The Peconic Puffin

I can’t believe we didn’t windsurf yesterday, but that’s how it went.  It was blowing about 25 from due North, and the plan was to sail Meschutt.   I hadn’t even left yet when Scott called:  “The Wolf says Meschutt is iced out…we’re heading to Sebonac!”

Fine with me.  Who doesn’t like Sebonac Inlet?   But with an already high and still rising tide, Sebonac Inlet had “no conditions” according to the guys…it was blowing, but the water was flat with some disorganized chop.   “Let’s go to the Pier!”

The Pier isn’t iced.   And it has plenty of wind.   But it also has the gnarliest shorebreak I’ve ever seen.   Do I have to launch, or can I just walk my rig over to the dumpster and toss it in?  Worse even than Mattituck Inlet’s beach break (actually it looked just like Mattituck, except while Mattituck’s demonic churn only extends about 8 feet out, the crazy scene at the Pier went for 30 yards.

Note to self:  Don’t go to Iron Pier for North Wind on a rising tide.

The Wolf still wanted to try it, but we also had the afternoon in mind, which was forecasted to feature some fine ocean swell around 3pm.   So we saved ourselves, which was wise, and caught a few hours of five (with the occasional six) foot swell.  It was Jon Ford, Peconic Jeff and myself stand-up paddle surfing, Scott doing his “SDS” (sit down surfing in a surf ski) while the Wolf (still nursing a knee tweaked at our New Year’s Day SUP session) decided to watch instead.  Also watching were some seals, one of which had a head the size of a basketball.

This was my first experience paddlesurfing into an offshore wind.   If you’ve never done this, the problem is you need to paddle extra hard to match speed with the waves, and even when you’re just upon the wave you need to put more weight forward to stop the wind from holding the nose of the board up.   And every once in awhile the wind just grabs the edge of the board (with you on it) and flips it, for fun.    It makes you realize how much we windsurfers depend on mast base pressure to trim the board.

Water temp was 41 degrees, btw.   Getting rolled by a meaty five footer in 41 degree water was not a treat.   Even worse if you were rolled into sand as you could bust a board…Peconic Jeff commenti:

"That
board was a loaner with a crack across the nose from a previous owner.
Jon had graciously (foolishly?) pulled it from "flat-water only" status
while repairing the tail of my own board. Somehow I safely managed over
a half-dozen sessions, including many overhead bombs from the Old Town
session and the New Year's Day Spectacular, as well as yesterday's.
Unfortunately, all it took was a nose-plant on the shore in front of
some psycho cross-waves for the crack to re-open. Not quite "snapping
the nose off" as first reported by the Puffin, but still a bummer.

Fortunately for me, the Wolf graciously (foolishly?) lent me his board for the rest of the afternoon."

Graciously, methinks.