I'm running this fan page to learn more about marketing in Facebook, and of course, to support the Downtown Boathouse. 

Interesting things missing:

• You can't invite your friend to the page, unless you want them to be admins.
• No plugin for donations

I wonder what else people would want from their pages.  I'm a fan of several pages, but they don't seem to want to interact with me much.

My friend Ashley is a painter.

I helped her out recently and she transformed one of my favorite photos into a painting to thank me.  The photo is of kayaks stacked up in Riverside Park after the Downtown Boathouse Harrison Street Regatta.

Check out how cool this is...

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A few years ago, the Hudson River Park Trust evicted the Downtown Boathouse from Pier 26 in order to make way for a brand new pier, similar to the one we moved into up at Pier 96. We knew we'd likely be back, but, in the short term, that left us without an actual Downtown Boathouse location.

Then I heard we were moving a few kayaks to the south end of Pier 40. Of course, typical buracracy delayed the permit that would have allowed us to put a dock down for months and months. That meant that we started our Pier 40 program in 2006 midway through the summer. It started very slow. Construction around Pier 40 meant that you needed to walk halfway past the whole Pier to figure out how to get to us. The neighborhood saw the demolition at Pier 26 and thought we were gone for good. They didn't know anything about the "Downtown Boathouse" as an organization...they just knew about the free kayaks at 26.

Little by little, we started to get more and more traffic to Pier 40. I was there helping to run the program there every weekend. When we started up this season, we hung a big kayak by the jogging path with an unmissable arrow.

People climbed over concrete planters to get to us rather than figure out how to go around. Regulars to 26 started returning.

Pier 40, with only 15 kayaks, no trips, no classes, skyrocketed in popularity.

What also happened was that the whole Pier became a destination. We took people out for a paddle who otherwise couldn't get into the sold out trapeze school on the roof. We took kids out after the soccer games they played on the fields indoors, or runners who normally didn't think much about what was going on inside the pier, and previously just ran around it.  Pier 40 became even busier than our main location uptown. 

And now, the Hudson River Park Trust is voting this Wednesday on one of two commercialized proposals for the development of Pier 40.  The only politician who seems to be on the side of the people is State Assembly Member Deborah Glick.  She wrote an editorial regarding the Related Companies' proposal:

"Unfortunately, Related’s latest proposal for Pier 40, though it has improved from previous versions, remains one for a mega-entertainment center, complete with Cirque du Soleil as the anchor tenant, a huge banquet hall, 12 movie theaters and several large restaurants. Such large-scale uses do not belong on a pier in the midst of a park and bear no relationship to the park. Uses like Cirque du Soleil are not water-dependent and serve no local need. They could be just as easily — and more appropriately — located on 42nd St. or 52nd St. Related’s latest plan, which is expected to draw 2.7 million visitors each year to Pier 40, would substantially impair the park’s ability to serve as a safe and quiet respite, since it would bring large numbers of vehicles across the busy bike lane, endangering walkers, runners and bikers. In addition, the proposal would only add to the area’s congestion issues, running counter to the city’s traffic mitigation efforts in Lower Manhattan."

There's already a major movie complex right down the street, by Battery Park.  And Cirque du Soleil?  I doubt that most of the 20,000+ people who went kayaking with us last year can afford the Cirque du Soleil ticket price.  Plus, most of those people would probably have more fun if the trapeze school were given room to expand and they could fly through the air themselves versus paying more to watch other people do it.

Plus, last time I checked, we're supposed to be building a PARK, here right?  Isn't that what it's called?  Hudson River PARK.  Go ask a five year old what belongs in a park.  I don't think he'll answer banquet halls, movie theaters and restaurants.

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Over the last few years, Sandy Sobanski has led a group of Downtown Boathouse volunteers over to Hoboken's Frank Sinatra Park to bring free kayaking across the river.  Over time, the Hoboken kayaking program has become a summer fixture.  This year, the program will become even more permanent as it moves to the Maxwellhouse Boathouse and becomes it's own independent program. 

If you've ever worked with any kind of local government, you know that getting new programs run on public property isn't easy.  Sandy's been at this for a few years now and 2008 was all set to be a big year for her and the new program.

That was, until a Hoboken fire destroyed her and her husband's apartment on January 7th. Since then, they've been staying in temporary housing--a chain hotel... and hopefully they'll be able to move into something more permanent soon. 

Her insurance isn't going to cover all of her costs, and it's going to be some time before she's able to get her affairs in order to be able to get back work. Sandy works tirelessly, without asking for anything in return, to better the Hudson River waterfront and make sure its resources are made available to the public. 

To have this happen to her of all people isn't fair... not that anyone deserves to lose everything like this...  but to have someone who has given so much back to her local community have her own local environment go up in flames...  it's really quite tragic.

That's why I'm helping the Downtown Boathouse raise money to help her get back on her feet.  With nearly 2400 mostly local subscribers, I'm hoping there are enough people who have either participated in some of the Hudson River kayaking, or who just care about the waterfront, that are willing to help out someone who has done a lot of great work for it.  I'll be matching donations from my readers up to $500 to help Sandy out.

Here's how you can help...  even a five spot will go a long way... there's power in numbers. You can make out a check to: The Downtown Boathouse Inc. West Village Station Box 20214 New York, NY 10014-9998 Memo: Sandy Fire Relief (from Charlie's blog)

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Yesterday, Betsy the kayaker and I had planned to take a trip.  We were either going to paddle over to Hoboken to take part in another kayaker's Halloween paddle, or down around the Battery to Red Hook.

This is Betsy and her little red boat:

We got out into the channel and it was fairly obvious no such trip was occurring.  It was just too windy and too choppy to get anywhere. Actually, it was a hell of a lot of fun, but not really the kind of surf condusive to trips.

So we decided to paddle across to the Newport marina just to hangout in their protected enclave. 

Here are some more pics....

These fake dogs are meant to scare off birds...

Protection from the sea:

Lower Manhattan skyline:

Inside the boathouse:

My boat... Well, my borrowed DTBH boat anyway:

I guess they leave those snowflakes on all year:

Empire State Building in the background:

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Tags: kayakingpier40 dtbh

I had a really great day at Pier 40 today...   volunteered from 9 until 3:30.  There were just all sorts of little things going on that I as able to snap timely pics of, which made for an interesting photoset.

The dock has become a breeding ground for little minnows (we think, we're not sure).  There are thousands of these suckers in the water.

Rock, paper, scissors to figure out who goes on the last remaining single and who has to wait.

Kevin bringing me a sandwich from the free food being given out at the end of the pier by the high school kids' photography club.

These have seen better days.

I absolutely love the opportunities this blog and nextNY have afforded me to meet lots of interesting and passionate people in NYC.

The problem is, I never have time to meet all of them... and when I do, it seems to be all of them at once, and I can't sit down for more than two minutes at a time with someone.

....except during the summer, where I aften spend endless amounts of time completely available to anyone...   anyone who'd like to go kayaking anyway.  (Or if you just want to hangout by the water, but that's no fun...)

Yup, kayaking season is starting again at the Downtown Boathouse this Saturday.  We have three locations:  Pier 40 (by Houston St.), Pier 96 (W56th St) and 72nd St. in Riverside Park.

This summer, I'll be manning the one down at Pier 40 almost every Saturday, and most Sundays, too.    We open at 9AM and the last boat generally goes out at 5:30, but since we're all volunteers, that's sort of flexible.   This Saturday, though, I'll be out there at 9AM sharp if anyone would like to go for a paddle or just hang around the dock.  I'll probably stay until 3PM.

So if you want to talk shop, talk kayaking, talk about the Mets, or just say hi, you're welcome to come by anytime!

Check this out... timeoutnewyork.tv is using one of my kayaking photos for their website this week.  Nice!

Little kid and his dad at Pier 40 this morning...

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Last year, I broke two Treo 650's, and got my camera stolen.  Today, I sunk to a level of idiocy I am capable of, thankfully, ever so rarely.  We opened up at Pier 40 today and it got pretty choppy in the afternoon.  I had my Fisher C-1 in my pocket and decided to go out for a paddle.  I was on a high sit on top boat that kept me pretty dry.  However, I decided it would be a good idea to try and actually land the boat on the dock by catching a wave. 

Not smart.

I got about 3 feet up on the dock and just hung there for a moment before it capsized.  I immediately realized my camera was in the water and pulled it up and out as soon as I could, ignoring the boat, which got swept under Pier 40.  The camera was fried and the boat lost in the depths beneath the pier.  Not all was lost though.  I was able to scoot underneath the pier and retrieve the boat with a tow rope.

Also, more importantly to me, the Flash card was ok, too, so I didn't lose the pics I had taken.

So, anyone have any suggestions as to what camera I should buy?   I guess I want 6+ MP, small, very good video and I'm somewhat price sensitive.  If anyone has links to pics they took with a specific camera, and videos, please post them and the name of the camera.  Thanks!

When we moved from Pier 26 due to the renovation (total destruction) project that leveled the Downtown Boathouse, we moved most of our stuff up to the shiny new boathouse at Pier 96 at 56th Street.  We didn't move everything there, though, and we still wanted to maintain a downtown presence if we could.  So, we rented some space at the south end of Pier 40 (at Houston St.), but it took almost all summer to get the right permits to put a dock in.

Finally, this Saturday morning, the Downtown Boathouse will open up the Pier 40 location and make its triumphant, if not a little disorganized, return to downtown.  You have to walk down the pier a little ways on the south side to see us.  We don't have as many boats there as we used to at Pier 26, and all of our trips will still run out of Pier 96.  But if you're used to dropping by on us at Pier 26 because it was close by, come see us on Saturday to see what we're up to.  Even better, come help out!  I'll be there from 9-5:30, but the closer you come to either end, the more you risk that we'll either be just getting organized or closing early because no one showed.  :(     Hope to see you there!

I finished 3rd out of 80+ kayaks that competed in our annual race yesterday.  Here are some pics.  I also have video of the presentation, too:

Not having my own kayak, I had to secure one of the DTBH deck boats early in the morning.

This is after already finished... I paddled back a little to make sure the rest of the kayakers were safe by the pier.  Looks like some of them went under.

When we were done, we had a BBQ up by 72nd street, which meant we all had to park somewhere. 

I'll be down at the Downtown Boathouse tonight from 5- close, which is usally around 7:30ish.   It a great way to end your week if you're on the West Side.

I didn't post too much this weekend, and I definitely have a backlog of things I'd like to post about in my head.  Hopefully, this week will be a slower week in terms of my after work activities and I'll be able to catch up.

My weekend was spent, as you can probably guess, mostly kayaking at the Downtown Boathouse.  Anyone who made it out had fantastic weather, aside from the occasional forboding storm cloud, but none of the threats came to post and 95% of the weekend was pretty sunfilled.  The Downtown Boathouse was a little quieter than last year, perhaps because the water hasn't quite warmed up yet and people aren't quite sure its summer yet.  Another week or two and I'm sure we'll be in full swing.  I got some great pictures in at the Boathouse as well as on the Circle Line Monday night, which I went to with my friend Joy who used to work at GM.  Speaking of Joy, that's the name we're going with for the family dog.  So, here's a little collection of my kayaking photos, NYC shots from the Circle Line and pictures of Joy (the dog).

This Saturday, the Downtown Boathouse will be holding its annual Harrison Street Regatta:

From DTBH:

This is our annual fun-race and BBQ that is held every year at the Boathouse. It is the highlight of the paddling season. We hold a race from Pier 96 to our 72nd St. dock. The winner is the 2nd boat to cross the finish line. The race is open to all human-powered craft. All participants are entered in a drawing for boating-related prizes. Our fleet of public kayaks is available for use, or bring your own boat. Come at 1:00PM to register, the Race Starts at 2:00PM. A BBQ is held after the race. Everything including the food and soft drinks is 100% free.

Last year, I came in 3rd... but 1st my self termed "Crappy Boat Class".  The two guys who beat me were in fiberglass boats and I had a slow plastic one.  So, I'm going to secunder one of our newer boats by taping my name to it in the wee hours of the morn before the race starts...   I don't care about the whole 2nd boat in, thing...   I'm very ok with finishing first.  :)

So, if you'd like to come and check out kayaking, Saturday afternoon would be the day to do it....  so you could watch me leave Tim in the dust.  Remember, though, that the race ends at our location at 72nd Street!   Its a one way race, so that's where the BBQ will be as well.

Here are some short clips of the Ladies of the Club on Saturday...  I would have taken more, but it was raining and my camera isn't waterproof.  More here.   Flickr pics, too.