The Peconic Puffin
A blog about a group of windsurfers and other water sports enthusiasts, and their friends. Established 1993.
Category: Aruba
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27 years ago windsurfing magazines were chock full of wonders! In this 20th anniversary issue published in 1990 (so there was a windsurfing magazine in 1970) there's a QA with US1111, a jump clinic, and Better Battens! I remember when battens seemed precious and specialized. They seemed to break a lot, too.…
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Wave sailing Aruba. Yeah I said it. Check out this photo of the mighty Jeroen Weststrate tearing up Westpunt, Aruba. Also check out the photo credit in the lower right corner: Dasher Films. Methinks something special is afoot down Aruba way. Watch this space…
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For five years awhile back the wife and I went to Aruba at least once per year (all the way back to when she was “the girlfriend”) and had a lot of good times and good friends there. When I stumbled across this compilation of local TV coverage of Aruba’s Hi-Wind races (1987-2006…this is one…
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He’s done it. Chachi posted in the Long Island Windsurfing Group that Rich scored his first vulcan at Heckscher recently, which “took me almost 3 years and well over a thousand attempts.” Rich was looking good and close last fall at the ABK freestyle clinic (photo by ABK instructor Brendon, above) so it should come…
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T’was ten years ago in Aruba when I was out snapping photos of my wife windsurfing when Andy Brandt sailed by. Even back before freestyle windsurfing became the cool new thing, Andy simply could not sail in a straightforward manner on his own time. Here he is carving an inside-the-boom, back-to-sail planing tack, on a…
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We just got off the phone with Tony Kardol, who runs Vela Aruba. He says that the Marriot no longer wants to kick Vela out of its prime spot on the beach. Even better, the Marriot wants to build it a new building for sails and boards that better faces the sailing area to…
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Our windsurfing minivacation ended with one more windy day (5.5 conditions) for a great five days of wind. Having been coming to Aruba for over a decade I wanted to close out this series of blog posts with bits of news on two Arubans who have taken on semimythical status over the years. (This is…
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So much wind, so little time. When we came here last year we did not fare so well with the wind. Most days I was on a 6.2 to 7.2 sail and large boards…not exactly what you come to Aruba for, but then again February is not a particularly windy month in the ABC islands.…
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We have returned for a February windsurfing spectacular. Just one day into the trip, the wind and water already surpass last year’s trip. Day One: Surfergirl 777 on a Neil Pryde 4.0 and JP Freestyle Wave 85, your editor on a Starboard S type 93 and a 5.2, and we were both well powered. The…
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When you step up to the registrar at the Huts College of Windsurfing (the instruction desk at Vela Aruba) you know you’re in the right place. Back in Dasher’s teaching heydey this is where I learned to jibe, but I always stared wonderingly at the exotic mysteries being taught in grad school. I secretly aspired…