The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

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!   

Puffin Beaks Glow

Thanks to the many readers of The Peconic Puffin for sending us the article on glowing puffin beaks.  Will have to see if mine glows!

 

 

Merry Christmas to You and Yours!

(Image from a Christmas card which says "original design by Roz Davis".   Thanks Roz!)

Friday Morning Puffins

OG Puffin Nancy (who appeared in Volume 1, issue 1 back in 1993, AND taught me how to tack) sends these fine birds to Peconic Puffin world HQ.   How can we say no?  Thanks Nancy!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!  Looking forward to seeing you on the water in 2015.  

The image is from a favorite Christmas card, which says "original design by Roz Davis". We thank Roz every year (Thanks Roz!)

Three Days

“Where is Christian,” Tomas asked.

“In Hersey Pennsylvania, with a pistol in his mouth” I replied.

We are all grateful to Christian, who promised to be a wind sacrifice for the holiday weekend, and delivered mightily.

Friday:  Olympic conditions at East Landing.   George, Joe Natalie, Scott, Bill, Hulse, Tomas, Jonathan, the Wolf, a friend of Dr. Pain’s, me in 4.2-4.7 conditions with sweet ramps and rolling swell on the outside.    I arrived, rigged my new 4.7, but then Bill came over and said the wind had dropped…I needed to rig bigger.  Derigged the 4.7 just in time for Bill to come back over and tell me that the wind had come up…I should rig 4.7.  Ha!   Got out there and was sweetly overpowered for a few hours…then I was just overpowered.   Air was cool (too cool for shorties) and blowing more from the North than we usually sail East Landing in (the reach was to the right instead of the left) but the Peconic was a warm welcome bathtub.  Good jumping, good jibing off the swell…an excellent sesh!  (editor's addition:  I forget to mention the rain.  Yeah the rain was sometimes blinding, sometimes hitting the water so hard that there was an "echo fog" from the rain splash a few feet off the water.  Big deal...I'd take this day again in a second!)

Saturday:   Sebonac Inlet, y’all.  Tomas, Jan & Bruce, Felix,  George, Joe, and your editor on five meter sails under sunny blue skies.   For Felix it was his introduction to Sebonac, which while friendly was not serving up the trademark ramps.   Took the 5.5 out.  After 90 minutes (for me...George and Joe were on it early) the wind began to lighten, and some of us switched from chop hop mode to freestyle.  I blew various attempts at donkey jibes and upwind 360's (hadn't hit a UW360 since Bonaire) before lightening winds forced us to pack it in.  "We milked it to the end" George said.

Sunday: Return to Mecox.  The forecast for Mecox was perfect: Warm building southerlies.   Sally, Eileen and I launched from the Yacht Club...Sally on a 4.5, Eileen 5.0, and me on the 6.2/99 liter Skate (could have been on the 5.5).  This was Sally's triumphant return to windsurfing after our February Bonaire trip. She felt overpowered but managed some deep water waterstarts, whilst Eileen claimed a perfect jibe.   For myself it was mostly jibatorium step and ducks, as the UW360 continued to humiliate me.  Until my very last attempt!  Yes...   Also on the water:  Eileen's dog's vet (I sailed with two veterinarians in one weekend...a first) and one lucky guy with a house on the bay.

Three days of windsurfing on the Fourth of July weekend...that my puffins is a summer holiday!

(Top:  Eileen and the editor inbound at the Yacht Club.  Middle:  Dr. Tomas is not in fact working with medical marijuana.  Bottom:  Sally shreds.)

A Taste At the Bowl, and a Puffin Siting.

I missed it (of course I missed it...there were waves.  Story of my life these days...) but the Wolf, Scott, and Jeff were out on 5.3's at the Bowl Wednesday.  "Sailed big boards from 2:30 - 3:30. Wind was due E to slightly ESE, and gusty. We alternated from nicely-powered to slogging. Bowl was mostly flat, except for a small outer sandbar that would jack up a head-high wave out of nowhere. Caught a couple giant airs and even a few short wave rides. Good sesh, sunny and smiling."

Don't you like how Jeff cuts to the chase?   Then yesterday some of the guys caught more action at Sebonac Inlet.

One day I'll have a proper full-on windsurfing session again.  I know...I just got back from Bonaire, but as Scott would say "I neeeeeeeed it!"

Switching topics to a different kind of Puffin, Scott says he saw some puffins a few weeks ago.  This is great news...I haven't seen any puffins in the area in about three years, and I worry that whatever they eat (sand eels) are no longer around.   I'll be looking for puffins at my next Sebonac sesh...this is the time to catch a glimpse of them.

(Jeff was too busy catching those occasional waves to snap many photos, but here's one he took of Scott on the inside at the Bowl.)

Puffins On Parade (puffin art)

We just received this from Bowsprite, the mad and wonderful nautical illustrator of New York Harbor.  "Puffin in da house!  But of course this trippy groovy piece will make me think of you!" she writes.   So here it is.  Thanks Christina!

And whose nephews would these be?

Alec and Jack (my nephews in Oregon) hanging out with the Great Puffin of Portland (or so I shall refer to him.)   Alec is a seagull man himself, so I'm glad to see him accepting other seabirds, as Jack's t-shirt recommends.  Jack has good taste in all things.

Previous niece and nephew sighting at the Oregon Puffin can be found here. 

(Photo courtesy Aunt Jane)

My wife is a blonde, but this is not her.

This fine photo of a tufted puffin is by Chris Dodds.   Peconic Jeff spotted it.

My Niece and Nephew. 'Nuff said.

Maddy and Zac in Portland.

Wakeboarding Alaska (Isn't it a bit cold for this?)

With the bulk of the Puffin/Wind Chimp community up north snowboarding at CD's place (wish I coulda made it!) I have no tales of derring-do (or doofus do) of my own to share. So thank you Bill Nightingale for sending this peach...Alaska wakeboarding (featuring a special appearance by a puffin 56 seconds into the video.) Enjoy!

Groundhog Day for Puffins

Every year on February 2nd, Peconic Puffins emerge from their burrow and consider their shadows.  If there's a shadow, what does it mean?  Should I visit Bill and Hulse in Puerto Rico?  Take the wife to Bonaire?  Check the seals on my drysuit?   Or just bring my fin collection to the kitchen table, do some winter maintenance with sandpaper, and daydream about April wave sessions at the Bowl?

The druids celebrated the midpoint between the winter solstice and spring equinox (though the date is off by a week...not bad for people without decent iPhone apps) and in Punxsutawney I've read they used to hunt groundhogs and then have a barbecue.  But those were the old days.  This Groundhog Day I'm gonna check my drysuit (and dream of Bonaire.)

(Photo courtesy Gareth James at Geograph.    And if you're wondering what the kayak & cucumber blog set have to say about it, check out the Groundhogma on Frogma.)

 

Wolf Moon, Puffin Moon

The Wolf returned to the water a few days ago, sufficiently recovered from a dinged knee.  Peconic Jeff noted that this event took place on the auspicious day of a Wolf Moon.   I asked Jeff (who knows about moons) when the Puffin Moon was, as I am desperate to get back on the water.   Jeff did some research and said "I don't know...all I found for "Puffin Moon" was this:

(Wolf photo by Jeff Schultz.   Puffin photo by Sally Van Natta, an impressive nature photographer.  Check out her work on Flickr.)

Merry Christmas

The editors and staff of the Peconic Puffin wish you a Merry Christmas! The image is from a favorite Christmas card, which says "original design by Roz Davis". We thank Roz every year (Thanks Roz!)