I don’t take in all the pool sessions, but I do like to get in a few, especially before the snow comes and brings with it the misery of loading/unloading in the snow and cold.

This last Sunday was the second of the season’s pool sessions sponsored by the Badger State Boating Society (BS2 (supposed to be a superscript 2, but I can’t figure out how to do it)).  Back in the early to mid-’90s, BS2 would have monthly meetings at a bar just northwest of Milwaukee.  I’d go to the meetings and talk to others about sea kayaking, I was always in the minority and that was ok, the love of recreating on the water brought us together.  We’d have a holiday party with big Mike dressed up as Santa, and me as an elf (complete with green capilene underwear and bells).  One year we arrived via a canoe being pulled by some of the club members pretending to be reindeer.  Oops, the canoe was wider than the door.  Everyone had a great laugh, lots of food and drink, along with lots of gifts provided by the local outfitters, of which I was one.  Well, I sure have digressed, but it does bring back some fond memories of nearly 20 years ago!!!

Now, BS2 (that’s BS squared), has given up the monthly meetings at the local club house, and are mainly a group of whitewater paddlers who openly welcome us “long boaters” to share in the wealth of the clean and warm waters of the Schroeder YMCA for a series of pool sessions between December (or late November this year) and March.

As one can imagine, you get a few (5 this past Sunday) sea kayaks in a small section of a large pool, and while there’s not much room to do a lot of paddling, there’s plenty of space to do some rather stationary activities.  The whole idea is to hone the skills in the comfort of the pool during the winter so when we go on the open waters we will be better paddlers.

Here’s some video I shot at the last session–Rick is getting a lot of coaching in rolling and high bracing.  By the way, the video was taken with my Pentax Optio 20W, not my big “fancy” video rig.  Hope you enjoy, and that you too will take advantage of your local club’s pool sessions.  (The music is Jaime RT, Butterfly and the Talking Cat.)

Posted: December 9th, 2009 under Lake Michigan, Ramblings, Uncategorized, videos.
Comments: 4

I always have an interest in what’s happening on the lake, Lake Michigan–my home water.  Besides the weather links listed on the weather page (see Weather Links in the side-bar) on the site here, there are a few more links that you may find useful as well–at least I do.  So here they are, along with my comments.

If you have a favorite weather/conditions site, send it to me and I’ll get if posted.

Nearshore Forecast

This is a new and improved format (longer range and graphics) of the nearshore text forecast that we’ve used for many years http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?site=LOT&textField1=42.9916&textField2=-87.8159

Water Temperatures

Great Lakes Coastal Forecasting System—Lake Michigan Surface Temperatures (note:  use the two drop- down lists to navigate to additional data http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/res/glcfs/glcfs.php?lake=m&ext=swt&type=N&hr=00

Mid-Lake Buoy East Souteast of Milwaukee http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=45007

CoastWatch

http://www.coastwatch.msu.edu/michigan/m.html

Note:  Cloud covered areas of the lake surface cannot be read accurately by NOAA satellites so the computer program colors them black. Areas near the black masked cloud cover may not be as precisely reported as those some distance from the clouds. CoastWatch images are generally representative of surface temperature conditions, they are not as accurate as your road atlas.  Some areas are masked with grey color because the computer program has indicated the temperatures presented are probably cloud temperatures. The air temperature at the tops of clouds can sometimes be very nearly the same as the surface water temperature of the lakes below. The grey-scale masking indicates that the accuracy of temperature reporting is lower at this time.

http://coastwatch.msu.edu/twomichigans.html

Webcam links of current nearby Lake Michigan water conditions (“nearby” to Milwaukee that is)

Milwaukee Harbor

ftp://ftp.glerl.noaa.gov/realtime/mil/mil1.jpg

Various possibilities for viewing current conditions in Milwaukee (warning:  can be a bit putzie)

http://www.lakefrontcam.com/

Sheboygan

http://www.visitsheboygan.com/BlueHarbor/view.htm

http://www.visitsheboygan.com/live/view.htm

Then there’s this bit of info, similar to the weather rope we used in the navy –

Posted: October 9th, 2008 under Lake Michigan, Sea Kayaking, Weather.
Comments: 1