The Peconic Puffin

We scored a solid SUP session yesterday.   The other guys had been scoring them all week, but I’d been in the city so yesterday’s 4-6 footers at Ponquogue were a big treat.

T’was me, Peconic Jeff and Jon Ford (Scott and the Wolf showed up too, but a pressing conversation kept them off the water.)  Both Jeff and I had video cameras mounted on our paddles to capture the excellent action to be.   The waves were mostly peaking in a single spot, but every now and then a big set would come through, and they always seemed to form about 50 yards further out.   The biggies were great to catch, but as often as not they caught us too far in, so there was plenty of mad paddling to clear them before getting rolled mightily towards shore.

Several times yesterday I had the new (and alarming) experience of being in the water as a large wave approached in which I’d manage to clear the wave but my board would caught, be pulled over the falls, and then drag me by my leash line, fast.   So fast and hard was that pull that I could not get to the surface, and instead was being trolled like some gigantic fishing lure at high speed.   Or an underwater Nantucket sleigh ride.    Shortly before I was going to call it a day my leash wrapped around the camera mount after a fall…

Then came a big, meaty wave…

Sleighride began with a mighty yank…

And when I finally got back on the board, I found the camera mount had been pulled apart.  No camera.

Somewhere in the watery sands at Ponquogue is my little sports video camera.  It’s got some great footage on it, but truth be told the thing was distracting me from surfing, and I suspect I’ll be quite happy only thinking about catching waves (and avoiding sleighrides.)

I’ll bet Jeff got some exciting footage, though!

(Photo:  Jeff on the good side of a wave, as captured by his paddlemounted camera.  How cool is that?  He has more great stills (and video too, I'll wager) and when he puts some online I'll link to whatever I can't steal.)