Category Archives: Kayaking

The Red Vines of Autumn Along the Hudson: A Photoessay

Posted on September 14, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina

Summer was very great (:-)). But now, according to the National Weather Service,

“[a] taste of fall is in the forecast! A strong cold front will cross the Tri-State area Thursday ushering in a Canadian airmass. Temperatures will only be in the 70s Thursday with a chance of a few showers or even a thunderstorm. Then, the much cooler air arrives by Thursday night. Temperatures will fall to near 50 degrees. High temperatures on Friday will only be in the mid to upper 60s. Dewpoints will also fall into the 30s during the day Friday making it feel like autumn.”

In New York City, the trees remain green, with no sign of fall color yet. But the city is an urban heat island, with temperatures elevated often by ten degrees or more. Outside the city, no doubt, leaves are already starting to turn. It’s time to plan fall foliage trips—by kayak, naturally!

Some of the best fall colors can be seen along the banks of the Hudson north of the city. I haven’t been up the river since our May paddle from Albany to New York City, but here, in a collection of photos from past years, is what I imagine is, or soon will be, happening…

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Twin Towers

Posted on September 11, 2011 by | 11 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

“The … most prominent landmarks, which can be seen for a long distance at sea, are the twin towers of the World Trade Center …”

New York Harbor and Approaches
United States Coast Pilot Volume 2
30th Edition, 1998

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The individual photos are here.

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Beaufort Force Zero: A Photoessay

Posted on September 9, 2011 by | 13 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Winds and waves are all very well , but some of the most magic moments in a kayak on the open sea come when the wind dies down completely and the calm sea joins with the sky…

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A Post-Hurricane Swim Into the Record Books

Posted on September 4, 2011 by | 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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Manhattan Island Marathon Swim 2011: The Lone Starlettes Take Manhattan

Posted on August 20, 2011 by | 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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Recycled Adventures: Urban Kayaking, New York City

Posted on August 17, 2011 by | 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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Name That Lighthouse!

Posted on August 10, 2011 by | 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 by | 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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The Sun and the Rain: Kayaking down the Hudson from Albany to New York City

Posted on July 14, 2011 by | 39 comments

By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina

“Why is camping fun?”

I’ve been asked that many times through the years. Even active, tough, and healthy people, folks who glory in the feel of a strenuous workout, often wonder about it. Hard physical activity is a joy when it’s followed by a hot shower, a good meal (preferably cooked and delivered by someone else), and a clean, soft, safe  bed. But where’s the fun in ending a hard day’s workout by erecting a tent, attempting to cook dinner, bathing (if at all) in unheated water, and attempting to sleep on rocky ground? (Let’s not even talk about stinging and biting insects, itching poison oak and ivy, and the smallish-but-real risk of being attacked by a wild animal—or person.)

Why is camping fun?

It’s hardly a rhetorical question when you’re standing drenched to the skin, watching raindrops bore holes into the curry you’re desperately trying to heat over a flickering camping stove. Your muscles ache, but you can’t sit because the picnic table and ground are sodden. Darkness is all around you, lit only by the stove and the weak ripple of LEDs from the camp lamp through the rain. Behind you, the tent is battered by rain: Rivulets are pooling on the top and running down the sides, and you’re pretty sure the inside is damp as well. And the plummeting raindrops are cooling the curry as fast as you’re trying to heat it.

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

Posted on July 10, 2011 by | 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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