Gillian

What a great trip! The weather was great and the company was wonderful as well . . . it was one of my first longer paddles of the season and I felt comfy in my boat - the waves on the outside of Cranes were a blast and I got knocked over once and rolled up and was able to recover my hat . . . Gene thanks for the rescue opportunity in the surf zone! yee ha! Gene, you did awesome learning a new re-entry method in a few seconds, and thank you to Kevin for keeping an eye on the waves and swell and reporting back to us so I could concentrate on the rescue . . . Ernie also kept a watchful eye about 10 ft. back . . . it was definitely an eventful end to the day. Thanks to Kevin for organizing a wonderful trip!

hey we can def. set up at a bbq at our house post paddle - if anyone is up for it let me know - we'll make a byom. bring your own meat.

ick. hahah

let's do bbq for dinner. see you then.

I agree with Peter, even if he only wears underwear under his dry suit.

hahahahah fantastic. peter now i have yet another fabulous image of you in my mind

sounds like a blast!!!!

Please check the calendar for driving directions and additional information but the Friday Evening Forest River Sessions are back on the board - dress appropriately until the water warms up!! As in the other lake sessions this is a free form practice session where we will learn from each other and practice anything you'd like to work on!

guys i'm impressed!!! it sounded like an awesome paddle

it's going to be a little bit of a muddy put in but whatever!!!!! can't wait!! yeeeaaah friday nights at forest river . .. .

What will the rabbi say to the bishop Sunday morning?

what??!!

Count me in. I may have to bring my 11 year old son Nathan in the Tandem but it sounds like a good time.

wow, thanks for all the support guys! we unfortunately have to run our new to sea kayakers workshop on the same day as rei demo day and we were worried about not having enough volunteers for both - thanks for all the help!!

Man, was I ever sore around the small of my back, the next day!

that is becuase you are getting creaky and rickety

Thursday looks tempting. I'm a maybe.

very jealous of you guys with flexible schedules!! if you venture out to the islands wave towards salem at me

Oh, one more really important thing. "Politics ruins everything"

BB

good lord then why on earth would you post something like this? what you just posted is politics and if something happened within the board, to start a rumor like that on the general message board, is unacceptable. geesh, i left the board so i wouldn't destroy all my kayak gear with the in-gighting and arguing, and now it's on the general message board - arrrggghh!!!! when does it end!!

me thinks this will be my exit from perusing the nspn general message board . . . see you guys on the water and in trips boards for sure . . .

Having stuck to mostly pool sessions this winter, I decided to get some salt on my boat. After stuffing myself into my boat (the dry suit, chotas, and other sundry gear felt like putting on an extra 20 pounds), Kevin, Shaila and I headed out in sunny quiet conditions from Riverhead beach.

The best part of the trip was the perfectly exact forecast - we headed out at about 10:30 missing some of the stronger winds later in the afternoon. What was surprising and a welcome part of the trip were the 2-3 ft. swells we found once we were out of the harbor. There were crashing waves against the open ocean end of the Neck and 2 ft. swells out in the channel. It can be a lake out there a lot of the time so we had a blast surfing down following seas as we crossed from the tip the Neck over to Crowininshield. I only wish it had been warmer so we could have really played in the rocks . . . the only downer of the trip was seeing a guy launch from Marblehead neck with no pfd and head out past Marblehead Rock. . . .

Between 2 hours of frisbee golf and the pond scum session yesterday, and todays 2 hour paddle, I'm WICKED SORE. But in a good way! I can't wait for those summer days where I can shed all that gear and get into the rocks . . . come on summer!!!!

I want to echo the thanks! Kevin and I had an amazing time last night and I can't figure out why it took us so long to do this! You guys were incredibly kind in lending us your gear, boats, and your knowledge.

I will have to say I haven't worked that hard at a pool session since I first started paddling and I forgot how fun it was to learn something new. Will - thank you for your teaching skillz - I got in my boat and next thing I knew you had me upside down and figuring out how to feel my body and boat again - I can't believe I almost got a hand roll! Thank you to Nancy and Scott and Will, Ralph, Dan and everyone who was a part of the session last night. Kevin and I can't stop talking about how cool it was and how quickly we can get boats and tuliks, so we can join you all more frequently.

I'm only sorry we missed the pizza afterwards! I will definitely see you guys at the April sessions. I know it won't be the kind of instruction we got yesterday but maybe if Kevin and I give you our big doe eyes you'll come help us out

Thank you again and a wonderful job!!!!!

Couple Quick Updates!

Okay new time is 10:30 for late risers - meet at forest river.

Suz also brought up a good point that if you don't have a dry suit be exremely careful what you wear - cold shock if you fall out of your boat is more the issue than hypothermia. So even though we're near shore, wear a dry suit if you have one or a wet suit and appropriate outter layers.

See you at 10:30!

OK, sounds like a good idea. I assume being a little later would not be a problem.

What time will you be there?? I can push it back if that's easier but I'd hate to be getting out of my boat when you're arriving

Also for the other question, Forest River Beach in Salem is a location we use for our summer practice sessions - so it's kind of like a lake session for skills practice, only it happens to be in salt water - it's a nice little area protected from wind etc. etc. So this is definitely sort of a lazy stretch your sea legs practice session in salt water - nothing exciting like the mouth of the river We'll pretty much be a few feet from shore the whole time

man, you're so cool - what an awesome thing to do . . . can't wait to hear stories and see pics . . . maybe you can set up a flickr account and load your pics as you go so we can live out your adventure vicariously through you

Hellooo anyone feel like doing a Sunday practice session at Forest River, Salem? High tide is at 9:27 so we could meet at 10 - might be nice to be in the salt water on a warm day, and if you don't have a dry-suit you could still participate since we'll be right next to the beach, and the parking is right there . . .

Anywho, I was tossing the idea around - let me know if anyone's interested!!

Actually there are at least 10 people coming to Haverhill this Saturday. The session was full almost a week ago and there have been several that I, unfortunately, had to turn away. But, there are many more sessions - 2/28, 3/7, 3/38. 4/4, and 4/25 - and they are all still open.

Holy crap really!? that's awesome!!!!!! I heard from Kevin we're def. going so see you there!

Helllo there! Anyone out there going to Haverhill this weekend? Am I going? Where's Kevin when I need him . . . well if we're going then the PPPO will be at the Tap afterwards - great place and their own brews, one of which is called Leather Lips

We had a great time Saturday night - it was me, Judy, David, Sean, Kevin, Shaila, and Brian. Pretty much we all worked on everything from rolling, to switching seats in a boat, to sculling, all the way to trying out the norsaq I got for Kevin for Christmas. We thought we had some idea of what do do with it but apparently absolutely not. I can't wait for Friday's Greenland session we're attending so someone can show me how the heck to do a hand roll.

Shaila nailed her rolls (yeah)!, Brian REALLY loved his boat, and Kevin showed me some new greenland stuff he worked on last week at their session . . .

Afterwards it was a full PPPO at Watch City including beer at 9.5% alcohol and sore jaws from tough steak tips, but I mean a chewy steak tip is a good steak tip.

Thanks again and hope to keep these up!

For pics and movies from the session visit:

http://gallery.me.com/kybeckwith

You'll need Quick Time 7 from the apple site downloaded to see the movies . . .

Sweet! So far we have:

Judy

Sean

Shaila

Brian

Me

Kevin

Possibly Leslie

Let's get a few more so we can get group discounts on the keg stands we'll be doing afterwards

So you're of the fellas hoarding ammo and making it difficult for the rest of us to stay proficient?

Ed Lawson

hey ed! do you think you and gail can make it to the pool session satdy night? would be great to see you guys and the more the merrier for the pppo afterwards . . .

betty ann, did anyone get you info on where to get the full documentary? i've been wanting to see it too and can't find it on netflix . . . let me know if you find out how to see the full documentary . . .