Jan van der Wolf…the Wolf…commodore of the Eastern Long Island Wind Chimp Association and a proud Peconic Puffin…has decamped for Florida digs.
“It’s too cold here in the winter” he told me.
I agreed. It used to not be.
“It’s the end of an era,” Scott says.
More than that, says we. Ten years ago for Jan’s 70th birthday I wrote “The Wolf is the goal. The Wolf is a beacon. Every time Jan vanderWolf catches a wave or launches off a ramp, we're hopeful for ourselves, that we can be out there decades from now. Also we're having a good time, because let's face it: The Wolf is fun to sail and paddle with. "The Stoke of the Wolf" Jeff calls it.”
Have seen it all with the Wolf. Supping a "party wave". Snow sailing at South Jamesport. Sebonac Inlet going off. A mid ocean collision. "You'll have that" Jan says.
Now at the age of 80 the Wolf is exercising some judgment. Good for him, sad for us. We all love the man. But now we don’t get to sail or paddle with him. He sold his beloved landscaping business. And the vanderDome is closed. Our loss.
If he comes to visit everyone will lend him gear, of that I’m sure. I hope he does.
Elvis has left the building.
(Air Wolf photo courtesy Jeff Schultz.)
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