By Vladimir Brezina
Before the big paddle into the unknown: first tension—
then fear—
(OK, she’s acting out for the camera, a bit)
and then pure happiness on the last day…
Yes, long-distance paddling is all about the State of Mind!
This was the 2014 WaterTribe Everglades Challenge. Not coincidentally, the 2016 Challenge starts in a couple of days…
A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, State of Mind.
By Vladimir Brezina
I know this is a new, original design, but isn’t the kayak supposed to stay on top of the water?
(But they do get points for well- synchronized paddles.)
(2015 Cardboard Kayak Race. Full story here.)
A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, Oops!
Posted in Kayaking, Photography
Tagged Cardboard Kayak, Kayak Race, Kayaking, Oops!, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2015, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
She did it!!
Blackburn Challenge, 2014. The full story is here.
A contribution to this week’s Photo Challenge, Victory.
Posted in Kayaking, Photography
Tagged Blackburn Challenge, Kayak Race, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2015, Sea Kayaking, Victory, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina
“We’re going to the cardboard kayak races this weekend, right?” Vlad said, looking at me expectantly. I glanced back dubiously.
We’d missed the 2013 race, the first year that the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance had organized the race as part of its City of Water Day, but we’d thoroughly enjoyed the video. Last year, I’d provided kayak safety support for the race, while Vlad took photos. And we wrote it up on Wind Against Current.
As much fun as the race had been, did we really need to experience it again?
Yes, we did! So last Saturday we headed out to Governors Island, on a sultry summer day that started out reasonably comfortable, but promised heat and stickiness by the afternoon.
By Vladimir Brezina
Sometimes all you can do is laugh—
The last moments of one of the entries in last summer’s Cardboard Kayak Race, in which participants had to construct a kayak from cardboard and tape and then paddle it a short distance. This one turned out to be a folding kayak!
A contribution to Ailsa’s photo challenge, Laughter.
Posted in Kayaking, Photography
Tagged Cardboard Kayak, Kayak Race, Laughter, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2015, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina
This was the fifth year that Vlad and I raced in the Blackburn Challenge, the 20-mile circumnavigation of Cape Ann, Massachusetts. The race is named for Howard Blackburn, a 19th-century mariner of uncommon grit. (You can read about him here.) Any human-powered watercraft can participate, and there is usually a wide range, from paddleboards to rowing shells, dories, and dragonboats—plus several flavors of kayaks.
Thus far, I’d placed every time, helped out by the relative smallness of the field of women sea kayakers—there are typically only half a dozen or so in my class.
After collecting two third-place and two second-place finishes, I yearned for a first. Last year I missed it by a mere six minutes. And I just knew I’d gotten faster this year. I’d trained hard—though not as consistently as I’d liked—and still had some stamina left over from completing the Everglades Challenge earlier this year.
So I was pretty sure that this would be my year.
By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina
Last year, I wrote about the first annual Cardboard Kayak Race, held on City of Water Day at Governors Island. This year, I was in it!
No, it’s not what you’re thinking. We didn’t build a boat out of cardboard and then race it. But others did! And I was part of a fleet of “safety kayaks” whose job it was to rescue paddlers whose cardboard boats sank (and fish out the sodden detritus).
By Vladimir Brezina
Summer’s here—it’s high time to make our summer paddling plans!
And, as in the last four years, those plans absolutely have to include the Blackburn Challenge—our favorite open-water boat race. It’s 20 miles around Cape Ann, Massachusetts. All manner of human-powered boats take part—canoes, rowboats, dories, kayaks, surfskis, outrigger canoes, dragon boats, stand-up paddle boards—making for a fun day out on the water and afterward on the beach.
Last year, we raced in the Blackburn Challenge, then spent another two days paddling leisurely around Cape Ann.
In eager anticipation of this year’s trip, we’ve been looking over the photos from last year…
Posted in Kayaking
Tagged Blackburn Challenge, Cape Ann, Kayak Race, Massachusetts Sea Kayaking, Photography, Sea Kayaking, The Dry Salvages
By Johna Till Johnson and Vladimir Brezina
Photos by Vladimir Brezina
← Previous in Everglades Challenge
The day after: Johna and Cynthia trying to take apart Johna’s stuck paddle…
“You should write down what worked, and what didn’t,” DolphinGal advised us when she was doing our gear check the day before the start of the Everglades Challenge. So, a tip of the hat to DolphinGal (who has a pretty impressive story of her own to tell about what worked, and what didn’t, in her Everglades Challenge, some years back).
Here’s what we wrote down…
... 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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