make hay (or whatever)...

when the sun shines! i got the kite out on monday and was flying it about in a fairly steady 10-15 mph, down the beach breeze. all of a sudden i noticed a little guy, 8 maybe 9, standing close behind me and following my motions. i asked him if he wanted to fly the kite and he got pretty excited. his name was oscar and he was 8 and going into third grade. it did not take him long at all to get the knack of pushing and pulling the dual strings rather than steering--a bit counter intuitive. i held onto him as the wind was definitely strong enough to drag him down the beach. soon enough his brother oliver, a year older but looking every bit his twin right down to his swim trunks, joined us and took a turn at the controls. oscar didn't want to give it up and hung right close anxious for another go.

he got a second go soon enough as oliver was not as sure of himself and found it hard to overcome the temptation to just steer the thing back and forth. when they changed back the older brother went out to were the kite was swooping down and the younger brother and i practiced dive bombing him. a nice wide expanse of beach at low tide kept us from tangling with any others.


when the tide came back in, the waves got a bit bigger and i packed up the kite and grabbed a skim board. the art of skim boarding is fairly simple in theory, but somewhat complicated in practice. you start by waiting for that wash of a wave to cover a flat area of sand. when i say wait, timing can play a big part in skim success. when the thin covering is actually draining away, and there are no conflicting 'wavelets', is best. take a bit of a run, throw the board down in the direction you want to go, and jump on with both feet. it helps to land with both feet close to the same time and with the force headed more forward than down.



direction plays another big part in skimming. if you head sort of parallel with the beach, above the next wave coming in, you can get a fairly long ride, even spin a few 360's or spin your board while you jump off and then land back on it. if the beach has a pitch to it and you point yourself down, more toward the next wave you can really get some speed and go out into the surf. that is what the pros do and
it can be pretty thrilling to go out turn on a wave and ride it back in. i like trying to hit a wave and have it throw me up so i can do a back flip off the board--when it works you can really get tossed!

speaking about the pros and getting tossed (the link above is to a great skimmer with plenty of others to watch after...), i am far from being that good and for my fiftieth birthday, broke my wrist in one of those classic board riding falls. still, i have some fun and manage to give the waves here in maine a few good runs--including one in costume for the 4th of july!


kevin, mariel, and the boys came over and we got in a couple of sessions of skim boarding. owen was finding the sweet spot for some high speed runs on the pitched sand as the tide came in. he and i went to the other side of the fox island bar and zipped about for quite a while until the sun dipped pretty low and the tide almost turned.


when we weren't skimming we took a good long run on the long boards out on the road. our first direction took us down to percy's to meet pam and mariel for ice cream. the picture below was of the four longboards parked out front as we coned up inside.

coming back, we passed the cabins and went up to what i call the s-curves heading back toward bath. there are some nice long hills and even a couple steep sections in both directions. of course the day before the 4th there was a fair amount of traffic too. i manged at one point to nearly run kevin over as he was walking off the main road and i was coming fast down a side hill and turning onto it. not all that ironically, he was the one wearing pads and a helmet!

nobody died, though clayton did launch a pretty good superman into the grass as he hiked all the way up that side hill and came flying down towards the intersection where he decided he had better abandon 'ship' due to rapidly increasing speed wobble and an unsure ability to slide a corner. right after that episode, some guy stopped and cheered us on both with a thumbs up. as he pulled away, he mentioned that we should "get some helmets and pads--you never know when you're going to need 'em!" true that.

three arbor bamboo boards and one ondar longboard

one other board sport that popham has plenty of is riding the waves on a boogie board. i don't remember who i loaned my board and wet suit to, so i usually borrow one from one of the crew in the cabins, or if the waves are big enough, and harder to get on when it is deeper, i just body surf.



the picture above shows kenny and zoe on boards and that's my bald head sticking out of the foam surfing the body. it is always fun though when the waves get bigger surfing gets faster. on the two cloudy days at the end of the week, we saw some bigger and bigger waves. it also got a little colder, so zoe and i were the two that got in the most rides. sherri, zoe's mum, got one shot that captured the experience of waiting for the 'big one' ...



i don't know if this was the one that crashed over her head, but for all the times that happened she always went back for another smiling.

we have seen bigger surf, but not this year--hopefully next!