It’s been pretty flat in MassBay. However, a short window for surfable wind waves of 3.5’ at 7 second interval was forecasted for South of Cape Cod. Drove down to Horseneck Beach, a break I haven’t surfed in over 10 years after some of the ocean front homeowners complained about surfers parking on the street. Stricter parking rules were enacted and enforced, with the intended effect.
Anyway, I parked in the DCR reservation parking lot with my senior pass and kayak carted by waveski and assorted gear down the beach, passed the last lifeguard station. Ran into another waveskier and had a fun session on a rather nice day.
Wealthy real estate owners complain a lot in California (Malibu for Example) and Mitt Romney’s street in Lajolla, Ocean Front in Santa Cruz.) But passing parking bans and other restrictions usually ends in continual vandalism from local teens, so most smart neighborhoods learn to deal with people parking on their streets.
Yup. Only because the state owns a huge tract of land along Horseneck beach and the adjacent dunes to create the Dept of Conversation and Recreation reservation that remains open to the public. There is an adjacent small private beach that is gated and accessible only to paying members. Should the public beach ever get sold, we can guess how that would look like for access.
Right now, my north and south shore “home breaks” are state owned (DCR managed) beaches and why I still have access within 30-45 minutes from my home.
Might be prudent to have like minded surfers approach regional planners and DNR to express interest in continued access. Dedicated access relieves tension in the neighborhood. If parking and access already exists, it shoud be easier to continue. Maybe even lobby for better locations.
It doesn’t take much to make a parking pad for kayakers. Make less power boar launches and more kayak/canoe launches.
Power boaters complaining about kayaker using power boat ramps is like motorist complaining about bicyclist on the highway. It doesn’t take long for them to get out of the way.
Pretty funny. I get more comments from the beach walkers when I surf the long boat. Maybe should put a sign and bucket out… “Spare change for damaged and lost equipment”.
Another tiny summer wave day with short period 2’ waves. Figure I get wet playing with some of the equipment I had neglected for awhile. With a blast to the past, I took the ONNO NuWave (170 cm) surf paddle out with the longboard waveski. Can’t remember when I last used it. But the NuWave is a delightful and unique shape (relative to what is available today). It has a broad leaf spear shape blade that starts off very subtly with the spearpoint entry and then really grabs a lot of water with the significant blade width In the middle. It’s about 25% less weight than my favorite go-to Big Spoons (another defunct brand) ww paddle but just as powerful in the amount of water grabbed. It felt really good to use with the waveski.
So why hadn’t I been using it? The hint is in the two patches that I made in the carbon blade right near where it meets the carbon shaft (highly indexed which I like). I had cracked the blade when trying push myself off beach breaks with finned surf kayaks - Mega Venom and Wold Epic. Haven’t had those surf kayaks well over a dozen or more years. Pushing off from a beach break is not an issue with waveskis. So the NuWave will get used more, as long as the paddle does break again in some way.
Ouch. Some paddled live a hard life. I typically only encounter open water. The price of a carbon paddle doesnt really bother me, but I try to protect it and am cautious about letting the paddle blades touch the ground or rocks. My fear isnt breaking it, but just damaging it enough to be an irritation. I’d rather lift myself using my hands. Probably should use gloves to protect my hands.
Agree but it’s harder when the fins of a surf kayak digs deep into the sand. Just pushing with the hands is tough and even more so in winter surf when the cold water really speeds up numbing. Waveskis avoid all that because you can launch from where the waveski is afloat. That’s one of the reasons I gave up on surf kayaks for awhile. I forgot about this when I picked up a surf kayak again after so many years.
