Release Date 5/17/2014

I went for a paddle on the Hudson River up to the park on the Palisades just North of the GW Bridge.

It was another beautiful spring day, and i was finally able to put away the drysuit. Too cold for any rolling or other wet adventures, but I stayed dry.

All of the vending machines and other facilities at the park were offline because of a big storm that knocked out the power. They were preping the park for a big bicycle race.

We just enjoyed the sun and lazed about for a bit, then headed back to Pier 66.

Truth: Baby Ducks are cute.

 

Release Date 5/3/2014

I did a circumnavigation with some of the good folks from the Brooklyn Bridge Boathouse. 

It was a warm spring day, that eventually turned fairly cold by the end of the trip. 

I paddled a plastic NDK Romany which turned out to be a decent boat, a bit wide in the beam that made it difficult to go really fast with some of the younger more energentic paddlers from the BBBH.

Truth: Some Rooms are empty.

Release Date 4/27/2014

I went for a paddle in the Hudson up to the little park where the parrots used to live in Edgewater.

It was a windy day. We left about 1.5 hours after high water from Pier 66 and even though we had good current the wind made us work pretty hard.

By the time we got near Mitsuwa the current was ebbing. 

We took a little break at the park in Edgewater where the parrots were, but the whole place was under construction and there were no parrots, maybe they all froze or had their nests chopped down. Also see on the web that the power company took their nests down a year ago. I guess I'm out of it...

It was a nice day to be out, and we had a quick ride home, even though the wind had changed a bit.

Truth: To make something nice you often have to make a mess.

Release Date 3/22/2014

I released this msg off of Governor's Island on a windy early spring day.

I borrowed a friend's boat and it was a bit too big for me. There were decent surfable waves off the North West of the Island, but I couldn't get the boat going fast enough to catch many and it was a bit squirrelly.

Truth: New Things are Nice 

Release date 12/28/2013

Twas to be the last paddle of the year.

Went from Red Hook in a friends borrowed plastic boat. The boat was quite klunky, but it was a whole lot easier not dragging my boat out of the yard and down there.

We paddled up to Pier 40 against a weakening current to meet some friends, then back against the now flooding current to Red Hook. On the way North we hugged Governor's Island to stay out of the current. On the way back we went around the West side of Governor's Island to see the really amazing amount of bulkhead reconstruction that they have completed. In some places they fixed the traditional wall, in others its rip-rap, and sometimes a combination. If there was a big West wind it might be suitable for rock garden play at the appropriate time of day.






I had my new camera with me, and it worked pretty well. Its quite a bit larger than the old one, but has lots of cool features that I don't know how to use.

The day was surprisingly litter free and I wasn't able to find a bottle to toss into the ocean until I got back to Red Hook and scoured the rocks on the South side of the pier.

Truth: Many jobs are boring. 

This picture from the Polar Bear Plunge, where I was just too damn cold to release a bottle.

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.