Monday Potpourri

Today was errands day, so there was no grand trek or anything. You got that yesterday. Since I didn't have any bird photos from the bird walk yesterday, I thought I'd make up for that by posting some bird shots from Gooseneck Cove that I'd shot earlier and for some reason hadn't posted yet. These guys tend to be the dominant sight in the Cove in the Summer months - a Great Blue Heron (left) and a Great Egret (right).

Meanwhile, today while running around on errands, I decided to pop down to Ruggles Ave. again. The surf is still up and I wanted to see if any of the gang was out on the waves. Yeah, I know it's Monday, but a lot of the surfing crew are self-employed carpenters, house painters, fishermen, etc., who make their own work schedules and seem to magically show up when the waves get high. And those who are working for somebody else try to pop down on their lunch hour if the surf warrants it.

Today there were only about four guys out there, and three of them left the water soon after I got there. The one guy left just sat there on his board gazing out to sea, riding over waves that anybody else would have hopped on. I waited, and waited, and waited... After about 15 minutes of watching this guy just sit there, almost exactly on the stroke of noon he hopped on a wave and rode it in to shore. It was a long ride, and I got about 5 shots of him coming in, but this one works the best.

While waiting for this surfer to get on the ball and jump on a wave, I got some shots of some of the good waves he turned down. They make a nice dramatic finish for today's post!

© 2010 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Cowabunga!

Today was bird walk Sunday, and we did see some great stuff today - a Sharp-shinned Hawk trying to get a Kildeer over water, Ospreys catching fish, immature Little Blue Herons chasing each other with crests raised, and a Black-bellied Plover and three Solitary Sandpipers in the salt marsh behind Third Beach. But when we got to Brenton Point and saw what the ocean was doing. I knew my next stop was going to have to be Ruggles Ave.

What we're seeing is the effects of Hurricane Igor, about to descend on Bermuda. Hurricanes out to sea off the East Coast, especially those fairly far off the coast, create good surf here. The interesting thing is that we had a high surf advisory up all day Friday and until 6 PM Saturday, and nothing happened. But today the surf was up! It's not been a good year for decent surf, and 2009, except for the big 20-footers kicked up by Hurricane Bill being offshore in August of that year, wasn't much better, so the surfing community has been aching for some decent waves. We got 'em today; granted, they weren't Bill's 20-footers, but they were consistently around 6 - 10 feet high and had some push to them. I kid you not, I saw guys literally running down the ramp at Ruggles Ave. to get in the water.

So now, without further ado, surfing off Ruggles Ave. At last!

© 2010 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Earl Looms...

... and provides some entertainment:

Those surfing shots were the rare ones; the sets were very far apart, and most of the waves were no more than knee or waist high. At 5:15 PM the wind still hasn't picked up, and I'm wondering now if it ever will. Technically the height of the storm isn't supposed to pass off Nantucket Island until around midnight tonight, so the storm, even here, isn't expected to intensify until after dark. But it has also weakened considerably, dropping from a Category 4 to a Category 1 in the course of about 18 hours and hanging farther off the coast than originally forecast. I think we dodged a bullet, although I'm disappointed that we didn't get better surfing. Oh well...

© 2010 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Sunday by the Water - Salt Marsh and Surfing

Today was the biweekly bird walk, but July is birding doldrums time around here, so there wasn't much interesting on today's walk. Afterward I went down to Ballard Park only to be driven out by swarms of Deer Flies. But Gooseneck Cove had beauties to bestow; it was close to high tide, and in July the lush green rising out of tidal water is somehow very moving for me. No matter how harsh and bright the light, this aspect of a salt marsh always looks so much softer.

After that I went over to the Cliff Walk at Ruggles Ave. There was a high surf advisory up, and the waves looked good when Mark and I drove by Sachuest Beach on the way to the bird walk. So I hopped over to Ruggles after all my other wanderings to see what the gang was up to on the waves. I'll have to admit they weren't particularly awesome waves, but some people were getting some good long runs, and the surf provided enough drama for three of my kind of surfing shot - lots of splash and lots of movement. And that handsome lad in the first shot is my good buddy Marty Casey, looking every inch the cool dude that he is. Enjoy!

© 2010 by A. Roy Hilbinger

The Day After the Storm

I took a walk down the Cliff Walk this morning. The seas were pretty rough, but not really surf-worthy, despite the guy I got below. There were only three people out there, and in the hour that I hung around that was the only run anybody made. Still, that was some rough water!

© 2010 by A. Roy Hilbinger

This just in: Apparently Scott Brown is still pretending that Rachel Maddow is after his Senate seat so he can raise more money. Rachel finally said "enough's enough" and is calling him out on it:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Scott, if we weren't already convinced you were a moron, this oughta do the trick!

Down to Ochre Point

Today started out overcast and gloomy, with little schpritzes every now and then. But I went down to the Cliff Walk anyhow; I like the ocean when it gets moody in Autumn's unsettled weather. There was some surf, and the surfers were out, but the only shots I got that had any of the kind of drama I want in my surfing photos were two shots of the waves whacking people. Heh, heh! More dramatic was the action of the waves on the rocks, so there are two nice shots of that phenomenon, too. And to round it all out, a shot of how dramatic the sky was looking when I was down there. Yup, drama was everywhere today down at Ochre Point.

© 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Don't forget to check out my new post on the Just A Song blog - "What a Wonderful World", featuring both Louis Armstong's original version and Eva Cassidy's beautiful cover version.

Sunday - Small Creatures and a Video

I decided to walk all the trails in Ballard Park today, and ended up getting some decent shots of small creatures. Below on the left is a very, very small snail on a Spotted Knapweed seed head in the Aspen Grove in the quarry meadow. Below on the right is an American Painted Lady butterfly on the Valley Trail. And the big picture below them is an Orchard Orbweaver Spider (Leucauge venusta) on the Swamp Maple Trail.

As for the video in the title... Yesterday's surfing adventure got me messing around on the web looking at other Newport surfing shots, and I stumbled across this video of the surfing at Ruggles Ave. in Hurricane Bill's aftermath. The videographer must have been there all day, because he has some shots of Ian Walsh and Justin Casey that were taken before I got there. But you know the surf was good and the word was out when two, count 'em TWO, pro surfers from Hawaii - Ian Walsh and Garrett McNamara - made the trip here to catch the action. I was especially fascinated by McNamara, who specializes in SUP (Stand Up Paddle surfing); I got some great shots of him myself that day, and they're in the web album. But I was especially happy to see homeboy Justin Casey spotlighted in this video; in fact, he's the first spotlighted surfer in the video. Justin's father Marty is an old friend of mine; he and his first wife were my first neighbors in Newport back in May of 1974. Heh, heh! I woke them up around midnight the night I moved in, my friend Marc and I hauling my 300 lb. packing crate with all my worldly belongings in it up those narrow stairs to the third floor loft apartment. Marty surf's too, so you know where his son got the bug. But Justin is just so good! He really should consider going pro. That first spotlight, with him ducking under the curl and then shooting out the end of the barrel is just outstanding! So all of my California friends who consider East Coast surfing to be for kiddies and wimps, watch this and learn better!

Photos & text © 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Some Minor Surfing Action

Our current not-so-nice weather (cloudy, gloomy, with scattered periods of heavy mist and drizzle) brought some slightly higher surf with it. I went down to Ruggles Ave. to see if any of the gang were down there taking advantage. There were some folks there, and I got about 30 shots, 7 of which passed quality control. I'm posting two here, and I've added a new gallery to my surfing web album with all 7 plus the shots I got in the aftermath of Danny. Meanwhile, here are two of today's good ones.

© 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger

In Danny's Wake

So a week after Hurricane Bill gave us those 20-footers, Tropical Storm Danny (a tropical depression by the time he passed offshore here) didn't kick up nearly as much fuss. Still, it was a good day for surfing. I didn't get as many shots this week, so I decided to post all the ones that passed quality control rather than waste a web gallery on 6 photos. Here ya go!

Caution! Hot-dogger at work!

Dropping in.

Oops!

The slippery slope.

Whitewater surfing! This is my friend Justin Casey, a very good surfer indeed.

Going home...

© 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger
I've put up a new entry on the Just A Song blog - Iris DeMent's "Let the Mystery Be"; please come visit!

Surfin' Hurricane Bill

As I mentioned Friday, one of the events of this weekend was the offshore drive-by on Hurricane Bill. Our weather wasn't much affected (except for the suffocating humidity it pushed up the coast in front of it), but it certainly kicked up the surf around here yesterday and today. I went down to Ruggles Ave. around low tide yesterday (the best time for surfing in that spot), but Bill hadn't really kicked things up yet, and I was having battery issues with the camera. So I went back down today; I was out at Ruggles from 9:30 to 1:30, and there were lots of nice waves and lots of people to play on them. People were getting nice long rides and plenty of room to play and hot-dog. And a big crowd on the Cliff Walk above to cheer them on, as well as the usual photography contingent (including me) pointing their telephoto lenses seaward. It was a grand day!

I've included just three photos here in the interest of space. If you want to see more, I have a web gallery of the best shots here. Enjoy!

© 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger

High Surf Advisory

Yup, that's what I woke up to on the radio this morning. Just to make sure, I went to Weather Underground and read the surf forecast; same advisory up. So as soon as breakfast and morning chores were done I went straight down to Ruggles Ave. It was a bit of a disappointment; the waves weren't very high - maybe 3 to 5 feet (and 5 feet would be pushing it) - but there was some action. I stayed for about 2 hours, moving around to get better angles. These are the best of today's shoot.

© 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Theme Thursday - (Wh)oops!

Heh, heh! Y'all had to know this was coming from me, given this week's theme. Yup, my best surfing wipe out shots! Wipe outs are not only Oops but Ouch as well. My buddy Marty Casey came out of the water one day saying, "I have a headache, with all those waves bopping me on the head." Ayuh! Definitely ouch!

And of course this week's YouTube video just has to be the Surfaris with "Wipe Out!"

Photos and text © 2008 & 2009 by A. Roy Hilbinger