Ahhh Summer

Most of our time when not at work is spent enjoying the summer months. Out camping in the new tent trailer or spending the weekends out at camp. Warm sun, warm water great family makes for some good times. Spent the weekend in the water, tubing behind the boat, snorkling for fish with the kids, water skiing and paddling the surfboard preparing for the upcoming season. Caught some fish Saturday night. Most people are out for the largest fish. The photo below is smallest bass ever caught. If you think he is small you should have seen the hook I used! The dogs watching the fish swim by, a favourite pastime. The buzzing and whizzing of the humming birds fighting over the feeders. All of these spell summer. Hopefully tommorrow will provide some excellent photos of the perseid meteor shower, heres hoping.

All photos taken by John Marchant

Summer Interest

The weekend has been ripe with thunderstorms across the region. I was at Lac de Milles Lac and the bolts were flyin. Last night the thunder rolled in late so I jumped out of bed and chased a few storms. I took about 180 photos of which 60 had lighting. I narrowed the 60 down to 14 best photos that are now showing in the slideshow above. One thing to note, when taking photos of lightning you always need to pay attention to what is happening around you. I was holding a large deck umbrella to keep the rain off of the camera. I thought the storm across the bay was far enough not to be of a concern to my safety. Turns out that a bolt hit off to the right of me, at the same time I looked down at my finger and noticed a blue spark jumping from the umbrella pole to my finger. It lasted about a second or two with an interesting 'zzzzzzt' noise. I then folded up the umbrella and went inside. My storm chasing ended at about 2am and took me from both ends of the city and in between.

Dragonfly catching its breathe from the onslaught of mosquitoes we are having.Some sparks from this years Canada Day celebration.

The Weekend

No waves in the forecast, a weekend at the cottage taking photos, going fishing, playing with the kids and lettin the dogs run free. Fishing was a blast, Grandpa caught a northern pike as big as Aidan. Aidan caught a fish on his new fishing rod and Ryley caught a pike.

Some closeup photography from the weekend.



Ants on a dandelion.

Face to face with a spider.

Check out this standing wave! We should give it a try one day.

Good times

In following my usual morning routine of checking the forecast, looking at new posts and planning my day at work, I noticed there was a nice blow from the NE at 20 to 25 knots. I now changed my day plans to account for this opportunity of surf. Shuffled the tasks at work and started making calls. I ducked out of work early to head out for some waves. The guys at the border said that the waves were not as big as they expected, can't wait until the lake buoys get deployed. First one there with Dave not far behind. Caught about a dozen waves before the crew showed up. Some nice rides on the Ten-O, then switched to the shorty. Good waves were had by all, arrived home by dark.

Jer collecting some style points

Chris riding it all the way

Colin sportin the SouthPoint

Liam in the zone

Winston riding the quad fish

Watching all the action.

A Few Shots From Saturday

Saturday proved to be fantastic. Good waves, good company and many, many good rides.

Overcast Skies....A good thing

The ultimate party wave!

The day started out a little slow today. My clock changed its time forward by and hour so I woke up at 6:41am expecting Eric, Winston and Liam to be waiting at my front door. I checked the driveway and no one was there. I called Liam wondering where he was. I then noticed the other clock and it was actually 5:41am. I called Liam back and apologized for waking him up early. Eric showed up and we packed the car. Liam arrived shortly after. We headed out. Just before we got to the border I received a call from home and had to head back. I arrived 121 at 11:00am and there was about 16 people in the water. The waves were not epic but it was a good day. Many waves were caught with a total of 18 people out to surf. Lets just say that today had the most party waves in a long time.

Jaakko heading upshore for more action.

A New Stick

Spring is upon us and it is time to start work on the newest addition, a classic wood board. I will be making a blank from a combination of balsam wood, red cedar and walnut or cherry for color. The new board will be 8' 4" with adjustable fins using the FCS plugs. I am hoping to get it gliding on our spring surf, or it will have to wait until fall. Got my work cut out for me, hoping for some juicy swell this weekend.