Tag Archives: Kayaking

One Year of Wind Against Current

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

It’s hard to believe that a whole year has gone by since we published  our first post on May 9, 2011.

We have to credit Tugster with the idea. He’d asked us for a guest post about a kayaker’s-eye view on maritime traffic and life on the water. We still haven’t written that one (one day soon, Will, we promise!).

But we pondered the idea…  And meanwhile, Vlad kept taking photos, and Johna kept writing essays, until the idea of a blog was born.

Blogs are harder than they look, as anyone who writes on a regular basis knows well.

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On Fear

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.

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Once More Round Manhattan

By Vladimir Brezina

When the tide or the weather doesn’t cooperate or we simply can’t think of any other trip we’d rather do, we default to paddling round Manhattan. It’s our version of the run round the park. Yet no matter how many times we repeat it, each time we see something new. Manhattan and its waterways look different on a cold, dark day in January and on a mild gray day in March. And they look different again on a beautiful, bright blue sunny day at the end of April: here is a slideshow from yesterday’s Manhattan circumnavigation.

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At the Bottom of the Food Chain

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…

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Seals and Swells on Sunday

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!

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Kayak Silly

By Johna Till Johnson

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

Courtesy of Dan Kalman (caption mine).

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

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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A Quiet Springtime Manhattan Circumnavigation

By Vladimir Brezina

Sunday, March 25, 2012

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Sea Kayaker’s Deep Trouble

By Vladimir Brezina

Sea Kayaker’s Deep Trouble:
True Stories and Their Lessons from Sea Kayaker Magazine
Matt Broze and George Gronseth
Edited by Christopher Cunningham
Ragged Mountain Press
Camden, Maine, 1997

When I first started kayaking, in those spare moments when I wasn’t actually on the water I eagerly read every kayaking book I could lay my hands on. And this book was one that all experienced paddlers recommended. Possibly they were tired of explaining afresh to each clueless newbie all the things that could go wrong. This book does that job soberingly well.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Distorted

By Vladimir Brezina

This week’s Photo Challenge is Distorted.

Sometimes it’s the smoothest mirror that gives the most distorted picture…

Other nice interpretations that I’ve seen: