now I'm wondering what will happen in Bonaire.  I'm hoping Dana and Lily will be wearing their Excels and they all sail happily together.  I wouldn't mind if they've got newer harnesses (Sally could use a new one, but when I've proposed this there's been no interest; apparently harnesses don't rate as an accessory.)  What would be a disaster is if D&L are wearing identical NEW wetsuits, wetsuits that my darling wife liked better than her brand new one.  That would be a frickin' nightmare.

I myself will be sporting a lycra that I bought in the '90s.

Reason to Hate Mike Burns #211: Looping a Sunset Slalom

Recently in the Yahoo Long Island Windsurfers forum Mike Burns made reference to looping an F2 Sunset Slalom.

This is ridiculous.   The F2 Sunset Slalom is best suited to intermediate windsurfers, getting them comfortable planing in the footstraps and perhaps beginning to learn the planing jibe.   It is a doofuss board from yesteryear that should be impossible to loop.   But Mike Burns, Long Island's finest and the King of the East, went and did it.

Another reason to hate him.

"Haha!!" Mike replied, when I told him I hated him.  " Yup, I remember trying to get around all day at Heckscher on the F2 Sunset and my 4.0 Northsails Zeta. Then finally I was able to water-start away from one! Starboard tack, about even with the east end of the parking lot. The very next attempt I broke my "indestructable" Fiberspar Tidal Wave mast in half over my knees! Didn't try another loop for at least 5 or so years when the KOTC came around and all those guys were going for it. But still my first loop was on the trusty sunset slalom. 101 ltrs!! Is it a coincidence that about 100 ltrs is the current most popular freestyle board size? I think not!"

So the next time you see Mike Burns, just remember he looped a Sunset Slalom.  Give him a piece of your mind (or ask him for tips!)

As a postscript, some of the Heckscher regulars are organizing a beach cleanup (I can only imagine how hard it's been pounded by Sandy etc) for Sunday Feb 24.  Check in with the Yahoo group for details.

(image of the F2 Sunset Slalom pulled from a random website.)