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Surf Shots : Thursday May 15, 2008

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Surfing News
Written by Chris
Friday, 16 May 2008
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Last Updated ( Friday, 16 May 2008 )

Cape Cod surf outlook week of May 11

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Surfing News
Written by Mike Marks
Friday, 16 May 2008
Outlook as of Friday 7:20am - Nantucket buoy currently showing 4.6', 9 secs from E. 10mph+ NE wind today with low tide at 3:50. Wind shifts NW tomorrow afternoon after rain ends and sun comes out. Thursday 7:50am - Nantucket buoy showing 6.2' from ENE at 10 secs. Chest to head high at Cape beaches... lots of close outs. Wind is south at around 10. Today's low tide is at 3:05. Swell will diminish but continue through Monday Wednesday 9am - Head+ waves. North wind diminishes throughout the day today. Wind goes light and offshore tomorrow morning... chest+. Thursday should be clean and nice! Low tide today is at 2:10, tomorrow at 3:05. Tuesday 6am - Today's very strong NE wind will be be half as strong tomorrow. The wind will shift Wednesday night and might be SW on Thursday morning. Thursday could see head + waves with decent conditions. Sunday is looks like it might be nice with S or SW wind, sunny skies and chest high. The CG cam looks fuzzy and out of focus right now because of spray thrown up by the NE wind. A little rain will make it clear again. These conditions cause a lot of beach erosion and shift around the sand bars. The beach will be different the next time you visit it. Monday 7:20am - Messy. Wind blows hard from NE and N through Wednesday. NOAA forecast for the Cape Cod area. Add Comment (0) Hits: 120
Last Updated ( Friday, 16 May 2008 )

Anglers mourn death of Dottie the largemouth bass

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Fishing News
Written by Mike Marks
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
At Dixon Lake near Escondido California, Jed Dickerson picked up Dottie for the third time. This time she weighed in at 19 pounds and the life she'd lived was behind her. An era was over. Dickerson had been hoping to break the official world record for a largemouth bass, a record set by George Washington Perry in 1932 with a fish that weighed in at 22 pounds, 4 ounces. Now that Dottie was gone Dickerson's dream of breaking the record was dashed. Dickerson first caught Dottie in 2003 and unofficially weighed her at 23 pounds... Here's the full story from ESPN. Add Comment (0) Hits: 69
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 13 May 2008 )

Eastham Ocean Beach RIP

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Beach News
Written by Mike Marks
Saturday, 10 May 2008
On May 5, after years of emotional debate on whether or not to build a town beach between Nauset Light and Coast Guard beaches, Eastham voted 502-476 to totally abandon the project (a 2/3 majority was needed to continue). The Ocean Beach project began in 2002 following a decision by the National Seashore to end drop offs at Coast Guard beach. Nursing a long time grievance from the loss of parking spaces at Coast Guard Beach after a 1978 storm, this decision was the final straw. A group of residents discovered that the town of Eastham owned 127 acres on the bluff south of Nauset Light and formed the The Ocean Beach Committee. Committee members worked hard to address conservation and cost concerns. On Monday night a majority of town residents decided to leave the undeveloped area alone. Even though The Committee failed in its primary goal the effort caused the National Seashore to set aside 72 parking spots (62 at Nauset Light 10 at Coast Guard) dedicated exclusively to Eastham residents. Here's the story of Monday night's vote in the Cape Cod Times. Learn more about the history of Eastham's Ocean Beach here. Add Comment (0) Hits: 100
Last Updated ( Saturday, 10 May 2008 )

Devastation in Burma

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Storms
Written by Mike Marks
Saturday, 10 May 2008
Before and after Cyclone Nargis, NASA images On May 2 Cyclone Nargis swept out of the Bay of Bengal and made landfall on the low lying Irawaddy delta region of Burma with peak winds of 135 mph. The storm devastated life and property. As with Hurricane Katrina the worst destruction was wrought by the storm surge. The images to the right (courtesy of Wikimedia and NASA) show the delta region before and after the cyclone. Note how much of the land is covered by water in the bottom image. Here's a sense of what the storm was like on the ground: "Kwagyi is a village on a river island which is so low and exposed that during the twelve hours of Cyclone Nargis’s spate, it ceased to be an island at all. The waters were six and a half feet high; they covered everything except the buildings, and many of those had been blown away... Myint Swa the boatman climbed a palm tree and hung on for dear life. His wife and eight children cowered in the boat and rode out the boiling waters." Kenneth Denby in Pyapon, Burma for Timesonline UK. Over 1.5 million people are reported to have been severely affected by the storm. The death toll may reach 100,000+. Help has been offered by world agencies. Unfortunately the prideful, corrupt and worthless dictators of Burma have only recently begun to accept it. Here's the Wikipedia entry on Nargis
Last Updated ( Monday, 12 May 2008 )

Cape Cod surf outlook week of May 4

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Surfing News
Written by Mike Marks
Saturday, 10 May 2008
Outlook as of Saturday 9am - N wind at 25+ today... with rain. N is for Nasty. Tomorrow is N at 15+ but sunny. Looks like the wind will be blowing hard from N and NE for the next week. Friday 6:40am - NE wind building today and blowing hard from NE and N well into next week. SE facing beaches should offer some clean chest+ waves. Cape Ann might be a good bet: Long Beach, Good Harbor, Cape Hedge. Or maybe Devereaux in Marblehead. Thursday 9am - Ankle biters out there now. Victory at Sea on the way. The story for the next few days is wind. Today will be SW at 15+. Tomorrow wind will shift to NE at 10+ and become N at 30+ on Saturday. Sunday should be clean up day with new storm moving in early next week. Wednesday 9:45am - Knee high; NW wind shifting to SW this afternoon; low tide at 7:54pm. Nor'easter coming through on Friday. Saturday is clean up day with chest+ Tuesday 10:15am - Knee to thigh E swell with light wind today and tomorrow. Low tide at 7 pm this evening. Sunny. Sunday 6pm - Monday looks like chest high in morning, dropping through the day. N wind at 10-15 is forecast, shifting NW in later afternoon; low tide at 6:05. Tuesday and Wednesday might offer clean thigh highs. Next Saturday is showing head high. NOAA forecast for the Cape Cod area. Add Comment (0) Hits: 156
Last Updated ( Monday, 12 May 2008 )

Kon Tiki is more than a surf break in Peru

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Stories & Articles
Written by Mike Marks
Saturday, 03 May 2008
Today's NY Times has a nice long story on surfing in Peru by Julia Chaplin. One of the breaks she writes about is named Kon Tiki, "which offers untamed waves so massive that it takes a strong arm even to paddle out to it." Read Julia's fine article if you want to know about surfing in Peru (the surfing is great). The rest of this blog is about the raft and expedition that the break Kon Tiki is named after. In 1947 the Norwegian writer and explorer Thor Heyerdahl set out to prove that the islands of the South Pacific were settled by people from South America. Heyerdahl believed that prior to the arrival of Spanish Conquistadors, groups of people from South America set out on huge balsa log rafts and sailed 4,000 miles across the Pacific to Polynesia. His belief was founded on the similarity of statues he saw on Easter Island, on the names South Pacific Islanders used for their gods and other observations. Kon-Tiki is an old name for the sun god. Heyerdahl said he would prove that ancient peoples had sailed rafts to Polynesia by doing it himself, starting from Peru and using the same materials that would have been available circa 1450 AD. He named his raft and expedition Kon-Tiki The main body of the Kon-Tiki was made from nine balsa tree trunks up to 45 feet long and 2 feet in diameter. The logs were lashed together with hemp ropes. Cross-pieces of balsa logs 18' long and 1' in diameter were lashed crosswise to give lateral support. Pine splashboards were added to the bow, and pine boards were wedged between the balsa logs and used as centerboards. The main mast was an A-frame made of heavy mangrove wood that stood 29 feet high. There was a bamboo cabin with a roof of thatched banana leaves. The rudder was a 19' steering oar and the main sail was a 15' X 18' rectangle made of cotton. No metal was used in construction. All of the experienced mariners who saw the raft predicted that it would break apart and that Heyerdahl and his crew of 5 would die. In the event, the men sailed Kon Tiki for 101 days across 4,300 miles of open ocean and made a "successful" landfall (in that they all survived being thrown with the raft onto a shallow reef by overhead waves) at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands. The raft was salvaged and is now on display in the Kon-Tiki museum in Oslo. Once you get into the voyage itself Heyerdahl's book, Kon-Tiki, is a great read. One of the interesting points he makes is that the deck of the raft was just barely above the water's surface so that he and the crew regularly viewed fish swimming above them as they dipped below the swells. In 1970 Heyerdahl embarked on another expedition. This one set out to prove that the ancient Egyptians could have crossed the Atlantic in boats made from papyrus reeds. Read more about Thor Heyerdahl and the Ra Expeditions Did Heyerdahl's voyage succeeed at proving his theory about who settled the South Pacific? No. But this does not diminish the accomplishment of his voyage. Here's the Wikipedia entry on Kon Tiki In 2006 Olav Heyerdahl re-enacted ihis grandfather's voyage from Peru to the South Pacific on a balsa raft named Tangaroa. Add Comment (0) Hits: 140
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 13 May 2008 )

Cape Cod Surf Outlook Week of April 27

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Surfing News
Written by Mike Marks
Saturday, 03 May 2008
Outlook as of Saturday 7 am - Sloppy today with onshore wind. Bigger slop tomorrow but maybe head high. Monday could clean up with chest+ Friday 7:30am - Onshore wind and lumpy water through Sunday. Waves growing to head high on Sunday. Cleaner conditions next week. Thursday 6am - Yesterday's reality didn't conform to the forecast data. The waves were there but contrary to the forecast the wind blew onshore all day. This morning Nantucket Buoy is showing 3.3' ESE at 9 sec. And there is no wind at the moment (I'm looking at CG cam right now). Today's low tide is at 3pm; forecast shows wind blowing from SSW at 10+ this afternoon. Call it thigh+ today and tomorrow. Wind starts blowing in from E tomorrow at 10+ and stays that way through Wednesday. There should be wind waves in the chest+ range on Saturday and Sunday. Wednesday 6:30am - Nantucket Buoy showing 8.5' SSE at 10 secs, light wind from west, low tide at 2:10. Doesn't get much better than this in spring. Light wind and glassy water all day today. Waves will drop from chest+ this morning to waist+ this afternoon. Tomorrow will be nice too with smaller waves. Tuesday 6:10am - Nantucket Buoy currently showing swell at 7.9' from SSE. Today's wind will be 15+ shifting from SE to S. Tonight the wind will go WNW. Tomorrow will see chest high in the morning dropping to waist in the afternoon with low tide at 2:10 pm. Monday 7:45am - Wind comes onshore hard today building to 25mph by tonight. Tomorrow's waves will be 2X overhead but wind will continue to be hard onshore. Early Tuesday evening the wind turns offshore. Wednesday looks good for chest high and clean. Sunday 10:00 am - Today has building 5' SE swell coming in with increasing SE wind. Storm coming through tomorrow. Wind may turn offshore by Tuesday afternoon with head+ waves. Wednesday looks good for chest+. NOAA forecast for the Cape Cod area. Add Comment (0) Hits: 170
Last Updated ( Sunday, 04 May 2008 )

Careful Development of Ambergris Caye in Belize

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Travel News
Written by Mike Marks
Friday, 02 May 2008
During the past 15 years Ambergris Caye has gone from a quiet destination for divers and fishermen to become the most popular tourist destination in Belize. While high-end residential developments have sprouted along the beaches Ambergris Caye still holds on to its low key charm. There are few discos and spas and the closest golf course is 40 minutes away by boat. The 25 mile long island is situated in water too shallow for mega-yachts and cruise ships. The government is concerned about maintaining the area's character and restricts buildings along the water to three or four stories in height. Here's the full story from the NY Times. Vacationers can take a virtual tour of a $5000/wk beach house at Ambergris Caye courtesy of BeachHouse.com Add Comment (0) Hits: 102
Last Updated ( Friday, 02 May 2008 )

Colossal squid has biggest eyes on earth

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Sea Creatures
Written by Mike Marks
Thursday, 01 May 2008
Marine biologists in New Zealand have just begun studying a 1,000 pound "colossal squid" with a dinner-plate-sized eye that measures 11 inches across. The creature, formally named Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, was caught unintentionally by a fishing boat near Antarctica in February 2007 and frozen immediately so that it could be studied by scientists at a later date. It is 26' long and is the largest specimen of this type ever caught. It is believed these creatures can grow to 40' long. The squid has been thawing for the past week in a bath of brine. It will be preserved in formalin, and stored for display at New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa, later this year. "This is the only intact eye (of a colossal squid) that's ever been found. It's spectacular," said squid researcher Kat Bolstad from Auckland University of Technology. Squids can dive to 6,500 feet. Their huge eyes enable them to see prey in the pitch black of deep water. At right: The Alecton attempts to capture a giant squid off Tenerife in 1861. Illustration from Harper Lee's Sea Monsters Unmasked, London, 1884. Courtesy of Wikipedia Add Comment (0) Hits: 123
Last Updated ( Saturday, 03 May 2008 )

Cooler decade ahead?

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Global Warming
Written by Mike Marks
Thursday, 01 May 2008
A new climate study by German marine scientists published in the journal Nature today found that short term conditions can vary with longer term trends. “We’re learning that internal climate variability is important and can mask the effects of human-induced global change,” said Noel Keenlyside of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany. “In the end this gives more confidence in the long-term projections.” Keenlyside and fellow researchers have been working on "short term" 10 year climate forecasts. In likely response to shifting ocean currents and circulation patterns they predict mild cooling in Europe and North America in the decade ahead. The trend toward a warmer world continues like water sloshing back and forth in a filling bathtub. Even as the tub is being filled, the water on one side of the tub may be lower than the overall water level. In another decade the variation may be to the warmer side. Add Comment (0) Hits: 91
Last Updated ( Friday, 02 May 2008 )

Fatal shark attacks in California and Mexico

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Beach News
Written by Mike Marks
Tuesday, 29 April 2008
Less than a week apart, in two unrelated incidents over 1500 miles apart, two men were killed by sharks on the Pacific Coasts of California and Mexico. On April 25th, David Martin, a 66 year old veterinarian, triathlete and father of four from Solana Beach, was attacked and killed by a white shark shortly after 7 am. He was swimming with friends 150 yards offshore in water 20 to 30 feet deep when the shark hit him. He was pulled out of the water immediately after the attack. Bitten badly on both legs he died of his wounds. Beaches in the area were closed after the incident until today. MSNBC. Yesterday, at Troncones beach near the resort of Ixtapa on Mexico's Pacific Coast, 24 year old Adrian Ruiz, a surfer from San Francisco died after being bit in the thigh by a gray shark. CNN. The last fatal shark attack in California took place in 2004, when a great white killed a skin diver off Mendocino. Despite these unfortunate events shark attacks remain extremely rare. According to the International Shark Attack File maintained by the University of Florida there have been 3 fatal shark attacks in New England in the past 400 years. The last took place in 1936. Add Comment (0) Hits: 145
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 April 2008 )

World's top ten urban beaches

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Travel News
Written by Mike Marks
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Ipanema, Joseph Luoman /istock image Top ten lists have more to do with the knowledge base of the list maker than with any objective reality. But that doesn't stop us from enjoying them. On behalf of Travel and Leisure writer April Orcutt has compiled a list of what she proclaims are the world's the top ten urban beaches. The list includes Honolulu's Waikiki, Venice Beach in Los Angeles, Ipanema in Rio de Janeiro, Sydney's Bondi Beach, Repulse Bay Beach in Hong Kong along with beaches in Miami, Vancouver, Puerto Rico, Cape Town and Barcelona. Here's the slide show. Add Comment (0) Hits: 117
Last Updated ( Saturday, 03 May 2008 )

Ozone hole has been keeping Antarctic cool

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Global Warming
Written by Mike Marks
Saturday, 26 April 2008
Remember the ozone hole in Antarctica? Discovery that CFCs used for refrigerators, air conditioning and a variety of manufacturing processes were creating a hole in the earth's protective ozone layer led to a worldwide ban on these chemicals. Well the good news is that since the ban the ozone layer in Antarctica has been recovering. The bad news is that scientists think that re-establishing the ozone layer will contribute to warming in Antarctica. "While Earth's average surface temperatures have been increasing, the interior of Antarctica has exhibited a unique cooling trend during the austral summer and fall caused by ozone depletion", said Judith Perlwitz of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and NOAA. "If the successful control of ozone-depleting substances allows for a full recovery of the ozone hole over Antarctica, we may finally see the interior of Antarctica begin to warm with the rest of the world," Perlwitz said. more... Add Comment (0) Hits: 116
Last Updated ( Saturday, 03 May 2008 )

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