The Peconic Puffin

 We often joke about how it’s always raining at our Bowl
sessions (that’s what the requisite ENE-ESE winds usually arrive with,) but I
will confess to being less than totally enthusiastic about rigging and suiting
up in cold rain for a sesh.  What a
wimp.

I arrived at the Bowl and walked through the driving rain to
catch a glimpse of the Wolf launching towards a set of  clean, well-mannered waves, waist to
chest high.    Beautiful
and friendly.   So I quick
rigged a 5.3 and the 93 liter FSW and launched, to join the Wolf, Frank, and on
kites Hulse, Bill Barber, and the very stoked Andy.   The waves were nothing special to look at, but they
were predictable smooth lefts that gave me more bottom turns than I’m used to,
so I was a happy camper.  
After an hour Peconic Jeff arrived, and the building wind soon had most
of us switching out boards and sails, with me finally arriving at the 4.5/77
liter combo.   By this time
Scott was on the water and Jon Ford arrived.   By this time also the wind backed a little more
offshore, the inside became gusty, the outside overly choppy, and your editor
wimpy.

“I’m not having fun anymore,” I told Scott.

“I know, me neither,” Scott agreed.   “I can’t see in this rain.”

“See?   Who
needs to see? *   We couldn’t
see before when it was Smooooooooothe! 
It’s the bumps and the gusts that suck,” I said.

“Yeah well I like to see,” Scott insisted.

So the two of us derigged and left (along with Frank the
Marathon Man…he never takes a break) whilst late arrivals Jeff and Jon went for
the gusto.

(*Earlier, during the Smoooooothe portion of the sesh one of
the things I didn’t see was Bill behind me when I started to jibe off of some
swell.   I stuck the mast in
the water to avoid the collision.  
Maybe I needed to see.)