The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Boo!

Happy Halloween!

Skipping Class For Typhoons (who wouldn't?)

One of the serendipitous wonders of Facebook is discovering connections between your friends that you didn't know existed.   Last week when I posted a photo from a sesh at Ponquogue with Jonathan Ford, a former employee named Kelly piped in:  "Hilarious. I went to high school in Hong Kong with Jon Ford. He was legendary for running out of class to hit the waves whenever a typhoon was coming!"

That sounds about right for Jon.  It also helps explain why, in 1996 when I had a used 4.7 shipped to my office, Kelly asked me to unroll it on the floor so she could see (if you think a 4.7 is a small sail, try laying one out in office space.)

But I digress.  Jon skipped class for conditions.  Don't tell Nicholas!

(Algebra can wait.  Photo by Jeff Schultz.)

Cupsogue Serves Up the Waves

I had a most excellent session at Napeague on Saturday.   But there was another session we must tell you about, featuring the usual suspects plus waves, at Cupsogue.  If only I had been there too!  But I wasn't, so here is Peconic Jeff's report:

"Nearly everyone got stuck in the soft sand and had to let out air, but once there we found nukin' 4.2/4.7. Christian & I had first checked out Ponquogue, which looked muuuch better: cleaner, more organized waves, but the Cup offered zero shorebreak.

Scott got some major air on a few jumps, and Jon Sassone was throwing bottom turns and cutbacks in the thick of the breaking waves. Christian had a 'breakthrough day', popping up and over breaking whitewater with ease. First day sailing with gloves & booties!

Sailor roll call: Scott, Wolf, Bruce, Jan, myself (Jeff), Christian, Jon Ford, Anders,

Jon Sassone, Sasha & Christina, & John Natalie."

An editor's note:  John "he only sails when conditions are perfect" Natalie is an excellent indicator of the day's quality.   If I could have only been in two sessions at once!

(From the top:  Scott and Bruce line them up.  Air Scott.  Air Wolf. Jonathan.  There's no picture of Jeff Schultz because this is Jeff Schultz photography...thanks Jeff!)

The Far Side of Napeague: Four Meter Ripfest

I have the good fortune to have friends who live on the eastern side of Napeague, where the sands are red and the kites few.  Sally and I had a dinner invitation to go visit...really...and then the 25 knot forecast hit.

"Let's go early".  

After a false start with the 5.3, I was soon out with a 4.5, lit on 77 liters of freestyle wave happiness, along with Dana, Andy, Lili and Wilson.   Side on winds, full power just 50 yards from the beach.  Rip roaring on a sunny fall day!    And when I say I was on a 4.5, that's mostly because my 4.0 no longer exists.  The gusts that came through were many and mighty ("compelling" is the word we agreed upon after a dozen) and I for one found I couldn't really jibe in them.  Wait for the lulls. Or make a big splash.

What all that wind was great for was jumping.  I know..."Napeague" and "jumping" are not normally in the same sentence, but there were some unusually clean and sizable ramps setting up this day.  Air time was had (and my joints had a jumping hangover the next morning...I need to go to restorative yoga or something.)  

After two hours the gusts became the base wind speed, and we were all:

A:  sufficiently fried,

B:  thinking about the wonderful planned dinner,

C:  A and B

(the answer is C)

so we packed it in, and got down to some fine food and wine.   All of life should be like Saturday.

(Top:  It may have been crowded at Lazy Point, but we had the far side all to ourselves.  Dana, Andy and I mug for the camera.  Jumping at Napeague!  Dana on the red sands of happy.  Photos by Wilson.)

P.S.  That was the session I caught.  Tomorrow we shall have the story of the session I missed, as the consortium of wind chimps and greater Puffinry caught it big at Cupsogue.

 

 

 

Pepi le Pew

Scott, Joe Natalie and I were at Sebonac.  I arrived after them.

'We got 2.25 runs before it died," Scott said.

Took them awhile to convince me to rig, but ultimately I put up the 5.3 on my 99 Skate.   I got 1.75 runs in.  They included a jibe and a tack.

Messages from other chimply puffins at Ponquogue told a similar tale.

"This happens in our sport," Joe said on the beach.

Wind suffering.

(Pepi le Pew is a fine skunk, all rights reserved by Looney Tunes.  Or Pepi.)

Friday Afternoon Looking Good

NOAA's coastal magoo fricasee calls for W 15 to 20 kt this afternoon, with a small craft warning.

iWindsurf puts a finer point on it  (WSW) and says low 20's.

Ocean?  Sebonac?  What say ye, men of wind and waves?

What 57 mph on a windsurfer looks like (video)

Ain't None Of Us Robbie (video)

You can watch the whole thing, of course. I'm saying first go to about 6 minutes and let it play for 20 seconds. The top turn at 6:14...takes about .75 seconds...that's the whole game right there. I was sent this clip in an email titled "King of Humans". It was sent by the mighty Mark Skelton of Cape Hatteras and the nascent Windsurfing Museum (Like it on FB). I saw Robby sail in Hatteras back in 1997. Video utterly fails to convey how (need a word that means awesome but isn't tired like awesome) it is to behold. Though the fraction of a second at 6:14 isn't bad.  

Robby Naish.

Wave WindSUPing

The language that describes what we do with stand up paddle boards has been in beta for a few years now.   Yeah we all know SUP, but then what?  I've called SUPing in the waves SUPsurfing.  Not too hard.  But how do you say, for example: stand up paddle board windsurfing on waves?  No less than Dasher (He Who Taught Me To Jibe) weighed in, with Wave WindSUPing, and who am I to argue?* 

I finally did it (wave windSUPing).  Took the AllWave with a 6.2 out at Ponquogue to join Jeff, George Pav, and Jonathan Ford in light crossshore winds for some well-spaced chest-high waves.  I got about half a dozen rides before smashing my right wrist in the impact zone (a little two foot wave threw board into me)...ensuing numbness plus bleeding plus broken uni seemed like an excellent threesome of reasons to Stop.   But before that it was so good!  
Here is how George Pav described it in the Yahoo LI Windsurfing group: "Four to six turns on very clean waves. Could be one of my top wave riding days ever. Conditions were perfect."

My first wave windSUP sesh.  May my second come soon!

*I never argue with Dasher when it comes to windsurfing.   Well, I did once.  The moment I stopped arguing and did what he said (in a jibe lesson, against my will) I had my first controlled planing jibe.   That was in 1999.   To this day whenever I find myself having jibing problems I flash back to my lessons in Aruba, and Do What Dasher Said.

(Top:  Footstraps were very much wanted as I went off that wave.  Middle:  George Pav lines up his next turn.  Bottom: Even I had a good day!   Photos by Jeff Schultz.)

Windsurfer's Nightmare

It's like this:  The best wavesailing day in years comes along, and I had to go to (say it with me):

My wife's

former coworker's

wedding.

The horror.   Reading the text messages (4.7 going off!  Head High Sets!) on the way to the church.   Bill Barber's comment on the Puffin the next day ("nukin' wind fun head high waves and some shorebreak rejections at ponquogue saturday......why all the whining-where were you sir? ")  Just awful.   I actually like the couple that got married very much, and any other day would have been happy to be there, but...argh!  As Peconic Jeff noted, I was the wind sacrifice.  I weep bitter tears.

On the water:  Pete Roesch, Jon Ford, Scott, Peconic Jeff, Bill Barber, Jon Sassone, more lucky people.

Photos by Jeff Schultz, all rights reserved.  The full set can be found here.

Two Days Of Skunk!

Oh man.  Thursday and Friday had beautiful forecasts.   Wave sailing was gonna be going on!  I arranged to be...um...available (despite the tail end of a hacking cold.  Waves!)  

But nothing came.

My callouses are gone.  I wonder if I remember how to rig.

Reduce Long Island Deer Population, Get More Wind and Waves?

Sounds crazy?  Listen to this: