The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

If A Shark Eats Your Mast, Don't Try to Get It Back

"She's back!" Scott texted.

Yes she is.   Mary Lee, three thousand five hundred pounds of Great White Hell is coming for to eat you up.   The good people at OCEARCH track her and other sharks for the betterment of science.  'Cause sharks are really great.  Just look at the pictures.

In photo #1 Mary Lee skids to a halt after jumping on a boat to eat some dude.

In photo #2 a cheap windsurfer tries to grab a pair of masts that Mary Lee coughed up like a hairball.  Dude doesn't realize that if he pulls he's going to end up with two bottom pieces.  What, he's gonna stick his arms in her mouth to get the tops?

Anyhow Mary Lee was in Atlantic City yesterday, and is headed north.   While we've had some good ocean sessions at the Bowl and Ponquogue of late, methinks East Landing on the Peconic is sounding pretty good.

(Photos courtesy OCEARCH.ORG)

Christian Rounds the Horn (again)

Back in his sailboat racing days, Christian once crewed on a around-the-world race.   I assume that means he sailed around Cape Horn, that legendary stretch of sea at the bottom of Chile known as a sailors graveyard.  From Sailing World:  "Cape Horn has long been the most iconic landmark in the minds of sailors, and sailing around the Horn is a huge challenge."

Closer to puffinly windchimpdom is another horn that windsurfers have been known to round:  The jetty tip leading into Shinnecock Inlet.  A number of windsurfers have come into trouble near the inlet opening (usually the wind has died, and or swirling currents make waterstarting a challenge) and an incoming tide has pulled them in, only to spit them out a few minutes later in Shinnecock Bay. Happened to Frank a few weeks ago, and heck, if Frank can be dragged in, who among us is not inlet bait?

The day started as a questionable Bowl sesh.   It was 5ish meter sails and big boards (me on the JP 109 with a 5.4) doing a lot of gagging and some planing.  Why bother?  Clean sets of 3-4 foot waves, that's why!   Frank, Christian and I were first on it, followed by Bill Nightingale and later John Nat (despite the lack of perfect conditions).  Young Jon Ford and the Wolf both looked and demured.

But some of us were out there enjoying the gusts and lulls.   I came in to guzzle some water, took my eye off the ocean for 30 seconds, and then Lo a sail was missing.

"Your friend is in the inlet" a woman yelled to me.   I looked.  Christian was not just in the inlet, he was flying through.  I guestimated his speed at five knots (Christian later said "at least!"*)   I jumped into the van and drove to the traditional spot to pull guys out (the parking lot on the northwest corner of the inlet.  Christian attempted the usual tactic of sailing into the bay, jibing and coming in amongst the rocks, but the current was so strong that he could not get near.   Then he was REALLY drifting downcurrent to the west when I realized "no, he's going that way on purpose trying to find a spot he can get in at" so back into the van, then down the road, and a few hundred yards west we managed to connect, wading through a field of beach nettles.   While it was a longer drive, the spots to the west make getting the gear out of the water and up to the road more manageable.

*Christian says shooting through the inlet is an exciting and invigorating experience.  "Quite the ride!" he proclaimed.   After initial press reports appeared he added "I see it as a bucket list thing like seeing the pyramids or running with the bulls.  Still surprised at how quickly it happened.  More wind and waves please…"

 

 

Eye On Hulse

That's him, framed between the boom, the 93 liter FSW, and the 4.7 sail.  Hulse inbound at the Bowl Thursday.   Earlier in the session I jibed too close to him on the outside for his liking, and he counseled me to watch out (Scott said I was nowhere near, but I don't like to crowd anyone.)  Had my eye on him later when I watched a rare Hulse rejection as the sea said NO.  Truth be told the lulls on the inside were wicked...I got dropped by one shortly after...but why tell the truth?

Two nice hours at the Bowl, y'all.   Jonathan, Frank, John Natalie, Scott, Bruce, Pav, Hulse and moi.    Thanks John for loaning me a harness line when mine snapped!

Tursday Wave Session? Jah Man...

(The following is a transcript of a text conversation between Chimply Lord Scotworth the Earl of Kielt, and the editor, in response to an easterly forecast for Thursday:)

PP:  Chimpley Lord Scotworth:  What thinks ye of Thursday?

CLStEoK:  I'm optimistic.

PP:  Me too

CLStEoK:  Let's hope.  I windsurf says best time between ten and two.

PP:  I and I see ten to tree!  Jah man.   Low tide I:II  !

CLStEoK:  Marvelous.

A Windsurfing Birthday: 4.7 at Ponquogue...

...and don't forget the swap meet!

I turned 39 on Saturday (for the umpteenth time) and was richly rewarded.  AM was the swap meet at Hampton Watersports.  Do I love swap meets.   All that gear makes me think of all the sessions each board and sail has seen, and the people who come are the best!   I ran into Nancy, whom I last saw in 1993 when, from the original Puffin House on the Little Peconic, some of us would sail across the bay to New Suffolk, and meet windsurfers over there.   Nancy is still sailing and she needed a new board (and found one!)

After the swap the winds came up from the east,  and it was time to sail Ponquogue.  I hadn't sailed Ponquogue since my birthday three years ago and ocean sessions are so rare that I was super excited.   T'was me, Bruce, Frank, George Pav, Jimmy Sobeck, John Natalie. Scott, the Wolf, and Filipp from Baltimore (we met at the swap.)    The water was a choppy mess, but still there were ramps and the occasional rideable swell (Frank was seen getting some rides of decent length.)  For myself every time I jumped I felt OLD.  "I'm not sure my ass is up to this" was the thought every time I landed a modest jump.  I finally got some half decent air and landed it without pain, just as the wind came up.  That was my cue to go home for a birthday dinner with wife Sally.

A very nice day.  Must do this every birthday!

Frank Rides the Tide: Storming at The Bowl

(Scott wants this post to be all about Frank's rounding the horn of the Shinnecock Jetty.  I want to tell the story of the day in order.  If you want Scott's version skip down to the bottom.  Here's my version:)

Wind and pouring rain at the Bowl.  That's how it always is for a good Bowl session.   But Friday was particularly so!   I arrived to find Scott, Frank, Jeff and Jeremy (the man in Gumby Green) getting their 4.7 on (that's 5.0 to Frank).  Rigged my own as Bruce arrived.   

"I don't know if I want to rig" Bruce said, eyeing the howling misery of the rain.

"That's the thing about the Bowl," I reminded him.  "We all remember the windsurfing but forget that it was raining!"

Rigged we did, launched we did.  My first time in the ocean in six months, so I was tentative.  Also perhaps I was tentative because the swell on the outside was 6 feet plus.  Blew my nervous Nellie jibe, and sailed back to shore to adjust a footstrap (on the 93 FSW which hadn't been sailed all winter).  Happily everyone else was sailing to shore as well.  To advise me on footstrap trim?  No!  Seems that everyone was overpowered now, and I was just too out of balance to notice that I was overpowered too.

So we all rigged down.  Except for Frank, who stayed out there on his 5.0.  Frank is, after all, not like the rest of us.

Bruce and I brought our freshly rigged 4.2's down and watched Frank sail, as we hemmed and hawed in the rain.   Then the craziest rainiest gust of all time came through.  Seriously.  50 mph winds and perhaps two inches of rain in ten minutes...the water drops were ripping up the beach as they hit.  Visibility was perhaps 50 feet.  Thank goodness we were all on shore.  Except for Frank.   

But the squall soon stopped, Frank appeared, and all was well.   Frank relaunched, followed by Bruce, and I watched and waited, as the wind seemed to have dropped a lot.   Bruce was shlogging so I decided to call it a day.

Just as I got to my van I heard Scott shout out "Frank is going through the inlet!"   The deal at the Bowl is to not get too near the inlet to Shinnecock Bay during incoming tide, lest you fall, not be able to waterstart, and have the incoming tide suck you through.   Lots of current, and swirling eddies to boot make it quite difficult...I've almost gone through in the past, but never actually.

Frank actually.

The trick is to go all the way through the inlet...don't try and get out over the rocks on the side...and then get out on the Shinnecock Bay side and walk your gear back (or walk back, get your car and drive back to your gear).  Frank took the ride as Bruce and Jeremy kept an eye on him from the jetty whilst Scott and Jeff drove to the bay side to meet him, and I did some of each.   One thing about windsurfing: it's nice to have friends who look out for you!   So Frank hogged the spotlight for another 20 minutes, then emerged, proclaiming that he'd had a great 5.0 session.  And he had!

(Top:  Frank talks about the weather to Bruce and Jeremy as he passes through Shinnecock Inlet.  Note the color of Jeremy's wetsuit.  When asked about the green, he replied that the wetsuit was from Portugal.  In Portugal they know how to make a green wetsuit.  Bottom:  Text from Lord Scotworth encapsulating the day much more efficiently than I could!  Photo by Jeff Schultz.)

Just Me and Scott

That's how it was at Sebonac yesterday.   I arrived mid-afternoon to find Scott derigging his 5.3 in favor of a 4.7.  "Man I've been out there overpowered for hours" Scott said.  So I quick rigged a 4.7 and launched.

It was a little light (needed the 93 for the most part...not quite 77 liter conditions) and we jetted around with all of Sebonac to ourselves.  There was plenty of room.  "Where is everybody?"  Who knows.

The bay has warmed considerably...I was comfortable in a leaky 4/3 and no gloves.  Hopefully on Friday I'll find out how the ocean temps are...the forecast be easty!