Kitty Hawk Water Sports- Nags Head, NC

On Thursday my mechanic, Chris, calls and says he’s going striper fishing with his girlfriend. Since he’s borrowing my boat I decide to invite myself. I thought to myself, “This makes perfect sense. The family’s still on Christmas vacation, I haven’t done anything exciting, it’s cold out (the striper’s like it chilly), and just a few days prior I heard a report that the in-shore fishermen were maxing out”. How could this not be a raving success?

We launched around 11:00 which isn’t prime fishing time but it was very foggy by the Virginia Dare Bridge on the Croatan Sound. We felt our way to the bridge and started trolling. After about an hour we saw one other boat that was fishing who said they hadn’t had any luck. Another hour later we decided the Fish Gods were not smiliing upon us but mocking us and we headed home.

I have two rules for successful fishing besides luck. The fish won’t bite when it’s super rough or when it’s super calm. Thursday was super calm. The sound was like glass and if you’ve spent any time around the Outer Banks you know that’s pretty rare. But if you haven’t been fishing in a long time and a window of opportunity opens, you’ve got to head out and try to make the best of it. That we did and we’re no worse off than before.

Happy New Year.

John

I’ve neglected the entries for a little while because things were a bit of a whirl-wind for me. I was named the varsity lacrosse coach for First Flight High School in Kill Devil Hills, NC. This is a big thrill for me and I’ve had a lot of support from friends all over. The lacrosse team just received varsity status meaning this is our inaugural season. I’ve helped with the local youth team for years and I had coached high school teams in the past so I’m really just getting back in to doing what I did for a job for nine years.

I’m being assisted by two great coaches, Sandy Eanes and Mike Konrad. All three of us are from Maryland and they bring a lot of experience to the table. Like me, they are extremely excited to get started.

This inaugural team coincides with the inaugural state playoff season. Lacrosse is now a sanctioned sport in the state of North Carolina which means we will be fighting for a spot in the playoffs. In addition, the state has allowed us to play varsity games outside the state which makes sense since we are closer to teams in Hampton Roads than we are in North Carolina.

As an aside, Washington College, a nationally ranked Division III team from Maryland, is planning to host an NCAA lacrosse game versus Hampden-Sydney here on March 10. To have a real college lacrosse game in our little town is a major coup and I can’t wait to see them come and play.

Hope to see you out there.

Another year goes by and what do I have to show for it? A few less hairs on my head, a few more pounds around my waist, and not as much money in our retirement account. My brother saw me last week and was shocked that I’d lost so much hair . . . . until he met my kids. He’s bald too, so I guess that means chasing girls can be as stressful as chasing little kids.
The big question from everybody is, “How’d you do this summer?” My answer is, “Not too bad.” When I think back to last winter I was sweating bullets and wondering if anyone would come to the Outer Banks, much less, spend any money while they were here. Fortunately, by the time summer rolled around people were feeling okay about the economy and willing to go out and have some fun. For once in my life the timing was pretty good.
Summer went smoothly without us once pulling the boats out of the water for a storm which means next summer we’ll get hammered. I finally learned to catch a wave on a surfboard and already have a few amusing stories, one of which is simply me surfing while Cam was in preschool, getting dressed in the public bathroom at the beach access and going straight to school to pick up Cam. Some days it’s great to be a stay-at-home dad. Other days, not so much. The other morning I got an ear full from Bonnie who can’t find her jeans. Apparently, the closet that’s full of her clothes and the two dresser drawers that are so full I have to stand on top of them to create more room didn’t have any acceptable pants. And still, I can’t seem to get fired.
Last spring Alivian won a photography award, placing second in the state for her age group. When we gave her the choice of playing in a lacrosse game or going to Raleigh for the big awards ceremony, she chose the game. Speaking of lacrosse, the OBX Lacrosse club started two girls teams last spring and they did quite well. The amusing thing was when Alivian scored the first goal of the first game. Everybody acted like she was my little protégé. Well, she must be using mental telepathy to receive my instructions because I’m not allowed to coach her per Alivian’s request. Alivian is now in middle school and doing well academically thanks to Bonnie’s effusive patience and hands-on tutoring. And when I say hands-on I mean Bonnie grabs her by the arm and forces her to finish her homework.
Brady is the cerebral one, tops in his class for reading. On the basketball court for 7 and 8 year-olds, if I need Brady to do something important I only have to tell him once and he does it. Being the middle child he always seems to get caught in the cross-fire, whether he instigates it or not. I know when I hear my two boys crying that there was some kind of chain-reaction and Alivian is usually the last one standing unless she’s coy enough to fake her own injury hoping that I can’t point the blame at one person and drop the subject. Brady is also becoming notorious for his one line zingers and sarcastic comments. A chip off the old block.
Cam has one more year of preschool and then he’ll be in elementary school. Hallelujah! Cam is the wild one and voted “Most Likely to End Up in Juvey Hall” by his siblings. Like most younger siblings he’s tougher because of the rough housing and he’s more advanced academically due to the vacuum they create. I started comparing him to William Wallace (Braveheart) when during my preschool PE class he stands up in the middle of all the seated students and yells at the top of his voice, “FREEDOM!” Fortunately, 4 year-olds can’t focus their attention too long and the revolt was squashed.
Like most state employees, Bonnie is being asked to do more with less pay. (Note: when the nimrods want to cut taxes can’t they see we’re going to have to cut something out?) As usual, the state of Virginia (Bonnie’s employer) is clueless on how to pay the bills. Like everyone’s job, Bonnie’s has its challenges. She just wishes her leaders had a little more common sense. I guess that’s the funny thing about common sense, it’s not too common. As an aside, in previous Christmas letters I’ve alluded to Bonnie’s lead foot. Well, ever since I got her a radar detector for Christmas she hasn’t received a single speeding ticket.
I hope you enjoyed the letter. I’ll be here all week. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

I know this is a little after mid-season but my opinions are still the same. First, my beloved Redskins are worse than mediocre and I was wrong to think that Zorn needed more time because the team has obviously not responded to him. Granted he’s had several battles to fight but when I look on the field I see losers who don’t fear the coach. An example of this is the tirade that Joe Bugel had to give the offensive line’s effort versus the Falcons. Position coaches have to get on their players from time to time but Zorn was too nice to call them out. In addition, you see other players making silly mistakes with no concern for the consequences. Zorn must go and be replaced with a tougher coach.

In making preseason predictions I use some general rules of thought to conclude how team’s are doing. Several weeks ago I told a friend to not get too high on teams that come screaming out of the gate. They tend to fizzle out. I saw the Giants in the preseason and they were flat-out great. Now they’re on a 3 game skid. Fortunately for them they have plenty of time to regroup for the playoffs.

I didn’t think the Broncos were good when they went 6-0 and now they’ve been exposed.

One team that caught me off guard was the Bengals, which gives me a new rule for predicting team success: Great leaders trump great players. Meaning, teams that have great leadership at the head coach (or in Indy’s case, the QB) can get more out of their players than a mediocre leader with great players. Some people thought Marvin Lewis was done in Cincinnati and when they put together a team of has-beens I thought it was just the management’s way of adding player’s with resumes but nothing left in the tank.

The bottom line is; Marvin Lewis is a very good coach. Give him some football players and he’ll compete. San Diego is the other end of the spectrum. They have a great QB, some very good RBs, and a solid defense. Yet, they come slow out of the gate until it gets to crunch time where they have to ratchet things up to make the playoffs. I thought for sure with there soft schedule they’d coast in to the playoffs and talent would take over. But Norv Turner is not a great leader. I think he’s a very good coordinator but the players don’t respect or fear him like they did Schottenheimer. They appear to be righting the ship but they will eventually come up short dispite their talent.

If I could jump on another bandwagon it woud be the Saints. Drew Breese is leading that team the way Manning is leading the Colts. He’s putting it on his shoulders. And Sean Payton is a genius in how he’s using Reggie Bush. People may still be poo-pooing that draft pick but he’s getting touches, making plays, and scoring TDs. Go Saints!

Somebody wake me up when the Redskins get serious again.

It’s official, we are now adding kiteboarding to our business in the spring of 2010.  We are proud to add Chris Cifers as a partner.  Chris has been a professional kiteboarder for years and is extremely active in promoting the sport.  Kiteboarding adds new excitement to our already strong lineup of activities.  Our shallow waters in the Roanoke Sound and the great southwest breezes make a great combination for learning.  Chris’s main emphasis will be teaching beginner lessons but he will also be able to teach advanced lessons as well as leading fascinating tours.

New news: We now sell lacrosse equipment!
Having been an active part of the OBX Lacrosse club here I’ve seen how hard it is for parents to get their kids suited up for lacrosse season. They either have to shop the internet or drive up to Hampton Roads. The problem with that is you spend either a lot of time or money and you don’t get to try stuff on or you don’t get to talk to someone who knows lacrosse. You get the stuff and you realize it doesn’t work.

Well, since my business is virtually shut down during the winter I have a bunch of retail space I’m not utilizing. This is a great way for me to keep a little momentum during the winter and help out the players in the club. The inventory is in, I just need to get it organized and we’ll be ready to go. Store hours will be posted soon.

Friday the 30th gave the kids a day off from school so with a nice forecast I decided to take the boys fishing on the skiff. I’d heard the stripers were going off at the Mann’s Harbor Bridge so we set out to see if this was true.

Before we left I stopped by the tackle shop to see if I needed anything and I asked about the stretch lure which I hadn’t used before. Sure enough they had one and they were happy to take my money.

The “stretch” should be called the “snag”. That thing would steer towards the bridge everytime while we were trolling. But just as we were turning around after our first pass we got a strike. The striper was a definitely a keeper and he was nice and fat. The boys were stoked.

We messed around for a while and the few boats that were there started to head in so we passed over the channel and got another strike. Again, another fat keeper. It seems the fish were hanging around the channel under the high span.

The boys were getting bored so we trolled east back towards the launch and we got another striper but he was he was too close to call without a tape measure so we threw him back. Try telling your 4 year-old that the 17″ fish is too small and you have to throw him back. That fish looked pretty big to him.

Once again another beautiful day on the Outer Banks.

Well, we’ve pulled the boats out of the water in Nags Head and started the winterizing process. At Nor’banks in Duck we still have boats ready if needed and we’ll milk that a little until November at the latest. The only thing we have going in Nags Head is windsurfing.

Last winter I was sweating bullets over the economy and how it would affect the summer business. We wound up being down a little but nothing hugely signficant. I read in Consumer Reports that vacations were the one thing the general population would actually spend more on now that they’ve reprioritized their finances. Hard to pinpoint the thinking behind that.

We had a very good staff this season which makes it more enjoyable for everyone. The key phrase for a business owner like myself is “no drama”. Just give me a group of people that show up to work everyday with a good attitude and give an honest effort. We’ll get them up to speed with the rest.

Back to windsurfing, over the next year I’m going to further our interest with more equipment and greater exposure. The bottom line is, we’re located in a great windsurfing spot where you don’t have to take your equipment elsewhere to rig it. We have it rigged for you. My goal is to get some of the people who regularly head south to Hatteras Island to slow down and try us.

In other news, stay tuned for a very exciting anouncement for the spring of 2010. It will bring more adventures to our site in Nags Head.

We’ve experienced some nice days recently on the Outer Banks and it’s actually been killing me to choose what to do. Should I catch up on paperwork? Nah. Should I go surfing with the pulled muscle in my back? Maybe. Should I go for a bike ride and take it easy on the back muscle? Maybe. Should I plan to go striper fishing on Friday at Mann’s Harbor Bridge because the fishing report says they’re slayin’ ‘em there? Good chance.

It’s been a long time since I’ve caught a striped bass and with my kids having Friday off from school it might be a good time to take them out there and give it a try. Besides, for every person on the boat we can keep 2 fish. But the kids have other redeeming qualities as well, just give me some more time to think of them.

I rode by Lillian St. access in Kitty Hawk on Tuesday and it was fairly packed due to the good swell. Lots of funboards catching some long rollers.

We had a big blow come through on Saturday and Sunday. When the wind stopped the ocean settled down and left behind a nice swell. It was pretty sloppy on Monday and peaked out nicely on Tuesday. By Wednesday it appeared to be mostly gone.

In other news, I was checking out http://www.kahunacreations.com/ to look at some of their products. I sell their Big Sticks, which is a tool to use your skateboard like a land paddleboard. When I went to their Facebook page I noticed they had pictures of Matthew McConaughey using one with his skateboard. Pretty cool.

Friday, the 23rd of October was a nice looking day. I was just about to start painting my house (an ongoing project) when I got a phone call. It was my friend, Steve The Dream Thomas, with a live surf report. He was at the Lillian St. beach access (aka, the Laundry Mats) and he informed me there was a nice little swell that only a couple of stand-up paddleboarders and longboarders were taking advantage of.

I was in quite the dilemma. Paint the house or go surfing? Duh, I’m going surfing.

Air temp was about 70, water temp in the low 60s. There was a very gentle, slow rolling swell with a knee high wave you could ride for quite a long ways. On top of that there was no wind and the waters were very calm.

I actually needed a day like this to build up my confidence. The waves were easy to catch and I got good practice staying on the board as I finished out and turned around. In addition, I was able to paddle along with a pod of dolphin that weren’t too far away. Always a thrill.

The swell eventually quit around high tide so headed back home to see if I could get any work done. That didn’t last long because I soon had to pick up my son from elementary school which leads me to my second beach getaway.

I decided to take him, a friend, and my 4 year-old to the beach to play. Just in case I was given the opportunity I brought my fishing rod.

The kids went immediately to building a sand fort at the base of a washed up tree. If there’s one thing I can rely on with my kids at the beach is that they’ll find some old flotsam and start creating something. That distraction is just what I needed to start fishing and it went relatively smooth for 3 hours, which might be a record for us. I even caught a speckled trout, but not a keeper.

Once again it was a good day to be alive on the Outer Banks.