Buffalo Paddle Festival

I want to share some info with my fellow Reef Warriors about an event happening on the Buffalo Waterfront this summer.

Check them out on Facebook !

The 1st annual Buffalo Paddle Festival will be held at Gallagher Beach on July 12, 2014 there will be canoe, kayak, and stand up paddleboard demos, lessons, a sup yoga class, competitive and fun races.

Proceeds from the event will help WNY Adaptive Water Sports a great cause which helps individals with special needs enjoy the watersports we take for granted.

Hope to see you there!

 

 

 

The Reef Warrior Christmas list

‘Tis the season, again, and here are a few suggestions to help with holiday shopping for the Reef Warrior on your list.

Gidget and I recently received  this as a thank you gift

and we loved it enough that it is at the top of the list . http://lake-art.com/index.html

Lake Art, a Michigan based company,can turn any lake into a personalized piece of art. Ours has been personalized with a spot marking “Da’ Reef”. I think this is a really cool gift idea.

We all need something for the special women (wives, moms, sisters, friends) in our lives ( the ones who put up with us running off when it is windy, or, who spend the day on the cold beach shooting photos, or just because) . For these wonderful people I suggest something from http://abeachglassbum.com

This jewelry is made from beach glass found on the shores of Lake Erie. There are many things to choose from besides jewelry and you could even ask for something custom-made, and Liz will work her magic and create a piece just for you.

wind surf charm

anchor charm

As always we feel rum makes the perfect gift (especially for me and Casey, hint hint)

and this rum is very unique.

http://www.plantationrum.com/en/pages/view/367

A wonderful mouthful of flavor including vanilla, ripe fruit and coconut.( Full review coming soon to rum quest) Found locally at http://www.premierwines.com/

Last but not least lets not forget our local shops.

For all your windsurf/sup/kite/( he has ski packages too!) needs on the U.S. side of Lake Erie contact Doug at

http://www.curtissportconnection.com/.

For our Canadian friends see Darryl at

http://www.ausmosis.ca/

for a nice line of SUP’s, skateboards and surf gear.

Ausmosis has recently teamed up with

City of Light Fitness http://www.cityoflightfitness.com/store/

to bring paddle fit classes( among other things) to the Buffalo area.

The Outer Banks are Casey’s home away from Da’ Reef and his local shop in Hatteras is http://wind-nc.com/    Stop  in and see Andy for all your watersports needs.

Be sure to tell them Casey sent you. Try lubricating the sales staff with rum, you might get the Reef Warrior discount!

Hope this helps make your holiday season easy,

Best Wishes for the holidays from Lou and Casey

Ausmosis S.U.P.’s

We recently  had a visit from Ausmosis surf shop http://www.ausmosis.ca/  a new board shop in the St. Catherine’s area. Darryl and Jay brought the complete line of sup’s for us to try, and try we did.These boards are made in the United States and designed in Canada and are very well made. Light and easy to handle, all the boards we tried tracked well and were comfortable to paddle in the flat water. This is a family run business and all the boards https://picasaweb.google.com/ausmosisproducts/StandUpPaddleSurfboards# are named after Darryl’s children, a nice touch. A few of us have visited the shop as well and enjoyed the experience. I even picked up a big Kahuna long board and push stick. They also brought a surf model designed for fresh water,but with no waves in sight there was nothing to do but paddle it. It proved to be a stable platform as well. I am a big guy and it held me up fine, although a little tippy for me it was somewhat forgiving, never really throwing me off-balance to the point of no return.

To truly challenge the small board Gidget tried doing a little  yoga on it.

They also brought the fisherman model, a large stable board with a back rest, rod holders and a place for a cooler. A good board for taking kids and /or dogs for a cruise.As the demo was ending we joked about leaving a board here for further testing and Darryl happily agreed to leave a 10 ft. D-Man model to try in the waves.

When the waves finally showed up Casey, Joel H., and Gail took it out for some testing.

It took a few runs to get it dialed in but every one caught some rides. Casey even smacked a few lips and bottom turns. All the riders had fun, but all felt the board was a little slow on the waves, and due to the short platform maybe not enough glide to catch the wave.

Thanks to Darryl and Jay for coming to the reef and sharing their product and stoke with us. We will welcome them back any time. (and we will have them back soon)

If you are in the market for a well made board, from a local shop, you cannot go wrong here. Tell them The Reef Warriors sent you.