Down to the Billabong, Favorite Wind Things

Lenny the Squid on the Seatrend ATV 268, Manhasset
Bay ... back in the days of screaming post-work
sunset northwesterlies. Photo (c) Phil Gray

 Here's a photo of a few favorite things, and theeps (them's be peeps): The Seatrend 268 ATV, a Hot Sails Maui 5.0 Sq.M. sail (Jeffrey Henderson design?) and Lenny the Squid, ripping up Manhasset bay, our local Billabong, after work with Drysuit II and myself, sometime back when boards had properly shaped noses.

  In the photo above, is the 268 ATV. Between the two of us (but not at the same time), Lenny and I rode that thing into near oblivion. For the period, it was light although the construction eventually did not stand up too well to our heavy footwork,   strong wind, and the beatings it took in the chop. 

 But rarely was there ever a production board that was such a delight to sail. It was the nearest to perfection we'd ever tried in 3-dimensional water — waves — and slippery fast once on a plane. It's one flaw: it had little interest in heading upwind. In ice hockey terms that's like a player who refuses to hustle back and help out on defense. But we loved it nevertheless, and kept it shredding until it became a little too soft in the middle for our needs. I still have one of its little brothers, the ATV 260 in the garage, waiting for my return from the long term injured reserve (LTIR) and its day in the next 4.0 blow. It's other flaw — the Tuttle box which used two metric screws, and required a substantial investment in new fins, since it was not compatible with all my other fins — powerbox or A-box.

Drysuit II, piloting a Rushwind/Mistral combo, leaving
a plume of spray in his wake; what was he thinking
exceeding the bay's speed limit in such a fashion?
Photo (c) Phil Gray 

 Seatrend, the windsurf board maker, however, was more or less swept away by a sea change in board construction, popularity, and design. Randy French, the legendary Seatrend shaper, saw the market for windsurf boards was shrinking while the market for lightweight epoxy designer-shape surfboards was exploding, and started up Surftech. The problem with Clark Foam blanks didn't help.

  It seems like we lost a few more board brands along the way. When was the last time you saw anyone riding a Tiga (that wasn't vintage or bought at a swap meet), or a new Mistral? The international giant once dominated the North American marketplace. They are still around, but it's been a while since I saw a new Mistral windsurfer for sale.

THREADBARE BRANDS?
 In the meantime, think about replenishing your Billabong gear and put a guard dog by your Quiksilver threads, in case these favorite surf and windsurf labels of the Robby Naish era become scarce. Billabong, in particular, is facing down the vicissitudes of the teenage fashion marketplace. Hard to believe ... they make good stuff and have a team of surfing all-stars* to back them.

 The aussie surfwear company, according to reports in The Guardian and Business Insider, recently took a loss of $773 million, around 3.3 times "the size of its market capitalization of $229 million." That's the fickleness of surf and fashion for ya.

Shorts: another quality Quiksilver garment
...headed for the drawer for the winter, un-
less I am able to pull off a warm-weather
vacation or biz trip.

 According to industry veteran Jon Wilson of Balin, 
“The guy that was buying it 20 years ago is still buying it and you know, he’s now the dad of the kid that doesn’t really want to look like his dad”

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/billabong-demise-surfwear-2013-11#ixzz2kHpWrYyn

 All I know is that I once had a Billabong backpack that was rather hot, but all its zippers seized up in the salt water, like just about every zippier on any other piece of windsurf equipment I ever owned. 

Ironically, I was just about to reluctantly bury a favorite pair of Quiksilver shorts away in the bottom of a drawer for the winter. Summer you were swell; fall we hardly knew ye! 

 I reflected on the great quality of the garment, thinking, well, I'll just have to find something else as comfortable and functional to wear now that the weather is verging on frigid. Maybe my Under Armour "Storm" sweatpants?

 But I recoiled in quasi shock when I read that this iconic surf brand of the last several decades, is also reportedly feeling the sting of young consumer indifference.

 One Quiksilver product, which I purchased in the Boarding Shop in Hyannis, Mass., has lasted me around 20 years...but only because I made sure the wife knew it was off-limits when it came to my better half's "old clothes toss-out patrol." 

A favorite Quiksilver shirt I have not, as
yet, found a worthy replacement fo

 It's a type of long-sleeved zip-collared shirt. Now full of holes and frayed at the edges, I keep the wash cycles to minimum to extend its life; but it's not difficult to see it's well beyond its expiration date. I just have not found anything similar to replace it in the lineup. I've tried, but have not as yet found anything similar in terms of feel, weight, design, fabric mix and functionality.

 But my sartorial problems are small in comparison with those of the surfwear industry and even the professional surfing tour. They may need to keep their eyes open for up-and-coming sponsors, fresh brands and new themes or they, too, might hit another lull, well, like the one it's supposed to have experienced at some time that I don't remember at all, but I am told, that surfing seemed to retreat back out of the public eye to a place where most everyday surfers feel more comfortable: obscurity and uncrowded lineups. 

 It's a shame though. No one likes to see their favorite brands fall on tough times. I feel like I only just figured out what that Oxbow logo was that we used to see everywhere on our heroes equipment, but not in any shops in the U.S.

 For fans, however, I'm wondering, if when you find an article of clothing, perfume, a surfboard, windsurfboard that you really like, whether it's sometimes best to buy more than one. As it is, the design will likely only last a season. If you're a guy, chances are there's only so much time you're going to devote to clothes shopping, anyway, before you dive back in the surf.

• *B-bong's International Surf crew:JOEL PARKINSON
  • TAJ BURROW
  • ANDY IRONS
  • MARK OCCHILUPO
  • JACK FREESTONE
  • SHANE DORIAN
  • GREG LONG
  • LUKE EGAN
  • DAVE RASTOVICH
  • WADE GOODALL
  • DONAVON FRANKENREITER
  • MANOA DROLLET
  • CREED MCTAGGART
  • RYAN CALLINAN
  • LAURIE TOWNER
  • DYLAN LONGBOTTOM
  • SEPP BRUHWILER

LB Mustang Beach House Apres-Surf

A balmy 70 degree T-shirt weather day in PW, but definitely a few degrees cooler in LB. Nevertheless, one that screamed, "get thou to a beach and into the surf!"

Down in the West End, Mustang's gestures indicate the size of the waves earlier this morning. They kept pumping all day.

By my standards, they fell into the "too big for my arse" category — especially the sneaker sets, but definitely worth a paddle out anyway.

Post-surf with Chuck (center), a sighting of whom, 

Mustang (right) described as rarer than that of a yeti.

Dropped by Stang's on the way to the beach to check out the new Natures' Shapes Rocketfish. Chuck, meanwhile had already arrived down at the beach, and had scratched his way to the outside in search of some elephant-sized waves, and gotten himself a good ride on a Bengal Tiger or two.

The surf was serious, and relentless. Paddling out, every now and then, you'd see a head zooming by across an outside wave, then disappear, blocked from view by the inside wave.

Rich S. and John H. Mustangdaddy, ripping up the
hardwood floor a year ago. Sandy demolition. John H.
age 69, will be running in the NY Marathon tomorrow.

A year ago today the house was still in a state of ruin from Hurricane Sandy and Mustang and Family spent 155 days elsewhere until the repairs were done, with Mustang coming back most days, sometimes with members of the windsurfing crew, to work on the demolition and rebuild. 

Three Fins in the Sunset

Gilgo Beach, the usual parking spot for sail riggers. No sail required.

Fabulous, at least 66 F gorgeous sunny day, with light, gusty WNW winds and just enough leftover surf to get a few quality rides. No complaints.

Plan A was to get up at 6:45 and head to West Meadow and windsurf. But weak numbers in the forecast for 10 a.m. told me it would blow itself out quickly as the sun heated up the land. Not worth the $15 in gas and the 2.5 hours driving time for me, unless you got up at 5:30 and were ready for sunrise. Save it for a better day.

Plan B — definitely get a bike ride in — I forgot the last time I rode ... could it really have been the Sept. 30 16-miler before the New Orleans trip? If that was the case, then I definitely needed to get some miles in. And today I was feeling a lot better.

During last weeks white-knuckle windsurfing I was definitely "sucking wind," and, if nothing else, some sustained exercise was due.

So I took a gentle 45 minute mile ride, with an ascent of Longview to provide some challenge factor, shot some video, but really, just set out to simply enjoy the ride, not get caught up in speed or performance.  Magic recipe. Beautiful riding day.

PLAN-C WAVES, PADDLE, WIND
Marg was recuperating a cold, and visiting her mom, so she passed on the beach trip, but Robby needed to get some school reading done, and Gilgo in October is a nice quiet place to do just that.

As we arrived, Jeannie was just finishing her session — we gotta stop running into each other like this, people will talk ;). A better than average waist high swell was picking up momentum with the incoming tide. Note to those who don't know, an incoming tide around 1.5 hours after low will always boost the existing surf by about a foot. I got that from mike da baker, and it has never failed me yet. I don't know where the south swell came from — can only imagine it's remnants from some storm that had passed us last week. A SW wind swell was messing things up on the inside, but not too squirrely to make it unsurfable.

Robby said it was a tad chilly afterward (always take 3 layers worth of clothing), but you couldn't tell from the water which was pretty warm for this time of year. although I had on a 5/3, I was hoodless, and did not notice anything cold about it on the head. But that could have been because paddling out through  the whitewater got the blood flowing immediately. Just as cardio as was remounting after multiple times being knocked off by cross swell, waves and chop.

I figured on SUP sailing, but there was not quite enough wind to my mind to warrant rigging a sail. A couple of knots more / more consistent and I'd have put up a 5.5 for some basic non-planing propulsion — a sail makes it much easier to keep balance, thanks to its pull. The cross-wave conditions (like cross-chop but diagonally conflicting waves) were challenging to say the least.

Pretty soon I shed the paddle, and switched to simply prone surfing the SUP. The big lifty tail made short work of catching waves, but definitely needed a careful touch to avoid pearling.

Got in some nice long rides DTL, almost a "stretch five" at one point. Alright, I give extra points for the nose-riding possibilities on this beast. The board also has tons of stability and makes it easy to get to your feet when taking off—a good learn-to surf board in small waves perhaps? The three 5.5-inch fins are great for not snagging the sandbars at low tide states. It will rail a turn, to a point, but when the waves get small, the parallel rails in the middle and flatter rocker it will straighten out if you are not going DTL. I'm thinking about a slightly deeper center fin for a little more thrust, lift and hold.

After a good brace of rides to near exhaustion, I decided to paddle out a few more times and see if my timing was any better for Standup. I got a good rinsing again, but not much more.

Surprise moment of the day — a chest-high sneaker set caught me out of position knee paddling the SUP out, and blasted the board away from under me. Never had that happen before.

Note: I would not be experimenting thusly if I had other surfers nearby ... but today there were but three of us on the entire beach...plenty of room for fun all 'round.

Did I say I was amazed at the quality of the leftover waves. My 9-foot regular surfboard would have worked just as well, I think, but the SUP was that little bit more suited to the task.

Pirate Beverage, Muddled, Dark 'n Stormy, Version #2

T'is Noreaster season, and t'is chilly and surfy. 

As is the tradition re-established hereabouts by "Jay Tan" Tanenbaum, Jillixir, and more recently by our Maui ex-pats Brook and Ely, a good, body-warming post-October Surf/Sup/Sail Dark 'n Stormy is an appropriate "recovery" beverage, well at least in terms of calories if nothing else :( but we all need some calories :). [I surfed, SUPped, and biked today so I earned it, I reckon.]

Not only that, it has high yang properties in the Zingiber officinale

which helps balance the yin qualities of the rum. 

One simple modification is to muddle it —which is a fancy word for stirring things up with a muddling device — but a teaspoon will work just as well — to make sure the Gosling's/Barritt's mix is true and consistent.

The side benefit to this final touch of agitation, however, is a head worthy of any beverage with "beer" in its title. It also helps mitigate the excess carbonation on the palate and in the gut, and produces a smoother draft (which may or may not be a good thing as that could encourage more Dark 'n Stormies. OK it's a good thing then.)

So for surf pirates, this time of year, it's the business.

But for blokes in boardshorts in tropical Maui; hey Ely, Brook, don't they have drinks with straws in coconuts for that kind of weather? ;)  Uze guyze are such Lawnguyalnders from Manhattan, I tell ya.

surfZencalm

Clocks Back, ... Out There, Nothing Like it.

I don't remember when I last enjoyed a surf session this much. And it was all about attitude and gratitude.

Being waaay out of surf shape from the year-long and still-ongoing cervical disk herniation recovery, a properly executed pop up was in the realm of pipe dream.

Sunday Nov. 6 brought waves not unlike like this late summer gem

OWN REWARD
But paddling a surfboard around in light surf can be it's own reward. Such a treat I'd not had in a year, so I was more than grateful just to be able to do it. The water was remarkably clear for Long Beach, and with fall's coolness crisply set in for the season, the crowds were long gone. Only one other surfer joined us; she had the next jetty over all to herself.

ZEN-GLAD
This session fell squarely into the category of "just glad to be out there, and enjoy an almost perfect, zen-calm session. Punctuated by whoops for the waves Mustang caught in the light-to-moderate side-off wind, thigh-to- waist-to-shoulder high, long-period surf. Per Mustang, this came courtesy of what must have been a distant Tropical Storm Sean.

And the best ... no waves crashing on you on the easy paddle out. Did I say paddle? Correct that -- easy walk out, with short dry-head paddle at the end.

Water, maybe a wee bit cold, but with the sun relatively strong, thin open-seal paddling gloves were just fine for the job. You paddled, you got warm quickly.

NOT GETTING ANYMORE PERFECT
The only hard part — dragging my butt out of bed on a Sunday morning at 6:45 a.m. — came a little easier with realizing that with the clocks set back an hour, I probably wasn't going to get back to sleep.

... And the surf wasn't going to get any more perfect for a user-friendly first surf in 6 weeks. If there was any issue it was doubt about the super shallow low tide -- no margin for error on takeoff, which added a level of caution.

Six weeks? That long? How did that happen? Well after the September Surf-Bike Duathlon, the "wheels fell off the bus," so to speak, and the left arm-neck disc issues flared up with an alarming bite. I decided to go with the flow and back off the sports intensity until it died down.

TIMING
It did, and Mustang magically messaged my cell the night before; excellent timing.

Moo toted his 6'2" Nature Shapes quad fish into the small waves with a good degree of success. And some definitely "whoopable rides"

As for my 9'0 Ben Aipa Swallow tail. First time out it always reminds me of its maneuverability, versus 9'6" noserider. But within a few waves you're ready for its eagerness to turn.

Despite the physical neck-arm woes, I was able to manage a couple of knee rides including one very long one with perfect placement on the board to maneuver using just my lower body through the knees. Only one major twinge of nerve pain to report.

The wind switched to stronger side-on just as we used up the last of our "good paddlearms" and each caught a last sled back into the beach. More fine timing. An hour later and we'd have been blown out. Worth getting up for.

BLISSED
So the car didn't start. It was about 68 months old anyway. Who cares? Dug out the jumper cables, and Moo drove down the half-block and gave me a pump of juice. Very little calm lost, and still blissed all the way to Advance Auto Parts in Island Park for a new battery. No problems.

As for the neck/arm continuum, driving home I felt no pain. How's that done? Just goes to show a gentle day of surf has a healing power all its own.

[Day two and three after, well there was a price to pay — as long unused muscles tightened up —but not too bad. The Advil did it's job. (It — or a stomach bug — hit my insides with a vengeance come Thursday, so that's that for the pain killers for a while.)]



QUIZ:

Where's Waldo the Baker?
He's out there. I've seen him; but I'm not tellin'.

From