The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

The Beautiful Goodbye

Sunsets on the Little Peconic Bay have always been exquisite.   Yesterday we were blessed with a magnificent one as we gathered at low tide to scatter Steve's ashes on this bit of beach where so much happened.   About 50 feet behind everyone is the water where I first tried windsurfing, and the beach where Steve introduced himself to me.   100 feet inland from all of us is the site of Steve and Cindy's first (then second) house, where Sally and I got to spend precious years with their brand new daughters (also we windsurfed a heck of a lot!).  The dear friends, the core group of people who were the Peconic Puffins, back when this was a silly little newsletter 30 years ago.   Jay, Slo, Eileen, Nannette.   Jordan, Avery, Ivette, Ksusha.   I told the story of how when I learned about Steve's passing I came to this spot, just to stand here.   Eileen had done the same thing..we just arrived at different times.       

It was a beautiful gathering on a spot Steve loved.   It would have made him happy.

Postscript:   Steve was joined with the ashes of his favorite dog, Spooky.  Jordan and Avery shared the story of how he grudgingly came to love Spooky ("he's a good little dog" he was quoted as saying back in the day.)

Uni Dos Break

I've never had a uni break on me.   Always believed in the safety strap (prevent rig separation, emergency sail home) but had never actually needed it.

Sunday at Mecox with OG Puffin Steve (Peconic Puffin since 1993) conditions were marginal 6.3.   I launched first, and was mixing jibes when I could plane with tacks and helitacks when I could not.  Steve was still rigging on the beach when one of my heli's felt odd.  Was the boom loose?  I checked...no it was fine.  Found myself shlogging then looked down...what the heck was the base of the mast doing so far downwind of the mast track?

Ah.

So I shlogged gingerly back to the launch, where I showed Steve my severed tendon.  He looked at me...the reason he was taking so long to rig was that he'd found his own uni had split.   Never happened to him before either, and he'd been windsurfing since the 1980's (I started in '92).  Go figure!

OG Puffin Sighting: Jace Panebianco

A blast from Peconic Puffin past!   Ran into Jace Panebianco, who the world knows as director of The Windsurfing Movie, but who old school Puffins know as that great kid who works at the windsurfing shop, circa 1993!   When this thing was a three page printed newsletter Jace was often in it.   In town from Hawaii he's been foiling on the Little Peconic, but I ran into him in the seafood store.   Jace remains very tall...in the pic he is bending down, and I am standing on my toes!  Great to see Jace!

Robby Naish and Puffins

Forgot to work this into my last post about Robby, so here it is solo:   Back in the early 1990's when the "puffins" were a group of windsurfers, their SO's, children and friends living in summer share houses and sailing on the Little Peconic Bay, the "Puffin House" was the center of activity (at least in my demented mind) while The Peconic Puffin was a weekly three-page newsletter about our exploits.   Somewhere along the line OG Puffin Steve managed to bend Robby's ear about the Peconic Puffins, and get his puffin t-shirt autographed.  Twenty plus years later Steve wore the shirt to an ABK after-clinic dinner, where I snapped this photo.  Me being the guy I am, it didn't even occur to me to include Steve's mug.  Still...the shirt!   

Pick a Lane!

Years ago during a windsurfing trip to Maui, there was a day when the winds blew from the west (highly unusual) as opposed to the tradewind easterlies.  Kona Wind, they called it, and it wild and wooly and gusty and all over the place.    The great instructor Jason Voss was standing on the beach, and I asked him what size sail I should rig.  "It doesn't matter*," he said.  "Just grab a sail and go out."

That's about what it was like at South Jamesport yesterday.  Well not quite as crazy, but on the question of 3.7, 4.2, 4.7, 5.4, and 5.8 (if you were Jon Ford) it was up and down.  Or so it seemed.

"It's not gusts and lulls, it's that there are lanes of different wind strengths" Bruce said.   That's what I thought.   I'd rigged a 4.2 on Scott's advice, which I later decided was wrong.  Of course Scott on his 4.7 was tailwalking often as not.  AND gagging!  Etc etc.    Scott Bruce Jan Jon GeorgePav the Wolf and I went at it, and often were dialed in (for 30 seconds at a time) until the next lane was entered.  C'est la wind.  Still, it was 80 degrees and we were in shorties on small sails!   "This could be it for the summer" Scott said.  Let's hope not.

*Back when the Peconic Puffin was a printed weekly newsletter (1993-2003) there was a bit that used to appear on the second page called "Puffin Poetry".  Reserved for a great quote or description of a noteworthy moment, it so happens that Jason's sail size comment was the Puffin Poetry item that week.  Here is what the page looked like...a glance into past goofiness:

 

 

 

Paradigm Lost Watersports Film Plays in Southampton on Friday

Award-winning surfer Kai Lenny shares “breath-taking sessions with international champions of big wave, progressive surfing, kite surfing, windsurfing, and SUP" in this film created by Johnny Decesare and one of the original Peconic Puffins: Jace Panebianco!   There's a special screening at the Parish Art Museum in Southampton Friday September 29th at 6PM.  Be there!

(Click here to buy tickets.   Not convinced?  Check out the trailer below!)

Review: The Windsurfing Movie II

1.  The Windsurfing Movie II is much, much better than The Windsurfing Movie.

2.   It is not more of the first movie.  It is different.

That may be all you need to know.   Here’s more anyway:

Like the first film, “II” features absolutely spectacular footage of brilliant windsurfing in extraordinary conditions.  Filmmakers Johnny DeCesare and Jace Panebianco have actually improved their skills at capturing the beauty and kinetic energy of windsurfing as practiced by the masters.    But unlike the first film, “II” has some meaningful story lines that hold it all together more elegantly than the Interview/Rad footage/Interview/Rad footage motif of the first movie.

Did I just say “motif”?  Slap me.

Maybe this is what I should say:  I watched the first film twice, but haven’t taken out the DVD since.   I’ve watched the new one twice, and I think I’m going to watch it again this weekend.  And many times more.    I’m still trying to wrap my head around some of the wavesailing!

I have no interest in full disclosure (secrets are cool) but I’ll remind the regular reader and tell the irregular that one of the filmmakers (Jace Panebiano) is a friend, and was part of the original Peconic Puffin community way back in 1993.   I asked Jace for a quote for this piece, and he waxed Peconic:

“The community of windsurfing is really tight, I feel like I've got friends all over the world because of windsurfing.  But it all started in the Peconic Bay.

I went home a month ago and took the boat to Homes' Hill, ran up the sand dune and looked out over the Peconic; to my house, then to New Suffolk, then way out past Jessups'. It really made me homesick in that moment, being away from it so much of the time.  Then I just thought back to being a kid; how cool was it for a 14 year old kid to be able to visit friends by windsurfing to their house.  Those friends, the OG Puffins, a fun loving, creative bunch really influenced some of myformative years. I've been really lucky that the people closest to me always reinforced the idea that you could choose your own path. “

Another time we’ll have to get more from Jace on his windsurfing to the Puffin House…he once arrived by board unannounced at midnight!   But enough about Jace Panebianco…this is a review of The Windsurfing Movie II”:

It’s outstanding.  Better even than you think it’s going to be.    See genuinely wonderful windsurfing by featured riders Levi Siver, Kai Lenny, Mark Angulo, Robby Naish, Jason Polakow, Baptiste Gossein and others I forget.

 

Theo is a Puffin

If you're not one of the ten or so people who read the Peconic Puffin in the '90's, this is one big "what the heck?"   Well that's just how it's going to be!   

The creature above ("pre-smushed" says Cindy) is Theo.  Theo is Jordan and Avery's new puppy, and adopted little brother of Spooky.   Or at least he hopes to be.  So far Spooky has expressed nothing but disdain for the new arrival ("You are dead to me" Spooky says, in a heavy doggy-Slavic accent) but Theo is persistent.   And very cute.

A New Slow Bad Puffin

Eugene has a sister.

Ivette has a daughter.

Slo has a nightmare once this beauty turns 16.

And we have a new Puffin!

Presenting the Peconic Puffin debut of Lea Slobadsky. We'll have her on a windsurfing board by the time she's three.

(Top Photo: There she is...Ms. Peconica.
Bottom Left: Slo on the water. Bottom Right: Eugene contemplates his role as big brother. Note the stylish puffin shorts!)

PeconicPuffin.com Is One Year Old. Blah Blah Blah...

Not the Peconic Puffin, though. The Peconic Puffin is fourteen ("fourteen and a half!" says Avery.) Version One was a weekly three page newsletter (a few details can be found in the about section of the blog) that I'd do from May to October of each year (the months we had our weekend share house on the Little Peconic Bay.)

To amuse myself, as well as those first-generation Puffins who still poke around and anyone with too much time on their hands, I'm including the original Peconic Puffin (click on the images to read) from May of 1993.

Cast of characters:

Ann and Tony are the landlords, living next door (sometimes Ann made us muffins.)
Alvin is a chipmunk
Pinky is a six-toed cat, and a local legend.
Dave, Gabriella, Jay, Karen, Cindy, Steve, Mark and I shared the Puffin House.
John at Sail Action is the nascent proprietor of Windsurfing Hamptons.

These, along with a collection of people who appear in subsequent issues--neighbors Bob, Nancy, Eileen and Steve, Slo and Ivette, Sally the girlfriend (now my wife of ten years) and a polite teenager named Jace Panebianco who worked for Jon Ford--were the original Puffins. (Steve and Cindy's girls Jordan and Avery, as well as Slo and Ivette's Eugene were born as Puffins, but that's for another time.)

Anyhow that was then. About fifteen people read the thing, and it was about those fifteen or so people.

The blog is still about windsurfing and the people I sail with, along with whatever else comes to mind. Over a thousand people read it, almost all of whom I don't know. Every once in awhile someone walks up to me and says "Are you the puffin?" (It's almost always somebody recognizing my gear or the van. And it always shocks me.) I've met lots of windsurfers on Long Island (most of whom are better sailors than I) through the thing. And I have friends I've never met from Malta, Australia and the UK to the Bay Area and Brooklyn (I got to meet OBX Bill a few weeks ago...that was cool, and totally not digital.) More windsurfing friends=good.

Okay, time to go. Hopefully we'll get some wind on Saturday.

The Winds of Cape Hatteras, Part One

"Bring all your equipment, and money to buy more."
-traditional wisdom regarding conditions on the Outer Banks.

So far I've been able to use most of my gear. But I need to use it more. I have no torn callusses and have only bled a little. Here's a windsurfing rundown:

Thursday 7.0 sailing alongside WindSport magazines equipment testers, as well as Andy Brandt and his racing buddy Kurt Schumaker (the man who planes in nothing.)

Friday started out as a 6 meter day (I got to perform the jibing demonstration at the ABK clinic...performance anxiety!) but the wind got to 4.5 at its afternoon peak. Peconic Jeff got in on some of the action as well. (I came within an inch of my first in-the-straps 360.)

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday AM were decreed by the gods to be good for nonplaning freestyle. Steve ("I will get wet every day!") focused on clew first helis and working towards a gecko flaka, Jeff is refining his pushtack (and working on all things gecko) and Brewster is in the early stages of helitack wrestling, hitting several.

Tuesday afternoon saw a return to 7.0. It's nice to plane, but we're all aware that back on our home waters, friends have been sailing 4 meter sails and tearing it up. Brewster in particular is in agony (Steve and I understand that to come to Hatteras is to suffer...in the end you have a great time windsurfing but you EARN your wind, and Jeff is just laid back.) While I type this Brewster is reading posts in the Yahoo Long Island Windsurfers forum about the epic conditions. Small puffs of steam emit from his ears.

Last night Jeff and Brewster went out for a bit of night sailing under the full moon. They came back with huge grins on their faces. But Brewster is still bugging out again this AM.

It poured all night. This morning we had not one but two rainbows. Jeff says it's a good omen. And we have a small craft advisory for the rest of the week.

Bring on the wind!

(Top: Brewster inbound at Island Creek. Photo by Jeff.)

Fog and Jack-o-Lanterns at Napeague

Dana to Lily on the phone: It's foggy, but the fog might blow away.
Lily to Dana: Okay!

The day began with Sally and Michael visiting Lily and Wilson in Three Mile Harbor, and aside from a commitment to play hide and seek with Emma and Allie, all other plans were TBD. But we'd brought our gear, the forecast said Napeague might be planable from 4-6pm, and the other half of the Lilywilsondanaandy axis was already in position, so off to Napeague we went.

Lilywilsondanaandyland is located directly across from the traditional Napeague launches...more or less due east from Lazy Point. We rigged in what will soon be the shadom of the new Chateau Lily and Wilson (house designed by Dana), which was having the finishing touches put on its foundation even as we carried our rigs down to the red sand beach. Sure enough, the wind kicked in just enough at 4pm, and we all planed off into the fog. Sally was working on jibing and waterstarting and straightline speed ("why do you go faster than me" she asked/accused her rigging-boy husband, who suspects that she'll be passing him soon enough.) Dana was working on...well, we don't know, because visibility was only about 100 yards, and she and the rest of the Napeague regulars just sped off into oblivion. Turns out that they knew the water was shallower in oblivion, whilst Sally and Michael found themselves waterstarting in overhead depths.

With both speed and history in mind, Wilson noted the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union's Sputnik space program, and declared that it was a good reason to pull out his drag board, an old F2 Sputnik, a board which in its day had the reputation of being the scary fastest board on the planet.. After a brief discussion ("Want to try sailing it? Yup!") Wilson put a fin on the thing, and Michael took it out for a spin. Pretty fast it went, though it was clear the board wanted more power. Hey Wilson...take that thing out with an overpowered race sail...just wear a flack jacket when you do!

As the sun began to set our thoughts turned to the impending dinner party at Dana and Andy's. But while the grownups were discussing politics and duck jibes over a civilized glass of wine or G&T, Una and Emma were hatching a plot to hijack the event and move it to the domain of a giant jack-o-lantern that held court outside the house.

"Tell the grownups to come outside" Emma declared. "Sit on that towel" instructed Una. And we did, and were soon rewarded with a sumptuous feast of clams, swordfish (grilled to absolute perfection by Andy) and a choice of pie.

It was outstanding.

We also had some discussion about fog sailing...Dana noting her complete comfort jetting around on the bay she knows so well, but saying she'd be hesitant to so sail at Mecox. Michael said "Mecox is just fine in the fog, and for the same reasons (it's enclosed, no boat traffic, mostly shallow.) In any other conditions, though, windsurfing in fog can go very wrong, very fast.

(Photo: Sally and Dana, at the recent ABK clinic.)

Slo On The Water

Saturday marked the triumphant return of Slo to board and boom, windsurfing on the mother waters of the Peconic Puffin (Little Peconic, Pink Palace launch) on his Screamer and a 5.8, accompanied by Michael on a 6.2 and 7.0. This is Slo's first windsurfing appearance in the Puffin since we went digital, though of course he figured heavily in the Sheepshead incident.

Not only are Slo and his wife (the elusive Ivette) OG Puffins, but their son Eugene has been waving the flag lately in the form of some stylee new duds. Look for Eugene to soon join the second generation of windsurfing Puffins.

Newbie Frenzy in the Creek

Our house is on a creek...technically a tidal inlet, but creek by name. It's about 50 yards across in the wide spots. When we bought the place I thought perhaps I might do a little longboarding and nonplaning freestyle on it, and over the years this has proved to be lots of fun when the wind is light and northerly. Everyone from our neighbor Remy to our former (and aspiring return) neighbors Melissa and Sam have tacked and jibed and pointed and reached with us on the little patch of water in the back.

While the Freestyle Frenzy was going on up in Cape Cod, this past weekend also saw a major Peconic Puffin extravaganza, as Steve (a founding Puffin) brought Jordan and Avery (Puffins since birth) into the creek for some windsurfing 101, while Sally and Michael sailed alongside. Avery shocked everyone by immediately assuming perfect form and sailing off towards the horizon (which on the creek means she ran aground after 20 seconds) and Jordan pulled off a tack within her first two minutes of windsurfing. Steve was advised to immediately pack his children off to Bonaire so that they might come back in a year throwing clew-first Chacho Libres and such moves.

But it was more than just these hot-shot half pints ("Say 'I'm an evil child with cool moves'" said Avery, who likes to micromanage her own press) as Sally was working on pivot jibes, Steve was experimenting with the Jack (backwind pivot jibe-duck to clew-first) and Michael was trying to hit his Radar Tack routine (subject of a future post.) Still, the young guns were the stars...check out all the action in this Peconic Puffin photo spectacular!

The Ice Cream Test

It all started for want of a napkin. It was 1994 and my third summer windsurfing, out of a share house (The Puffin House) on the Great Peconic Bay. Steve and I were wolfing down sandwiches when I managed to get a blob of mustard on my face. I started to look for a napkin to clean up before getting back on the water, when it suddenly occurred to me...

"What's so funny?" asked Steve.

"Me. I'm worrying about a bit of mustard, as if I'm not going to be falling into the water repeatedly in less than a minute. You could put a scoop of ice cream on my head and there would be no trace of it five minutes after I begin windsurfing."

The thought appealed to Steve. He proposed that we in fact put a scoop of ice cream on my head. And as a gesture of puffinly brotherhood, he would also don some cream, even though he was a much better sailor who might not fall until his vision went vanilla.