Shirley Bump & Jump

This week we have finally got the amount of wind we deserve every day in the summer. The prob is I had to wait 3 weeks for that! So last Wednesday my eyes where on the wind meter in Moriches to figure out when the cold front would hit. This time the timing was perfect for late goers like me as the wind started to crank up at about 3pm. I hit the water at 6 pm. I had just got a (used) 5.8 NP alpha which seemed the right choice so I used that on the 92L board. By the sunset the wind had grown even stronger and 5.0 (or even smaller) was the call. As an occasional windsurfer, with only 2h available I never re-rig. But that's a bad habit I'm trying to correct. In these conditions Shirley offers sweet bump and jump conditions and I have tried to catch as much air as possible. Even if my jumping sucks (working on that) I put together this video to show the conditions. It's a little dark as I was sailing straight into the sunset but I hope it conveys the fun. Enjoy!

July28th bump&jump windsurfing from tonywind on Vimeo.

West Meadow like Napeague?

I had not hit the water in a preposterous time period spanning 20 days(!). So yesterday afternoon after work I said to myself let's try catching the leftovers of the NW wind at West Meadow beach. No matter what, even if dies on me and I have to swim back. Actually, I was more optimist that than because in the afternoon around 4:30pm the wind still looked decent, perhaps enough for the 7.0/111L combo. And so I went.

It was ultra low tide so I had to walk a little to launch. As soon as I was up and going I realized the wind had dropped and was really not enough to get me on a plane. Even if I pumped the sail. There was an occasional "teasing" gust putting me on a plane and then dying. I sailed towards South past the long sand bar hoping the wind would get stronger down the harbor. But nope, no chance.

As I was getting more frustrated I realized that after all the reason I was there was to chill out and enjoy the Ocean (well the Sound, whatever). It still gave me the chance to practice low wind jibes and tacks. Then the wind Gods listened and turned up the breeze a few notches and I found myself planing in flat, knee-deep water for about 20 minutes. Too bad it didn't last but that made my evening!

July 4th with the thermals

The thermals are back! Time to dust off my light wind stuff.
Around noon yesteday there wasn't a leaf moving on the North shore whereas a nice SW thermal was starting to kick in on the South shore. When I arrived at Shirley around 3pm I was pleased to see little whitecaps. Wooo hoooo!
I rigged my new (kind of, it's actually a prototype I bought cheap from Neil Pryde Maui) NP V6 on the Exocet speedslider 135 L.
What a great afternoon! Check the video below

July 4th light wind windsurfing from tonywind on Vimeo.