H2ONEWS

Archive #1
10/00—06/01

Surfrider Coastal News

6/31/01 CEDAR YESTERDAY - Skunksville, and a beachgoer possibly drowned

I don't think any of us left Cedar with too great a feeling yesterday, for as we were putting our sails into sailbags and sharing observations on the day, the first set of flashing lights appeared down on the beach. Within moments another police car sped into the lot and roared off down the sand to the shoreline. Uh oh. This is not a good sign we thought, as one after another emergency vehicles began to arrive, along with the Babylon Fire Department Rescue Unit.

Before long there were five emergency vehicles on the beach, the Rescie vehicle waiting at the entrance to the beach, and another police vehicle stationed at the entrance to the park. It seems a late evening beachgoer had apparently drowned. Lenny saw the person being transferred to the ambulance, and feared the worst.The rescue workers faces told the same story. Let's hope they survived.

It was a sad night, kinda leaves a very empty feeling. It sucks to think that if it had been windy, we might have been actually down there instead of in the parking lot, and in a position to possible help, but as it was, we had long since derigged, and packed up when the first sign of an emergency appeared -- the first police car.

Apart from that Cedar was "windless-to - marginal". A whole lot of schloggin going on unless you were Mike da Baker or Carl. Carl was consistenyly planing for a while but even the Baker and he did therit turns at the hula dance. Mikedab picked off a few nice peelers at the point once the tide started going out and the surf stood up a little. He was definitely out there waiting like a surfer to time his run with the biggest most promising swell.- one was sweet chest-shoulder high. The point was the place to be - but not while the lifeguards were there. With Carl uphauling from time-to-time.

Chas Bolling did a classic "OOSI-&-GH". As in "Out-Once-Swim-In-&-Go Home" after which, for a brief moment the wind picked up to a spectacular honking 14 knots. Or was it Mph? You get the point. In the words of the immortal sportscaster, Warner "let's-go-to-the-videotape" Wolf, "If you weighed over 145 lbs and you picked Cedar...You Lost!!!" As for the rest of us, Rich Amoils and Barry turned up, adding a new dimension of fun to the scene.And thank goodness for Denise, and Carls companion (sorry, can you tell me her name), who helped keep the sagging spirits up on the beach, with cartwheels and witty commentary.

Rich used a Xantos which certainly helped him onto a plane a few times. Barry and I were in the same 102 liter boat with a couple of turns in the straps aided by waves. A good day for clew first waterstarts, no-wind jibe practise and trying to get good shots of Mikedabaker in the shorebreak.

4/16/01 SFBA - Bay Area windsurfing update

"Windsurfing on the Peninsula faces possible extinction at the hands of SF and SFO. We will fight them like they cannot imagine. Because this is our home, and the Bay that they want to destroy is one of the reasons we all came here in the first place...."

click here for more of this SFBA newsletter

3/23/01 West Meadow Oil Spill

Ok ...here's the story......got to west meadow around 11:30....saw a bunch of cop cars and a fireman.....looks like somethings going on,maybe someone tried to kill themselves?my first thought,then i saw the e.p.a. cars with "emergency spill response"on the side.

This is not good.i see dana on the beach with a disgusted look on his face. toxic sludge on the beach! i take a look at it and there are football size globs of crude with bits of straw and seaweed stuck to it...i poke at it with a stick and it's fresh....goopy stuff.eeewwww this is not going to look good smeared on my board.we go try to sweet talk our way into the water.......no way. called brook to halt his progress towards the skunk meadow...call charley bolling's cell but got answering service for joyce(must have his old number)...called phil on his cell but got someone who sounded like "uncle leo" from seinfeld....payphone ate the rest of my quarters and tried to use e.s.p. to contact mustang. dana and i head for CIB....when i get there i'm frazzled from the round trip to west meadow but glad there is no crude muck on the beach.the wind is disappointing but there is hope in the form of a wind line approaching.i rig my 4.7 and i can get planning but it's light......half an hour later it's coming on like gangbusters.

CIB turns into a mini west meadow with nice waves setting up and breaking on the inner and outer sandbars.....got some nice rides and jumps in but was overpowered and had to rig down to 4.2 back on the water with a 4.2 and the wind is dying!!!!!!crap.........10 minutes later it comes back with a vengence!!!!!got some more nice jumps and wave rides.....around low tide the waves diminished and i was getting beat so i called it a day. in attendance were brook,dana,charley kite man(wore no gloves) and some guy with a german accent. the forecast for saturday looks bleak......some teaser wind between 2 and 5pm around 10-15(NW)....sunday looks betterWNW 15-20 with higher gusts best between 1 and 4 pm. adios..........mike

02/26/01

Seal Strandings Skyrocket

An unusually large number of seals (51 seals since Jan 1, almost equal to the 65 for 200) alone) have become stranded on Long Island beaches already this season. Respiratory viruses seem to be the main culprit in for the sick animals. The full story can be found at Newsday.com.

01/20/01

Park proposed for Oak Beach Inn site

Saturday's L.I. edition of Newsday offers full coverage of the ongoing sage concerning the future fate of the Oak Beach Inn site. The link above takes you to the full story at Newsday's site.

01/12/01

Harbor Seals, not navy, at Gilgo Beach

This interesting tidbit was reported in the L.I. edition of Newsday on Friday 1/12/01:

"They received the phone call last week and found him east of Gilgo Beach...he had a respiratory infection and parasites..."

No. it wasn't Lenny-da-Squid in his old wetsuit. It was a young harbor seal, you know the kind that white sharks enjoy with a side of blubber.

Apparently depending on the conditions passengers may spot anywhere from 10-50 seals on land and
in the sea. apparently this is prime season when the critters migrate to L.I. from New England, Canada, and Greenland.

for the full story check Ship-shape for seals at Newsday.com

If you need to see to believe, seal cruises set out from the East Marina in Point Lookout aboard the lady JV. For more info:
Call the Riverhead Foundation at 631-369-9840

01/12/01

R.I.P. - O.B.I. (and bring on da sewage)

Reported in the L.I. edition of Newsday on Fiday 1/12/01:

"Suffolk County Health Department officials pointedly questioned a Babylon condominium developer yesterday about why he was applying for permission to build a sewage treatment plant when he does not yet own the waterfront land at Oak Beach."

Legislators have filed a resolution to allocate $2.5 million toward an effort to buy and preserve the property, but O.B.I. owner Bob Matherson purportedly has a $5Million agreement to sell the entire property including "three more acres on Ocean Parkway." Babylon has temporarily put on hold a plan to rezone the site for condos, and the town-owned acreage has not yet been conveyed to the bar owner as previously agreed in a 1999 settlement.

Check out the Newday archives for the full story.

01/08/01

• Brook moves closer to coveted 2 board quiver:
  With Jr. Cuddy on the way, BC is rumored to have traded the legendary Naish 8'5" for a 94 liter JP freestyle 255 (2000 vintage). The 8'11" is next on the block...

Who ever would have thunk it several years ago, that a 255 cm board could be your light-wind board.

• R.I.P. flyz's Naish Nalu 6.25 (1995/6-2001):
  After a long trudge thru the Stehli snowfields on Saturday, flyz put his head thru the main panel of the long-lived Nalu. One of first large camless sails of the post-camber era, the faithful Nalu was much repaired already--the freezing temps are said to have contributed to finishing what hurricane Linda started a few years back.

NEWS...............12/5to6/00

• Bubba and Chuck introduce western LIer's to decadence Dekmunch Style:
  Dekmunching and drooling, and octopus chewing was all the rage at Churrascarria on Central Park West, while vegetarians ran for the exits, and polite folk averted their gaze. Who can remember a thing? No one was arrested. We lost Frazowatz to the night. He'll be back. The recovery process is underway.

  
  

NEWS...............11/29/00

• "BayvillePhenomenon" provokes new theories:
  "Ambrose gull" returns?

Drysuit et al have posited that: The Bayville meter is living proof that.

a- It blows harder 50 feet up in the air than sea level
b- Charlie's back yard is the "new Gorge"
c- Charlie Bolling is blowing on the meter
d- There is such a thing as a "vacuum-effect" and Bayville has it
e- Charlie's plan "B" is to lure outsiders to Bayville this winter with over-statements of windspeed. Then, when they leave dissapointed and swear to never return... he gets his secret spot back with a private wind meter.
f- the Bayville meter only blows 20+ when you are at work. It never realy blows 20+ when you have the day off UNLESS you are Mike DaBaker.
g- the Bayville meter only blows 20+ when you are at work. It never realy blows 20+ when you have the day off UNLESS Brook is on vacation* at Cabarete in the D.R.
h- The infamous "dead seagull" that was once thought to be impaled on the needle at the Ambrose Tower, is now stuck decomposing on the needle at Bayville.

* Please note that whenever Brook is on vacation somewhere warm, you should make sure your small gear is in prime working order

NEWS..............11/24/00

• More Fall fun ahead on South Shore?

  It seems the lads are eagerly awaiting a last fling in the ocean, or will it be the beginning of hardcore winter ocean sailing? We've done warm days in February before. But not a whole winter on the briney. A wavey ocean windsurf day could be on tap for Sunday with SE winds.

• Has Gaastra regained it's old time position at the top of the windsurfing heap -- Remember the Heart and Soul days when Robby sailed for "the blue castle" ? Kevin Pritchard has ended Bjorn's winning streak. Results of the 2000 PWA world windsurfing tour can be found at http://www.maui.hi.us/windsurfing

NEWS..............11/17/00

• The Bayville iWindsurf.com sensor is kicking out wind readings and there is gladness and much sailing...

  Locals in the know are beginning to get it wired, subtracting 5-10 mph off the reading to get a more realistic picture of what's going on down at sea-level further back from the point.

NEWS..............11/11/00

• More Fall fun was had on The North Shore Today

  Lenny the Squid's fractured foot made a miraculous recovery as the wind kicked in and he understandably made a bee-line to the nearest bumpy body of water. Robby didn't even notice he left the birthday party er, early, and Phil didn't spill the beans to Marg either.

NEWS..............11/07/00

• The Bayville iWindsurf.com sensor has come to pass.

  Congrats to the homeowner and avid yachtman dwelling on Matinecock Point (an exposed location approximately 1.5 miles west of Stehli). See photo at left.

• Big thanks to Chasman Bolling, Frank Messina, and Phil Atkinson for making it all happen.

NEWS..............10/21/00

 

• WEEKEND WARRIOR BATTLE NOTES

  Sunday didn't happen at Crab Meadow, and Mikedabaker broke out his 70's era skateboards and passed them around for anyone who wanted to collect some bruises on the hardpack. (End of Flyz's short skateboarding career.)

• Bolling got his outside his house break in Glen Cove at 7 AM. 5.7 on a 277... for inquiring minds who want to know.

  • Dennis came down from the Cape and took advantage of the lack of wind to untangle his kite lines. Which took about 3 hours, no kid. Still he got wind in the cape yeasterday, while the weeds just carried on growing in the warm still air at Heckscher.

News............10/13/00

• Rumor has it that Charlie Bolling has found a possible site for the Bayville iWindsurf.com sensor.

  A homeowner and avid yachtman dwelling on Matinecock Point (an exposed location approximately 1.5 miles west of Stehli) has been contacted by Phil Atkinson of iWindsurf.com, and appears quite interested in making a home for the sensor. See photo above.

  He has used wind meters before but had been disappointed in their reliability, and reportedly looks forward to enjoying the services iWindsurf.com will provide as a thank you for hosting the wind-meter.

• Congrats to Frank Messina, Chasman Bolling and Phil Atkinson on a windy job. Let's hope it comes to fruition.