I try to mark the solstices whenever possible. It’s the pagan in me, I guess, but among the ingredients in my personal gumbo of a spiritual life, observing the concrete astronomical and natural forces at work in the universe seems to me like a pretty good hedge. Edward Abbey said, “I stand for what I stand on.” To Ed’s sage wisdom I would add: “and also what I stand below.” And by that I mean the sun, the moon, the…
After a dismal winter surf-wise, northern New England has had a much better run of waves this spring. We’ve enjoyed a series of small swells every week-and-a-half or so, with the most recent impulse showing up over the past few days. It was, to be sure, small. I mean: really small. I’d call it knee- to thigh-high, with occasional waist-high sets. But here in New England, we takes what we gets… This recent swell coincided with some spectacularly sunny weather…
Being a surfer in New England is not easy. The water is usually frigid, the ocean usually flat. What waves we do get tend to be locally generated, with winter nor’easters usually creating the biggest surf. The highlight of every New England surfer’s year is hurricane season. No, it’s not easy to cheer on storms that can wreak havoc elsewhere, but the fact remains that these tropical behemoths typically don’t mess with New England (this year’s Irene being a notable…