By Vladimir Brezina
Last weekend, the currents in New York Harbor dictated a southbound kayak trip. So we paddled, once more, down to Sandy Hook. Here is a slideshow of the highlights.
It was the weekend of the Supermoon. And the currents were strange. The flood on the way back to Manhattan was much stronger than usual, but the ebb on the way to Sandy Hook was paradoxically much weaker…
For Johna’s feelings toward the Staten Island Ferry, see her last post.
The individual photos are here.
Posted in Kayaking, New York City
Tagged Kayaking, New York City, New York Harbor, Photography, Sandy Hook
By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina
Johna and her Nemesis, the Staten Island Ferry
Fear is a funny thing.
On the one hand, it can be a powerful protective and energizing force. In fact, one of my favorite quotes is: “Fear is the energy to do your best.” I welcome fear when it inspires me to do more than I thought I could.
On the other hand, fear can hold you back.
By Vladimir Brezina
The other day I looked at the calendar and suddenly realized that there are barely three months left: it’s high time to get into shape, and get the kayaks shipshape, for this year’s Blackburn Challenge!
The Blackburn Challenge, organized by the Cape Ann Rowing Club, is a ~20-mile open water race around Cape Ann, the rocky cape that projects into the Atlantic Ocean north of Boston, Massachusetts. It’s a well known and well established event—last year was the 25th running of the race (and there was one participant who had been in all 25 of them!). The fun part is that the race is open to “all seaworthy oar or paddle powered craft. Classes include men’s and women’s Banks dories, fixed seat singles, doubles, multi-oars with cox, multi-oars without cox, sliding seat singles & doubles, single & double touring kayaks, single & double racing kayaks, surf skis, and outrigger canoes.” Even, in the last couple of years, paddleboards! So it’s quite a colorful flotilla out there on the ocean during the race!
Johna and I have raced in the Blackburn Challenge in 2010 and 2011, and we will be going again this year. The 2012 Challenge is on Saturday, July 14th. If that sort of thing appeals to you, you should certainly think about going too!
Posted in Kayaking
Tagged Blackburn Challenge, Cape Ann, Gloucester MA, Kayak Race, Massachusetts Sea Kayaking, Sea Kayaking
By Vladimir Brezina
In the harbor ecosystem, kayaks are definitely at the bottom of the food chain.
Still, sometimes they remind me of those frisky little mammals scampering under the feet of the great lumbering dinosaurs…
Posted in Kayaking, New York City
Tagged Binghamton Ferryboat, Boat Traffic, Ferries, Graveyard of Ships, Kayaking, New York Harbor, Photography, Shipping, Yellow Submarine
By Vladimir Brezina
Block Island lies in the middle of Block Island Sound, about ten miles south of the main Rhode Island coast. It’s a fairly large island, beautiful in the coastal New England manner, with long sandy beaches, grassy dunes and bluffs, beach roses and beach peas, warm turquoise waters. (This is in the summer, of course… although in winter, when the tourists and the summer residents leave, the windswept, largely treeless island no doubt has its own bleak beauty too.) There are some paddling possibilities on the island itself.
But, to my mind, the main point of Block Island is to paddle out to it and back again.
A distinct step up from the open-water paddles across New York Harbor’s Lower Bay or across Long Island Sound, which are still fairly sheltered, the Block Island paddle offers true open-ocean experience. The open water of Block Island Sound is exposed from all directions, but particularly from the south—any conditions out on the open Atlantic will be felt, with little attenuation, in the Sound. There is nowhere to hide from them. On the other hand, the paddle is not so long, and many days in the summer are predictably benign. So this paddle will test mainly your navigational skills and your critical judgement about weather and tidal currents—but, if that judgement should fail, also your rough-water paddling skills…
Posted in Kayaking
Tagged Block Island, Kayak Expeditions, Ocean Kayaking, Rhode Island, Sea Kayaking, Tidal Current
By Vladimir Brezina
On Sunday, Johna and I paddled once more to Swinburne Island to see seals.
Swinburne Island, a small island in New York Harbor just south of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, hosts a healthy population of seals every winter. We’ve already visited them once this winter. But now in April, especially with spring arriving so early this year, we were wondering if the seals would still be there.
We were not disappointed!
Posted in Kayaking, Nature, New York City, Photography
Tagged Kayaking, Marine Mammals, New York Harbor, Photography, Seal, Swinburne Island
By Johna Till Johnson
"You're gonna put your BUTT into my MOUTH?!?!"
Courtesy of Dan Kalman (caption mine).
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!)
Posted in Kayaking
Tagged Florida, Kayak Strokes, Kayak Symposium, Kayaking, Nigel Foster, Sea Kayaking, Sweetwater
By Vladimir Brezina
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Posted in Kayaking, New York City
Tagged Kayaking, Manhattan, New York City, New York Harbor, Photography
... kayaked the waters around New York for more than 15 years in his red Feathercraft folding kayak. He was originally from (the former) Czechoslovakia and lived in the U.K. and California before settling down in New York. He was a neuroscientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He died in 2016.
... is a kayaker and technology researcher at Nemertes Research. She's an erstwhile engineer, particle physicist, and science fiction writer. She was born in California and has lived in Italy, Norway, Hawaii, and a few other places. She currently resides in New York City.
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Wind Against Current 