Cold today

[stoneaxe]

And me without my wetsuit......I CAN"T WAIT FOR SUMMER!!!!

[shapeshifter]

that's some hard water you got there...

[shapeshifter]

frozen in motion on the shores of shave ice city...

[stoneaxe]

LOL...how the heck do you paddle through slush.....I like my shave ice with blue raspberry and pineapple.

[steamroller]

oh my GOODNESS!!!....are you kidding me??!?!....stoneaxe and ECSUP and you north east coast guys is that what you all do?!?!....theres ICE all over the place....ill say it again...you guys are HARDCORE!!...


shapeshifter now youre the expert on this one...tell me how does the ULIboard handle the subzero temps...any probs with the valves or the board itself??...it doesnt it freeze solid and crack i guess not...ive never heard of anyone actually using it as an icebreaker before...they ride um up in Hook Point AK i know but i think thats only in the summertime...nothing near the cold that youre in...WOW

[steamroller]

And me without my wetsuit......I CAN"T WAIT FOR SUMMER!!!!

what the heck is that ...ice wall!...

[tonemike]

i'm with steamroller.  you gotta tell us how you did that cool ice wave.
-mike

[jethro]

You guys are nuts.

[StandUpPaddleSurf.net]

That looks like fun...NOT!  I bet you are sooooo missing Maui right now.

[PonoBill]

All I can say guys is that i know Bob is pretty good with Photoshop. He IS nuts though.

[champcrow]

Like steamroller said you guys are HARDCORE ...........I've never even been to the snow or seen it for that matter, i can't handle our winter and you guys wouldn't even probably put on a wetsuit in ours..........bbbbrrrrr. Even though i wouldn't mine some cooler weather right now were into our third week straight of a heat wave we haven't had a day under 37 degrees celcius, most have been 40 plus and doesnt look like a change until wednesday even then it only dropping to the low thirties. They are saying its our longest ever on record

[shapeshifter]

it isn't that bad really... the cold is just another element to deal with (layers are the key). if i fell into the water without insulation i would have about 7 to 15 minutes max if the initial shock didn't take me right out. with the specialized equipment i've assembled i could easily last 6 hours. the water turns to ice the ice breaks into chunks and churns a little differently, that's all. it creates cliffs at the water line so one tries to come out wherever they put in, trying not to get pulled into to the ice caves created by the waves can get tricky sometimes.

the picture actually dipicts the tail end of a dangerous situation. the area was pretty clear when i paddled out but became packed 1' to 3' deep in ice. made it tough to paddle through but had to laugh a bit at my predicament and take a minute to think myself through it (or panic could set in). was able to wallow through by flexing and rocking the board back and fourth freeing up some space to paddle while lossening the ice buildup on the top and sides. stepping far back, nosing over a section, then walking forward, was that icebreaker techniqe to inch along the heavier areas. the worse part was when water would tend to freeze topside then it's either too sticky or not grippy. what made it all possible was having a board that wasn't too heavy or too light, impervious to the ice, and flexible enough to manage the transitions. the uli worked flawlessly under these conditions.

out in the open water there were subsurface iceburgs that made sections of rolling water turn to deceptively smooth glassy sections. realizing that these were floating sheets that went on for miles made it seem something more like a mirage. things are warming up a bit now though...

by the looks of the ice in the stoneaxe "wave" i would have to say that is a glacial formation in either of the polar regions. antartica maybe. the deep blue color hints to the years it took to get that way.

[stoneaxe]

Hehe....the ice wave is me on Maui and an (you guessed it shape) Antartic glacier. Ain't photoshop grand...

This was one of my 1st posts on the zone...a response to Randy saying he was seeing paddles everywhere.


I bet you didn't know that Jimmy Carter built your paddle Bill.....

You have it worse than us east coasters Shape. The ocean doesn't get iced as easily.....usually just some shoreline slush to deal with. Having the water freeze behind you as you go out could definitely make it interesting.

BTW...if you want to see some REALLY interesting photoshop work... http://www.worth1000.com/galleries.asp?display=photoshop

[ECSUP]

Hey Stoneaxe, you look good. Hopefully we'll get in the water this weekend.
ECSUP