By Johna Till Johnson
Vlad in his element: eminently capable!
In response to today’s daily prompt.
What does it mean to be “capable”? It’s more than having a set of skills that enable you to cope with a situation. It’s about knowing which of those skills to deploy, in which order. Knowing all the little nuances that affect the situation–and how to adapt and respond to those nuances.
It’s an understatement to say that Vlad was a capable paddler. That he was, and much more, too.
By Vladimir Brezina
On the first dive, a novice diver immediately encounters a new and astonishing feeling, one of utter weightlessness, of floating in space, gently rising by inhaling more deeply and descending by exhaling… I still remember how amazed I was by that feeling.
On our trip to Australia last August we only went snorkeling, but still were able to recapture some of that feeling…
(Great Barrier Reef, Australia, August 2015)
A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, Weight(less).
Posted in Photography, Sports, Travel
Tagged Australia, Diving, Great Barrier Reef, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2016, Snorkeling, Weekly Photo Challenge, Weight(less)
By Vladimir Brezina
We are floating offshore in the Coral Sea, about twenty miles out from Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia.
What lies below the surface?
The Great Barrier Reef!
(more photos still to come…)
A contribution to Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge, Below.
Posted in Nature, Photography, Sports, Travel
Tagged Australia, Below, Great Barrier Reef, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2015, Snorkeling, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
At the start of the 2012 Manhattan Island Marathon Swim
A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, Motion.
By Vladimir Brezina
Ice skating in Central Park, NYC, some years back…
A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, Blur.
Posted in New York City, Photography, Sports
Tagged Blur, Ice Skating, Manhattan, New York City, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2015, Weekly Photo Challenge, Winter
By Vladimir Brezina
Here are a few shots from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where we escaped for a few days from NYC’s bone-chilling cold. (Of course, the cold was there waiting for us when we got back; the coldest day in recent memory is today.)
Some of these shots conform to the Rule of Thirds, this week’s Photo Challenge—even though I never consider this rule when shooting, and don’t like such rules in general :-)
Posted in Photography, Sports
Tagged Photography, Pool, postaweek, postaweek2015, Rule of Thirds, Swimmer, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
Figures in the waves at dawn… Belize, 2010.
A contribution to the past two Weekly Photo Challenges, Dreamy and Refraction.
Posted in Photography, Sports
Tagged Belize, Dawn, Dreamy, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2014, Refraction, Stand Up Paddle Board, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina
Maybe the magic was in the pasta.
This year, Vlad and I signed up to provide kayak support for the Ederle Swim, a 17.5-mile open-water swim from Manhattan to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Vlad has done it several times, but this was my first time accompanying swimmers to Sandy Hook (though we’ve paddled there many times).
We’d each been assigned a swimmer, and the day before the swim, the organizers, NYC Swim, sent us the swimmers’ email addresses. So I reached out to “my” swimmer, Andrea Varalli, mentioned that I’d done the paddle many times, and offered what advice I could, including the detailed blogs Vlad has posted on Wind Against Current about his previous Ederle Swims (here, here, here, and here).
Next thing I knew, Vlad and I agreed to meet Andrea and his support team for dinner at a “real Italian restaurant” (as Andrea called it), Piacere. (Pleasure, in Italian.) We had guessed (correctly as it turned out) that Andrea was “real Italian”—not merely of Italian descent. So the “real Italian” restaurant was sure to be a treat!
Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Sports
Tagged Ederle Swim, Kayaking, Long-Distance Swim, Manhattan, New York City, New York Harbor, NYC Swim, Open-Water Swim, Sandy Hook
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Silhouette.
Sailing across Tampa Bay at sunrise, at the start of the 2014 Everglades Challenge.
Posted in Photography, Sports
Tagged Photography, postaweek, postaweek2014, Sailing, Silhouette, Weekly Photo Challenge, Windsurfing
By Vladimir Brezina
Catching a wave on the Jersey Shore…
In response to this week’s Photo Challenge, Summer Lovin’. The first two responses were here and here.
Posted in Photography, Sports
Tagged New Jersey, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2014, Seashore, Summer Lovin', Surfing, Weekly Photo Challenge
... 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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