Sunday funday

Great windy/sunny day at WM beach last Sunday 6/12/16. NW wind, kept going up and down (4.7 to 6.5 sizes) but still a lot of fun especially at low tide.

New wind meter at West Meadow Beach

The town of Brookhaven has finally installed a windmeter at west meadow beach. It's not online yet and it may need calibration but it's definitely an asset to the wind- and kite-surfing community...:)

Wind Meter from tonywind on Vimeo.

7.5 times

Thanks to a Bermuda high centered just off the southeastern US we have enjoyed more consistent windy days in June and beginning of July so far. Mostly SW pumped up by some thermal effect. Not a lot of wind but enough to get going on a 7.5. I know it sounds big but I'd stick to anything that gets me planing. Besides, I'm finally able to duck jibe this sail so it can't be that big :) I'm sure the South shore get's more breeze but I stick to West Meadow. I have been sailing most Saturdays and Sundays in June than any summer I can remember. July 4th was very good, yesterday OK. Maybe more today. Now looking forward to a strong frontal system...

A whole weekend sailing = happiness

Is there a better way to start a season of occasional windsurfing than 2 windy days in a row, with plenty of sunshine and on a weekend? West Meadow, Saturday 111L/7.5m2, Sunday 92L/5.8m2, Happiness. West Meadow 180 deg panorama; the toy on the right is mine :)

Jumped on the SUP bandwagon

I finally pulled the trigger on a SUP board about a month ago. It's an "old" (2009) starboard superfish 9'8". I got it quite cheap for a brand new SUP that's also sailable. At 140 liters, it floats enough for me to paddle on it comfortably although it's quite lively. I went many times flat-water SUPing and really enjoyed it. It still glides considered the small volume. I now hope to catch some waves with it at Cupsogue. The were a couple of good days (mostly wind swell) that I missed but hopefully we'll get more solid surf soon. Even if it's not designed to plane, I'm curious how this board will behave as a windsurfer on flat water (I can put footstraps on it). More later!

Sunset flatwater SUPing off west meadow beach

Gorgeous Sunday

As many others I have not missed the wind call last Sunday. Summertime at its best. We should get more of these cold fronts. Even on the North Shore the wind was 5.0-5.5 grade by the late afternoon. I rigged a 6.2 at first but that tired me out quikly. Rigged down to 5.8 and had a blast. I didn't mind being a bit overpowered as the are always gusts and holes at west meadow under these conditions. The chop was also disorganized or with a short period (about a board length) and therefore hard on one's knees. Not easy to get good speed and decent port tack jumps. But no complains after all also considered the nice little crowd of North Shore windsurfers and kiters too. Looking for more of this, hopefully later this week.

3rd day sailing this year

I'm pondering whether to change the blog title to "Rare windsurfing...." I have only sailed 3 times this year. Once in June and twice in July. After a tough working week, I decided that last Thursday forecast (SW winds gusting up to 30 knt) was a well-deserved gift from God so I headed to Shirley at round 3pm. The beach perennials (Steve and James) where already out on 6.0-ish. I rigged the 5.5/90L combo. Boys, it felt good to be on small gear after so long. Sweet port tack jumps! Obviously, after such a long period of inactivity, I could barely water-start but things are coming back... I had not crossed James in long time and (after seeing him wearing a helmet) my question were about the unfortunate accident that occurred at Shirley last year during the passage of hurricane Irene when Joe Rocco lost his life. James was the one who first pulled Joe out of the water. He told me the bay was littered with huge debris that day (such a massive chunk of dock). Joe had sustained severe head injuries but his board and fin didn't show apparent signs of damage as if he had hit a floating debris at full speed. James' rule is "always wear a helmet when it gets rough" and I think I'll stick to that too.

my favorite toy

James schlogging is way in after the wind dropped a notch. The cloud at the horizon is a big thunderstorm coming our way.

Another fine day in October

Yesterday West Meadow beach drew a small crowd of windsurfers and kitesurfers. Even Long Island's finest (Mike Burns and John Sassone) were seen spinning around there. There are now new fancy signs pointing to the beach in case one needs directions. The town has also replaced the booth at the parking lot entrance with a shiny new construction. Apparently, this wasn't a necessary makeover. I learnt someone ran into the old one with a car this summer...! Luckily no one was injured.

The day got better and better since I arrived in the early afternoon. No water sport fanatic was on sight and the wind seemed kind of light (for my bigger sail, 6.3) so I spent 5 good minutes pondering whether to rig or not. Then a strong gust convinced me the 6.3 would do. Eventually, the wind progressively went up and by 5 pm the freestylers were on 5.5-5.0 I guess. I don't have a lot of footage because the GOPRO mount on the boom tail got detached after the tail hit hard the sandy bottom (the tide was ultra low). The camera was saved by the safety line I added as a precautionary measure (the new gopro doesn't come with one). Too bad because the antifog was working like a charm. But I haven't missed much beside a couple of badly-closed duck jibes and perhaps the chance of capturing a few tricks Mike threw in front of me when I was sailing by. I'll just post a couple of still pics.








Yesterday it became apparent to me the importance of taking a break during a session -- a luxury I can rarely take--. Usually, I have such a limited time before it rains or it gets dark or the wind dies on me or I have to run back to work or somewhere else, I only think of rigging, getting in the water and sailing until I collapse. Admittedly, this isn't the best approach for improving my (limited) skills. On the contrary, yesterday I had the time to take a break, switch fin, and return to sail reinvigorated and with a clearer mind. This is crucial in order to be in control and to avoid repeating over and over the same stupid mistakes. One of mines is not doing a boom shaka with my front hand before flipping the sail. This encourages me to grab the mast with the other hand thereby slowing the flip to the point it takes me too long to sheet in. After the pause I focused on this issue and I was pleased to perform a couple of clean boom-to-boom transitions. I know it doesn't sound as exciting as landing a forward loop (which I'll perhaps attempt one day as my jumping skills improve) by in my mind closing the perfect jibe still marks the transition from an average windsurfer to a good one. And that's all occasional windsurfers aspire to, namely to become good occasional windsurfers (being occasionally good doesn't really help).


(boom-shaka and...)

(no boom-shaka. The difference seems small due to the perspective but sliding the front hand about a foot towards the mast greatly facilitates the flip allowing one to grab directly the other side of the boom with the back hand)

Back in action

The past "Suck-tember" I spent no time on the water due to a combination of shitty weather, work chores, various projects to carry on, and having to swap car with a friend (Lexus IS250's are cool to drive but don't carry windsurfing equipment). The beginning of October has been pretty much the same until last Saturday. I thought West Meadow would be "da spot" for the conditions: WSW 30+ MPH.
But when I arrived at the beach, about 2PM, I was surprised to see only 2 windsurfers in the water. As usual the kiter population was predominant. I rigged a 5.0 but the wind was really holey and starting to fade. The tide was going out which made for some kind of wave riding and nice port-side jumps. I'm trying to get more air out of these. After 2 months of windsurfing and weight-lifting inactivity my upper body strength is down to nothing but I managed to have fun. I put together a few jumps in a video which shows little technical skills and it has the sole purpose (as this blog) to remind me of this great day in October. The true highlight was meeting a great windsurfer called Jeff. I really had a nice chat with him and he was kind enough to share a glass of Montepulciano with me after the action! See you soon at West Meadow, Jeff!

West Meadow in October from tonywind on Vimeo.

Bye bye Irene

I never liked you. How can one like a one-eyed girl anyway? So Irene passed by and thankfully "only" as a trop storm. It took down lots of trees and with them the electric power. I heard it will take up to Friday to fix it up in Stony Brook?? I hear talking about rebuilding the infrastructures of the US as a way to create jobs and modernize the country. How about a new, smarter power grid? Anyhow, I have been following the storm on the radar and on the wind-meters linked on this webpage until early Sunday morning when the power went out. The wind picked up on the south shore first and the Moriches meter recorded a gust of 80 mph(!) from the E at about 5am. The North shore followed with lots of shacking and falling trees. It was also very clear from the radar that the mainland was to take the most of the rainfall as confirmed by the reports of catastrophic flooding in NJ, VT and parts of NY this morning. By 1pm things calmed out a bit then the wind switched to a very windsurfable WSW breeze. I thought some nut-job went windsurfing West Meadow beach by then. I even considered going to check the situation myself but decided to wait. I'm glad I did because (as expected) the wind turned into a brutal, super-gusty westerly, even worse than the one experienced the previous night. As a result this morning the road to WMB was flooded up to the Old Field Club. I read a windsurfer died yesterday afternoon in the South Bay near Shirley. I'm very familiar with the spot and I might have run in to the guy a few times. That's quite sad and a reminder that these storms are serious business.
Tuesday 8/30 update: LIPA restored the service this morning. Thanks for the hard work guys!!

Finally a solid, seasonal southwesterly

If you ask a windsurfer what summer should look like, he'd tell you sunny weather, warm water and a nice beach sandblasted by 25+ mph winds. Although rare this year, (I was away the past two weeks so I perhaps missed something?) these conditions materialized yesterday concomitant with the passage of a frontal system. Even in the usually gusty and holey conditions of West Meadow beach I had a solid blast from 1 pm to 4pm on a 5.8. I had another session at WM last Thursday on a 6.3 so today I'm bit stiff. What a great day! But Nostalgia is kicking in because the summer is about to end and I hate rubber...

Dusting off the mast-cam

Yesterday a nice SW breeze brought some relief to parts of the scorching island. A few locals savored the perfect summer conditions at West Meadow beach. As usual I joined later in the day when the wind picked up a few notches and 5.5 was probably the right size. It's easy to underestimate the wind speed at WM when it's blowing from the SW. The wind gets much stronger far from the shore. I dusted off the mast cam for the occasion and the raw video below mercilessly shows my less-than-perfect jibes, failed duck jibes and various other splashes....

Untitled from tonywind on Vimeo.

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!

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.