The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Haiku for This Morning's Excellent Session at Towd Point

            7.0 balanced,

            Warm water sprays on my legs,

            Peconic summer.

Windsurfing Racing Returns To Long Island in October!

After all the fun at the East Coast Windsurfing Festival, you know you couldn’t wait a year for the next Long Island event.   And you won’t!   Racing, freestyle, and stand-up paddling events are all planned for the East Coast Windsurfing Fall Regatta:

Notice of Event:  East Coast Windsurfing Fall Regatta

Date: 10/10 - 11  (Columbus Day Weekend)

Events:

Windsurf Racing - The main event, with multiple races
scheduled for Saturday & Sunday.  There will be several Divisions, including:

  -  Open Division - no limits re board or sails.  This will include RSX and Formula, and any boards with a sail > 7.5.

  -  7.5 Division -  limited only to sails that do not exceed 7.5, and no formula gear unless the wind is honking.  Intended for the casual racer, this will likely be the largest fleet and main event.

  -  Womens Division
  -  Juniors Div  - (17 & under)
  -  Masters  (50 yrs and over)
  -  Heavyweights - (Actual weight category TBD)

Also at the Regatta:

Freestyle Expression Sessions - Freestyle will not be an official
competition, but, we will be looking for freestylers of all levels to go out in between races and show us what you got.  This is for the crowd… hot-dogs wanted!

SUP Races - If enough people bring paddles and are willing, we'll run some SUP races along the beach.   SUP boards are preferred, but Longboards can used as well.

Windsurf Relay Races - Yes, you read it correct, this would be a
first, but our Race Director has something up his sleeve.

Location:    It depends on the Wind!    The organizers will select and announce the specific venue the night before the event, based on forecasted wind conditions, so the best possible event can be had.  If wind is forecast out of the South, we  will run the event at Heckscher State Park.  If anything out of the North is expected, we will go to the LI Sound side.   The location selection will be posted on:

-PeconicPuffin,
-the LI Windsurf Yahoo group
-iWindsurf.com’s forums,
-the windsurfing newsgroup.

We will also list a phone number one week before the event as the Regatta Hotline!

Registration:    Send an email to jillmarr@optonline.net  and let us know you're in.   Indicate which Division you plan to sail.   We will look for a $10 contribution at the event.

The East Coast Windsurfing Fall Regatta is an open event; windsurfers of all levels are encouraged to attend.   If you're not sure you're ready for casual racing (or if you are sure and would like to improve your skills in advance) sign up for the ABK clinic at Napeague in September that will feature Andy Brandt teaching a special "racing" group for anyone who wants to focus on racing skills.

Wave Sailing: The Breath Mint

I had to see it to believe it.   My original best windsurfing buddy (and OG Peconic Puffin) Steve gifted me these over the weekend.  "Mast high waves are no problem for the windsurfer with fresh breath!"

They are strong (as they'd need to be to stand up to such conditions.)

Sailing With A Friend

Just a few years ago Massimo was my partner in crime on the water.    We sailed together seemingly every weekend.    Massimo is in fact the guy who unintentionally pushed me into winter windsurfing, when he called one Thanksgiving day to ask “If I buy a drysuit, will you sail with me this afternoon?”

I don’t remember how cold it was that day, but I remember we had a great session at Mecox.   And so a windsurfing partnership was forged*.

So for a couple of years we sailed together whenever it blew.   But then Mass got caught up with work and house renovations and children and golf (renovations…what was he thinking?) and by the time we got to last year, we sailed together all of once.

So when I received a one-word email (“windy?”) from Massimo on the morning of July fourth, I was on it.   Stopped by his house to make sure he got into his van, and then hit the water at Sebonac Inlet.    And while the wind was less than honking (we were planing on 7.0’s) it was an exquisite summer session…sunny warm air warm water…and of course Sebonac Inlet is perhaps the prettiest place to sail out east, if pretty is your thing.   I saw a huge turtle...maybe two feet long...it was the largest critter I've ever seen on a Peconic bay.

But the main thing was getting Mass back on the water.   Afterwards he proclaimed the session “awesome”.

I think he’ll be back for more.

(*apologies for “partnership was forged” such a tired phrase…but I was in a hurry.)

The B Side of the National Anthem

To celebrate the anniversary of the founding fathers sticking to King George, I present the mighty Laurie Anderson's thoughts on the Star Spangled Banner, as well as "the B-side" of our national anthem, Yankee Doodle.

Sprint Swimming and the Twelve Hundred Dollar Wheel

Years ago my friend Steve had some experiences getting wiped out in the impact zone.   He later dubbed the generic experience of being tumbled, bounced, thrashed, and subsequently thrown on the beach “the twelve-hundred dollar wheel” which was his ballparking of the likely cost of equipment destroyed (any combination of sail, boom, mast, board damage, shredded drysuit etc.) while tumbling end over end.  When I started sailing in waves my guide Jonathan Ford told me “you don’t want to be in the water in the impact zone.”   I knew what he was referring to:  the twelve hundred dollar wheel.  The plan to avoid the wheel is to:

1.  Don't screw up and fall in front of (or get creamed by) a wave in the first place, and:
2.  If you do, don't let your gear go hurtling out of control towards reef and beach.

The thing is, I’ve tried going over the falls whilst holding on to my gear…I failed (or rather, I chose to avoid getting smashed and stabbed by my stuff, and so let go.)   Once the wave is past and I’m reunited with air and I’ve spotted my gear twixt me and the beach, I’ve learned to swim like a lunatic (sprint) after board and rig with the goal of, if not actually waterstarting and returning to the outside, at least guiding it all into more reasonable water or doing a controlled drag up onto the beach.

The key to increasing success, I’ve found, is to go all-out immediately.  Unreasonable effort.   There’s no time to gather one’s thoughts or even to swim gracefully, at least not for me.   An all-out blast of effort is the ticket.    If a second wave gets to the gear before I do, then I’m really out of luck (though the one time I let this happen at Iron Pier, I got out of it for a measly $100 in carbon base extension.)    I think it’s also a good strategy for any time you’re separated from your board (don’t let the wind blow your gear away when you’re a half mile from shore) but in the waves, most definitely.

Otherwise you might be looking at the twelve hundred dollar wheel.

(Today, July 1 has been designated "blog about swimming day" by Tugster and Bowsprite, members of the loose affiliation of New York City area waterbloggers knows as "a loose affiliation of New York City waterbloggers" or ALAONYCW.)

Serious Uni Inspection (Shark Bait Avoidance Program)

After my recent shark experience I thought it was a particularly good time to inspect my unis.  I’ve always been pretty good about eyeballing them and giving them a bend to see if any cracks or rot are visible, but a post in the Live to Sail blog was taking uni inspection to the next level.  In short, Live to Sail's George (under the guidance of Lost In Hatteras' Andy) disassembled his unis to check out the portion of the tendon where the bolt passes through.

Because I worry about gear failure (and now I REALLY worry about gear failure) I actually keep a separate uni for ocean and “far from shore” sessions…it’s always my newest uni.   I save my older ones for sailing all the spots where a breakdown would be no big deal (I still inspect those unis too, mind you.)  And every few years I buy a new uni which bumps the top one down the uni heirarchy, and the oldest goes into the trash.

 I was inspired by both the shark and the Live to Sail post, so I took out my tool box and prepared to disassemble and inspect.   To my horror, the ocean uni (aka the Shark Session uni) was missing one of its retaining nuts.   The bolt holding the tendon to the bottom of the uni was being held in place by friction alone.   That was Bad.    Then I slid out the bolt to see what condition my newest tendon was in…it was cracked halfway through.

So I drove to the windsurfing shop to get parts from Jon Ford.  While installing the new tendon with my new nut, I asked Jon if it was possible to overtighten.

“Make sure its tight, but you don’t want to really crank it,” he said, about a second after I’d really cranked it, and managed to split the top of the uni.

So I ended up buying a brand new uni.  My new ocean uni.

(photo swiped from Live to Sail:  The tendon looked great until George and Andy disassembled the unit.)

My Shark Encounter

Seventeen-plus years of windsurfing and I’d never seen a shark.   I never wanted to see a shark, but if I did my preference was to see a fin perhaps 100 yards in the distance, swimming parallel to shore, oblivious of me.   That’s not what I got.

What I also wanted if I ever saw a shark was to be planing and well powered so I could head back to the beach and maybe have lunch while the shark left the area.  That’s not what I got either.

Sailing outbound at the Bowl in side-on winds, I was maybe 600 yards from the launch and 200 from the beach when I jibed off some swell.   Caught the sail, got back into the footstraps, and then a big lull had me quick-step out of the straps so I could shlog.

And then my head just turned upwind and down…I must have heard it surface.   I was staring at a black triangle, ten feet away from me.  During the first thousandth of a second I thought “not a dolphin” (I’ve never seen a dolphin off of Long Island, but one can hope.)    For a quarter second I thought “I can’t believe I’m staring at a shark fin”.   Then I thought “it’s the size of a very large slice of pizza.”   Then some swell changed the angle of the light reflecting on the water, and I saw all of the shark.   About seven feet long, swimming slowly parallel to me.    And it was so very much a shark.    It wasn’t swimming by, it was swimming with me, checking me out.   I have no spitting skills at all but I could have easily spit on its head.    I was not happy.   None of the other guys were anywhere near me…it was just me and this shark. 

I focused on getting away.   Bearing off seemed like a good idea (the beach was downwind) and there was a tiny bit of increased speed.   I stopped looking at the thing and focused on the rig, encouraging myself with the thought that the shark probably wasn’t planning on attacking.   Yeah we’ve all heard the statistics that you’re more likely to be hit by lightning than be attacked by a shark, but I think those odds shorten some when:

1.    You’re by yourself hundreds of yards from shore.
2.    A shark is ten feet away from you, and not leaving.

Anyhow I was shlogging on my broad reach, making little headway and hoping for a gust to get me planing (I didn't get one.)   Then the thought hits me “unhook, unhook!”   What if the wind dies completely for a moment…hooked in I might not be able to do a mad balance dance, and then I’d fall in.   A minute later I start thinking “maybe I should hook in” worrying about fatigue.    Then I had my stupidest thought:  Look behind me and see what the shark is up to.   I started to look back when a voice in my head said “ARE YOU INSANE WHAT IF YOU LOSE YOUR BALANCE!” which snapped my head back forward, where I saw a nice wave forming…perhaps five feet high, which was plenty for what I needed.   

The first swell took me a third of the way to the beach.   I rode the second the rest of the way in.   I was on the beach,

I walked my gear a few hundred yards back to the launch, where the guys were hanging out waiting for the wind to come back.   I was looking forward to telling my story, so they could laugh at me and reassure me with their own experiences…these guys have been windsurfing in the ocean for ages (this is just my third year) and surely they’ve seen plenty of sharks.

I started with Scott.  “Really?” was all I got.

Then Bill Barber.  Bill surfs, so he must see plenty of sharks.  “That’s rare,” he told me.  In twenty years in the ocean he’d only seen one on Long Island.

Then Fisherman arrived.  Fisherman is in fact a commercial fisherman, he knows what’s up, and he will not let me down.  He asks me to describe the fin.  I tell him about the pizza slice.  Fisherman says “that’s pretty big”.

Shit.   The whole plan was to get reassured so I could go back out and sail without fear.   But that didn’t happen.*   

Then the wind came back up and nobody cared about my shark and they all went out.   Jon Ford and Jeff and Ethan and Jimi all showed up and didn’t care about the shark and they sailed too, so of course I went back out, though I kept my runs short…no long excursions to the outside for me.   And if you’ve ever experienced some nervousness sailing in the ocean, distracted by imagined perils in the deep that caused you to be tentative in your sailing and screwed up your technique, imagine how you’d do sailing in waters where you know there’s a shark… a shark you've already met and that has demonstrated some casual interest in you.   I was fine on the inside, but for the rest of the day on the outside I was a tentative mess.   What knucklehead sails back to the shark?

I'd happily sail the Bowl again tomorrow, though.  

* Jon Ford arrived later and said he’s seen the occasional shark hanging out by the sand bar in the past. 

(Top:  I'm jibing well on the inside, but I'm not smiling 'cause I'm headed back towards Shark Town.  Photo by Bill Doutney.)