NYCkayaker Pier 63 is closed.

[Rob Buchanan]

If you don't believe the line about rats and rusted car wrecks, go to the
homepage of the friends of brooklyn bridge beach website
(www.friendsofbrooklynbridgebeach.org) and check out the photo under the
legend "the past." the image is from the collection of gary fagin of the
seaport community coalition; if you click on it, you'll see a nice
enlargment of the way it was. There may be a long way to go, but we've come
a fair distance, too.

Rob Buchanan

 On 9/13/06 11:27 AM, "Mo  Fridlich" <mofrid at optonline.net> wrote:

> How true Ralph's words ring. On last Saturday's Brooklyn Bridge Swim I
> launched my kayak under the Brooklyn Bridge. There actually was a board walk
> with bikers and joggers and a nice little (it was high tide) sandy beach
> where the kayakers and swimmers started out.
> I remember my first paddle in NY Harbor back in the 90's before any public
> launches. We happen to launched at the same spot under the Brooklyn Bridge.
> It was a garbage strewn area where we had to climb over old concrete and
> rusted car wrecks. When we returned at high tide the beach (if I may call it
> that) had shrunk and was literally crawling with hundreds of rats. Lucky for
> us they stayed out of our way while we hurried back across.
> 
> Mo Fridlich
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "ralph diaz" <ralphdiaz at optonline.net>
> To: <bonnie13 at earthlink.net>; <nyckayaker at rockandwater.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 6:26 AM
> Subject: Re: NYCkayaker Pier 63 is closed.
> 
> 
>> 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
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
> **********************************************************************
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> service offered to the kayaking community by the Hudson River Watertrail
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> 
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