Wake Surfing!

So recently we bought a wake surfboard. Wakesurfing is when you surf the wake behind a boat. We have an inboard Mastercraft Marastar, which is a great boat for this. You wouldn't want to wakesurf behind an outboard because the prop is exposed.

It is much easier than wakeboarding I think. I haven't yet mastered it. I still hold onto the rope, haven't been able to let go yet! Here are some pics of me from last weekend:

The Champlain Valley Fair

This is the one rednecky thing I do a year, well second to the annual redneck party. THE FAIR. Its a special place. Its like a carnival with farm animals. Everything from a Ferris wheel to pig races. Just for a taste of what they have...here are today's highlights at the fair:
Tuesday Highlights Include Pony Pulls, Felting Demo in the Sheep Tent, Judging for the Fry it at the Fair Contest, hatching chicks in Old McDonald's Farm, Last Day to see Mutts Gone Nutts...


John and I and some friends went down to THE FAIR on Sunday night to have some fried goodness. I just had fries...and a half a maple donut...and some fried dough, but thats it! We also had maple creemees (soft serve to the rest of the world), you can get maple anything here...creemees, cookies, donuts, muffins, candy, cotton candy, sugar on snow, you name it, they got it.

We saw a camel...


We saw HERCULES the giant horse. He is 2,830 pounds and is 6'6"


We played the water pistol game, and I beat John and won a teddy bear. I suppose I should've let him win so he could win it for me!


John was the only one to go on a ride...and it was a scary one too. No way he could have convinced me to get on the "Tango"!



Picture Opportunity!!



Ahhh...gotta love farm country!

A Beautiful Day

It is so nice out today. John, Piper and I met down at the waterfront and had lunch and just laid in the grass. I was tempted to stay there and take a nap...work is so overrated!

Real Simple

I subscribe to REAL SIMPLE magazine. I love it. This months issue had a great article on how to recycle ANYTHING! From Aerosol cans to Makeup. Some were pretty interesting, such as Crocs. You can send them back to the manufacturer and they will make new shoes out of them and send them to underprivileged families. Pretty cool.

Here is the article if you want to browse through it...

How to Recycle Anything

Swimmings Cool...for now.

Now I know I have been writing a lot about swimming these days, but who hasn't? I mean I have been reading about Michael Phelps in US Weekly, seriously?!?! In one way I think its super cool, I love that people are interested in swimming, its the sport that I have always loved and others have not understood. I remember being in middle school and people telling me that swimming was sooo easy, yadda yadda yadda. Then came highschool and we were taking the lifeguarding course. You have to swim 500 yards in less than 20 minutes...those kids weren't laughing now. They could barely finish in 20 minutes! Me, I was out of the water after 9 minutes or so. Its not so easy is it?!?!

Anway, back to the point of the blog, I really hope that the momentum keeps going with new "coolness" of swimming. Swimmers deserve more attention and more credit. They aren't just hitting balls and running around bases, or throwing a ball and running into people, they are coasting through the water, breathing under water, pulling there weight through the water and breaking incredible world records that we thought would never be broken!

In Austrailia the swimmers are treated like our football, baseball and basketball stars. They are celebrities. For now Michael Phelps is a celebrity, but how long will that last?? Two weeks, two months, Two years...or four years, when we are in London watching him break his own world records?

We shall wait and see....

7....8....

to think that Mark Spitz won 7 medals...with no cap or goggles, a head of hair like that AND a mustache. Crazy.

And it begins...

Its Wedding Season

Well, I only had two weddings this year, but of course they were two weekends in a row. Last weekend was Ashley's wedding. The reception was at Belle Haven Yacht Club in Greenwich. It was beautiful. Perfect weather. Great band, good Booze.


Belle Haven


Me and Ash

The beautiful Bride

Lauren, Me and Jeff


Mr. and Mrs.


The Gang minus Ben :(
Who is in Beijing working...at the Olympics.

Update...

So I haven't been doing much the past week except watching the Olympics. Eat, Sleep, Work, Watch.



I love Michael Phelps, as I always have. It has been fun watching him win, and take it with a grain of salt. He is never "in your face" about it as some athletes tend to be. Pretty much the entire US swim team is chill about it. MP is now the most winningest athlete of all time with the most gold medals. If you are interested learning more about him, check out his biography, Beneath the Surface, I read it a couple of years ago, its pretty good. It was written after the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where he won his first gold.



Natalie Coughlin is another favorite of mine. She is a great swimmer with a great attitude.




Another one of my favorite swimmers is Aaron Perisol. He jumps in the pool (backstroker), swims and wins. He always takes the second half of his race faster than the first, most noticeably in the 100 back. The 200 back is more his event. He makes it look so easy. He is your typical SoCal guy, chill and laid back.


Oh and I love Ryan Lochte too....such a cutie and a great swimmer. He doesn't get as much attention as he should. He is a bid shadowed by MP.

Is there any swimmer that I don't like....NOPE!

video

Okay, so I have watched this video about 5 times and every time I do I practically start screaming, I get the goosebumps and almost start to cry.

That's how much i love swimming.

here is a link to the mens relay.

Mens 4X100 Free Relay

All I have to say, is that was AWESOME. Some of the best swimming I have seen in my entire life. This article sums it up....gives you the chills.

CLICK HERE.

My new Bike.

I got my new roadbike yesterday!! WooHoo. I have had my Orbea for about 5 years now. I went to have it tuned this year and they told me that the bike was too big for me. Ahh...that's why my back hurts when I ride it. So, it just so happens that through work I get an awesome discount at GT. I ordered my bike and brought it to a local bike shop to put it together. I was going to ride into work today, but with the weather we have been having I chose to drive in and I will go for a ride after work.

Here is my new GTRw: Series 2

Swimming and the Olympics

If you love swimming as much as me, then you will want to download for FREE, the 2008 Olympics Game preview here.

This one-of-a-kind issue, featuring Michael Phelps on the cover, is your best resource leading into the Olympic Games. The issue offers complete Event-by-Event Previews of all the pool swimming races, written by senior writer John Lohn. Steven Munatones rounds out the swimming events by telling us what to expect in his 10K Marathon Preview article. The issue also features an article on the Top 10 Olympic Moments by Jeff Commings. Commings takes us back in time to relive historic moments in swimming, including Dawn Fraser's back-to-back-to-back gold-medal performances in the women's 100 free; Team USA's shocking win in the women's 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay over the drug-laced East Germans at the 1976 Olympics; and Janet Evans' record-breaking 400 meter free in Seoul. For those traveling to Beijing, you'll have to read The Beijing Experience, which was written by Beijing resident Darryn Salt. For those staying home, you will enjoy reading Erica Ellis' article, All Eyes Are on the Cube, about the Olympic aquatic facility. Ellis offers two additional stories in this issue. The first is entitled A "Clear" Concern, which discusses the challenges faced by the Olympic athletes due to the poor Beijing air quality. The next is called There's More Than Meets The Eye, which unravels the clever reason as to why there are five mascots for the Beijing Olympics.

Swim through the Storm...

Well, where do I begin? This weekend was the Swim Across the Sound. I have been participating in this event since 2002. This year started as every other year has, 4.30am wake-up call, a quick breakfast, off to Captains Cove for a 6.30am ferry ride over to Port Jefferson, NY.



All 260 swimmers gathered at Danford's for a dedication ceremony, and then off to your boat it was. Our boat captain Gary volunteered his time and boat, Moon Child, to the event. Its hard on these boats. They are in idle to 2 knots for 7 hours while staying close to their swimmers. This year I thought it was cool because we had a sail boat as opposed to a power boat. Well, those thoughts would change around 1pm. We will come back to this later...




All the boats head out to east beach, right outside of the harbor. The swimmers get dropped off at the beach and before we know it, the swim began at about 9.30am. Here we come CT. The weather was perfect. A little cloudy and FLAT conditions. The only thing that wasn't cool was the abundance of jellyfish. In my 28 years of living on LIS, I have NEVER EVER seen it this bad. There was no getting around getting stung, they were everywhere. Luckily, I had a good leg where they weren't that bad. Poor Lauren was a different story. She got the worst leg (Pete did too). there was so swimming around then because they were everywhere. She got stung all over her face and hands. Luckily, we had white vinegar with us, which neutralizes the sting.



Andrew on the beach, ready for the start




Around 11.30am we could see some storm clouds in the distance and here thunder. No worries. It was far away and there was no lightening...yet. About 12.30, I was getting ready to get back in for my second leg. Got my wetsuit back on (for jellyfish protection, not cold water, it was about 75 degrees). Thats when we got the radio call, "pull all swimmers out and proceed to CT". The race is being called. Please give us your coordinates and we will use these as your finishing position." We pull Wendy out of the water. We are all a bit happy that it was called because of the severity of the jellyfish (there was actually one swimmer who was brought to the hospital because of the amount of stings she had..yes it was that bad).



We start motoring in. Of course all of the powerboats motor past us, sailboats cannot motor as fast, about 4 knots is as fast as we can go. We see the storm rolling in and the lightening in the horizon. At this point, we know we will be on the boat when the storm hits. We listen to the weather channel on the radio, "Winds up to 60 MPH and hail the size of dimes". This is going to be a good storm. We prepare the boat. Lauren secures everything below. We get the life jackets out and get ready. I will admit, I was scared. I have been on a sailboat in a storm, but not like this. Around 1.15 the wind quickly picks up. It begins pouring. The boat is heeling, and we don't even has the sails up. Lifejackets on...HERE WE GO.

NOTE: I HAVE NO PICTURES OF THIS. I WAS TOO BUSY PRAYING THAT WE WOULDN'T BE STRUCK BY LIGHTENING!!

We are now in the middle of the storm, its blowing about 50-60 MPH, the rain is so cold and it hurts when it hits your skin. The lightening is stricking the water all around us. We are going right into the wind. Not good. We decide to stop motoring and let the storm drag us. We weather out the storm. Watching the lightening hit the water all around us. At this point I am scared. Praying that the lightening doesn't hit the boat. If it does, it would be OK. We are all good swimmers and we are only about 5-6 miles off shore. Still scary to think about though.

Everyone on the boat was a little nervous, but OK. We were still joking around a little.
About 20-30 minutes later, we try getting back on course to Fairfield/Bridgeport. We are motoring at about 2.5 knots toward shore. We are making our way back. According to the GPS, we should make it to shore in about 45 minutes. The wind dies down some, but it is still pouring and thunder and lightening. We can see land again...buoy 2A...the entrance to the harbor. I have never been so happy to see Bridgeport harbor!!



Please note the toilet seats...haha

We make it in...alive and in one piece. We dock the boat and crack some beers to celebrate. Our boat captain did a great job getting us back. He said, the wind and rain didn't bother him, but the lightening "scared me shitless". I am glad I didn't here him say that while we were in the middle of the storm.

Later that day the sun came out and we had a BBQ at the cottage. Telling everyone how we were in the water on a sailboat (with a 50 foot metal mast screaming, "hello lightening, come to me"), we got alot of the same responses...WHAT?? I was in my car and I was scared"!

It was a crazy day. The important thing is that we raised money for the Swim Across the Sound, we all got to swim at least once and we all made it home safe.

Thank you everyone for your support.

My Hometown

Mom and Dads house.



The street I grew up on. The beach is at the end of the street.



The end of my street


.
LIS. Charles Island. During low tide you can walk out to this island on the sandbar. When we were little we used to go out there all the time and walk around the island. There are still some old stone buildings on the island. Click here to read more about the haunted island.


The MYC. This is where I spent the better half of my life. I swam and sailed here every summer. At the age of 6 I began my competitive swimming career here. At age 9 I started the sailing program. I continued to participate in both programs through the age of 16, which is the last year that you can do it.


The Clubhouse.