Kayaking – Paddling Blog

As those of you who know me personally are aware, I’m not the biggest fan of flying. I used to fly the leg between New York City and Rochester regularly however following 9/11 I came to the realization that I prefer transportation methods where I have some control over my destiny. So…I’ve been “making the drive” exclusively for several years now. Well my caprice caught a cold. I’ve been making due without a car but I had to find another way to travel between NYC & ROC last weekend. JetBlue got me to and fro — but on my flight to NYC I was treated to one of the most spectacular views I’ve ever had. The night skies were as clear as possible and the plane flew right down the Hudson. I quickly got out the camera and started snapping shots out the airplane’s portal window. I honestly didn’t expect any shots to come out. Boy was I wrong! The pics I captured are amazing. I’ve kayaked around NYC for years. I’ve been through the various boroughs & neighborhoods countless times. Nothing has ever made the city look quite as beautiful as this view from 10k+ feet. Check out the best of the shots below! Be sure to click each pic for the high resolution version. The bigger you can view the photos the more impressive they are.

Oh. One more thing. What camera do you think these pics were snapped on? Would you believe it if I told you an iPhone 4S? Well that’s exactly what I used. After some level adjustments in Photoshop the end result is what you see above.

The 2011 warm-weather paddling season is drawing to an end. It was a challenging year for recreational boaters on the Hudson & East Rivers alike. Massive sewage discharges, Superfund sites (Newtown Creek & Gowanus Canal), launch site restrictions, and, for the brave souls who regularly paddle the East River — the East River Ferry. Early in the season I made the decision to refrain from publically voicing my concerns over the new ferry service. After-all, with any new service there are bound to be some growing pains. I’ve given the East River Ferry service several months to get their operations sorted out and I’m ready to public voice my opinion; the East River Ferry service presents a very real and serious threat to human powered boaters on the East River. Below is a list of observations and concerns I have with regard to the East River Ferry service and it’s impact on human powered boating (in my opinion of course). East River Ferry has been abbreviated ERF.

• The ERF rarely, if ever, sounds a horn when departing docks.
• The ERF captains do not decrease throttle when passing near human powered craft. Nearly all other high-speed commercial passenger lines such as the Seastreak and Water Taxi slow their vessels until they have passed human powered boaters. Most dinner cruises and commercial cargo vessels do not travel fast enough to create dangerous wakes. The wake from the ERF has resulted in several near capsizes and I fear could result in far worse as a capsized paddler may not be visible in the extreme conditions the ERF creates.
• On August 16 at approximately 7:30pm to the south-west of the India Street pier, an ERF (I was unable to get the name of the particular boat) passed through a group of kayakers who were slightly separated due to severe conditions created by several high-speed passes by ERF routes.
• The ERF routinely takes the “shortest path” between the North Brooklyn docks as opposed to maneuvering into the shipping lanes between docks. The majority of commercial vessels prefer that human powered boaters stay away from the Manhattan side of the East River because the shipping lanes extend very close to the Manhattan seawall. Obviously we can’t (and shouldn’t) be within the shipping lanes. East River paddlers gladly accepted the fact that we would paddle down the Brooklyn shoreline just outside existing docks. The ERF’s decision to take the shortest path between the North Brooklyn docks puts the ferries squarely within the waters previously considered safe for human powered boaters and their speed & frequency has left human powered boaters with no where to go when navigating this section of the river.
• The ERF regularly passes human powered craft by pulling into the mouth of the Newtown Creek as opposed to passing via the shipping lanes. This often leaves human powered vessels trapped between the ERF & larger vessels in the shipping lane. Furthermore this is done without a security call and could result in a collision with barges who frequently depart Newtown Creek.
• The ERF routinely passes within a close proximity to human powered boaters at a high speed.
• The ERF captains rarely respond to radio calls. Passing busy docks such as those in North Brooklyn can be difficult as there is no communication signalling intentions. It leaves human powered boaters with no ability to communicate their intentions, whether it be holding their position, moving closer to shore, further away, etc. and no method to obtain a ferry captains intentions.

I think most East River boaters understand that these ferries are a natural progression as the city deindustrializes the waterfront and creates parks and greenways on the land where industry once flourished. So why am I voicing these concerns? I would like to see East River Ferries and human powered boaters reach a point of mutual respect for one another — maintaining an open line of communication and establishing official channels to voice concerns. Most importantly, I hope to prevent a loss of life or any major incident from occurring. All too often meaningful actions are delayed until a death occurs. Lets not let that happen on the East River. Have something you’d like to contribute on this subject? Sound off in the comments!

In a turn of events worthy of it’s own Law & Order episode, a body was discovered by a group of kayakers in Anable Basin tonight. While preparing for a leisurely paddle, kayakers from the Long Island City Community Boathouse noticed something floating in the water. Upon investigation it was clear the object floating was in fact a person laying face down. Authorities were immediately notified and Anable Basin was quickly flooded with FDNY, NYPD, EMS, and just about any other agency you would expect to report for such a discovery. An FDNY rescue swimmer quickly entered the water and recovered the body — that of an African American male, roughly late 50′s, glasses, wearing what appeared to be a uniform comprised of navy blue pants and a sky blue shirt. Although I’m clearly not an expert and I was watching all this unfold from a distance the body appeared to be in Rigor mortis but was not bloated or showing obvious signs of decay — indicating the body was likely in the water only a few hours. The person’s attire and lack of a life vest would seem to indicate they were not a boater. Possibly the unfortunate victim of an accidental slip into the east river or perhaps the recession claimed yet another victim. Regardless of what led to the man’s untimely death, it’s a night the kayakers won’t soon forget.

Update #1: These events all unfolded at approximately 6pm on Thursday, August 18. The man appeared to be wearing a uniform however I was not able to determine any distinctive markings from where I was standing. Although pure speculation — based on the secluded nature of Anable Basin its likely the body drifted in, however, there is also the possibility that the person fell into the water from the construction site adjacent to Anable basin.

Chirp chirp, chirp chirp. Woh, it’s been quiet around here lately! It’s about time for some kayaking updates. I’m one of those warm weather paddlers. I just can’t justify purchasing a dry suit seeing as how the majority of people I paddle with don’t have one and those who do don’t launch out of the same boathouse I do. So…how do I keep myself busy during the cold months? A ton of skiing, kayak polo, and computer programming. With an old college buddy of mine living within a 1-2 hour drive of some of the best skiing in New Hampshire I made several trips up for some great skiing and had the opportunity to ride Bretton Woods, Cannon Mountain, Mount Sunapee, and Wildcat Mountain. When I wasn’t skiing I was either playing kayak polo or visiting my girlfriend Cathy up in Rochester. Lot’s of time on the road and lot’s of miles on old Big Blue (my 1983 Chevy Caprice).

In 2010 I started playing kayak polo with New York kayak Polo. For those of you who don’t know what kayak polo is, it’s basically water polo played in old style white water kayaks. It’s a challenging and exhausting sport (both physically and mentally). During the summer months NYKP plays in the Hudson River at pier 66 and in the winter they play in a pool at St. Peters College in Jersey City, NJ. This winter the club put on a couple of development tournaments that were aimed at introducing new players to tournament play. All I can say is they were a blast! Kayak polo helped me keep my boat handling skills sharp and towards the end of the season I even started to work on my roll. Something that has been eluding me for years. Yea — I’ve only been able to do it in the small polo boats but its a start and I hope to be rolling like a champ in my sea kayak by the end of this summer. Tom Potter from Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse was gracious enough to spend some time instructing me and even took a video of one of my rolls. Sorry Tom — I know my form needs some improvement. I’ll keep working on it!

Last weekend Sebago Canoe Club held it’s open house. Myself and a few friends made the trek out to Sebago to open our paddling season on beautiful Jamaica Bay. Following a solid week of rain we were all wondering if the weather would clear for Saturday and sure enough we had a gift from above. Warm temperatures and plenty of sunshine made for one of the nicest days in weeks. Paddling at a medium pace we circumnavigated Canarsie Pol, landed next to Canarsie Pier for a snack, and went over towards the Jamaica Bay Riding Academy before heading back to Sebago for a burger and a soda. Sebago members were gracious hosts and we had a fabulous time. It was a great way to start off the 2011 paddling season!

Although I didn’t take many pictures you can find the complete photo set here. Thanks for a great day Sebago!

Revamped, Revised, and Rejuvenated, the new Kayaking section of my website is now live. The Trip Maps everyone knows and loves are still available (and will be expanded in 2011). The posts on schiffner.com vary greatly in subject matter so I have added a Paddling Blog which aggregates only posts related to kayaking and the waterfront into a single location. Are you interested in subscribing to my Paddling Blog but not the other posts on schiffner.com? You can use the RSS link on the main Kayaking page and the Paddling Blog section to subscribe to only kayaking/waterfront related posts. I have also added a Links of Interest section which includes links to other kayaking relevant websites. I plan to expand the links section to include links to many more blogs from other paddlers as I discover them myself. The main Kayaking page has been transformed into a one-stop summary of everything kayaking on schiffner.com.

It looks like I’ll have a bit more personal time for kayaking in 2011. Once we hit paddling season I plan to post to the Paddling Blog semi-weekly/weekly and add trip maps at several points throughout the summer.