NYCkayaker Pier 63 is closed.

[ralph diaz]

Bonnie,

Thanks for your update/analysis of the situation with Pier 63.  While New
York and the mini dramas in the Hudson River Park saga fade further and
further from memory for me up here, I do like to know what continues to go
on.  Pier 63 was always a mixed situation as you know and address it
accordingly.  Still, it is sad to see something so funky as the barge (and,
in that way, very seakayaky) end, a mother ship to a fine sea kayak
business, storage for a small army of kayakers, and the outriggers home
base.

But so much positive seems to be going on as well on the kayaking scene in
the harbor as illustrated in nyckayaker.  I am amazed at the level that has
been reached, for example, even the idea of a swim across the Narrows let
alone it actually happening and sufficient numbers of sea kayakers capable
of supporting such an open water swim.  The numerous round-Manhattan paddles
that were set up a few weeks back.  The Downtown Boathouse's continue
maturing in the level of sea kayaking that goes on and I don't mean just in
the numbers of the people being put on the water but also the quality of the
sea kayaking.  The list of milestones goes on and on.

You down on the waters off of Manhattan's shores may be too close to the
scene to fully recognize the history of kayaking that is being written down
there.  I see it from here and it does put a smile on my face as I remember
pretty humble beginnings for sea kayaking back in the late 1980s and through
even into as recently as the late 1990s.  It has come a long way and may it
continue to be there for all of you.

ralph diaz