My Sunday was a day filled with generosity

My Sunday was a day filled with generosity. And I wasn’t the generous one: I was the recipient.

I want to give a big THANKS to everyone who came out for the beach grass planting, and / or the beach clean up on Sunday.
The weather was less than ideal: so I really appreciate the effort with such short notice. I had this great idea… We encouraged everyone with kids to bring them to the grass planting. Sylvia, from Surfrider spent her Saturday digging through Surfrider CLI’s inventory of T-shirts. She dug up 50 or so size medium or smaller shirts. The Idea was to give them away to the first 50 kids who showed up to help on Sunday. We knew there would be news coverage…and the camera loves a cute kid in a Surfrider T-shirt at the beach. So while I was out enjoying a great day sailing Segue with Lauralee, my wife; Sylvia spent her day sorting through T-shirts, and driving up to my house to deliver them.

I had a long day Sunday. First I was up at 6:30 for a Dune Grass planting at Gilgo. The rain made the morning cold and miserable. But everyone was in good spirits. It was good to see LIBBA and Surfers working side by side. As usual Fishermen outnumbered Surfrider, LIBAG, Windsurfers, and Kiters 4 to 1. We managed to plant 12,000 grass shoots in under 3 hours.

BTW, News 12 Long Island didn't show up until after we were done planting grass on the West Gilgo dune.

Even the “Earth Day” Surfrider, Beach Clean up at noon, was under-attended. It was cold and wet. [My waterproof boots were soggy and cold.]

At 1:00 I was supposed to head on over to Ray’s for a LIBAG meeting and barbecue.

I didn’t.

I was already soaking wet; and the E NE breeze was filling in. Do I sail Demo? Or just sail from Gilgo. I spoke with Florian who arrived at about 12:30 with his two beautiful children in tow. He didn’t have his gear with him. But I offered to lend him my spare drysuit, and rig. He was thankful; but was really there to be with his kids.

I knew Pete was on his way. So I rigged a 6.9. [my biggest wave sail], and my RRD 110. The wind seemed a little “iffy”, so I considered my 125 ltr Angullo. But the swell was pretty big [waist to overhead high] and I stuck with the RRD.

I had some nice semi-down-the-line wave sailing. But was having a tough time staying upwind. Between the East wind, and side shore sweep, I kept ending up at least 1-200 yards downwind of my starting place. After dragging my gear back up the beach for the second time, Florian says “why don’t you do a Down Winder?” “Really” I said. “Sure, I’ll meet you at TOBAY in a half hour or so."

God I really want to THANK YOU Florian. You gave me the most generous gift I’ve had on a long time. I was then treated to one hour; and two and a half miles of pure DTL Wave Sailing. No fighting to stay upwind. Just pure; go with the flow Windsurfing. And it was glorious. Side, to side-off the whole time. Just me and the seals. By the time I reached TOBAY, I was exhausted, and there was Florian waiting. We loaded up my gear, and he drove me back to Gilgo.

This is going to be one of those sessions I will be re-living in my head for years. I owe it all to Florian. He and Brook introduced me to sailing Demo in a Nor Easter. [another one of those sessions I will be replaying in my head till the day I die].

I still made it to Ray’s at about 6 PM, for some post LIBAG steak, shrimp, and Pool.

Thank you Florian. We are definitely going to do that again; together, next time.