And The Title Of This Blog Post Is ...

So Scott and I went out on Sunday. The water was about 60ºF and the air was a little warmer. The wind was blowing nicely when the two of us arrived at the Peekskill Waterfront, but it died quickly. Argh!

Now did I do the smart thing and go back home to get some paddles? No, because I'm stupid that way. We went out in almost nothing with a weak westerly. Then the wind turned into a northerly. Scott had rigged a 6.6, but it didn't have enough downhaul. He teased me before we launched and said, “You're not allowed to say anything about my equipment.”

My response was, “Wow, Scott, I just got an excellent title for a blog post: Scott needs better equipment!” Scott laughed.

Now Scott started getting blown (more like an aggressive drift) south. He got blown past the Peekskill Yacht Club, which is the last easy place to do a walk-of-shame. The wind was just so light Scott couldn't get a grip on it with his sail. I was having trouble myself. Granted my Kona is an excellent light-wind board, and I had rigged my trusty 8.5, but the wind was almost nothing. I mentioned to Scott to ditch in a cove south of the Yacht Club and I'd do my best to get back to get a car. It was running through my mind that my new title for the blog post should be, “Don't Go Out in Light Winds, Stupid!” (Stupid meaning me, not Scott.)

Scott kept trying to swim his board north. Unfortunately the tide was heading out so he was getting pulled slowly towards Fleischmann's Pier. I got a little panicky. If Scott got pushed south of the Pier, he'd be heading towards Indian Point and its dreaded no-go-zone. (I've been told unequivocally that if you invade that space you will go to jail and your craft will be confiscated. Permanently.) I yelled at him to ditch at the base of Fleischmann's Pier.

I was a little panicky sounding. One of my secret reasons for doing windsurfing is that I'm completely fascinated and a little frightened of the water. So, when something goes wrong, the alert siren goes off in my head. I yelled at him to get to shore, and I think he yelled back. Then I got angrier. Why wasn't he getting to shore? Yeesh!

Then Lady Luck smiled on us. A westerly started up, plenty of wind to sail north and get back to the Peekskill waterfront. We both grabbed the wind and headed back. Scott needed a little help steering, but he was fine. I was (expletive deleted) relieved.

I tried to enjoy the wind and get up on a plane. I headed South again, but the wind, the evil wind dropped again. I limped back slowly to the waterfront, then fell in as the wind direction changed again. (You know, 60º water is cold, even with a farmer john wetsuit.) This time the wind was a light southerly, perfect for getting back.

I got back probably fifteen minutes after Scott. I apologized for shouting at him, blaming my own mother-hen personality. I said it probably made me a good teacher but an annoying windsurf buddy. He accepted and said, “Hey, I wasn't worried.” He wasn't? Why not? Argh!

So the real titles of this post should be either:

1) Ian should stop being such a mother hen.

or

2) Ian needs to calm down on the water.

Here's a map of our misadventures:

New Kona Boards

Kona (really Exocet) has come out with two new Kona boards.

The first is the Kona 9.5, which is another wave-oriented longboard. The black TT model is a bit lighter than the white one. I have to say though that this longboard is getting pretty short. It almost looks like a shortboard. It's also 120 liters, which pits it almost in shortboard territory. Has anybody out there sailed the Kona waveboards? I'm fascinated to know how they sail in the waves, especially compared to my Kona One.

The second, and this is the one I'm really interested in, is the Kona SUP.

Now in this economy I can't justify getting a new SUP board, but I can't help drooling (especially when my Kona One makes a perfectly serviceable SUP board). It's got a gorgeous wood pattern, although I think that's just a pattern, not the actual construction. It's shorter than a Kona one but just as wide. It also continues the Kona step-tail design, which apparently can be nice in the waves.

Exocet executives, I know you want to donate one of your new SUP boards to a blogger who will praise it to the skies. Don't you?

I got both of these pictures from Kona-Windsurfing.com. Incidentally, the forums there are a pretty good site for longboard information. The posters tend to be Kona fanboys, of which I am one, but there's also some pretty good stuff. People come and ask questions, and the Kona nerds (guilty as charged) answer. One ongoing thread discusses the possibility of the Kona One as the new Olympic board. That sounds like a mighty nice idea. I think the RFX will be the board for the 2012 Olympics, but the model is open for revision in 2016.

The winds have been pretty good right now. Unfortunately I haven't gotten out because of the kids. Man, twins take a lot of work!

We had the babies baptized a few weeks ago. That's Miranda on the left and Guinevere on the right.

The Perils of Light Wind

I was itching to sail today. The forecast was ... sucky, but I couldn't help myself. I needed to get on the water.

At first I thought I'd do some standup paddling, but the wind improved a little. So I loaded up, took my 8.5 sail and mast, then headed out. Scott would meet me a little later.

The wind was about 6 mph when I got there: plenty for displacement sailing. Unfortunately the Peekskill lot was complete full because of a Latin music festival. There was no parking near my launch site. So I went to my alternate site, the abandoned boat ramp. I rigged, put on my thin farmer john wetsuit, and launched. The tide was low, so there were many slimy rocks exposed on the cracked ramp. The best bet was to dip the Kona's nose into the water, then gradually slide the whole kit in, making sure not to fall.

I did a nice sail past Annsville Creek getting up to near Bear Mountain. I'm trying to keep the Kona's daggerboard up and not rely on it much. It slows the board down even as it adds upwind pointing ability and stability. So I kept it up and my balance was fine: very few falls.

I returned and saw Scott unloading at our usual spot. Cars had cleared out, and there was available parking. I moved my car back, increased the downhaul on my sail, then set out again. Scott was on his Rio with a 6.6 sail. Unfortunately this older 6.6 sail needs a 490 mast, and scott only had a 460. It wasn't downhauled enough. This became a problem later.

Scott's still struggling with getting onto a tack. Some good lessons would benefit him. Once he got out of the lauch site cove, he got pushed downwind. If Scott was better able to get onto a tack this wouldn't be a problem, but he was struggling. I sailed circles around him, coaching him. Finally we got pushed too far down and I tried a tow. He'd lay the boom down on the tail, then go prone on his board.(Scott claimed the mast base was in a very uncomfortable place, but I told him to stop whining.) Once prone, he held onto my rear footstraps. Kona rescue! Yes!

No. The wind died as we were arranging ourselves. I could barely make any headway. Finally we had to detach out windsurfing centipede and make for the shore ourselves. This wasn't a problem. We were only about 100 yards from shore, but that would also mean a walk-of-shame through the Latin music festival. No.

Scott had no choice, but I decided to paddle my board back. It took about ten minutes to paddle about 1/8 of a mile, but I made it. My shoulders are still sore.

There was a gorgeous sunset as we packed. I took a picture of it with my phone, but the damn thing won't e-mail that picture to my e-mail address. It'll send it to another phone number, but not an e-mail address. Yargh!

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid …

The wind was pretty amazing this afternoon. I drove home along the Bear Mountain Parkway, a twisty goatpath of a road that has more than its fair share of accidents. The wind looked gorgeous: solid west with a little south, about 15-20. All along the surface were little whitecaps.

I convinced Kirsten that “Today was the day to windsurf!” and I packed my Go Board. Why not? The winds were perfect for it.

By the time I got to Peekskill Riverfront the wind had halved in strength. And I didn't even have my 8.5 sail with me. Oh well, I rigged the beat-up 7.0 and headed into the water.

I think this was the worst sail this year. I spent a full hour trying to get west. I barely tacked out of the waterfront. I barely made it anywhere except back and forth. the wind was actually planable, but that meant a downwind turn and a quick crash into the waterfront rocks. I had one nice planing run, and that's it.

Then to make matters sillier, I kept going back and forth where a wedding party was taking its pictures. The bridesmaids were all decked out in pretty burgundy dresses, and the bride had on something lovely too. I knew they were cursing at me. On this beautiful evening before the night of their lives, this handsome couple had to worry about an idiot windsurfer getting into the frame of their wedding pictures.

They hated me; I know it.

This wouldn't have happened if I had brought my Kona. Stupid, stupid, stupid.