Today's picture tells today's story

jos http://www2.jsonline.com/photo/ (you will have to click on th eDec 30th pic when you get there)

Let me explain. Greg and I headed for Bradford beach yesterday. There was a mild easterly (onshore) wind, and I expected a pleasant paddle. During the trip down, I was able to get a glimpse of the lake between the homes on the cliffs. It looked fairly calm. There weren't even any white caps. I had fail led to consider some of the other factors effecting water, i.e., fetch and shallows.

Arriving at the beach, we found the surf line to be about 3x further from shore than usual. No problem. Helmet on, off we go. A few hundred yards off shore, we found ourselves in 4 footers. No problem with that. They were breaking and some were dumping. No problem there. And, they were coming close together and from every direction. That could be a problem.

We went back into the shallows to play in the smaller waves, mostly taking them on the beam and staying up with an edge and an occasional brace. I was aware of two photographers on shore and wondered if they were getting any cool pics of us. I had, in fact, once before ended up on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

My day began with an acute onset of reality when I opened an e mail from JB to our Milwaukee paddling group. It directed us to the link above and, sadly, to the image the photog had chosen to use. As I have no permission to post the pic, I have given the link...JOS...above to click on. Be aware that it is for today's date only.

Paddle safe...

DS