Rising Appalachia: Scale Down

And now for something completely different ...

I'm not sure I'm scaling anything down right this moment ( a lot of things are easier said than done), I appreciate the sentiment, but simplify would be a nice place to start.

As the blizzard rages outside with the first massive snow of the season, those arthritic joints and cracked and mis-squozen cartilages are glad for the furnace, access to fossil fuels, electricity, and a vehicle that can get to some tricky places I'm called to serve.

Been walking a lot more hither and thither -- that's definitely good. Can't wait to heal so I/we can bike more, but fie on the felons who would steal your bike when you do try to park it someplace during an errand -- they are almost a bigger curse to cycling than a few other things.

Winter Solstice Pre-Eclipse Moon and "ghost" planet

Moon with "ghost" planet, originally uploaded by PhilMcPhilly.

Winter Solstice Pre-Eclipse Moon and "ghost" planet, passing behind.

A cold night to be attempting flashless DSLR photography without a tripod, for sure.

This one may have been taken with the Tamron zoom. The next needed as wide an angle lens as I could manage with the 18-55, since the "halo" around the moon occupied and almost 20 degree-wide (quintile?) segment of sky.

Surfrider Central Long Island Chapter

Surfrider Central Long Island Chapter is on the move.

Surfrider Blogspot

Jan 12 meeting at Long Beach Library to stop sewage dumping in Reynold's Channel.
Is that what was attracting the XXL Mako sharks.

Kodog gets a "twin peaks" hill walk.

Fortunately the rain abated and the wind was warm and from the south/west. Good for an hour-long dog walk up (and of course, down) the steepest hills around, and back into town, and then another hill to finish.

Main street looking lively during the holidays.

Very good 很好 Thank you 謝謝 and you? 你呢？

Well not so good really, but making progress.

Two decent days. And one bad one.

The friday night acupuncture is followed by a rough 18 hours as the body readjusts. The physical therapy the next morning, seemed to conflict rather than complement. But by hour 22 we are back to where we were and maybe heading in better direction.

Golf, right now is not looking like an option for a long time.

Surfing, who knows -- there are so many movements in surfing that place tension in the neck, then there is the fast pop-up, and then there are wipe outs.

Windsurfing, see above, but add the questionmark about catapults and all the other windsurfing contortions. Sheesh! I can't believe this!

Road biking is another questionmark. The road position is not neck-friendly and the road vibration is a constant pounding, so we will just have to wait and see...what the Spring brings.

Guitar playing -- also not happening the position is a beyotch on the neck, also -- besides my finger tips are numb.

In the meantime, work is busy as hell, I'll learn a little Mandarin, walk the dog, and maybe just maybe run a little if I feel a little better.

好久不见， 你好吗？ (Long time no see, how ya doin?)

好久不见， 你好吗？ (Long time no see, how ya doin?)

The Pinyin is fitting because I've been hearing a bit of it during continuing acupuncture sessions.

And talking oc acupuncture sessions, I wish I'd kept a record of the progress of symptom relief, the first time I did it in 2007-08.

I seem to recall it took 8 visits to get on a positive path, and continual monthly visits to get to 95%.

It was at least 6 months before I could even think of playing golf, but surfing and cycling came back sooner.
There was always a little tightness in the left arm or occasional tightness lurking after frequent sessions, but infrequent use was OK.

Golf was the first major "irritant" on the slippery slope to re-injury. Surfers who are non golfers have a tremendously difficult time understanding the allure of the iron, wedge, driver and little white ball.

As much as I am (was? if this does not clear up) a surfer, I more naturally grew up in a British school where I could play multiple sports. I was a cricketer, a hockey player, tennis player, and a baseball player and a soccer player (not to mention table tennis and rugby, swimming and whatever else). All those sports, to one degree or another except swimming, involved hitting a ball. Cricket, soccer, tennis and TT, hockey, involved finer skills of impact, trajectory, spin and placement. Golf, just takes that finer skill set and amplifies its importance ten-fold. And with it the satisfaction of doing it well.

Just as my golf game was getting pretty good, this neck herniation reoccurred and boom!, I'm done for months, and perhaps for good, if Dr. Su-Chen Lor's discussions come into play.

I have a pretty good rapport with Dr Su-Chen Lor, and we joke around. She has an excellent sense of humor, perhaps not surprising given her rigorous and heart-rending experiences in the Korean war as a Chinese medical student. More on that another time.

Between the physical therapy and the acupuncture, my body is making grudging progress.

Sometimes after an acupuncture session there can be pain at night, before relief the next day. Last Wednesday/Thursday was a case in point. Everything in my left side was acting up, and I wondered for a bit if the current had flowed the wrong way. It took an inordinate amount of time to identify the activated needle in the underarm vs. the neck base. And I wasn't fully satisfied that the underarm connection wasn't actually at the neck. It was a sleepless anxious night. But as bad as it was, the next day was better.

Yesterday, I might have done a little too much.

Albert King and Steveie Ray Vaughn were on the TV and I couldn't resist playing along. I think it did my neck no good at all, as the playing position for the left hand involves some kinking of the arm and a considerable amount of tension. fine if your neck is working as it should, not so good if you have 2 herniated discs.

Well, the weather has gotten seasonably cold - high 36 for December 4, and in my state that rules out surfing even if I was half contemplating. The reality is, surfing is a long way off and will take a lot of preparation.

Last weeks hill hike, did my back in, and with the lack of exercise, and winter appetite I am putting weight on like a bear in hibernation. I am flat out hungry for all kinds of caloric foods and beverages.

The battle continues. An all-day holiday party coming up this week is yet another situation where food temptation will be a battle. Which me luck.

Koda Gets a Hill Workout

Koda, or rather I, got a major hill workout with this charge up Beacon Hill via Longview. The views would have been longer if I'd remembered my glasses, but it was better for the eyes that way.

I wasn't sure I could hack this climb, 25-30 minutes in, or whether it would be wise to attempt the summit, what with a few twinges here and there, but Koda was pulling for it and willing me on.


Once he got home he demanded to be let off the leash and bound the last 100 meters. He showcased his old dog/young dog friskiness with a major run-around the house to demonstrate that he had plenty left in the tank. If in dog years he's older than me, it wasn't in the least bit evident. Showoff!

Quads still aching a little from yesterday.

Some major arm tingling from the neck nerve pinch during the beginning of the walk, but things calmed down 30 minutes in.

Took a pass on Advil today, since I had some yesterday and the first part of the day went relatively easily. However late evening walk was a more pain-filled affair for the arm/neck — wrist especially painfuland fingers tingling like an electric current in a cow fence — and it gets into my pectoral and underarm. Nasty stuff would not wish it on anybody.

YESTERDAY WAS ODD

Feeling pretty good after physio but may have tried to bite off too much when vacuuming the basement which had gotten out of control with peeling paint dust, efflorescence, dog hair and crickets, I took the industrial to it and it made an enormous difference, but the rug taunted me with it's total dog hair covering and I went at it for 20 minutes. I think that did my neck in big time.

I'm not sure about some of the physio exercises, either.

10-9-10 Massapequa-Bethpage-Massapequa

The last of the not-so pain-free rides. In fact my neck was really on the fritz at this point, it had gotten bad midweek after a golf range session on about the 6th., but the ride was still doable, just uncomfortable, and probably not helping the cause...except that it was a great family ride with Marg and Gordo.

10-2-10 Local Road & Downhill Trail ride

One of the last pain-free (?) rides before my neck started to really get sore. This one was an absolute hill-fest, mountain bikes with Gordon, and included several steep off-road rutted gullies and rooty drops. Lots of fun. Chainset was beginning to balk and the bike went into the shop shortly thereafter.

Calcutta - Circles

Monday prescription: Listen 3 or 4 times.







[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZk7RwI0oKQ&feature=related[/url]

Neurologist, Haggis, Physical Therapy, and MRI

Went to the neurologist on my day off, found we had a mutual appreciation for haggis; will be undergoing physical therapy, and have an MRI scheduled for Saturday. Doesn't feel like any windsurfing, surfing, road biking or golf in my future for a while -- the left arm/shoulder/neck/hand is still a mess of pinched cervical nerve pain.

Dangling Over the Water

Scaring up Some Halloween Sailing...Dangling Over the water

Who knew we'd roll out at 1 pm and roll the sails down at sunset? I guess Frank maybe did, but I didn't.
Too much of a good thing, can also be a good thing.

Somehow a short sail from out of the glorious blue day passed through, wind and gray, silver and rose pink for a moment, to arrive back where it started, in a golden tobacco Stratocaster sunburst.



We tacked up the bay and zagged back to the south, while a gorgeous ketch pulled parallel reaches, its sails backlit by the sun, as we both cruised up and out the narrow exit of Manhasset Bay.

Halloween weekend is always good sailing. This might not have been windsurfing we are used to this time of year, but it was some pretty charged-up sailing. A nice share of swell waves had been blasting over the bow when we passed the point.

It's no secret, Frank likes to sail his boat like he sails his windsurfers: "Go big or go home!" So, fully powered was the name of the game; the jib and mainsail were up, despite the chilly 50 degree gusts from the West 20-25-plus knots. We weren't reefing down anytime soon.


"You may want to re-think your seating arrangement," said skipper Frank. As it happened, precariously dangling to leeward and inches from the water, I was already pondering how I might defy gravity, and get to the windward rail.

Getting back up to a more catamaran like sailing position would require me to shift the heaviest part of my body (upper), away from the downward dangling position I had gotten myself into, yet inches from the water, while holding a chunky SLR camera, and somehow do this with the assistance of my one good arm, which of course, was not the one that was free.

The boat doesn't typically get water over the freeboard, but we were so heeled over, it was pretty darn close. The wind was not going to let up, so I found a way to get a grip on the dropboard rails and pull myself up.

Downgust bursts were really making the boat lurch once we got out past the point.

Eventually I clawed my way up, and found that indeed, braced against something below me was better then being braced against something above.
Out in the Sound, the ketch again, heading toward the Throg's Neck Bridge.

Taking photos on a powered-up yacht on a gusty day is no picnic, and during a trip down below decks, the Nikon and I got pitched heavily backward at one point. A hockey helmet would have been a better accessory. The battery compartment blew open from the first drop, and spilled it's contents, while the compartment door flew off to the right cushions.

Quite the falling-backwards crash, camera in one hand, a slight head bang, but no further damage done to the already pinched nerve in the neck.

Frank with his nerve impingement on the shoulder was also taking it easy today, if you could call it that, sailing the 26ft Cape Dory, when normally we'd both be ripping it up at West Meadow on windsurfers. Sucks getting old and damaged parts. In my case completely sidelined from the culprits: surfing, windsurfing, golf and road cycling. Mountainbiking is also pretty much off the menu.

The neck nerve is in the stage right now, where any of these activities just aggravates it more, and NSAID anti-inflammatories have little to no effect. Nor on the pain. Acupuncture is helping a bit.
Hart Island

The Cape Dory on the other hand is a sea turtle, max 6.5 mph, but it feels fast when it's barrelling through the tight moorings by the town dock. Come to think of it what was I doing at the tiller careening through the moorings? I was a set up I tell ya!

Not intuitive at the best of times, since it requires an opposite motion to the one you'd expect. So when you're caught by surprise in a tight situation, it better be intuitive. I handed over to Frank. Who promptly dived for a set of pilings, to finesse a tight turn right on the brink of collision, or so it seemed.

But we'd had plenty of close calls already.

The point at sands point we buzzed with the keel within a foot of scraping the bottom: 5.8 feet. Four foot keel.

On the north side of Hart Island we flirted with rocks, docks, pilings, derelict boat wrecks, and heaven knows what submerged objects, not to mention a massive rusty dredger ship squeezing its way around the lee side of the restricted government property -- a former prison, and a burial ground (Potters Field) -- for unidentified deceased.

Well it was Halloween sailing, after all, give or take a day.


Jim (left), the skipper of Wynsum and Frank (right) on the launch back to North Shore Yacht Club.
Just about done here.

A little more sunset is good for the soul

A few moments in Bellevue, Washington State

I'd go back to Seattle-Bellevue in a heartbeat to visit this area more fully. This was just a passing trip on a conference, but the feel of the place was extremely refreshing.

Just a cell-phone photo from the hotel window. Very different vibe from the one posted above, at night on the main drag.


The excellent Lucky Strike lanes can be found under this Microsoft building in Bellevue.

Memory's a blur, bowling with the conference group


Just a flavor of the lanes. If I recall we did work up a good sweat, although I am not sure how that is possible with bowling. Not a sport I ever thought of as being in the slightest bit strenuous. Hmmm.

Play Ball!

Play Ball! I'm waiting ...
Not baseball, forgot about the baseball. Koda wanted to get some soccer action going. I wanted to get the barbecue going. The two are not mutually exclusive, and both can take place in the backyard while the coals are building up some heat.

Ball up, fangs out.

And with Dogrik Kodaqvist it's a done deal that the ball will not escape. Well not unless he noses it into orbit, by mistake.Done deal. You didn;t think I was going to miss that catch did you/.

A classic quote from Neil, aka The Historian

In one of my irregular visits to Bikeforums, I noticed in a post at the top of a thread, that Neil, aka "The Historian," a rather complex and intense peronality, and by his work, a writer, had added the following to his signature.


"Bicycling is, in a sense, a test of courage. On a bicycle, there's little that can go wrong that isn't traced to the rider. The bike needs to be kept in condition. The rider needs to be in condition. The rider needs to be properly equipped, and skilled enough to handle the bike. Unlike an automobile, the bike becomes an extension of the rider. My bike becomes a metal part of my body, my spirit, my being. It may be possible for a coward to ride a bike, but not to ride it well."
— Neil, aka the Historian


The professional journalist in me, stopped reading, clicked into the google bar in my browser and typed in the first few words of the quote in an attempt to discover which literary giant might have been the author. The search came up empty handed: No John Updike, no Winston Churchill, no David Feherty or P.G. Wodehouse; so I read on and discovered, you know what? the author is Neil himself. Well how about them apples.

Congratulations Neil on a tremendous trope, turn of phrase, and if it were positioned elsewhere, an epigraph.

Classic Crab

10-3-10

Kudos to Mustang Steve for leading the telephone charge and rounding up a good-size posse to drive the extra miles and minutes to Crab Meadow.

Domer, Arty, Marty, Kurt, Chuck, Drysuit2, Joe Elvis, Carl who we haven't seen in a long time, Jeannie, and many more.


Kicking myself I didn't remember to take the camera, but the allure of a high-energy Crab session took complete possession of my faculties. It had been a long time and long overdue. Asthma was bugging, but not so much...inhaler deferred. I was breathing a lot better after the session, that's for sure.

http://www.jawireless.com/crab9-18-2003/pages/DSCN0041_Mike.htm
Photo by Jeff Tanenbaum
Not very different from the photos at the link above from 2003.


Waves of every shape and size from knee high up to shoulder high. Slightly up and down 5.7 conditions, 5.3 for some, 5.0 for others.

My first bona fide cold gray windy day of the fall but worth the shock to the system. The new used Curt board was even more turny and fun in the waves than imagined. A tad tricky to ootch under way, but worth the figuring out.

With the beach right there by the parking lot, it was also a great opportunity to work on a weak point in my golf game — the sand wedge. Lesson: don't hit a sand wedge into a 25 mph wind, unless you want a face full of sand.

RRD CD Wave rides again.Flat water, sunlight, new sail, some other rider, brochure photo--everything different on 10/3/10 except the board

Blue, Green & Gray

Not enough exercise last 6-day week, so which sport, what exercise, to blow off steam, and induce relaxation through endorphin release before the week's deadline-filled pump and grind begins? Surf? Bike? Golf? Windsurf?

SCENES FROM A ...

A blue spinnaker fills the Long Island Sound with color, draped against a dreary gray-green backdrop of Co-Op City, Bronx, N.Y., as seen from Sands Point

With the surf looking flat and sloppy on the cams this morning, and high tide at 10 a.m., it didn't seem worth the investment of time and gas to trip out to the South Shore. Surf on hold.

Not really enough wind for windsurfing, but maybe enough for a mixed of schlogging and planing. A low-percentage play: Pass on that.

Crushed acorn and twig debris are part of the fun of a high-speed cruise down Shepherd Lane. One of my favorite roads — Shepherd Lane, a high speed left turn off Middleneck Road. watchout for crushed acorn and twig debris. No need for unnecessary road rash from a skid out.

Good golf weather for sure for people of Scottish decent, but yesterday night's golf swing-speed radar experiments (including some samples at 99 mph , 100, 101, and 107 mph) having resulted in a few painfully pulled muscles, meant golf was definitely not on the cards for today.

Advil maybe, today, but not golf.

Grass mown, BBQ cleaned, dog walked ... but the van is full to the brim with windsurfing and golf gear.

Even on a quasi-grim afternoon the Manhattan skyline rises in gray on gray sandwiching the green of City Island, Bronx, N.Y., and the gray waters of the sound, flecked with white sails tacking up and downwind.

Too late by the time R suggested a bike trip to get the 4-bikes and trip prep done in time. Note: time to get the bike rack back in the hitch for fall biking.

But there's enough time for a local bike ride.
Anyone up for a Sands Point ride?

No. OK, just me. Road bike to the rescue!

Roadbike primetime. A telephoto and a D-70 add to the battle rattle in the Camelbak.
Felt like 20 lbs extra.
Parking by the water for photos. (No parking allowed, of course).

Plan: gradual increase for now, while certain body parts are healing and adjusting. Ten miles+10 percent: 11 miles. No other takers. Can't blame folk for not liking to ride in traffic. Eyes in the back of the head required, and a rear-view mirror doesn't hurt.

SQUIRREL TIME

Out on the road, the riding was good and smooth. The whirr of the wheels was accompanied by the "Thwap!" and "Crack!" of falling acorns.

The starlings were chirping their first treetop migration meeting, something about cool weather on it's way. Something about a winter in Florida. Birds! they got it made.

Except when the cat comes by.

Long-tail fur was hopping left and skipping right ... across the tarmac and in the bushes, as the Sands Point squirrels dispensed with any customs about Sunday being a day of rest and got busy with the bonanza of tree nuts. Winter food storage going on everywhere.

Nothing too threat-ening, just a drop or two of rain, a rare glow of cloud filtered sunlight

All signs point to an early cold snap ahead.

Still, good riding weather, good windsurfing weather, good lots of things weather, come to think of it.

Another Ride down to the water

Can't resist a 'puter shot, although there's really nothing to see!

Good riding form for me today, once warmed up -- that took about 20 minutes! Slightly stronger pace than the last few rides. 12.8 moving avg. Probably a little higher since I stopped to take photos...but a rest is a rest. I know, short distances and ordinary avg. speeds, but I have my reasons not to push it too much, too soon.

Sand's Point plenty of sailboats enjoying the firm southeast breeze

A nice afternoon for a quick ten miler before dinner, with 500 ft of climbing. Cruising the flats at 13-17, but hills are the bugaboo slowing down to 7/8/9.

Looking NE toward Rye, NY and CT

Good day for sailing alright with the light to moderate SE breeze blowing offshore.

Road and disappearing GTI

We love a little road blur. We're cyclists. Downhills reaching 31mph. Regular declines around 20. Some of the roads have been repaved over the last year, which is very nice, but the section past the "Gatsby" estate before the turnaround loop is brutal.

9-11 Evening Bike ride

Bronx / Manhattan Saturday 9-11-2010 sun begins its decent. Riding the bike after work, Sands Point

If you click on the photos, they enlarge and you can see the Manhattan skyline in the distance.

--
A long day that's burned in my memory. In more ways than most can imagine. But 9 years later, after another loong day, a peaceful, beautiful ride. Looking South West toward the Throg's Neck Bridge, Whitestone, Queens and Manhattan

So, back on the bike after prostatitis. Ouch. Boy that was a nasty few months. Finger crossed it holds off. Riding aggravated it last time...back in June.


Ironic I come back to ride on the anniversary of a day that changed my lungs and cardiopulmonary health in not so good ways. And I was a lucky one. Aside from the thousands who perished, so many more — especially the brave first responders — have had their health wrecked.

If we don't take care of the health needs first responders properly, who will come to help the next time?

The first ride back was down to the water where I can see Manhattan from 13 miles or so as the crow flies. The Empire State building you can see clearly, the Chrysler, and the end of Manhatan where the towers were (supposed to be). 9 years ago I was 2 blocks away when it happened, and a week later, went back to work there near ground zero, in a dusty office, for months.

The smell of the burning filled your being every day, as you approached underground in the crawling, rattling subway train, with screeching wheels past Chambers St. (WTC) Station that was taped off, with yellow police tape, where no trains stopped. Under the building.

Then coming home every night in clothes that now took on the odor of burning buildings and all that was burning in them. An indescribable and indelibly etched in memory smell to all who lived through it. There's more; we just don't talk about it much.

Returning every night subway trip back, almost daily "police action" delays in the subways. Anthrax letters were being posted and you wondered if this was an anthrax attack.

Manhattan in the distance

This sunset in these ride photos may be taken with a weak cell phone camera, but they captured a serene and mystical sunset, that evening. It's good to be back, but some things are never forgotten, at least until the mind fades away, and the generations pass, and history rolls out behind like a contrail in the sky of a long-since flown-away plane.

--
the bridge

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Slow food, equestrian style, Middleneck Road. The ride back up hill. The last of the "country" in suburbia. There are a lot of positives to people who still own land and estates. Without them these rare urban sights and sites will vanish...are vanishing.

--
Wanted to come for the ride -- had to stay home. Gotta figure out a dog ride.

Camp Fun Bags and the Wave Walkarama.

It got good (6.0 ) late at Gilgo ... just about the same time my arms fell off, but that's alright.

Needed redemption after last Tuesday's 4.7 Gilgo victory at sea Domer board-caddie deal.

This time there would be plenty of daylight left, and mid-to-low tide is just a whole lot easier than a dead high tide nuke fest.

Just me and about 6-8 kiters.

Even your gear can take a warm shower at Gilgo

Being on the outside felt kinda lonely, so I jibed as soon as I climbed over the last breaking wave. There were 5-6 tiers of white
water/waves, including some nice long breaking ones.

CAMP FUN BAGS
Starting upwind from "Camp Fun Bags" -- where the kiters were set up, about 2-300 yards east of Gilgo tunnel was the call, giving you a straight path out through the waves to a spot you could maximize the rides back in. Staying upwind was out of the question on the 99, and eventually I got sick of doing the walk, and went back to the van for the big stick.

To the west of the tunnel is a deep water spot with far fewer waves and that was what I wanted to avoid.

Wind built steadily to 6.0 over a few hours, and the direction was mostly SE shifting to E.

The feeling was much like West Meadow waves on a good day. You could stand most places if you f'd up.
On the far outside some of the set waves built to a nice shoulder high. Clean.

Doesn't mean to say your going to get them all unless you time it right. I timed a few right, and that made the day.

Only drawback -- plenty of longshore drift (very unlike West Meadow) and a few nasty wind holes in the impact zone. Floatation was key. There were rinse cycles to be had, and I got rinsed plenty.

Started on the 99 L (225 cm) rockered-out RRD Wave. Does not want to plane early in drift, but gets moving on a wave. Downwind. Gets over white water well, but no luck getting back upwind unless powered.

That happened later.

Bit the bullet and walked back to the van to get the Randy French 138 L. (Yep, big gap in the board quiver.)

However, found out you "can" ride a 9'2" race board in waves, and actually stay on the face. Even with a 14.5"weed fin. (Far from ideal and kinda nerve-wracking at times. But was amazed it worked out at all.

When I caught a wave, I was praying the nose wouldn't dig -- since it was low-tide shallow. That would have been a yard sale-extraordinaire. Thanks Randy French for putting nose rocker on that thing!

Fought the sail a few times and had a few juicy catapults.

Stuck mostly with the 138 till it got crazy in the jibes.

Then shifted back to the 99, but I'm basically toast by this point. And a few mistakes are punished with white-water workovers.

Lesson: should have arrived later and used the energy on the good wind.

All in all, a good first time back on the ocean in a year or two. But lots of work needed.

Glad I went. Definitely worth the trip.

Would have been a perfect day for a big-guy 110L wave board and 6.3. Lighter guys could probably have used 95 L and 5.7 at the end.

Domer Hasselhoff Tames Gilgo V.A.S.

Domer Hasselhoff! Tamer of wild seas!

Rigged, suited up, sweaty, and ....

OK, where's the rest of the beach?!!??

Where has GIlgo gone ??!

The ocean is angry and it's practically up to the last dune before the tunnel. There ain't much left of it. And the brown foam is crashing over the sand shelf.

Jeff and Phil -- at RM5 One wild day back when. Today was something like this. Except with fading light.

... a 3ft high shelf that's ben carved into the last of the sand by Earl or the last set of easteriles.

High tide, extra high. The Wind has been building for 4 hours and the water's stacked up high. Very "Victory at Sea" high, and unleashing foam and fury.

"What's the smallest sail you've got?" asked Domer. 4.7. We rig.

Domer's out there first and I'm going to see how it goes.

I emerge from the tunnnel, test my rig, and it takes all my weight to do any kind of sheeting in. Holy crud! 4.7 and survival conditions. I look downwind ... a long way and locate Domer's sail somewhere out there in the mayhem. He's the wind toy.
I haven't done anything like this in years -- not since that wild RM5 day. Even the 4.2 day at Overlook was nothing compared to this.

Gilgo wind build upWith 20 minutes light left I'll gladly, well not gladly, just dolefully take a pass on this. Getting dark around 7 ish now.

4 runs 3 jibes (?) and it looks like it's over for the Domer. Kudos. That was some kind of beast out there today. He was plenty powered up, he said, but a crazy strong longshore drift dragged him down wind, and he had to bear off like crazy. Jury's still out on the Goya by the sound of it. But Domer got a few macker wave rides in before it was over. "I tried to pinch up, but each time I did there was a head high wave to get over, and the board didn't want to go upwind, I was just losing ground."

Looked like he got some nice turns in tho, from a distance.

Gilgo to the east is scalloped back into a cove. So you are launching at the top of it. If you lose your rig in a jibe in that, it's a long way back to shore. Been there, done that. Not tonight. I was hooping for something more mellow for my first session back on the ocean in 2 years. Some nice gentle 6.0 or 5.7, not the raging hairy wild thing that was out there today.

"I couldn't figure out where to land," he said, "since he was looking at a cliff of sand all the way down." No slope anywhere. Just crashing shorebreak against a wall of vertical sand.
Tobay tonight

The sunlight is fading to sunset fast. I go down the beach to help with the board. Domer's seen the light dwindle and decided he's done.

D'oh — Wish I found the camera while he was on the water. Forgot I had one in the van.

Salsa Shack of Ely's dreams?

Well no today ocean shots, but a couple of sunset scenes for ambience.