Beautiful conditions - sunshine, light offshore wind to clean up 3.5’-4’ swells in 10-11 seconds range.
Probably about 6-12 surfers out to enjoy. Life us good. Mahalo!
-sing
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A little different here. Christmas day was warm by our standards. Now it’s 6 degree and we have a 15 MPH breeze. Waves are totally non-existent ---------- because the ice doesn’t move from wind.
I am working and waiting for the spring thaw now.
But happy paddling to all those that can do it through the winter.
That’s the trade-off. A greater diversity of outdoor adventures and activities for the upland mountain areas. But, there is a “seasonality” to those activities. Folks have to adapt and go with the flow, or move away. One of my long time neighbors in the western Maine mountains decided to move to the Florida panhandle. The couple actively fished, hunt and hiked but had no winter activity to keep them occupied. Winter became overbearingly long for them.
Glad I got surf paddle session in yesterday. Was treacherous this morning with freezing rain. The protected saltwater bays were still partially iced in from last week’s cold streak. But, these should open up after this weekend for some flatwater practice/paddle.
-sing
Winter in Florida has fishing , hunting (limited) camping, etc
It is also the prime time to kayak. Of course, none of that Maine winter snow stuff.
When the thaw comes I have days every year where the water is so cold I fear going into it unless I can stay about 25 yards from shore. It warms pretty fast most springs, but I will poke at it a few times until I can paddle for a few hours without my gloves icing up, or my hands just getting cold enough I can’t enjoy the time on the water. My thick wet suit has been good enough for all but about 3 weeks in spring and 1-2 weeks in the fall most years.
I now have accumulated about everything I’d like to have for kayaking except a dry suit and because a dry suit would get only a few weeks use every year I have not seen fit to spend that money up to this point. Going from cool to cold to ice is fast in the fall. It’s slower to go the other way in the spring.
I have tried to make inquiries about dry suits. Just 1 month ago I wrote two e-mails to Watersports Outlet, but that was useless. They do not reply. I am very disinclined to spend hundreds of dollars with any company who has a policy that discounts the importance of customer interaction so much as to ignore them completely.
I was a CEO of an international company years ago and I would fire office staff on the spot if any phone rang over 5 times and they didn’t pick it up because communication IS respect in all types of relationship from friendships to sports to marriages and especially in business. My staff knew that I considered the phone line to be the same as a check-out counter in any store, and checkers have 2 duties. #1 to take the money in for all transactions and #2 to be as helpful to EVERY customer as they could be, going the “extra mile” at every transactions as was needed by every customer. It does seem too many businesses today seem to think the customer base is there for the benefit of business.
Just the opposite is true. The business exists for the customer base !!!
When a business has that overarching idea the customers come to know and understand it pretty fast, and they will always come back if you treat them well and give them good value for their money.
I’d be interested in feedback as to which businesses people like to deal with, and which ones seem to actually care about customer service.
My wave reading and timing were off, as the sandy bottom seemed to have shifted in the past few storms. Still, good waves and good vibes overall.
Mahalo!
-sing
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