Windsurfing with Kids, aka Shredding with Six Year Olds

Another awesome session with the kids, this time with much better pictures! Full sized versions are available here: Windsurfing with kids!. Here are smaller versions:

First Planing Jibe - Woohoo!

A new milestone today: my first planing jibe! After what was probably 100 attempts, I was quite surprised to find the sail right in front of me after the flip, and my feet balanced in the right spot. I just grabbed on and planed right out of the turn -- sweet victory! The trick that did it for me was keeping pressure on the inside rail, and sliding the outside foot across the centerline.

And now the bad news: while getting ready to beach-start, I noticed a crack in the board's nose (Mistral Synchro 116). It must have come from surfing in Beryl the previous day, likely a catapult or crash of some sort, but I was having too much fun to even realize it. Anyway, I quickly got back to shore, pulled out the screw and let the water drain out overnight. The next morning I swung by Windsurfing Hamptons, and left my baby in the hands of Jon Ford for repair. Now comes a week's wait - at least I've still got my Go board...

Tropical Storm Beryl brushed by Long Island, passing about 100 miles offshore. For most of the day a 20+ mph east wind built up some good 2-4 foot rollers. I got out there around 6pm on my 5.2, and had an incredible session full of jumps off the swells. Cousins Kerri and Nicholas did some taping as they watched from the shore. A couple stills from the cam-corder:

Plenty of wind for the 5.2:

Getting a little air:

In a trough:

WOO-HOO!

[Tags: Tropical Storm, Peconic Bay, Long Island, Windsurfing]

Peconic Sunset

Mid-Summer sun setting over Aquebogue and the North Fork of Long Island.

Windsurfing with Kids - first sesh

On July 10th, before the winds ramped up too much, I took my young cousins for rides on my old Go board. "Fearless Kassidy" (Age 7) and "Big Guy Nicholas" (Age 6) each took turns sitting on the front. The winds were strong enough to get us up on a plane for a few runs, and I was very impressed that they both held on, despite the sometimes wet and bumpy ride (plus the ever-scary threat of jellyfish!). Kassidy even stood up a couple times! I've only got a few blurry cam-corder stills, but perhaps we'll have better photo luck later in the month.

Big Guy Waving:


Kassidy Standing!

Windless Ponquogue Summer Days

I've been spending a lot of windless days at the ocean this month, soaking up sun and salt water with my cousins, who are in town from Chicago on summer vacation. On July 3rd, Ponquogue was full of families and surfers, quite the contrast from our visit in April. One of these days I'm going to have to trade in my boogie board for a real surfboard. Some pics from the day: