Tag Archive: Waves

Aug
11

Sea Kayaking South Manitou in a day

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It’s 8am on Cannery Beach, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. It’s me, a chain smoking heavy equipment operator, and nobody else. He says that no overweight tourists will be at the beach until about 11, and he wants to lift the cannery up off the ground before they get there. By the end of the day, my body and physics degree will both agree that the crane and I have each expended about the same amount of total energy. To which my liberal arts education replies, “but I have been across the sea.”

Feb
09

The types of surf breaks

This image of different types of breaks does a fairly good job of explaining how different breaks are formed. The type we see the most often on the Great Lakes is the beach break. Though on the east coast of Lake Michigan we often get sandbars that form in deeper water simulating a bit of …

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Dec
17

Sea Kayaking Orca Island with Body Boat Blade

Fortune smiled on me when I was able to make a trip north from Seattle to paddle Orca Island with Shawna Franklin and Leon Somme, (aka Maurice Leone Somme). Leon and I had spoken on the phone before I arrived in Seattle about the weather conditions. Leon described in dulcet tones while wearing a rosy …

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Mar
28

Video-Locals Only Surfer Comedy Skit with Ben Stiller

Comedy Skit with Ben Stiller of the Locals Only Surf Beach I’m not sure how old this skit is, or on which tv show it might have first appeared. Based on the fact that the Malone Brothers are in it, it seems likely it is recent. I’m pretty sure I met these guys on the …

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Mar
26

Surf Kayaking Santa Cruz

Kayak Surfing Santa Cruz I was fortunate enough on my SMX west conference to swindle two days of kayak surfing near Santa Cruz into the mix. I did some research about where to rent a surf kayak, but then remembered the flippant offer from world surf competitor Sean Morely to give him a call if …

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Mar
18

Kayak Surfing the Unfriendly Breaks

In the three times I’ve kayak surfed in California there’s always been a bad vibe from board surfers. Until you sort of creep out and slowly surf the premium part of the break. You have to show them that you aren’t going to kill them when you wipe out. There was an interesting article with …

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Oct
12

Surfing Sucks, well Suction…

Surfing hydraulics are indeed the stuff of legends. Once the waves start to top out at 8 feet or so they can do some pretty impressive things. When the waves spill the forces within are quite strong. This is an understatement of Olympian proportions. The forecast was for 8-10 foot waves with wind at 30 …

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Oct
02

Wind, Waves, Wine 2007

This year’s Wind, Waves, and Wine event was moved to Lake Michigan Recreation Area north of Ludington. Blessed with fortune I left work on Friday to arrive at exactly the same time as Henry Davies. We drove over to the beach and quickly assessed that surfing was out, but paddling would happen. We set up …

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Sep
12

Pit of Dread

I made the after work foray to South Haven south beach yesterday. The wind was up again, 20-25 knots out of the northwest, gusting to 30 knots. I had the beginnings of a cold, now in full bloom. When I arrived at the beach the tops of the waves were being blown off into furious …

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Sep
11

End of Summer Surf Session

Jason Roon and I headed out to South Haven with the wind roaring in the treetops like an angry lion wanted them to fall over. We arrived on South Haven north beach to see that the wind had died out almost entirely from the south west. We drove back to the south beach side and …

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