Remember to laugh when you fall.

2013 Gorge Freestyle Frenzy & Big Air from American Windsurfing Tour on Vimeo.

Link: in case this is not embedding...http://vimeo.com/70658957

Freestyle does not even closely resemble whatever it is I do on a board. But I sure am glad that there are guys and girls doing it. I have friends that do. And I am thankful that they do.
Because when they do...we ALL benefit.

This is how the sport grows.
This is why the sport grows.
This is why we make leaps and bounds in gear construction, and usability.
This is fun. [Yea...remember, fun?]

Remember back 20 or 30 years ago when Windsurfing had no rules? I do. It was great.
Just go out; in anything; on anything; in any conditions.
Sail is too small...so what? Too big...so what? How about your board; your fin...so what?
just go out and have fun.

I remember theses days of waiting around for it to be windy enough.
Waiting around so we could use our small board; our small sail...guess what?
They sucked.
There are boards that can get you an a plane in 8 knots.
There are boards that get you on the water in sub-planing conditions.
There are 90 ltr boards and 5.0 sails with 4 inch finds that will plane earlier than your old 120 Ltr beast, with the 7.0 sail, and the two foot pointer.

So just get out there guys.
Have Fun.
All great moves started out as mistakes.
Don't be afraid to try anything.
And remember to laugh when you fall.

See you all next week at the "Children of the Wind" showing

Tuesday, August 06 7:30pm - 9:20pm

in Huntington, NY at Cinema Arts Centre $10.00 per ticket.

We need your help. We have to sell 9 more tickets  by July 30th to ensure the showing. If you can't make it, maybe you can just buy a ticket any way? Any proceeds are going to the Island of Bonaire. 

Sign up here at http://www.tugg.com/events/4770

Children of the Wind Official Trailer (HD) from Seek Films on Vimeo.

Link is here http://vimeo.com/42012076

Oh and I almost forgot to brag...2 surfs, 2 sails, 1 windsurf in the last week. Mmmmm summer.

I just don't get it

 I know I have been whining about the water quality since well before Sandy. But I believe this is symptomatic of a much larger problem.

Saturday I bragged that I was able to windsurf in nothing more than a bathing suit. Something I have not done in over 15 years. Sunday, I was treated to chest high to overhead surf. Again; no wetsuit needed; just a rash guard.

Saturday night we had down pours and thunderstorms on the North Shore. The updrafts on the T-Storms were apparently vertical. A phenomenon I have never witnessed before.

It meant that the storms did not travel from north to south as usual. Instead the rain was isolated to the North Shore. The storms essentially extinguished themselves.

I figured I could surf Sunday because the South Shore didn’t have any run off from the storms. But there was another problem…Brown Tide. As my fiend Dima pointed out to me, “is that Heckscher  at 156,000?” In fact while “Stony Brook University has revealed that during the week of July 15th, cell densities had declined from millions to tens of thousands of cells per milliliter compared to the start of the month”; the spot I windsurfed, was still the most polluted spot on the Great South Bay.  

People just don’t seem to care. As I was walking from my truck to the beach on Sunday I witnessed two guys in their 20’s halfheartedly toss trash at a waste bin. They missed; so I said “ your gonna’ pick that up right?”. One of them replied “Why the fuck should I?; and what are you gonna’ do about it old man?”  So yes I almost had to get into a fight with two kids in order to have them walk 10 steps, and put their trash in the garbage. Why? I just don’t get it.

Fast forward to today. The temperature has dropped 35 degrees, it’s blowing 20 out of the North East, but instead of windsurfing in these glorious conditions…I’m nursing some gastrointestinal mess that I probably picked up from being in the water this weekend.

I just don't get it.