eneumeier

Thanks Adam. He was a special guy. The only correction: it took two coyotes to take him down, big ones said my neighbor - who saw them too late. Liz N.

I seem to recall a Brit named Binks showing up for a Charles River trip with NSPN several years ago. He had just discovered sea kayaks, and NSPN. Could it be the same guy? Liz N.

Despite the drama that results in the need for tape that will stick to a wet hull, there are actually NSPN members who have paddled with the club without ever putting a hole (or having someone else do so) in their boats! If an intact boat and body appeals to you, you can still paddle with this club. :-)) Liz N.

I'll be there. Liz N.

Interesting discovery. Last evening Dee and I, accompanied by Rick C., paddled from Rockport to Gloucester harbor, a trial run of the diciest part of the Blackburn course. We were to meet up with Alex and Andrew who were paddling in Gloucester harbor via VHF calls on channel 72, which I was monitoring. Alex and I had a couple of radio exchanges along the way - no problem. After passing Braces Cove, and about 1/2 way from there to the Gloucester lighthouse, my radio started receiving a constant barrage of chatter, with so much static that I could only catch an occasional word. I paddled out a bit farther, thinking the transmission might become more clear if I were away from the granite. It did. The broadcast was the weather report. So I deduced, incorrectly, that my radio had somehow switched to the weather channel. (I did not have the channel lock on.) Since I was to contact Alex next when we reached the lighthouse I had Dee raft up with me so I could check my radio. It was on 72. At her suggestion I turned down the squelch which helped some. Rick C. figured out that I was receiving the weather broadcast from the new high power tower at the lighthouse. My next call to Alex was "Alex, Alex, Alex, switch to 7 - 1 over." Her reply "switching to 7 - 1" and we finished our conversation there. So, if you are in that area and your radio goes berserk on you - now you know why! AND: Can age and treachery really triumph over youth and skill? Stay tuned for July 10 to see if Liz, who knows how to pace herself over the long distance, can finish ahead of the better-conditioned and faster (as of last night over 1/2 the distance anyway) Dee. :-)) Liz N.

>Why don't we provide them with copies of our safety >pamphets? That may help clue in the inspectors as well as >the inspected. Good idea! If someone can track down and name and mailing address for this CG auxiliary group and I'll send them some copies. Liz N.

Sean, Did they treat you right on Father's Day? Liz N.

Hi Tei, Congratulations on your new boat! And, your good judgment: a kayaker's most important skill. You know enough not to go out alone! I suggest that you post here when you know you are going to be at L. Cochituate. NSPN has quite a few members in that area who practice there regularly. Possibly someone can hook up with you. Liz N.

I find it really helps to keep my KayakSport hatches sprayed around the seal with 303. They slide on and off much more easily. Liz N.

Pick a Saturday morning when the tide is IN at Marblehead so people don't have to walk back and forth through the muck. Demo early, then do a trip. Perhaps we could do 3 levels again like we did yesterday, followed by a cookout - with stuff to grill this time. Salads are great but personally I thought yesterday's pot luck fell a bit short of NSPN's standards. :-)) Liz N.

>Another few words of advice - don't skimp on the paddle or >pfd - they are almost more important than the boat! Buy the >lightest paddle you can and don't let anyone talk you into a >230! Lots of used 230's for sale. Spend a lot of time >trying on pfd's, you really need to be comfortable in the >one you buy. Tighten it up properly and then wear it around >the store the whole time you are there looking and chatting >about boats. Twist, turn and move alot to make sure that >there is no chaffing. Do all that plus sit in a few boats in it. PFDs feel a lot different sitting than they do standing. >Lastly, you may want to show up at the Solstice picnic after >the paddle on Sunday and introduce yourself to the group. I >won't be there but the picnic is always a lot of fun and a >good place to talk about paddling to paddlers. And to try a few boats. Liz N.

>"Consumption of 30 to 50 grams of sorbitol Definitely can be a bad idea. Fortunately, I just had to leave a meeting on short notice. Learned my lesson and haven't touched the stuff in years. Liz N.

>How 'bout an NSPN first aid scenarios day? Now that sounds like a fun time. Perhaps if he is up to it we could get Leon to come out and describe in a really graphic manner just how if works when you break a femur in surf, and how the medical folks handled it. The we could practice. :-)) Liz N.

Has Mystic warmed up yet? Liz N.

It seems to me that if you are getting blisters from your backband - you must be doing some torso rotation. Great! Have you tried not using a backband at all? I took the one out of my Gulfstream and not having it there actually allows me to sit up better and to rotate more. I'm still fiddling with the Viviane, which came with all 3 versions of KayakSport backbands. The smallest appeals most but I may do without, once again. Liz N.

yeah, it does. But if you want to enter the grubbiest gear contest it gives you a head start. Liz N.

Hey Richard! Good to hear from you. How do you like paddling in the Gulf? Liz N.

I wear a Kokatat sun-blocking shirt when I paddle in the summer. The collar is short but stands up to protect my neck. I've never had a hint of sunburn under it. It is made of quick dry nylon so when I am hot I scoop some water with the sleeves to cool off. The evaporative cooling makes it more cooler to be wearing the shirt than bare arms. Wearing the shirt also reduces the amount of sunblock I need to slather on. The sleeves are long enough to cover the top of my hands. At the Wilderness House show I bought a sun-blocking rash guard shirt by O'Neill, used by wind surfers. We'll see how that works. Liz N.

I can't imagine doing those portages, regardless of how little the boat weighs. Fabulous job! Liz N.

I remembered it because I don't usually post on the kayak forum board. He was not paddling alone. He was with 2 friends. He posted a description of "my saturday experience - - - " on the kayakforum so others could discuss and learn. Bravo for doing that. Read his post and the ensuing discussion: http://www.kayakforum.com/cgi-bin/Techniqu....cgi/read/16300 His concluding sentences: "so, i'm safe, my buds are safe, my Romany Explorer is out at sea somewhere and may turn up someday ... maybe England, or Bermuda .. or maybe even get washed up on the Outer Banks. so what did i learn from this? (1) ##### HAPPENS and sometimes you jusst can't do much about it. you can't plan on possibly dislocating a shoulder. (2) my VHF radio was safely tucked away in my garage. didn't figure i'd need it. i'll not leave home without it again, you can be sure. " He was only off by a bit. Truly amazing. Liz N.

>We're not going to support a sport that's not .."Good TV"; I have always maintained that this is why professional soccer has not caught on here: no place to put commercial breaks in a continuous action game. >Maybe NSPN should adopt one of the athletes, and have them >paddle with us for a day later in summer after they get back >from Athens. come to one of the Charles River Races. What do people think of this idea? Connyak is supporting Cheri Perry's Greenland trip. Liz N.

It is easy and free to register, and you can see the cool picture, but here is the article: U.S. Flatwater Racing Is Taking on Water Without a Home and Without Funding, Hopefuls Struggle to Keep Olympic Dreams Alive By Amy Shipley Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 15, 2004; Page D01 JUPITER, Fla. Just after 7:30 a.m., Jim Farnum shuffles in bare feet and pajama pants into the kitchen of the ranch-style house he shares with as many as 12 other men and women , most Olympic hopefuls in kayaking. Farnum blows his nose into a paper towel, complains that the Lucky Charms box is empty, then carries a half-gallon carton of orange juice to a couch, where he sits, drinking straight out of the container. Click here! Brandon Woods, one of Farnum's teammates in a four-man boat, leans over a bowl of Cheerios and watches "SportsCenter" on one of the two borrowed televisions. Farnum's brother, Dave, sits next to him on a couch, eating Wheat Thins out of the box. Other kayakers -- unshaven, unshowered and uncombed -- begin to stumble out of the back bedroom, staggering in bare feet over the Mexican tile to the communal refrigerators: one in the back of the kitchen, another in the living room and a third on the porch, unplugged. "We get in each others' way a lot," Woods said later. "You walk into the kitchen, you dodge two people. You open the fridge and wait for three people to move." In the midst of final preparations for the U.S. Olympic trials for Flatwater Sprint Canoe and Kayak, which begin Thursday in Oakland, Calif., the paddlers awakened to another day in something less than paradise. They began splitting the rent for the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in January after being booted out of the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y. There, they had resided comfortably in dormitories, receiving free room and board and access to state-of-the-art training facilities. That changed after their coach, Paul Podgorski, was let go last November by cash-strapped USA Canoe/Kayak, the national governing body for a sport that strains to attract sponsors and support. Without a national team coach at the training center, there could be no national team members stationed there. Podgorski, who lived in Lake Placid for 19 years, was earning $38,000 annually when he was fired. A former Polish Olympian, Podgorski has seen the sport rise and fall, but he said he now fears the sport is dying in the United States, largely because of what he claims has been mismanagement by USA Canoe/Kayak and partly because of decreasing funding from the U.S. Olympic Committee. "The federation is in very bad shape," Podgorski said. "There is no money whatsoever. The Olympic Committee funding has changed completely in the last few years. It's put small sports in a really bad situation. "What's the mission of this organization? Cutting this program is basically against the mission." USA Canoe/Kayak Executive Director David Yarborough called the dissolution of the Lake Placid program an "economic necessity" brought on by huge decreases in sponsorship since 2000, when USA Canoe/Kayak lost its two primary sponsors (Champion paper company and Eddie Bauer). Meantime, Yarborough said, another hit came from the USOC, which he said cut funding by 20 percent via its new pay-for-performance plan. "I feel every day there's not enough money to go around," he said by phone from Charlotte. "All of our athletes deserve more than we're able to give them. Our coaches are underpaid, as is everybody on our staff." Jerzy Dziadkowiec, who is based at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., will lead this year's Olympic team, but Lewis said it is Podgorski whom athletes adore, which is why so many elite paddlers traveled to Lake Placid in the first place. Podgorski coached the '88 Olympic team to two gold medals and has earned a reputation as a brilliant developer of talent. Podgorski left the national team from 1993 to 1996, and the result was significant: The United States had its worst performance ever at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, with no athletes advancing to any sprint kayak finals. After Podgorski was let go this time, the national team flooded headquarters in Charlotte with e-mails and letters of protest. "It fell on deaf ears," Farnum said, then added, "or dumb." When Podgorski announced his intention of relocating to Florida, he unwittingly made a decision for his athletes. "We said, 'Paul, we're not letting you go. We're following you,' " Lewis said. "We didn't even question. We just went. That's a good coach." Click here! As many as six of the eight athletes who found themselves suddenly homeless had been favorites to advance from this weekend's trials to the North and South American Olympic qualifier in Brazil, which serves as the real trials for the Games. Thirty to 40 junior kayakers who spent the summers in Lake Placid with Podgorski no longer had a place to train. Yet despite the fact that the Athens Games were just nine months away, the paddlers had to go. The group included Farnum, 28, who worked part-time as a nightclub bouncer last year so he could buy a $2,250 boat. He sold it a month ago because he needed money to get through the trials. It also included Hawaii-born Brandon Woods, 20, who put off college to try to make the Olympic team and has been dipping into his stock fund ever since, and his partner in a two-man boat, Benjie Lewis, 21, who took a year off from Dartmouth to try to qualify for the Games. Woods and Lewis won a silver medal at last year's Pan American Games. There was also Daniel Krawczyk, 26, a mechanical engineering graduate from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, whose father, Henry, and uncle, Gene, competed in the Olympics in kayaking, Henry for the United States in 1976 and Gene for Poland in 1968. The athletes, four men and four women, loaded their boats on trailers, squeezed into SUVs and took turns driving non-stop to Jupiter, a small town about 100 miles north of Miami that had embraced them during annual races there. Podgorski knew he could find work in the area, and it was the only place everyone else could think of to go. "The next thing you know, they were here," said John Zimmerman, manager of the Jupiter Outdoor Center. "They needed a place to stay; they needed beds and mattresses. All of a sudden we really had an Olympic team on our hands that had less funding than the Nigerian team." Zimmerman offered the paddlers free use of his storage yard and boat dock and dug into his own pockets to ensure they had a place to sleep. He found a house just a few blocks from the Outdoor Center and put a down payment on the place to secure the $2,300 monthly rent. He hired handymen to install bunkbeds and deposit mattresses so five could sleep in one bedroom, three in another and two (Podgorski and his wife) in the third. Another three occasionally slept on the couch and pair of mattresses on the floor. The paddlers pay $200 to $250 a month for rent, depending on the number of athletes in town at a particular time. None has a single commercial sponsor, and none qualified for Olympic-related funding. Given the 5,000 calories a day necessary to fuel twice-daily sessions on the water with weight training in between, the national team members each average about $100 weekly on food, their greatest expense by far. Farnum said his grandfather helps him pay the bills. Over the years, he also has worked an array of odd jobs: golf-cart driver at a country club, kayak instructor and chauffeur. He said he is actually looking forward to starting work at a local Home Depot, a company that offers Olympic hopefuls flexible schedules and steady money. "That's going to be income every two weeks," Farnum said. "None of us is used to that." Last week, the athletes pawned raffle tickets at a mixer organized by the Jupiter and North Palm Beach chambers of commerce. On Saturday, they essentially sold themselves for cash, offering kayak rides in their racing boat (named "Fury") for $100 a shot. All of the proceeds went to the non-profit foundation the paddlers had, in essence, become. Podgorski estimated that Olympic trials expenses would run about $15,000. Zimmerman added to the pot, buying plane tickets for six athletes so they could afford the trip. Dave Farnum, a former kayaker, agreed to drive the boats to Oakland for $500. The paddlers planned to meet him there, then settle into their rooms at a local Motel 6. "It's a sacrifice," Krawczyk said with a shrug. "A small sacrifice." After the morning's workout on the Loxahatchee River, the kayakers rinsed themselves under the open showers at the Jupiter Outdoor Center as they do every day: It's easier than waiting in line at the house. For a while, the men could use only one bathroom; the four female national team members -- who already had left for the trials in California -- claimed the other. The women also took possession of the smallest bedroom, which featured a set of bunk beds and a twin bed, along with a hair dryer, full-length mirror and goldfish tank. A set of handwritten "Kitchen Rules" taped above the kitchen sink represented the attempt of one of the women to bring civility to the homestead. (Rule No. 3 read: "Please use soap and hot water when washing dirty dishes -- do not just rinse!") As the day wore on, the low-intensity chaos of the early morning evolved into lazy repose, frat-boy style. Sweaty shirts and shorts were slung over four clotheslines in the backyard. A power drill, stick of deodorant and box of envelopes adorned the shelf below a front window, alongside of which rested several kayak paddles and a potted palm. Farnum, who turned 28 that day, arrived back from the morning practice to find an assortment of balloons bouncing against the kitchen ceiling, a box of Lucky Charms and two cupcakes on a pan decorated with icing-stenciled insults ("I hate you!" and "You are an idiot" were two of the nicer sentiments). Farnum's brother sang an off-key rendition of "Happy Birthday" as the other kayakers lounged around the television, eating bananas and Wheat Thins. Farnum immediately poured a bowl of Lucky Charms and doused it with milk. Krawczyk, meantime, grappled with the question: How could he put off a lucrative career as a mechanical engineer for . . . this? "It's my dream," he said. "It's been my dream since I was 10 years old to make the Olympic team and win a medal. I want to see if I can. One of the worst things possible that could happen would be to look back and say, 'What if?' " Back on the water, Terrin Stucchio, just 15, is paddling his single kayak, doing hard laps behind the four-man kayak that contains Lewis, Farnum, Krawczyk and Woods. Podgorski, wearing a baseball cap and carrying a clipboard, chastises Stucchio for having left his paddle at the house. "This is a very good lesson for you," he says from the dock as Stucchio struggles with an unfamiliar instrument. "I'd say he's the fastest 15-year-old in the world," Podgorski says, as Stucchio paddles silently away. "But by the time he gets to 18, he'll have a tough time being in the top ten." There are no collegiate kayaking programs in the United States. There is little exposure in high school. And now, since his firing last winter, there is no organized junior program at Lake Placid. How will Stucchio ever improve? Lewis, the Dartmouth student, mulls over these sorts of questions as he drives south on the Florida Turnpike to his home town of Miami later that day. He usually makes the trip via a $2 ticket on the Tri-Rail, but today he has secured a ride. In Miami, he will borrow a pickup truck from star kayaker Angel Perez and drive it back that night to Jupiter -- in time, he hopes, for the fundraiser. The next day, Dave Farnum will latch the boat trailer on the back of the pickup and begin to tow the kayaks to Oakland. "We're fully cognizant of the mismanagement of our organization," Lewis said. "By getting rid of Paul, the organization actually set itself back a whole generation. If Paul hadn't invited me out to summer camps, I wouldn't be paddling today, guaranteed. Every other paddler who grew up in the system would agree with me on that." Other things weigh on Lewis's mind. He admits he is worried about the caliber of the Olympic venue in Athens. Bad weather during a junior race there last year caused several boats to fill with water and sink. Lewis suddenly seems to fear he is making the wrong impression. There is one thing, he says, that he wants to make perfectly clear. "I'm more concerned about making the Olympic team than anything," he said. "I would gladly sink in the Olympics just to have the opportunity." Liz N.

Our flat-water sprint cousins need help. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2004Apr14.html Liz N.

I thought about posting this, from the Gloucester Daily Times, as a bit of a warning, but ... Storm floods harbor with sewage By Lisa Arsenault Staff writer Cape Ann spent much of yesterday bailing out from Thursday's record rainfall, a deluge that flooded basements, swamped low-lying roadways and forced tens of thousands of gallons of untreated sewage into Gloucester Harbor. The rain began as a drizzle on Wednesday and escalated to a downpour over most of the day Thursday. Manchester weather expert David Towle said he hasn't seen such a storm since 1996. In the past two days, Manchester received 6.74 inches of rain, he said. Just over four inches of rain fell in Boston Thursday, doubling a 1962 record for the most rain in a day, according to the National Weather Service. "Usually this is the kind of event we would have in a hurricane," Towle said. "(Thursday) afternoon alone, over 2 inches of rain fell between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m." Local fire departments helped dozens of local residents pump out flooded basements Thursday night. Twenty-four hours later, the calls were still coming in. Essex DPW director Damon Boutchie said the flooding wasn't as bad as it could have been, as crews had been working around town before the storm, cleaning up the storm drains and catch basins. Towle said he didn't think Cape Ann would be in the clear again until the middle of next week. He said the clouds may break for a while today, but more rain is in store for Monday. Gloucester Public Works Director Joseph Parisi called this week's rain "the 100-year storm" and predicted it would be days before the pipes could handle the runoff. Many of the city's storm drains lead to the combined sewer system, whose overflow pipes were taxed to the limit yesterday. The storm drain water has to be processed at the treatment plant, but whatever the plant can't handle goes back into the pipe infrastructure and some of them lead directly into the ocean, taking raw sewage along with it. The overflow pipes haven't been cleaned since the 1970s and can only carry about 70 percent of their original capacity. The city is about to embark on what will be a decade-long project to separate the storm drain and sewer pipes. Parisi said it would be at least a day or two before everything was back to normal. END OF ARTICLE Hopefully it had cleared by Sunday, but if anyone got sick it would be hard to say if it was the fouled harbor water or Woodmans!!!! When in Gloucester go to Amelia's, or the Causeway (next to the cinema on Rt. 133 heading out of town, or the Pilot House (walking distance from where you launched). Woodmans. Good grief. Liz N.

Well, I think I'm sold. Time to get a twig and see what I can do with it outside a pool. Thank you to our Greenland Spotters: Tony Biscotti Kristen Woodberry Linda Shelburne Brian Nystrom and the omni-present Rick Crangle Liz N.