Long Island is back!!!

After the past 2 relatively windless years on Long Island, I was beginning to think that the good old days of day after day of Southwest thermal action were long gone. I was beginning to think that the only time we'd be getting wind again was while we were wearing drysuits. But this spring and now start to the summer has been more than making up for the windless years of the past. I just hope I'm not jinxing everything with these comments. Official spring on Long Island starts for me when we get back from Cape Hatteras at the end of April. Last year and the year before we found ourselves writing about how long it's been since our last session. Last year I went a full month to the day between sailing sessions in June. This year however is totally different. Not only is there more wind, but it's really close to being able to plan a trip to the beach to windsurf like you would any other sport. In may we had two different 6 or 7 day consecutive stretches of 5.0 and down sailing with many more days in between. I counted 20 days of 5.0 and down at Heckscher in May of which I managed to grab 11 (would be 6.0 without the Fanatic skate and Northsails idol combo that I'm using) June hasn't been quite as windy, but 12 or 13 days of sailable days wouldn't be a stretch. Unfortunately most of them were days I was working but I still have 5 days in June under my belt and the month isn't over! It's been blowing since last thursday and has been blowing 5.0 for at least a couple hours every day since. And it looks to be windy for as far as the forecast can see! Also, I should mention that to catch these windy days at Heckscher, one needs to totally disregard iwindsurfs botched forecasts. They don't have any local forecasters and are spread too thin as the forecaster is doing the entire eastern seaboard. They haven't called for 20 mph winds a single time in this last stretch of 5 or 6 windy days in a row. 10-14 is usually their call. Best bet is to check windfinder for a good forecast and compare that to the NWS marine forecast. Joe's beach is right on windfinder now for one of the forecast spots and the forecast is really, really good.

Incredible Day at Heckscher.

Another great shot from John Dunn!

Sometimes everything just comes together. Yesterday was solid 4.0 all day long at Heckscher State Park. Our usual launch at heckscher is still closed, but personally, I like the temporary launch the park was kind enough to let us use even better!! Yesterday we were at Filed 6. At the launch there are showers, drinking fountains, bathrooms, grassy rigging, picninc tables, and BBQ pits. The only downside is the longer walk to the water, which really isn't all that long. The hazards in the water are clearly marked and with 20 or so windsurfers on the water yesterday, nobody had any issues running into anything.

The water conditions at field 6 are just incredible for freestyle/ bump and jump sailing. Meaty ramps on both tacks for all sorts of big air trickery and the new sand bar in front of the pool keeps everything nice and flat for the tricky slidey stuff. I was in heaven yesterday! I did take a few runs over to field 7 (the normal windsurfing beach) and the water seemed to organize a bit better there now too. I'm thinking some sand bars formed from the storm. Bonus!!! I can't wait to get my next session at heckscher! Hope to see you there!!

Shorts you NEED!! (for under your wetsuit/boardshorts)

Well, if you're like me and are in the water more than you're out of the water, eventually the parts we don't talk about get things happening we don't want to think about. I've been looking for something to wear under my boardshorts and wetsuits for a while. So far, I've been using a pair of dive shorts (talk about no style) for the past few years, but I knew there had to be something better out there. There's a new company I ran into while searching for some new undershorts on the internet. The name is Helo. I was a little uncertain about ordering since I never really heard of them before and wasn't so sure if the product would be any good. But I was in need, and they looked like the best option. So I ordered some. Got them about a week ago and had a chance to try them out the past few days here in NY under my wetsuit. All I can say, is thank you Helo!! Finally something I don't mind putting on under my boardshorts. They're very comfortable and dried nice and quick and look cool if they happen to hang out from under your boardshorts a bit. Ordering was easy and the order was shipped the same day. Here's the website: www.heloclothes.com I know, I sound like an advertisement. But trust me, this is more of a public service announcement.

Cold Spring is Not a Bad Thing.

In the North East of the US the temps have been way down this year. Last year on this date (March 20th) the high temp for the day was 71 degrees. Today when I woke up it was 31 degrees and the front porch was iced over from last night's hail storm. All of my friends are complaining about the cold weather. Dropping the kids off at school is paralleled with the mutterings of parents "this cold sucks" or "that stupid hedgehog has no idea what he's talking about." All I was thinking to myself today while dropping the kids off at school was, "Thank god it's still cold out. West Meadow will be working for sure!" You see, when the air temperatures start heating up in the spring, the cold layer of air that rests against the cold water won't let the warm air mix down. The result is no wind over the cold waters of the Long Island Sound. However, if the air is cold enough to mix with the cold air over the water, then it's windy day after windy day at my favorite windsurfing launch in the world. As I'm loading up the windsurf mobile to head to West Meadow again today, the thoughts of my 4.0/4.5 day there on Friday are fresh in my head. The wind lasted all day and just started to die off as the sun went down. John Dunn, an incredible photographer, was able to make it out to take some pics of the amazing sunset that we get at West Meadow. Hopefully I'll have a repeat today!