Camp

Paddleboarding

We love paddleboarding at camp, as do our campers.  On the lake it is a pretty relaxing sport, you just cruise around, sometimes catch the wake of a passing boat, and generally just soak up the sun and have fun.  Take these massive boards to the ocean, though, and it is a different story.

As you can see in the above picture, this wave is no tsunami.  Paddleboards are great on low swell days like these.  They are wide, long, and super stable so you do not really need the speed and consistency that surfing requires.  You can ride almost anything, use the long paddle to steer and propel, and laugh at the hardcore surfers on the beach who are waiting for the big waves to come while you are having all the fun.

 

 

Stop-motion drawing of "The Old Man and the Sea"

Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is one of my favorite books.  A combination of simple prose, brilliant narrative, and a compelling message make it a true classic (and the ocean setting should appeal to any water-lover). I stumbled upon the below video today on Vimeo in which an artists transposes the Old Man story (shark attacks included) into a series of pictures in stop motion.  The song in the background has been overused as of late in online videos but it fits so I'll overlook it.

Enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/39473645

 

What is Billy up to?

Our head instructor, Billy Ackerman, does not lead a boring life.  In the ten months of the year that Water Monkey Camp is not going on he is down in Jacksonville Beach, Florida making the most of good weather, sandy beaches, and limitless watersports activities. Recently he has been hooked on kiteboarding.

Kiteboarding is a super versatile sport, mixing a bit of wakeboarding, some surfing, and some serious kite flying skills.

Kiting makes impossibly huge airs and tricks possible due to the power of the massive kite.  Most of learning how to kite is mastering the kite itself; the board skills will follow.

All of Billy's kiting adds to his ridiculous board skills so that he will continue to be a one of a kind instructor to our campers each summer.

We are lucky to have Billy at Water Monkey Camp and he says he is pumped to get back to NH in a few months.  Keep on shreddin' Bill.

An innovative new snow sport or the next "mini-ski"?

I found this new product online and thought it would be a great follow up to our last post about obscure water sports. http://vimeo.com/35672273

This product is essentially two miniature snowboards with normal bindings.  Personally, I think that the novelty would wear off in about two runs and I would be strapping back in to my full size board.  Anyone who hit the slopes in the late 90's/early 00's would remember the mini-ski fad where mostly kids and young teens traded in their skis for tiny planks the size of their boots with a leash and no poles.  This new product is the same theory, just for snowboards.  Just as mini-skis came and went quickly I just do not think that the dual board has a viable path forward.  Miniaturizing the snowboard means less edge (less control) and less surface area (not good in powder), while splitting the board in two means your front and back feet can move independently (less stability, especially at speed).  As their video shows, it may be fun in the park for a bit, that is until you spread-eagle a rail and remember why it was you switched from skis to a board in the first place.