connecticut....

[rick stoehrer]

several of us launched saturday to play in connecticut.

we left stonington late in the day and missed max ebb over the reef and catumb rock but there were some nice waves breaking off of napatree point. after depositing janis safely to shore the rest of us played. reviewed surf safety...clear the zone, paddle back up on the sides...look around and know how to STOP your boat, a few nice rides were had, a few near misses (surfing backwards i like to bury the stern and then pop around and ride forward...but you need a steep enough wave and plenty of room. i heard a yell from behind as i raced down the face....and a foot behind me was greg! hit the emergency stop button by throwing myself over into the surf - this pretty much kills your momentum but it's a little rough....anyway, rolled into the water and covered my head with my arms/hand fearing the immediate impact...it never came) and then a not so near miss (stress cracks add character, hmnn?) the zone closed out to immediately around the rocks and pilings off of napatree and we decided to hang it up...too many people, not enough water.

we adjourned to greg's house in killingsworth township (hell, i could put the street address as well as the town here but it wouldn't matter...no one would EVER find him...the boy lives in the STICKS!) he had invited some connyakkers over that evening as well for a fiesta and a good time was had by all. werner especially.

sunday morning we awoke, some more easilly than others (and this is where the wine and beer didn't pay off for a few) and after a hearty breakfast of pie, waffles and SAUSAGE we drove the breakneck speeds back to stonington to catch max ebb at the reefs.

...which were only moving at about 2.4 knots and not much swell/wind activity to really work em up...so it was relatively small but still excellent school ground for learning how to catch and surf waves to make progress against a current. we'd fall back into the reef and then the trick is to catch as few waves as possible to get to the front. this was a great day for it...sea's were not confused and so the swell was coming from a pretty uniform direction...we had some successes there and werner despite his previous nights indulgences was having a grand ole time! mr godfrey was as ever his cackling, laughing, singing (ohhh....one more verse of rule brittania....just ONE MORE...) and paula and suze were happily paddling away...suze feeling like she should do rolls...which she did.

we played along catumb rock and the reefs and then headed in for lunch...we had a HUGE spread of food leftover from the party the previous night (huh...but little beer or wine...go figure) and soon had a table set on a huge ole blanket there on napatree...the connyak folks were a little intimidated by the glory of that buffet and we explained that mostly we just paddle between meals up this way....so we all ate leftovers and basked in the sun a bit and then the crew broke up....carl t (and there's a solid paddler...guy takes photo's in places where most folks wouldn't take their hands off their paddles!) and his nephew and a few others headed in and we headed off to see what we could find off of watch hill light...which was not a whole lot but there was some swell coming in and breaking on and around the rocks (and certainly we're not going to let rocks stop a little surf practice, yeah? hell, go AROUND them....or over when there's enough water....it's all play/learn/do....and fun)

we dawdled (sp?) for about an hour more or so and then made our way back to shore at stonington....a great weekend.

kinds thanks to the CT folks who came out and paddled and showed us around their neighborhood! these guys have a great, great array of places to paddle that offer many different levels of paddling for whatever skills you want to excercise....this is the place for an east coast symposium! greg, as ever, thanks for the hospitality!

[wernermaas]

yes...