Good Ridin, & Dead Man's Toe

Sand was flying sideways.

The day after ...  looking SW from Lighthouse Rd.
Manhattan in the distance. A sharp west wind kicking up. 

Seagulls were flying sideways,
boards were sliding sideways.

It was mostly all good.

Cold, but brutally good.

"I got two dead man's toes" said Dr. Phil the dentist (well at least I think Phil's a dentist when he's not teaching race car driving.) "That's what Joe Rocco called 'em," Dr. Phil explained.

And the reasons for the condition? Damn cold water, no booties and numb feet.

"I'll see you next year, I think that's it for me for the year," said Dr. Phil. But he's gotten his money's worth and gotten blown up on a 5.0, only to find it was really solid 4.2, for him, by the close of business.

The wind had been sketchy to start. And Terminator Bruce went with a 5.4. I'm glad he sailed, but and a grand overpowered time, but it was the final downwind run that unfortunately ended with a bad spill, spraining his ankle. Painful; looked like he was growing a tennis ball on the side of it. Ouch.

There was no shortage of wipeouts. The big, loud splashes were the punctuation to a day "going off" on the wind scale.

But it was a small crowd, maybe 15 all day, at all different parts of the day coming and going.

Arty, Marty, Leonardo (the canine 'cat' sailor), Terminator Bruce, lil' Frank (another of Chuck's friends), Jill, Pasha, a couple of other guys from Eastern europe who I don't know, Dr. Phil, Upwind Mike, Jeannie, Chris, Eugene, (who I hadn't seen in a decade, I reckon), the pilot chappie, another few of peeps I don't know, and a bloke wearing not much more than a rashguard and boardshorts (brrr.) who was getting blown off his 5.8 and wished for a smaller sail.

I loaned him a Zeta 4.5, that I had packed just in case Lenny needed a rideshare. The rashguard man wound up sliding several beaches downwind.

With binoculars we spotted him flapping his way back to shore. We've (mostly) all been there done and that, but a 55F day in late October in cold water is not the best time to try it. "El camino del conquistador vanquista" the walk of the vanquished hero, I think Ely called it, back in the day.

I had put the 4.7 on a big (99L) F2Style 255 board and a 9.5" wave fin to go investigate his situation.

But it turned out there was no need. I went with the setup anyway. Sail too flat, fin too small for anything but the gusts (but man did that fin loosen up the board nicely and give it a silky feel in the gusts.) Will have to try that again sometime.

But to stay powered, I switched to a 10.5" Fox wave fin, until the wind kicked up a few more notches.

Leonardo the Shep's dogwagon, giving shelter to
a vintage F2 Sunset Slalom. The boards on top could go
inside, but Leonardo has bragging rights
 for interior dog bed space.

Finally, making some jibes. It's amazing how you lose that skill if it's not hardwired. The last two sessions had been overpowered or underpowered, and not a whole lot of effective jibing got done. This day however, delivered ramps for a few jumps, and small waves for hard carving. And those are key ingredients for a real fun session. 

Another boost in the wind arrived as forecasted, and it was time for some more downhaul (had to doggone undo the whole shooting match to get another 2 cm of mast base of adjustment) ... and some more outhaul. Oops too much of the latter. It's killing the power. I undid the clew, shortened the boom a notch, and put almost the right amount of shape back in the pocket Good to go for another rack of runs.

But there was plenty more wind where that came from. Tailwalking time. I had the Open Ocean 8'4" 82 liter bump and jump board dug into the beach, so it was a simple matter to switch. It had been years, but the old Brian Hynde creation worked it's magic. It was hard to stop, except the wind was pushing the 4.2 end of the spectrum by now, and there was not a lot of grip left in the left paw.

I injured the neck a while ago and that arm has been 15% off ever since.

How many times do you hear your arms and a hand saying "that's it we're finished," you say "Ok that's it; last run."

It's now a "must" to hook in right away and take the load off, or you're looking at a dumping, and a couple more wrestling matches.

But you make it back, you rest a little in the shallows, and you're good for another one, and another one, and another one.

Turn the heater up full blast. Chilled to the core. That was not a warm experience, not easy, but the same thing next weekend would work just fine. I feel a jibe coming on.

Come Sunday, it was riding time.

Sunday bike ride: Looking back up the Sound to the
Northeast. Still a few sailboats who will no doubt
keep their sails flying all winter's fair windy days. 

No way was I getting another wind session in.

But a quick hour and 15 minute (13 mile or so) bike ride was on the menu for fitness catchup.

It had just had one of those weeks where getting out of work and getting to the gym was not happening, and there was ground to be made up.

As a neighbor said, great day for riding, and aside from the building west wind, and Sunday afternoon traffic, she was absolutely right.

Didn't have a lot of juice left in the legs after yesterday, but the endurance was better, and managed some solid pedaling and hill work all the same. The 9/29 "Ride with the Squid" in oyster bay was paying dividends.

It took a while to find a tailwind but the ride home delivered along shore road for an easy 17 mph on the flat. Like all fun rides they start out with pain in the knees and sore legs, and they usually leave you feeling as energized as a fine fall day.

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.

As fast as i can fix 'em ...

As fast as I can fix 'em... they flat them, of course.
But that's a dad's job — saves
a lot of money in bike shop charges.

There's nothing like catching up with a bit of bike repair on a schmoopy Saturday. Very therapuetic, wrestling with reluctant tyre beads on and off the rim; aligning the wheels so the disk brakes don't impede the spin, and so on.

Gordo has started riding Robby's bike, so I switched the lights from the trek to the Kona. Interestingly both the Kona handlebars and seatpost were narrower than the Trek's ... No way? Really?

Did I mind? no, not really -- I'd had these rubber shims I'd been saving (for some obscure future purpose I knew not what) in the pocket of one of my old Camelbacks, so I was glad to finally find a use for them. Better still I knew exactly where to
find them after what must have been 6 or so years.

I'd never make it as a bike mech. I think
 it took me two hours to fix two flats and
 move the lights from Gordo's bike to Robby's bike.

Then, just at sunset as I'm settling down, Lenny the Squid calls ... something about Blue Point Oktoberfest and chicken wings. Well I hadn't seen the Squid in at least few weeks, but this sounded like a very necessary trip.

Since Squidly lives on Jefferson, I figured I'd get some exercise and ride over there, rather than take the van. Thus no drinking and driving, either. So, I borrowed, and tested the newly be-lighted Kona blast. Gotta say I love the blinky mode on the Planet Bike Superflash front light. The blinky is almost as good as the "solid" mode at illuminating the road, but providing a better signature in traffic.

Great way to get around ... now if I could only crack that 26 mile commute on a bike.

OEM tube, losimg so much air so fast it could not
keep enough pressure to do the water tub test to locate
the hole(s). Bike Junkie in Bethpage is recycling tubes,
so a good excuse to pay a visit.

Don't throw away those free rubber shims. Black rubber 
strip by the Park Tool MTB tool. They come in handy on different size
handle bars and seat posts.

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.

Island of "Long Maui," Sailing Choices and then Some

Good, erm, " training" session today on "Long Maui's" North Shore. Meanwhile, on south side of the island the guys and gals were bashing — or being bashed by — overhead surf in side/side-off 5.0/4.7 Noreaster winds ... with sun, flying sand and no rain! (captured in the Flikr photostream of Jeff Schultz  at http://www.flickr.com/photos/peconicwindsurfer)

Stehli sunset. Great to sail with Joe "Elvis" Bayville
and Jeannie, and to see Bruce and Upwind Mike, who paid
a visit. Everyone hanging on to 5.7s/5.8s and 10M kites
 -- the wind on the outside was closer to 5.0,
with bigger gusts. Photo P, Gray

It definitely exposed weaknesses and things I need to work on more, like the age-old entering a jibe assertively on the far outside while overpowered. Even Joe said he was exploding in the outside jibes toward the end of the day. And the 8 kiters who began the day before us, booked it when the wind picked up to the next level, or two.

WHERE, NOT IF ...
The fact that I was recovering from a cold, and still kinda coughing and spluttering a bit, didn't enter into it. This was a classic wind weekend and it had to be engaged if at all possible. It looked like the wind might fade by Sunday; so for guaranteed wind, Saturday was the call.
Inside the house it was a dark and raw 50-60 degrees. I had no idea, but outside, it was a gorgeous warm and sunny 60-70. And besides, I was feeling better; the cold was on its way out, I should be good.

I'm still in neck injury and card fitness "rehab," as it were, and my jibes are nowhere near ocean-ready, My formerly good swimming is also not what it was. So as much I'd have loved to have been back there at Ponquogue, where I SUP'd in May (my first day back on the water after many, many months off) I didn't want to put myself and others in peril by going with the group. The ocean does not take many prisoners.

Checking the Flikr photostream of Jeff Schulz photog:
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/peconicwindsurfer
capturing the action on the South Shore at Ponquogue

Folks were scattered all over the island, and Chasbo was hightailing it from a golf tourney in rainy Virginny to get back for a sunset sesh near Pryibil. Others were at Joe's Beach and Tanner, Crab and points East.

As it was, merely stepping outside made the decision for me. Listening to the trees it was clear it was windy, so I figured, "no need to leave wind to find wind," shot off a few texts to Lenny and Chuck, and headed for the nearest workable spot on the Sound.

EXPECTATIONS, PATIENCE
A small swell was rolling in from two days of blow, and things on the inside looked sketchy at best. The wind, however, breached the expectations gap, and filled in strongly like the day before. It took it's time, of course. It took the requisite amount of patience to reap the reward.

The reality out on the water was considerably different than it looked from shore, which is not unusual here. These were challenging, gusty to overpowered conditions with a following tide, steep ramps and rollers. By 5 or 6 p.m. there was even a little shorebreak.


The logistics were a little more complicated, since 8 kiters were already in business. Staying upwind of their lines would be a priority. Not out of obligation, but out of necessity. When those guys go down, their kite lines go down — instinctively, you don't want to be near them. Having seen the damage done to some of my "long-lost" kiter friends, I err on the side of caution.

As it was, I felt like a noob again, even though I'd been sailing this spot for years. There's something about a side/side-off wind that takes you a half mile out in a matter of moments. And out there, you don't want to screw up.

A small cloudy day back in May
... my last visit to the Bowl. Not today,
though. Still in training for ocean
windsurfing in the logo high stuff,
they had there on Saturday.

There is a "next stop," before the East River, of course, and I do have friends downwind, but anyway you slice it, you are looking at hours and hours of recovery paddling and walking or driving.


We milked all we could out of it … but the truth is, it milked all it could out of us. Joe was spent by day's end; he definitely put in a lot of miles on the water.

Jeannie, had done her best to stay on the inside, but it was almost inescapable ... once you got powered, you were off to the races, and it felt like you were halfway to Connecticut in a minute or two.



In retrospect the best way to approach timing the launch was probably to wait until a 5.0 gust filled in to shore and to gut it out. But in the back of my mind I asked "if it gusts to 5.0 here, what's it going to be out there?" The concern was probably unfounded. Each time on the outside, the  5.8 handled it well enough. And as it picked up a notch further, I downhauled and the Goya sail handled it again.

But with a floaty board and big fin underfoot, on some runs I found myself tailwalking. The calf muscles and achilles cramped up trying to hold the windward rail down.

Taking a break, I trudged back to the van for a screwdriver and a smaller and waiver fin, and to finish off the gatorade. That mostly solved the worst of the tailwalking issue. Now the challenge was to keep from getting launched unintentionally as things got progressively crazier. With the sun sinking, re-rigging was not an option.

Adjustments were the way to go, to deal with the strongly building wind. Lower the boom and run the outhaul through the lower clew grommet.

Now however, once back on the water  everything felt too low and loose, the lines too long — unhooking unintentionally, and slower to plane. as in most things windsurfing, more than a little adjustment is usually too much. The further away from the sail you are, the more you have use your arms to get on a plane while heading out through the flukey inside, on the way to the windline.

When we arrived around (3-ish perhaps?) There was a big wind
shadow on the inside thanks to the easterly bias in the wind
direction, and the headland half a mile upwind. The tide was
running in with the wind making things more difficult than they
needed to be. But HT was 6:30 pm so daylight, and the presence of
sailable wind, was the overwhelming issue. But you had to be
over powered whether you liked it or not. The wind holes
on the inside you could drive a double-decker bus through.
 

So, the schlog out to the windline was part World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)/part hula/part cruise in the super gustiness. It took every bit of concentration not to get pulled over the handlebars or submarine the nose too far.

But once I'd gotten over the white knuckle aspect and relaxed a bit, it was really good. The board handled well, Frank's repair survived a flat landing from an unintentional air. It pivoted round tightly in a deaddrop jibe/waterstart. And better still, the Goya 5.8 handled well too. A little more springy, softer, flexy feeling than the last one, especially in the waterstart phase, but good in the gusts once underway.

The main issue on the outside was sail recovery. Even if you went down with the sail to leeward, it wanted to twist round to windward — standard business for overpowered and building seas. It took every strength nugget I had left to push and twist it back across the wind. I felt the weakness from the nerve damage in my left arm. The kind of day where if you raised it an inch too high or caught the clew, you were going to get rag-dolled or lose the sail badly to leeward.

But I think I can work up some extra muscle strength there, if I focus on the left side in advance of fall glove sailing season...which right now, seems right around the corner ... somewhere here on Long Maui.

Dry Land Practice ... the Surf Pop-up

Persian-type carpets are good for a few things:

• softening the feel of hardwood floors
• collecting dog dander and food particles for small bugs to eat,
• providing a surface resembling a world class "stimp-meter" tested putting green
• having enough pattern to provide an imaginary surfboard on which to practice pop-ups

The lineup is a wave hungry place. A little dry land practice
in the living room is essential for a chance
 to get in the green room

Well I didn't putt any golf balls, and the dog, unfortunately, is in the spirit world, but since I officially have a filthy cold and horrendously clogged sinuses — the trip to New Orleans didn't help — I decided to stay out of the cold water and stick to bed, hot fluids, plenty of fluids and ... just a little dry land pop-up practice.

Not that I haven't known it all along, but the pop-up has long been the weakest part of my surfing game ... and without a pop-up, you ain't got nothing.

So I finally figured, after 10 or so years, that I better attack the problem systematically. A few practice pop-ups on the beach here or there was not cutting it.  Too many missed waves, late-caught waves and knee rides.

Once I'm up, I know perfectly well what to do ... it's getting up fast enough and consistently enough in balance that's the main problem. And sometimes it's getting up before the other guy. First on the wave, as long as you are closest to the peak.

The good news, the dry land practice has paid off on the water with a few better quality rides during the  last two outings.

----
Apparently I wasn't  the only frustrated one. So if you're a new or begnning surfer, there are plenty of people with questions and answers on the Web:

As far as these tips from tony g at surfingwaves.com, are concerned I just substitute #1) imagine a centerline line "stringer" in the pattern of the carpet. I check the foot position each time to see if an adjustment is needed.

Practice your pop ups in your living room; here are a few tips:

1. Put a strip of masking tape on the floor in a straight line. When you do your pop ups try to land with your feet on the tape. This helps you to practice doing the pop ups correctly by getting your feet in the middle of the board along the stringer, otherwise you are telling the board to turn by putting pressure on the rails. It is never good to practice doing it wrong!
2. Try to be smooth and concentrate on getting your front foot forward. You do not want it to close to your back foot.
3. Build muscle memory by doing these every night till you do not have to think about it.
4. As you go to your feet try to stand in an athletic position with your back straight and not hunching over. It should kind of look like defensive stants in basketball or football. You also want to be looking where you want to go.
I had my brother in law do these a few weeks before I took him surfing and he poped up on nearly every wave his first time surfing. Good Luck! - 
See more at: http://www.surfing-waves.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=16849#sthash.6nu678s4.dpuf

The pop-up endurance needs to be better, too. After paddling a while the pop-up gets weaker, slower. Sometimes a rest on the beach helps the next popup succeed better. 

Riding with the Squid

Burnt out as I was from yesterday's 2-3 hours of surf, and too much sun, a long ride with the Squid at 2:30 was just too good to pass up with perfect riding conditions.

One of Brookville-Muttontown's many horse farms,
and great bike riding vistas.

Being a pair of cyclists, we were well overdue for a ride together, despite the difference in our talents.

It had been years since we last took on the road together, and with Lenny's knee back in fine shape after surgery, the time was now.

So we swooped down hills and clawed our way up Long Island's nastiest slope...and it was as bad as I expected and as good.

len proves it's ok to wear a helmet.

Lots of speed. Lots of climbing and lots of potholes and some stretches of smooth ashphalt inbetween.

But the views, where Cleft Rd opened on to Beaver Lake on the south side and Oak Neck Creek on the north, were breathtaking with the September sun glistening through these always-surprising tree shrouded lakes. It looks like a mini paradise for waterfowl and a few wise fish.

A fast causeway splits them before the hills and trees close in again.

We dropped by Stehli for a visit and a little sun, before skirting Bayville and Oyster Bay.

The the Squid had a surprise up his sleeve for me: Mill Hill. Nooooo. A vertical wall of pain and torment. It did not end well, but rather on two feet. This hill is unthinkable and will require a lot more work on my part, before I conquer it. But the rest of the ride was fast and fine. A good few out of the saddle sprints sprinkled in and one more tough climb. Before we cruised down to Young's Farm.

Pick up a Pumpkin or more, if you visit the farm, and a loaf of their excellent bread. But get there between 11 and 4 on Sunday, or you'll miss the goodies on offer.