Miracle on a Sunday afternoon

It's a beautiful summer Sunday, not too hot. I'm working at home on a deck and the forecast said there won't be much wind. Nor there are such things as thermal winds at West Meadow. I think to myself "It's better this way 'cause at least I can avoid frustrations and focus on finishing this damn job". But in the early afternoon the trees start moving. As usually, I think "it's all in my head" but the breeze seems persistent. The Northport yacht club's meter confirms I'm not hallucinating after all (the meter is actually screaming by the summer standards)! No brainer! 15 mins later I'm at West Meadow. Still on big stuff but happily zipping through the water. But the "big sail complex" remains (I seem to sail bigger than anyone else). So I tried a few times to duck jibe the 7.5(*). I grabbed the other side of the boom but never close the jibe. Give me a few more of these "miracle Sundays" (and a new GoPro) and I'll prove I can do it...

(*) Old chinese proverb: "It's not to big if you can duck under it"

Is the summer going to suck?

I have been planing only 4 times since end of May. Mostly big sail sizes. Last time was on Monday afternoon at West Meadow on a 111L/7.0 combo. Good time. I'm sure there is a little more wind on the South shore but I rather spend less time in the car (what's your carbon footprint?) and more in the water. It seems to me we have had no strong SWesterly associated with cold fronts so far....
Anyhow I've bought a paddle and I plan on doing some flat water SUP on the 135L board. Sounds crazy I know, we'll see how that goes.

Season kick off

Sunday, May 29th was my first day in the water this year. At least on the East coast. I did some SUP in Santa Barbara in March, I might blog about that one day if I ever have the time (I don't). Anyhow, gorgeous day a West Meadow beach on Sunday. I was the only windsurfer there (at least in the entire afternoon). I was on my biggest combo 135L/7.5 but who cares when you are flying on the water riding your fin and you haven't windsurfed in months? Plus it was sunny, the water was warm and the people friendly. Paradise! Further, being an environmentally-conscious person, I value having to drive only 1 mile to go windsurfing. If I could find one of those big bike trailers I would just bike there with my gear... In all instances, for an occasional windsurfer like me, is psychologically very important to be able to say "I started sailing in May!"

Rampalicious West Meadow

Gorgeous day of windsurfing at West Meadow last Saturday. When I showed up at 2 pm the wind was in the 30's mph from WNW. A little too onshore for my taste but the tide was low and the ramps abundant, ranging from knee- to chest-high (and sometimes even more) waves. Plenty of kiters and windsurfers, too bad I didn't bring my camera. I sailed about 3h on a 5.5/92L. At the end the wind picked up a knotch and a 5 or 4.5 would have been more appropriate. More of the same on Sunday but the wind wasn't as strong and died in the afternoon.

Windsurfing Italy

I'm on vacation in Southern Italy where thermals rule this time of the year. I managed to borrow a windsurfer which is a mix of vintage and new parts.



It's a fanatic falcon 120 liter board, (narrow and long old school slalom board) with a Severne freemove 7.0 rigged on a NP 430 carbon mast and an old, flimsy aluminum boom. Not too bad after all. When the thermal kicks in around noon (and for most of the afternoon) you can windsurf in crystal-clear, warm waters with a scenic background (specifically the city of Messina in Sicily).





I really reccommend anyone to visit not only because it's Italy(!) but also because wind- and kyte-surf are popular here. As a matter of fact, you can snap pics of windsurfers and kyteboarders as your plane is about to land (see below) and there are spots where it's windy everyday.


(the tiny traces are windsurfers)


(kiterboarders)

Shit happens

We always think windsurfing as fun and often we forget the safety aspects related to our sport. This is even more the case for occasional windsurfers who don't spend too much time inspecting their "looks-fine-to-me" gear and want to rig as fast as possible to maximize their otherwise too short time on the water. Until something happens that reminds you to better be more careful.

To make a long story short, yesterday afternoon turned out to be windy on the South shore of Long Island. Much windier than forecasted. Maybe 30 mph from the SW. As I often do (being pessimist in terms of wind forecast) I grabbed my medium wind stuff. Plus the wind meter in Moriches was dead for the day and I had no clue what the wind was doing in the morning (did I mention I can't go home in the middle of the day so I need to decide from the morning what's the best choice of gear to take with me).

As I arrived at the beach at 3 pm I found it was blowing hard and I had a 6.3 and a 111L board when I should have had a 5.0 and a 90L board. What would you do at my place, go home? I kept saying to myself "Damn it! I knew it!" Then I opted for plan B which was to rig the 6.3 with as much out/downhaul I could apply and go out hoping the wind would drop a little. Which is what I did quite quickly. So fast that I forgot to check whether the plug on the top of the sail was fully inserted into the mast top. Actually, I thought the 6.3 had a cap not a plug at the top so "I could not go wrong". I have to say I'm used to check the top no matter what but there is always a day when you forget to do so and the consequences might be regrettable. So I put the hell of a lot of downhaul and went out. After a very short while, as I was saying to myself it was perhaps (uncomfortably) sailable with the 6.3, I heard a bang and instinctively looked up. What I saw was the mast sticking out of the sail top. Of course I didn't think "you haven't inserted the plug well" (human error), I thought "something must have failed at the top" because, after all, it's never our fault isn't it?
This wasn't a life threatening situation in any respect. I wasn't too far from shore (maybe 400 yards), there weren't big waves, the place is protected and there were people on the beach and a few windsurfers upwind from me. The worst scenario was a long swim pushing the gear to shore plus some walk back. However, the same could have happened to me in the Sound with over 30 knots of wind, bigger waves and a further away from shore. In that case there would be less to laugh about.

In any case, the first thing I thought was to try jibing and sail back with a floppy sail. Having a large board on which was easier to uphaul also helped. Of course I missed the jibe (I’m not a pro, it was also windy and the sail felt really unbalanced without tension) and ended up in the water. This messed up the sail even more. Forget about waterstarting. I tried uphauling but could not sheet in at first. The second attempt succeeded and I could sail most of the way back. I then fell again, can’t tell why. At this point the mast came out of the extension and it was a total mess. I opted for the short swim.
At shore I realized there was nothing broken, just the plug was not inserted all the way in the mast. It was simply pressing against it. With all that tension, as the mast flexed the top popped out. The entire mishap was caught on video and (although quite ridiculous) I decided to post it for the 2-3 people who read the blog and also as a perpetual lesson to myself about spending more time checking safety and less time swimming with my gear. A positive note was that I later re-rigged properly and the wind dropped and switched to the West and the 111L/6.3 was the perfect choice for some relaxed free-riding.

Shit happens from tonywind on Vimeo.

More bump & jump

Yesterday we have experienced wind conditions similar to last Wednesday. The wind was just a little less strong and it dropped late in the evening. I went out around 6pm on the 92L/5.8 for more bump&jump, jibing, trying duck jibes and jibe 360's. It really helps to be spot on with the sail size to make good progress. I feel I have improved this year on the basic moves, I just need to be more consistent (the lack of wind in the summer doesn't help that) and refine the technique..... long way to go!