The Peconic Puffin

Races, freestyle
heats, board tosses, RELAY RACES fer cryin’ out loud…there will be so many ways
to compete at the festival (June 12-13 at Heckscher Park.)   But what’s it all for?

“It’s for very
cool trophies,” says event MC Tommy “The Horn” Hering,  “in fact the coolest ever in the
history of the event.

The ECWF Org
committee commissioned the legendary ‘Jerry the Carver’ to whip up some
unique and collectible windsurf trophies. 
True keepsakes!”

 Those sound like
some pretty cool trophies to me.  
But when I think of unique and collectible Long Island windsurfing
trophies, my mind recalls the hand-painted pumpkins from the 2009 Fall
Regatta.   They were the
handiwork of Festival scorekeeper Jill Marr, who passed on creating this year’s
prizes because the organizers wanted…you know…trophies…instead of gourds.

"Keepsake
shmeepsake, I am an artiste
and I only work in pumpkin,” Jill told The Peconic Puffin.  “If my
pumpkins are no longer good enough for you I spit seeds in your general
direction.    But hey what do I need to do to win one of the hot
new trophies?"

You need to compete well, Jill!   For the Jerry the Carver
trophies, as well as some mysterious objets du shred that are rumoured to be in
play.    The relay races
will apparently involve some unusual batons, and there is talk of uber-prizes,
prizes within prizes…all kinds of stuff.   It boggles the mind (mine is easily boggled).

“Don’t
be boggled,” MC Thom told me.  
“The competition is for trophies, sure, but the event is for maximum
fun.”
I
nodded in agreement, but secretly I was thinking about pumpkins.   And the third annual East Coast Windsurfing Festival.

(Top:  Jimi Sobeck pastes the racing competition in the 2009 ECWF.   Bottom:  Pumpkins make nice trophies.   Race photo by Bill Doutney, pumpkin photo by the editor.)