Joseph Berkovitz

I was unable to make the presentation - will a recording be available?

This week's Wednesday Lunch Paddle is on May 26, 2021 launching from Cedar Point in Durham NH where we will meet at 10:00 am. This will be an inland estuary paddle with some fun (and not scary) current that we will ride into Great Bay and then back out again.  The late starting time for this trip is a function of the tides, since the currents in the area will be reversing around 2 pm.

Covid-19 paddling: on this trip we will strictly observe social distancing and NH state recreational boating guidelines for the pandemic. Please research and respect all regulations that apply at the time of the paddle.

Location & Parking: Unload your boat and gear in the Cedar Point Parking Area Westbound at 253 Piscataqua Rd #241, Durham, NH 03824  https://goo.gl/maps/8Ru9pVVQU9MkXzKYA. This is on the north side of Piscataqua Road and has better low-tide access. However the Eastbound lot (directly across the road) is much larger, so after unloading your boat please move your car there. There is no fee as far as I can tell. Live Free or Die!

Registration: To attend, please register using this form which will also add your information to the float plan:

https://forms.gle/SahhPUTHYrbqswFK8

You must be a paid-up NSPN member to join this trip. Your signup information will only be shared with other participants.

Registration may be limited to avoid impact on local parking.

Predictions:  As of Sunday, predictions are for SW wind 10-12 kt, sunny becoming partly cloudy, air temps in the mid 80s by afternoon, possible late afternoon showers. Water likely chilly but don't have solid information.

Chart: GreatandLittleBays.pdf which also shows current info for max flood at 11 am.

When/what: Meet at 10:00, launch around 10:30. We may start with some preliminary playing in the flood current near Goat Island, then explore southwards as we ride the current onwards to Adams Point Wildlife Refuge which could be a good lunch stop, and maybe an opportunity to see breeding horseshoe crabs. We could also stop at Wagon Hill Farm for a break (a Paul Sylvester recommendation).

This trip doesn't have a specific level: we'll determine the route based on who shows up, what people want to do, and what the environment wants to do. All properly equipped members are welcome: please bring boats with rigged deck lines, bulkheads, spray skirts, and dress for immersion. If you're not sure you have a safe vessel, please get in touch with us and ask.

NOTE: The Wednesday Lunch Paddles are cooperative adventures, not guided trips. Each participant is responsible for her/his own safety.Don’t assume the trip initiators are smarter, stronger, better at rough water, more attractive, or more skilled paddlers than you are. For more information, see this description of our trip philosophy from the NSPN web site. 

We encourage paddlers to make their own independent decision about their comfort level with conditions at the time of the paddle. Please PM me if you have questions or if you haven’t paddled with me or Bob before.

Hope to see you there!

Joe & Bob

People: Sue Hriciga, Joyce Carpenter, Mike Habich, Dana Sigall, Joe Berkovitz, Robert Levine, Jim Snyder

We had a great 2-part session with surf zone practice-n-play from 9-10:30, and a lunch expedition to East Point from 10:30-2:00.

For the first chapter, conditions were near-ideal with mostly long-period 1-2 footers and some bigger outliers. However the tide was dropping (LT around 11:00) and after 10:00 the ridable zone began to become very short except for the largest waves. Quite a few boarders were out and the group mostly stayed near the Little Nahant side to keep out of everyone's way. Not everyone was surfing, there was a mixture of just hanging out in the environment and riding waves. Wind was minimal at this point though picking up from the E. The water was a (relatively) pleasant 55.

Chapter 2 saw most of us paddle out to East Point and its secluded pocket beach. With the offshore breeze the chop steadily increased. Landing on the beach was a bit tricky with the exposed rocks at low tide and the swell coming straight into the cove; launching too. Then we went around the corner to the big cliffs on the outside. Here the combination of chop and swell was very dynamic, as it often is at this spot! The water was too low and conditions too big for most of the slots and passages, so it was more of an "environmental tourism" visit, enjoying some very active water.

Then back to the beach with a few nice final surf rides, as the water had come back up.

Here's to Wednesdays!

@Dan Foster posted a terrific idea in a different members-only thread which I hope he will recap here. His summary was:

Quote

 

Here's an alternate vision for a way to introduce new people to the club - perhaps it will get some traction now that we're re-imagining many aspects of the club after a year of disruption.

NSPN should host an annual two-day event toward the beginning of the paddling season that aims to be THE must-attend sea kayaking event in Massachusetts. Call it a symposium, an open house, or just a paddling party. It should be enticing enough that most of the club membership makes it part of their annual planning. It should be open to the public, with enough incentives and benefits that the event spreads by word of mouth after the first year.

 

He went on to say much, much more and hopefully he will chime in here and reproduce. It included trips, socializing, skills practice, gear swaps and building bridges with other organizations that support paddling.

While this shouldn't be just a board project, I think the board has an important role in getting it off the ground and designating one or two folks to make it actually happen.

I wouldn’t trust the website completely. The COVID rules have been changing fast. I suggest calling

Bob talked to the attendant and they said it was $10 for Ma residents. Maybe he can chime in here.

This week's Wednesday Lunch Paddle is on May 19, 2021 at Nahant Beach. This special edition offers a combination Surf Session and Lunch Paddle! You can do one, or the other, or both! How much fun is that?

The surfing portion of the menu will meet at 8:30 to get OTW at 9:00, and will run through about 10:30. If you just want to play in the surf zone and get comfortable with your bracing and side surfing, that's totally cool!

The lunch paddle portion of the menu will be served at 10:30 at which point we plan to paddle out to East Point and have lunch there.

COLD WATER PADDLE: Water temperatures are still low. Come prepared for immersion. If you are not sure about what this means, please contact the organizers and we can figure out if it works.

HELMET REQUIRED: We will be launching and landing in a surf zone.

Covid-19 paddling: on this trip we will strictly observe social distancing and MA state recreational boating guidelines for the pandemic. Please research and respect all regulations that apply at the time of the paddle.

Location:  Nahant Beach State Reservation https://goo.gl/maps/fRQjQEyWK3k5veKi9 we will meet on the beach near the Tides Restaurant end (far end of the causeway) so park asap when you enter the lot.

Parking: the lot is $10 for MA residents. There is a free lot just off the rotary where the causeway begins so you could get lucky with a spot there, but you'd need to be able to make your own way down to the other end of the beach.

Registration: To attend, please register using this form which will also add your information to the float plan:

https://forms.gle/zFBrS5anUKqh1Su4A

You must be a paid-up NSPN member to join this trip. Your signup information will only be shared with other participants.

Predictions:  Light E breezes 5-8 kt, air temps upper 50s / low 60s, water temp 55 F, swell 2 ft @ 10 sec, breakers at beach 2-3 ft per Magic Seaweed

Tides: LT at 11:45 am

When/what: Surf zone people meet at 8:30 am and launch at 9 am. Non-surf folks, meet at 10 am and launch at 10:30 am (surfers may still be in the water but we'll come to the beach to say hello).

This trip doesn't have a specific level: we'll determine the route based on who shows up, what people want to do, and what the environment wants to do. All properly equipped members are welcome: please bring boats with rigged deck lines, bulkheads, spray skirts, and dress for immersion. Bring a helmet since this trip launches and lands in surf. If you're not sure you have a safe vessel, please get in touch with us and ask.

NOTE: The Wednesday Lunch Paddles are cooperative adventures, not guided trips. Each participant is responsible for her/his own safety.Don’t assume the trip initiators are smarter, stronger, better at rough water, more attractive, or more skilled paddlers than you are. For more information, see this description of our trip philosophy from the NSPN web site. 

We encourage paddlers to make their own independent decision about their comfort level with conditions at the time of the paddle. Please PM me if you have questions or if you haven’t paddled with me or Bob before.

Hope to see you there!

Joe & Bob

Here is a link to a rapidly-growing album of photos contributed by paddlers in the group:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/thM4rXGPgiBbKJ2p7

One quick note - Gary had to step away (for entirely positive reasons, don't worry) and asked me to step into his trip-organizing shoes. I hesitated, knowing how large a shoe size that truly is and that there was no way I could fill it.

Jewell was not the same without you, Gary!

This long weekend saw a glorious time on and off the water at Jewell Island. It felt like a reunion of sorts, even with the people I had never met or didn't know well. Perhaps it was a combination of the summer-like weather (finally!) and the partial relaxation of Covid worries. 16 paddlers were in attendance: Dan Foster, John Harkey, Phil Gassin, Beth Sangree, Marcy Leger, Christian Leger, Doug Cooke, Ben Rechel, Ken Warner, Jordan Engel, Joe Berkovitz, Yong Shin, Catherine Kimball, Liz Neumeier, Nancy Hill, Jane Cobb.

Thursday

Like the other days, this one began at a lowish tide—high was at 1:19pm this day. We had bright and windy conditions with a strong S breeze whipping up steep chop by the afternoon. Two pods made their way from Bug Light: an early group with Nancy and Jane set out at 8:30 meeting up with Yong at East End Beach; a later group left around 10:15 with myself, Dan, John, Beth, Doug, Ben, Ken and Liz. From the Baileys/Orr cribstone bridge came a group with Marcy, Cath, Jordan and Phil.

Our pod made its way through the Whitehead Channel to the outside of Peaks Island, then across the flood current in Hussey Sound to the small cobbly Vaill Island off of Long Island, where we enjoyed lunch. (Doug and Ken opted to forego lunch and head straight to Jewell at this point, staying in touch by VHF.) Up to this point things were fairly calm. After lunch though, as we began the outer crossings to Cliff and Jewell, the steady wind picked up and the chop got steeper and bigger; nothing hazardous but it required attention and constant corrections.

Arriving at Jewell we seemed to divide naturally into 3 groups. From north to south: the Cove Group (occupied by the north-arriving Cribstone pod), the Pier Group (Nancy, Jane and Beth), and the Cliff Group (an all-male pirate enclave on the heights to the south of the large beach). I stayed by myself in the Cocktail Cove area which unlike previous trips stayed unoccupied; we were to have the island to ourselves the entire time except for a few hikers on Sunday.

Christian had been slated to come on Friday AM, but his schedule changed and he elected to come this afternoon leaving Cribstone Bridge mid-afternoon. His ride was much wilder since the wind was in full swing by then and he had to cross Broad Sound during max ebb in what sounded like bigger conditions than any of us had run into. We were all glad to see him when he arrived around 6 pm!

Friday

On this day, 14 folks went to Junk of Pork and Outer Green Island for a day trip while Doug and Beth elected to do some beach cleanup. (We had committed to cleaning up beaches and leaving bagged trash for MITA, an activity which continued over the course of the trip. It was nice to pay the island back for all the great times!)

Weather on this day was sunny and calm in the morning, with increasing clouds and spotty showers at the end of the day and wind increasing to 10-12 from the S but not as choppy as Thursday.

The outer islands and ledges were stunning (I had never been there) and we played around in the slots and around the cliffs for a while before returning ahead of the weather picking up. We landed on the southern tip of Jewell for lunch, then some of us peeled off to enjoy the outside slots and ledges at high water which were lots of fun.

The afternoon featured some amazing trail clearing work by Dan and Ben and others — sorry, I don't know exactly who helped! — in which really substantial blowdowns were cut up by a "hand-operated chainsaw" and moved out of the trail. Up to this point the Pier and Cove campsites were not directly connected due to the blocked trails.

Saturday

There were three different trips this day: Junk Of Pork II (or "Junk II Pork" if you prefer) with Doug/Nancy/Jane/Beth, Brown Cow Ledge/Eagle Island/Bates Island with myself/Dan/Ken/John, and Long Island Bakehouse with (I think) everyone else.

Hopefully others will post some description of the Junk and Bakehouse trips. I can say the Eagle trip was really paradise-like. The weather was similar to Friday's but a bit calmer. We played in the Brown Cow ledges a long time in low-consequence pourovers and small swell, then lunched on the deserted lawn of Eagle before heading to the narrow beach-fringed channel between Bates and Ministerial Islands, then a run along the cliffs of Cliff (yes the name makes sense) and back to Jewell.

Sunday

Another calm morning, this one especially summery and culminating in late-afternoon squalls which everyone thankfully avoided. The pods mostly ran in reverse. Mine stopped for a visit to Fort Gorges where we took in a stunning view of the harbor and the ominous clouds building up to the northwest of the city.

Thanks to everyone for making this such a perfect weekend!

This week's Wednesday Lunch Paddle is on May 12, 2021.

COLD WATER PADDLE: Water temperatures are only in the high 40s. Come prepared for immersion in that cold, cold water. If you are not sure about what this means, please contact the organizers and we can figure out if it works.

Covid-19 paddling: on this trip we will strictly observe social distancing and MA state recreational boating guidelines for the pandemic. Please research and respect all regulations that apply at the time of the paddle.

Location:  Riverhead Beach, Marblehead https://goo.gl/maps/aCaW72buQ6UPjBPE6

Parking: avoid blocking any of the floating docks which are being actively moved into the harbor by a marine work crew.

Registration: To attend, please register using this form which will also add your information to the float plan:

https://forms.gle/g3w5HWvJnzRmTB2x8

You must be a paid-up NSPN member to join this trip. Your signup information will only be shared with other participants.

Predictions:  Diminishing NW Winds < 10 kt, partly sunny, air temps mid 50s, calm seas

Tides (Salem):

2021/05/12    Wed    06:31 AM    0.46    L
2021/05/12    Wed    12:46 PM    8.20    H
2021/05/12    Wed    6:34 PM    1.44    L

When/what: We will meet at 10.00 am and launch at 10:30 sharp. We'll have a beach briefing in some safe manner, make a plan together based on what people feel like doing. 

This trip doesn't have a specific level: we'll determine the route based on who shows up, what people want to do, and what the environment wants to do. All properly equipped members are welcome: please bring boats with rigged deck lines, bulkheads, spray skirts, and dress for immersion. If you're not sure you have a safe vessel, please get in touch with us and ask.

NOTE: The Wednesday Lunch Paddles are cooperative adventures, not guided trips. Each participant is responsible for her/his own safety.Don’t assume the trip initiators are smarter, stronger, better at rough water, more attractive, or more skilled paddlers than you are. For more information, see this description of our trip philosophy from the NSPN web site. 

We encourage paddlers to make their own independent decision about their comfort level with conditions at the time of the paddle. Please PM me if you have questions or if you haven’t paddled with me or Bob before.

Hope to see you there!

Joe & Bob

This year's inaugural Wednesday Lunch Paddle is on May 5, 2021. We should probably call it a "brunch paddle" since the weather looks to be unsettled and we are going to try to do this on the early side to avoid rain and wind.

COLD WATER PADDLE: It will essentially be winter on the water on Wednesday with both air and water in the mid-40s and overcast/precipitation. Come prepared for conditions. If you are not sure about this, please contact me and we can figure out if it works.

Covid-19 paddling: on this trip we will strictly observe social distancing and MA state recreational boating guidelines for the pandemic. Please research and respect all regulations that apply at the time of the paddle.

Location:  Lanes Cove, in the state ramp parking lot near 32 Andrews St. 42°40'49.8"N 70°39'32.2"W https://goo.gl/maps/MohgwcDCPe3RwpeV7

Parking: park against the stone wall in the lot.

Trip Capacity: Due to limited parking this trip will be limited to 6 people.

Registration: To attend, please register using this form which will also add your information to the float plan:

https://forms.gle/HZGzKjFpByhSSYxe7

You must be a paid-up NSPN member to join this trip. Your signup information will only be shared with other participants.

Predictions:  Unsettled weather, air 45 F, wind E 5-12 kt, swell < 1 ft, rain likely possibly heavy at times.

Tides (Annisquam):

2021/05/05    Wed    07:13 AM    8.96    H
2021/05/05    Wed    1:32 PM    0.50    L

When/what: We will meet at 9.00 am and launch at 9:30 sharp. We'll have a beach briefing in some safe manner, make a plan together based on what people feel like doing. From Lanes we can go either way depending on inclinations, towards Rockport or towards Annisquam. 

This trip doesn't have a specific level: we'll determine the route based on who shows up, what people want to do, and what the environment wants to do. All properly equipped members are welcome: please bring boats with rigged deck lines, bulkheads, spray skirts, and dress for immersion. If you're not sure you have a safe vessel, please get in touch with us and ask.

NOTE: The Wednesday Lunch Paddles are cooperative adventures, not guided trips. Each participant is responsible for her/his own safety.Don’t assume the trip initiators are smarter, stronger, better at rough water, more attractive, or more skilled paddlers than you are. For more information, see this description of our trip philosophy from the NSPN web site. 

We encourage paddlers to make their own independent decision about their comfort level with conditions at the time of the paddle. Please PM me if you have questions or if you haven’t paddled with me or Bob before.

Hope to see you there!

Joe

Here is something fun and constructive to look forward to in September! Together with our friends at Salem Sound Coastwatch, let's pay it forward to the planet...

The video from my recent workshop on making charts with QGIS is now available here:

Building on last year's success, Skills Practice sessions will be held July through September 2021. These events offer NSPN members a regular opportunity to improve their fundamental paddling skills. The sessions are held exclusively in coastal saltwater locations, allowing us to practice in a range of real-world conditions from protected water to open ocean and offering a complementary environment to the flatwater Chebacco Lake sessions. Joe Berkovitz ( @Joseph Berkovitz) and Bob Levine ( @rylevine) are the organizers.

All Skills Practice dates are booked on the NSPN calendar. Check the calendar as the dates may shift due to conditions.

Each session is dedicated to specific kayaking skills, and includes one or more volunteers (“facilitators”) from the club who can help with practicing and developing them. There will be a variety of facilitators.  The learning program and venue will be decided a few days before each event, so that we can make the most of predicted weather and conditions.  Skill areas are likely to include:

• Edging and Turning
• Forward & Reverse Strokes
• Draw and Pry Strokes
• Bracing
• Rolling
• Open Water Wind and Waves
• Tidal Currents
• Surf Zone Landing/Launching
• Surfing
• Rock Gardening
• Boat Outfitting
• Pod Dynamics
• Rescues
• Towing

Sessions typically split into pods, each with its own facilitator. The aim is to place paddlers with compatible goals together, and for groups to be small enough for everyone to get attention. The activities of each pod are steered by its members, so not all pods will do the same things in the same way. All attendees are encouraged to contribute their own practice ideas. Skills Practice is a dogma-free zone!

Who can benefit from Skills Practice? Any NSPN member, from newbie to expert, can get something out of a Skills Practice session. Practice at the level that works best for you. If you know a topic well and want to help paddlers gain that knowledge, consider being a facilitator.

Is this some kind of official NSPN course on “How To Paddle”? Nope, it’s not official, and it’s not even a set course. The focus is on picking up skills from each other, without prescribing any single way to paddle. What you get at a given session depends on who is there. Facilitators do work from an existing workbook of ideas, but they are free to adapt and use these as they see fit.

Where and when does this happen? Sessions begin at 8:30 am sharp on Saturday or Sunday mornings at various locations in the North Shore area, and will usually end by 12-1 pm. 

Want to attend a session? We will post the registration link for each event on the Trips Forum on the preceding Thursday. (Last year we used the NSPN calendar but this led to many no-shows as people's plans changed, causing some events to appear full when they were not.) There are no level requirements: all members are welcome. The number of slots will be limited depending on the number of facilitators available for a given session.

What do I need?  You will need a closed-deck sea kayak suitable for coastal paddling, with sealed bulkheads or float bags, and grab lines along the perimeter. Dress for immersion and a spray skirt are required (and for a few sessions, a helmet). Bring lunch, snacks and fluids for yourself. Optionally, bring a tow line, radio, and spare paddles. (Don’t have something? Contact the organizers and we’ll try to scare something up for you.)

Want to facilitate a session pod? We want you on board to share your knowledge! Please PM the organizers with your availability, contact information, sessions of interest, experience helping other paddlers improve, and gear you may be able to lend. 

How does facilitation work? Although demonstration and explanation are part of the picture, the main aim of Skills Practice is to give paddlers the experience of performing a skill. This often involves breaking it down into clear, approachable steps. Before each session, we’ll have some online exchange among facilitators to share our thoughts.

Got another question? There's a conversation thread right here!

I love this idea but I think I’m going to just wait the extra week until I’m past the 2nd shot waiting period...

hi fellow paddlers,

I just read a cool blog post on Kokatat’s website by Bay Area kayaker Laura Zulliger on her favorite sea kayaking books. Some were familiar to me, some not. Either way I thought folks here might appreciate her article:
 

https://kokatat.com/blog/10-books-every-sea-kayaker-should-read

My understanding is that leaks from wear and tear were never covered under the warranty. The only thing they will replace for, that I know of, is delamination of the waterproofing material due to manufacturing issues, which happened to me and I know has happened to others.

I’m fine with anything you and the board like, as long as it links to the original document. 

A google doc isn’t really a file that you download - it’s a link to a thing that keeps on evolving. If we turn it into a downloadable PDF that will “freeze” the content which is not desirable at this point. Perhaps there’s some appropriate place to post a link instead of a file... like one of the pages on the main website?

Hi all,

Bob Levine and I, together with Margo Otway of BASK, have decided to publicly share the Sea Kayak Trip Planning Workbook that we used as the basis for our recent NSPN course that concluded yesterday. This way, everyone can benefit from it including those who didn't take the course, and we can receive valuable feedback from the community.

The workbook is available here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uY8i2L7OdBwiPnkAHmg8nguez-INWV6twn5kXLqKZ3k/edit?usp=sharing

It runs to about 75 pages. To quickly summarize what this is all about, I'll reproduce the first few paragraphs here:

Quote

 

This document contains material and exercises for a Trip Planning seminar, designed to be conducted in an online meeting format or physically present small groups.  However, the material also works for self-guided study. That’s why we call it a “workbook”. It allows a course or study session to proceed at its own best pace for the participants, without a rigid organization.

The emphasis in this workbook is on real-world problem solving. While foundational ideas and techniques are presented up front in most sections of the workbook, the goal is to quickly prepare students for doing exercises, rather than exhaustively covering each topic.

This workbook aims to ground paddlers in most of the areas essential for planning a safe, successful and enjoyable trip on the ocean. Broadly, these topics are divided into three parts:

1. Navigation: the space of land and water features where we paddle
2. Environment: the behavior of the marine world as it affects us on the water
3. Planning: bringing together knowledge of navigation, environment and ourselves to design a shared experience on the water

 

Please feel free to share it with others in the paddling community freely. Note that we have placed some commonsense licensing restrictions on sharing, to keep it non-commercial, freely available and ensure that all contributors (including future ones) receive credit.

Thanks to everyone in this club who made this possible, directly and indirectly!

Best,

Joe

I haven’t camped at any of these but I have heard and read that Grape feels like the wildest of the bunch as a camping experience. 

Jane... how about a time for this event?

The link Jane gave at the top of the post does work for signing up. It's her link at the bottom (to an old calendar post by Rob) that is bad.

I'll include Jane's working signup link here as a community benefit:

https://forms.gle/UPVLwbnNRybcmhpy8

You—have a used Brunton deck compass languishing in a basement bin, or stuck in a boat you don't paddle much anymore. You know, the square black metal ones with a glass dome housing the dial, like so:

I–have a kayak with a nice empty square mounting that was designed for just such a compass. My boat would be happy with a used one even if it's discolored or weathered, so long as it works.

If it seems like your compass would like to make sweet, sweet magnetic music with my kayak, please contact me via private message and we can work something out.

Joe