So Long Little Buddy :'(

Rhonda cuddling Buri while he noms her ear.

This 4th of July was a very sad day for Rhonda and me, and for anyone who knew Buri, Rhonda's irresistibly lovable English Bulldog. If you don't want to get sentimental, don't read the rest of this post.

Buri started out the morning at my apartment on Nahant, enjoying lots of petting and attention from his mumma and me, per his customary routine. Then I took him down to Nahant's "dog beach" where we waded and played fetch in the water to stay cool.

Buri didn't want to leave, but I was getting sunburned, so I took him back to the house for a fresh water bath and shampoo. After that he was content to lounge around the house and charm guests arriving for our beach day and BBQ. We kept him inside in the afternoon, but let him out on the porch again in the evening while we were grilling. He seemed to be fine temperature-wise, but when fireworks started going off in the neighborhood he got riled up with barking, panting and pulling on the leash.

Tragically, we were slow to realize that Buri's agitation could bring on heatstroke- even in the temperatures he had been OK in before the fireworks. If we had realized the imminent danger we would have cooled him down in a drastic way, like dunking him in the ocean or a cold shower, but instead we figured he would chill out sufficiently in the air conditioning of Rhonda's car when she drove him home. The little trooper hopped right up in the backseat like usual, but when he fell asleep on the drive he wasn't able to wake up. Rhonda rushed her baby to the closest emergency veterinarian but, heartbreakingly, it was too late. He had died of heatstroke. I met Rhonda and her mother at the vet in the middle of the night and joined them in bawling my eyes out while petting and hugging poor peaceful Buri one last time.

I'm not real religious or anything, but I have to believe that Buri's loving spirit endures, perhaps waiting and watching with other loved ones from a place of timeless transcendence.

Rhonda and I are still having a tough time getting through feelings of heartache, regret, and plain old missin' the Buri, but we take comfort in each other, and we have been moved by some nice things that friends and family have said or shared with us since Buri's passing. I'll end this post with two of those.

Lubec: Worth The Drive

As my remaining time in New England dwindles I'm taking bittersweet note of certain things that I might be doing for the last time. This week it was my work trip to Lubec, Maine for a final round of seaweed experiment maintenance.

Lubec is rugged, remote, and chilly- as far North and East as you can get on the US Atlantic Coast. It reminds me more of Washington State than of anywhere else on the East Coast, with rocky cliffs, spruce trees, moss, and kelp.

The place we stay there is an old restored Coast Guard Station near the lighthouse at Quoddy Head State Park. Our first day had pouring rain and temperatures in the 50s, but that made the next days' mix of cool sun, mist, and clouds seem delightful by comparison. The work that we do on the rocks is always a race against time, because our plots are only exposed for four hours per tidal cycle. Between tides, however, we have some unstructured time to catch up on email, hike, etc. On this trip up I brought windsurfing and snorkeling gear and had some good sessions.

The first spot I snorkeled was at the base of a cliff chasm near one of our seaweed experiment sites. I didn't stay there long because I got spooked by the deep dark water.

The next snorkeling spot was more sheltered, near the Coast Guard boathouse.

At high tide the Fucus and Ascophyllum rockweeds were floating at full vertical extension, making spooky green curtains and corridors that you could swim through.

It's quite a contrast with their "piles of old laundry" appearance at low tide. Seeing my study organisms underwater like that gave me a better appreciation for their true seaweed selves, if you will.

I'm not quite sure what you call the body of water I windsurf on in Lubec- maybe Quoddy Channel? It's a broad inlet between the town of Lubec and the Bay of Fundy, bisected by the US - Canadian border. The launch point is a pull-off of South Lubec Road.

It had been blowing about 20 knots on the Bay of Fundy when we were at our experiment site on Wednesday, but it was more sheltered at the windsurfing launch, and there was a strong tidal current going in the same direction as the wind, so I rigged big - 6.8 on a 106 liter board. I had some good overpowered runs, buzzing by the mid-channel lighthouse and flirting with the Canadian border, until I thought I saw lighting and beat it back to the US shore.

ECWF Race Video

This post is part two of my account of last weekend's East Coast Windsurfing Festival. A more complete description with pictures and a list of winners is on The Peconic Puffin. The racing winners were riding round-bottomed "Division II" boards, but standard flat-bottomed raceboards were close behind. I had a chance to try Pete Roesch' D2 board on Saturday and found it fast but very tricky to tack and jibe. My own board, a 10'4" Angulo paddleboard with the addition of a small center fin, was better around the course than the paddleboards without daggerboards, but couldn't hold its ground against the real windsurfing longboards. Below is some video I edited up of two races on Sunday.

East Coast Windsurfing Fest 2012 - 2 Races from James Douglass on Vimeo.

A nice windsurfer / sculptor named Mike brought this Buddah creation to the beach in the back of his pickup truck. I think it helped bring a ZEN vibe to the event.

New Windsurfing Video + ECWF

I'm at the Holiday Inn in Ronkonkoma, NY, lying on the bed in my salty swimsuit and wondering if the sun I got today is going to turn to tan or burn. It was Day 1 of the East Coast Windsurfing Festival at Hecksher State Park. Despite paltry winds and some sprinkles, we had a ton of fun and held multiple rounds of windsurf racing and freestyle, plus SUP racing and a board toss. I used my Angulo 10'4" Surfa SUP for everything (except the board toss- everyone used New England Windsurfing Journal editor Peter's old Tiga for that). For the windsurfing parts I used an 8.0 sail and put a center fin on the SUP in the extra finbox that Josh Angulo helped me install this spring. I also removed the SUP's thruster fins to reduce drag. It seemed to work OK, because I was able to keep up with the real racing longboards on the downwind parts, and at at least keep up with the slower beginner boards upwind and reaching.

It was the first windsurf race ever for my travel buddy, Cambridge windsurfer Jonas Shoor. He did alright for his first time, and said he learned a lot. This is Jonas by my van on the Connecticut - Long Island ferry this morning.

The forecast for tomorrow is for more light winds, but we're holding out hope for at least enough to plane a little on our big gear. If conditions are good I'll take some GoPro helmet camera video. In the meantime, here's a video I shot last week of some wavesailing in Nahant. It's not my best work ever, but I think it fits well with the Pixes song I chose.


June 2012 Windsurfing in Nahant from James Douglass on Vimeo.

East Coast Windsurfing Fest - BE THERE!

I just registered for the 2012 East Coast Windsurfing Festival at Hecksher State Park on Long Island.

http://www.ecwindfest.com/East_Coast_Windsurfing_Festival/ECWF_Home.html

The event centers around informal racing and freestyle competition, but a lot of non-racers go just to sail and SUP around the friendly, warm, flat water venue and to enjoy the camaraderie. There is a lot of talking shop and buying and selling used gear, as well.


View Larger Map

To get a better idea of what the event is like, here are my blog posts about it from last year:

http://jimbodouglass.blogspot.com/2011/06/east-coast-windsurfing-fest-report.html
http://jimbodouglass.blogspot.com/2011/06/racing-and-freeriding-videos-from-2011.html

Nevin Sayre: "There's no way I would allow my kids to kitesurf"

Nevin Sayre is a champion windsurfer and kiteboarder who is heavily involved in promoting youth windsurfing through local and national sailing organizations. In a public letter to US Sailing, whose representatives recently voted to replace windsurfing with kiteboarding in the 2016 Olympics, he outlines some serious concerns about that vote. Foremost among his concerns is the fact that, in contrast with windsurfing, kiteboarding is unsafe for kids and logistically unfeasible for incorporation in youth sailing programs. Take a look at what he has to say here.

PS- Mr. Sayre has first-hand experience of how dangerous kiteboarding can be. Check out this picture of his gross kiteboarding head wound from sailworld.com.

Nahant Beach Parking Closure Nightmare 2012

**UPDATE: As of Memorial Day, the lot has been open. It's not paved or anything, but it's open, and the price is still a reasonable $3.00**

This is a warning to any Bostonians who might be hoping to go to Nahant Beach this weekend, 12 May 2012, or any time soon: Don't bother.

 The whole dang parking lot has been closed since fall for some horrible, never-ending renovation project. I live on Little Nahant so my view looks right over the parking lot, and I can say for sure that it is NOWHERE near being finished. They don't even seem to be working on it. The digging machines have been parked there motionless for month after month, but the scene never changes. Does anyone know what the problem is? There's certainly no indication of the prolonged closures on the unhelpful Nahant Beach website.

 Last month when we had a warm weekend there was a huge line of cars across the causeway waiting for an hour to get into the lot- only to be turned away by the cops at the Tides Restaurant. Nahant did put up a sign saying the lot was closed, but you can't see the sign until you've already driven across the causeway so it's totally useless. Hopefully the collective rage of all the people getting turned away will light a fire under the people in charge of the lot renovation and will make them start actually WORKING on it. Grrr...