Kitty Hawk Water Sports- Nags Head, NC

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.