Author Archives: Vladimir Brezina

A Post-Hurricane Swim Into the Record Books

Posted on September 4, 2011 | 8 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

NYC Swim‘s premier long-distance swim, the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, has become an institution in the world of long-distance swimming.  But its younger sibling, the Ederle Swim between Manhattan and Sandy Hook, New Jersey, is still growing, full of surprising twists and turns.

In October 2010, the top two finishers in the Ederle Swim were Lance Ogren and Liz Fry. This year, each of them went on to swim their own exclusive version of the Ederle Swim. In June 2011, Liz completed an unprecedented 35-mile double Ederle Swim from Manhattan to Sandy Hook and back. In an amazing swim, she set records not only for the overall course but for each of the two individual directions as well.

A few days ago, in August 2011, Lance set out to break the record—now Liz’s record—for the Manhattan to Sandy Hook direction.

I was one of the two kayakers accompanying Lance on his swim. Here are some photos and a brief account.

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Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Sports

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It’s Not the Wind, It’s the Rain

Posted on August 29, 2011 | 3 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

So, Hurricane Irene has come and gone.

In Manhattan—certainly in our corner of the Upper East Side—she hardly happened. Yes, there was quite a lot of rain (in Central Park, almost 7 inches), but not all that much wind. Walking round the Central Park Reservoir yesterday afternoon, I didn’t see a single tree down. (As compared, for instance, to the hundreds brought down almost exactly two years ago by a single violent thunderstorm, the scars of which are still visible.) There were torn leaves scattered everywhere, and the Reservoir was much fuller than usual. But that’s it.

In the rest of Manhattan, too, reporters were hard pushed to show anything really dramatic. The water lapping over the seawall at the Battery was shown over and over.

As a result, New Yorkers feel let down, and worse. The readers’ comments in the New York Times are running heavily against Mayor Bloomberg for ordering major precautions—massive evacuations, a shut-down of the entire transportation system—that, according to the Monday morning quarterbacks, were an absurd overreaction that was obviously motivated by the Mayor’s desire to compensate for his underreaction to last winter’s snowstorm. And where do we get a refund for the two lost days on our Metrocard?

Be that as it may, that’s taking a very narrow view of how catastrophic Irene in fact was.

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Posted in Nature, New York City, Science and Technology

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But It’s Not 2012 Yet!

Posted on August 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina

I thought we had a few more months until the end of the world…

But this week we’ve seen a scenario unfold that is straight out of a Hollywood end-of-the-world movie. After Tuesday’s earthquake, we now have Hurricane Irene bearing down upon us. It seems determined to devastate the entire East Coast of the United States. Millions of people are fleeing for their lives, entire cities are grinding to a halt, awaiting the deluge…

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Manhattan Island Marathon Swim 2011: The Lone Starlettes Take Manhattan

Posted on August 20, 2011 | 6 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

When people say incredulously “OMG, you kayak in THAT water? And you just went all the way around Manhattan??”, I often reply, “People SWIM in that water… all the way around Manhattan!!”

(Clearly, I might have to rethink this reply, although not the sentiment, after this summer’s sewage disaster…)

Each year, NYC Swim puts thousands of swimmers into that water for a series of short and longer swims in New York City’s waterways. Their premier event each summer is the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS), a 28.5-mile race around Manhattan. Along with the English Channel and Catalina Channel swims, it is one of the three swims in the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming.

The Lone Starlettes scoping out the Battery from the land side beforehand: (left to right) Pam LeBlanc, Katy Dooley, Leslie Blanke, Gretchen Sanders

In this year’s MIMS, on June 18, 2011, I was the kayaker for a relay team, the Lone Starlettes (no prizes for guessing which state they are from    ): Katy Dooley, Gretchen Sanders, Pam LeBlanc, and Leslie Blanke. Here’s how it went…

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Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Sports

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Recycled Adventures: Urban Kayaking, New York City

Posted on August 17, 2011 | 4 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Now that Johna and I are back from our New England kayaking trip (photos here, writeup still to come), it’s back to my regular old paddling routine in New York Harbor.

Here’s an account of one of my standard trips, written up a long time ago for the September/October 2003 issue of ANorAK, the Journal of the Association of North Atlantic Kayakers (a journal now defunct).  Rereading this account, I see that things haven’t changed much over the past decade. There’s mention of sewage, for instance…

In essence, the trip is a 50-nautical-mile circumnavigation of Manhattan with a side excursion into Long Island Sound, looping around City and Hart Islands. I developed this trip for those days when the timing of the tidal currents is such that the East River starts flooding in the early morning, just as I am launching from Pier 40 in lower Manhattan. Following the flood current up the East River soon gets me to Hell Gate, where I am faced with the choice of paddling against the current then coming down the Harlem River, or continuing with the current through Hell Gate into the Upper East River and out into Long Island Sound.  Being lazy, of course I choose the second option, returning to Hell Gate to resume the Manhattan circumnavigation only when the current has turned so that it will push me up the Harlem River. (As a bonus, I get to paddle through Hell Gate both ways at the peak of the current, sometimes boiling along at five or six knots, which can be interesting…)

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Posted in Kayaking, New York City

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Amelia Island Sunrise

Posted on August 14, 2011 | 5 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Sunrise on the beach at Amelia Island, Florida…

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Posted in Nature, Travel

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Tortoises Dance Their Mating Dance (Slowly)

Posted on August 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina

Tortoises are not the most agile or graceful of creatures.  Their movements have a certain grim ponderousness about them–but they get the job done, otherwise tortoises would not be here.

Recently, at Amelia Island, Florida, I saw in the sand dunes a pair of tortoises–gopher tortoises, I presume–dancing their slow mating dance.

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Name That Lighthouse!

Posted on August 10, 2011 | 11 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

I love lighthouses!  There are quite a few in New York Harbor and the surrounding waterways.  And over the years that I’ve spent kayaking in the area, I’ve collected photos of many of them.  See if you can identify the lighthouses in the following photos!  All are within the borders of New York City or just beyond.

Correct answers will receive contributions toward the purchase of your very own lighthouse!  Many lighthouses around the country are now available from the government at very reasonable terms.  In New York Harbor itself, West Bank Light and Old Orchard Shoal Light are unfortunately already gone, sold for $195,000 and $95,000 respectively—it will be interesting to see what the purchasers do with them. But Romer Shoal Light and Great Beds Light may still be available…

Update (August 12, 2011): Answers provided.

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Sea Kayaking Adventures in New England: A Few Photos to Start With

Posted on July 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

After returning from a week’s eventful paddling in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Vlad is sorting through hundreds of photos and Johna is turning over the stories in her head. It will take some little while for the report to come together, but it will feature:

Long open-water crossings!

Exciting surf landings!

Unexpected encounters with low tides…

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NYC’s Toxic Waterways, Trip Three: The Bronx River Attempt

Posted on July 10, 2011 | 14 comments

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

Lately we’ve developed a fascination with the legendary toxic waterways of New York City. Previously, we’ve traversed the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek, both Superfund sites. On July 2, we decided to explore the mysterious Bronx River.

Unlike the other two, the Bronx River isn’t truly toxic. In fact, by all accounts, the river is surprisingly bucolic as it winds under a leafy canopy, a narrow green ribbon through the concrete and asphalt of the Bronx.

But it’s not particularly paddler-friendly. Photos from Bob Huszar’s pioneering trip show numerous weirs, dams, and waterfalls. Paddlers pose with car carcasses half-submerged in the river, and rafts of floating trash collect behind a skim boom. (This last feature was one we should have paid more heed to!)

Since then, the river has apparently been substantially smoothed and civilized. The Bronx River Alliance has worked hard to institutionalize kayaking and canoeing on the river, running regular trips and producing a very useful map and paddling guide to the “Bronx River Blueway”. But the guide still shows three portages, some “challenging”, and warns that the water “can be very shallow at times. Paddlers may need to disembark and pull boats for short distances.”

Most paddlers come down the river in old beaten-up plastic river kayaks or canoes. We were headed up the river in our tender sea kayaks—his a soft-skinned folding kayak, hers pampered carbon-kevlar. How far up the river would be make it through the obstacles? Not so far, as it turned out.

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