Author Archives: Johna Till Johnson

Kayak Silly

Posted on March 28, 2012 | 6 comments

By Johna Till Johnson

"You're gonna put your BUTT into my MOUTH?!?!"

Courtesy of Dan Kalman (caption mine).

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Posted in Culture, Humor, Kayaking

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Putting the “Fun” Back Into Fundamentals: Sweetwater Kayak Symposium 2012, Part Two

Posted on March 27, 2012 | 3 comments

By Johna Till Johnson

A short while ago I wrote about the first two days of my experience at this year’s Sweetwater Kayak Symposium in Florida. You can read about it here, but in sum: I learned more than I ever imagined, particularly about the “feel” of handling a kayak. Here’s what happened on the last day:

On the third and (for me) last day of the Symposium, we met up at the Weedon Island Preserve, a nature preserve just outside St. Petersburg. My paddling plans for the day included two courses: “Bracing, Sculling, and Rolling” in the morning,  then “Fun with Foster”, a mysterious course that course leader and kayaking legend Nigel Foster bills as “all the stuff the BCU doesn’t want you to know”. (There’s quite a lot. Keep reading!)

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Posted in Kayaking

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Edging Into Artistry: Sweetwater Kayak Symposium 2012, Part One

Posted on March 15, 2012 | 14 comments

By Johna Till Johnson

Note: What follows gets a bit “kayak geeky”. I’ve tried to keep things straightforward and ensure the story appeals to non-paddlers as well. But just in case I didn’t entirely succeed, consider yourselves warned!

Sometimes it’s best not to know what you’re getting yourself into.

If I’d truly understood the nature of kayaking in the beginning, I doubt I’d ever have taken up the sport.

When I first started paddling, I assumed, like most people do, that the primary requirement was upper-body strength.  And like most people, I was afraid of falling in. Not of actually being in the water (I’m a strong swimmer), but the falling-in part. Or more accurately, the loss of control and panic that hits when your boat tips over and begins to dump you into the drink.

So I figured the two main reasons for taking kayak lessons would be to build up my upper-body strength, and to learn how to keep the boat from ever tipping over.

Anyone who’s paddled for a while is already chuckling, because I couldn’t have been more wrong on those two points.

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Posted in Kayaking

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Circumnavigating Monomoy

Posted on February 13, 2012 | 43 comments

By Johna Till Johnson
(With additional text, charts, and photos by Vladimir Brezina)

This happened in July 2011.

The day dawned clear and bright, and we were excited: This was the day we were going to circumnavigate Monomoy Island. Located at the “elbow” of Cape Cod, Monomoy juts out some eight miles, dividing Nantucket Sound from the Atlantic Ocean. It offers a nice spectrum of paddling opportunities: The protected, shallow water of the Sound on one side, and the deep swells of the Atlantic on the other.

And then there is Monomoy Point, the very end of the island, where the two waters meet.

“Kayakers have died there,” Vlad informed me cheerfully over breakfast.

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43 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, Nature

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“A Bizarre Boating Accident”

Posted on February 10, 2012 | 41 comments

By Johna Till Johnson
(Photos by Vladimir Brezina)

Since we posted our Red Hook adventure a couple of weeks ago, readers have been asking for more. So here’s a real adventure, which until now, for reasons that will become obvious, we’ve been a bit reluctant to post in full…

We’ve drawn upon the initial couple of hours of this story for a previous post. But at the point where that post left off, the adventure was just beginning!

Two further comments: First, we regret that photos are a little thin in this post. During most of these events, photography would have been difficult, or inadvisable.

And second, this is an example of people going “above and beyond” to be human, even when it could potentially threaten them professionally. So to protect the well-intentioned—and much-appreciated—innocent, all names, dates, and other identifying details have been modified or obscured.

This happened sometime last spring…

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41 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, New York City

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Red Hook: An Unexpected Adventure

Posted on January 25, 2012 | 112 comments

By Johna Till Johnson and Vladimir Brezina

Freshly Pressed on the WordPress.com home page!

Experiencing the unexpected is the essence of adventure.

That was amply illustrated by our paddling experience on a recent weekend. In company with Harry and Runar, we set out toward Swinburne Island to see the seals that live there each winter. It was a perfect day for the trip: Sunny, temperature in the high 50s,  just enough wind to make things interesting. We figured it would be a great way to start off the seal-viewing season.

Instead, we ended up spending an afternoon exploring a part of the world we’d never seen before: Red Hook, Brooklyn. What we gave up in paddling and seal-watching we gained back in art, architecture, and entertaining social interactions.

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112 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Society

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Versatile Blogger Award

Posted on January 4, 2012 | 15 comments

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

We’ve received a Versatile Blogger Award! This award, which is passed on from blogger to blogger, honors “the quality of the writing, the uniqueness of the subjects covered, the level of love displayed in the words on the virtual page…(and)  the quality of the photographs and the level of love displayed in the taking of them.”

Composer in the Garden has passed the award to us, and we’re thrilled and honored by this recognition by a fellow blogger, particularly one whose own blog we follow and admire. And now we need to pass the award on in our turn…

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15 Comments

Posted in Awards, Life, The Virtual World

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Learning to Look, And See

Posted on January 2, 2012 | 37 comments

By Johna Till Johnson
(Addendum and photos by Vladimir Brezina)

I’ve never had much of an “eye”, in the sense of being able to relate to things visually—or even notice them in the first place.

The opposite, in fact. I’m one of those people who can walk by a large object—say, a 60-story building—every day for a month before exclaiming, “Has that always been there? I’ve never seen it before!” And I’m perfectly sincere: I really haven’t noticed it. I think in terms of narratives, not pictures—and I often fail to see what’s literally right in front of my nose.

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37 Comments

Posted in Life, Nature, New York City, Photography

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“It’s All About the Joy”

Posted on December 12, 2011 | 8 comments

By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina

Do you ever have those days where you just don’t feel like finishing what you start? I do, but not usually when it comes to kayaking.

But that’s how I felt on a recent Saturday afternoon. It was a warm autumn day, and we’d planned a fast Manhattan circumnavigation, heading around the island clockwise, rather than the more usual counterclockwise. Starting from Pier 40, a clockwise circumnavigation is usually faster than a counterclockwise one because you can catch faster current in all three main legs of the trip—up the Hudson River (about 11 miles), down the Harlem river (about 8), and down the East River (another 8), leaving you fighting the current only at the very tail end (from the Battery back up to Pier 40).

If the stars align right—and wind and currents fall into place—a reasonably fast paddler can finish a clockwise circumnavigation in under five hours. Racers can do it in three-and-change.

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Posted in Kayaking, New York City

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Radio Calls On the Water

Posted on November 24, 2011 | 3 comments

By Johna Till Johnson and Vladimir Brezina

We couldn’t possibly write about this topic without first referencing Bowsprite’s prior posts here and here. Not only did she accurately (and highly entertainingly) capture the lingo, her whimsical drawings are one-of-a kind!

Negotiating ferry traffic in New York Harbor

When out kayaking in New York Harbor, we carry marine radios for several reasons: To call for help if something goes wiggy; to stay abreast of developments on the water; and, where appropriate, to advise larger vessels of our intentions.

But one of the more captivating aspects of kayaking with a radio in the harbor is simply the opportunity to listen to exchanges between the captains of commercial vessels.

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Posted in Kayaking, New York City

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