Release Date 11/18/2013

We went surfing at Breezy Point in Queens.

It was a very warm day, after a few days of rain it was clear and sunny with highs in the 60s.

The barge that was doing all the dredging was gone, and it didn't seem to disrupt the sandbar any, there were plenty of waves for us.

We tried to get out a bit earlier than usual, but ended up there just before low water like we usually do. The tides were big because it was a full moon, and the sandbar was exposed.

It was pretty windy 10-15kts from the West, and there was a decent amount of swell so the waves while confused were pretty big, 5 feet on the big ones.

This actually proved too big for me, I surfed one, then lost my fishing rig, while I was puttering around looking for it I got trashed by a huge monster, and was so intimidated I didn't wait long enough for it to pass to try and roll, and wet exited.

I was pretty rattled after that and tried to stick to the small ones, but then I found my fishing rig in the surf zone so we did some fishing. I caught 2 strippers, in true fisherman form the picture is of the little one. 

The other was almost twice as big, but still under the legal size limit of 28 inches so we let them go, and had veggies for dinner.




Truth: There are always bigger fish.

Release Date 11/8/2013

I released this message while attending the Kayak Waveology Autumn Gales event and BCU 5 star training.

This event runs every year, and is always a lot of fun for the boozing and eating, if the weather cooperates the kayaking can be good as well.

I did two days of 5 star training and two days of the event. I was pretty rusty on some of my skills for the 5 star training which was a bit disappointing. I am sure I hadn't practiced many of these skills in years.

The weather generally cooperated and the tide races ran well on both the ebb and the flood, we had wind against tide on a number of the days.

The organizers put together some great pictures, the good ones don't necessarily feature me, but I am in some of them. So funny how small the pictures make the waves seem.
https://vimeo.com/79447375

Here is a video from the event, there is a picture of me actually catching a wave in my white on white boat at 4:01
Video of the Gales 

 
Truth: When you get up you will always go back down again.

Release Date 9/7/2013

I had a blast from the past and signed-up to do swim support for a CIBBOWS swim race. It was the “Triple Dip” race right along the edge of the beach which made it easy to police, but there were 3 groups of swimmers doing 3 different courses so that was a bit of a challenge.

It was an amazing day weather wise light breeze, clear, and not to hot. The water was still warm for kayaking, but a number of the swimmers on the long course got too cold and had to get out.

It was fun to help out those folks after such a long time, and great to see that their program has flourished to such a large size.

Release Date 9/29/2013

Went out to do a little surfing early in the day at Breezy Point.

 

The waves were small which made them manageable, but when its like this the break point is not consistent and I ended up chasing all over the place to try and get a good ride, often without success. I only got dumped a couple of times.

Lots of people fishing, but I hadn’t brought my line. After a bit we paddled out around the point, and long the beach. The waves were pretty big on the beach, but they were just dumping on the shore so we avoided them.

They are making MASSIVE changes to plumb beach building new rock breakwaters and 

moving sand around after the hurricane (Sandy). There is also a huge dredge out in the middle of the channel near the sandbar out by the point, so there must be big plans for that. Hopefully they don’t plan to suck up our sandbar and use it to build-up the dunes.

We launched really early 8:00AM, and I was back picking up lunch by 12:00PM.

Truth: Sometimes things change.

Release date 10/20/2013

It was my annual Hog Hunting trip in North Florida. 

The weather was absolutely perfect; it usually is time of year. Warm sun in the day cools at night. 

We did two days of hunting Saturday and Sunday. It was black powder season so the required weapon is a primitive musket. The guns are actually pretty sophisticated now with rifled barrels, and modern construction methods, so if you know what you are doing they are very accurate. The problem is you only get one shot. It takes at least 10 minutes to reload it.

I only saw two pigs, and had a shot at one of them. He started to come close, then headed away so I took a shot and missed, very embarrassing. There is a huge cloud of smoke and sparks when you shoot, and the brush is pretty dense, and the guns are VERY powerful with a huge 50 cal bullet, so its actually possible to kill one and then have to go check. I checked, no pig…

One of my friends did get one, so I did get a tasty hog ham to take back home to NYC.

We were leaving before dawn each day, and getting back just at dusk so there as some amazing scenery.

One morning we came across a bunch of kids tied up in canoes sleeping at the entrance to the canal we were staying on. They were about a 10 minute paddle from a nice state campground, go figure...

 

Truth: Sometimes things don't go as expected.

 

 

 

Release date 7/20/2013

Kate and I went to the annual City of Water day with some friends.

 

This is an activity that runs once a year where there are a lot of water related events and programs on Governors Island, and then they allow anyone who paddled to the island to camp-out, which we did.

This year it coincided with a display of turn of the century carnival rides that were actually very scary due the their speed and the appearance at least of appearance of danger. 

 

 

This is something like the 7^th year they have done it, but it was the first time we were able to go. It was a beautiful night and we really enjoyed it. There was heavy rain about 5:00PM, but then it cleared-up.

The next day we went North up to the Brooklyn Flea event in Dumbo to meet some friends for lunch and then home, so we basically spent the whole weekend on and around the water, but still in NYC.