Onancock Kayak Tours begin for the season!

SouthEast's guides on the "upper shore", Bill and Mary Burnham, are offering something new this year:

An Onancock Historic Creek Tour at 10 a.m. every Saturday! Of course, folks can still book a trip for any time that suites their schedule from SE's growing itinerary of cool paddling places like Saxis, with a visit to a soft-shell crab shed, the Great Machipongo River from Quinby, the seaside barrier islands, the Eastern Shore Wildlife Refuge, and SouthEast's signature Kayak Winery Tour!

Call (757) 331-2680 to book a trip.

See you on the water!

Winter Kayaking on Onancock Creek

Here's one of my first attempts at kayak-video on an unseasonably warm winter day paddling Onancock Creek. That's Bill paddling to the wharf: the yellow building is Hopkins Bros Store, housing Mallards restaurant. Bill and I looking forward to a great season leading historic tours of our creek for SouthEast Expeditions!

Can't get there from here

There are a few things you should know about the Eastern Shore if you’re going to explore the back roads and dusty lanes that lead to many of the most beautiful spots up and down both coasts of our peninsula, and all points in between. However, for right now I’m going to stick with the basics. We’re going to operate on the assumption that somewhere along the road you’re either going to get lost or hear about some place that you know you’ll never find on your own. When this happens you’re going to need directions. If you need directions, then you’re going to need to understand how the Eastern Shore compass works.
While the rest of the world operates on a simple North, South, East, West template, we like to do things a little differently here on the Shore. North and South are “Up the Road” and “Down the Road” respectively. Down may be pronounced in such a way that it rhymes with “moan”.
East and West are of course “Seaside” and “Bayside”. Think of it as our version of port and starboard. At least it’s better than “river-left” and “river-right”.
Armed with this knowledge, you now have the a major tool to help decipher Eastern Shore directions.

“You want to go up the road a bit until you get to Joan and Larry’s
Then head Seaside through Exmore and take the turn there at the old mall before you get to the bank.
Keep on ‘till the end of the road, and just past EL Willis you’ll see the clam farm on the left.
Once you cross the creek turn around to your left and you’ll see my boat between Mooch's and Little Grub's”

From the lower part of the Shore, this will get you to the harbor in Willis Wharf if you can figure out that “Joan and Larry’s” went out of business a few years ago, and “EL Willis” now has a sign out front that says “Stella’s”.

That’s the other thing about Eastern Shore directions. Quite often the landmarks that are used are things that used to be there. Odds are, if you remember any of these places, you don’t actually need directions to get to where you’re going. But that’s the way things work around here. I guess it helps keep our back roads free of Sunday drivers, or maybe they’re all doing laps at the end of the road in Saxis trying to figure out how to get back across the marsh.

Oh yeah, and don’t trust anyone who gives you driving directions to Tangier.

Wrapped in Plastic

I've been trying to reduce the amount of plastic in my life recently. I know I'm not alone in this endeavor, but I feel like it sometimes. Fortunately for everyone who seems determined to stifle my efforts, there are a couple more who actually work to make it easier.
The guy behind the bar at the Cape Charles Coffee House is a fairly steady presence in my days. His name is Marshall, and though is prone to a good rant from time to time (Dude, where's your blog?) he also remembers the little things that make his customers' lives easier. I mentioned the plastic mission off-hand a few weeks ago while asking for something to stir my coffee with. Now he keeps a spoon in a mug near the cup of plastic stirrers. I don't even have to ask. It's just there. He doesn't even mind if I walk out with my mug every once in a while. He knows it's coming back tomorrow.
My check out lady at the Food Lion today however is a different story. Nice woman, but she just didn't seem to get it. This morning I had noticed the re-usable grocery bags in the pantry and thought "I should throw a couple of those in my truck". Of course that thought vacated my mind as quickly as it had fluttered into it, and I went on about my day.
On my way home, Sara called to ask if I could re-stock our Cabernet cache. The "fancy Food Lion" up the road actually has a decent wine selection so I made a quick pit stop on my way home from our new shop in Quinby.
Approaching the check out lane with my arms full of California's finest, I noticed the strategically placed pile of re-usable bags sitting on the counter. Perfect.
I threw one onto my pile of bottles and promptly lost myself in the tabloid trash headlines next to the candy display.
I looked up to notice the very nice woman behind the counter was placing my new grocery bag into its very own plastic grocery bag. I politely asked her if I could go ahead and use it now. "Of course" she replied and then promptly placed the first of the wine bottles into a plastic bag and then into my new bag.
"The point was to avoid the plastic all together if I can please Ma'am."
"If I don't put these bottles in plastic, they gonna break."
"I'll be careful, I promise. I just really don't want to plastic."
"Whatever."
Now, I know better than to expect world class customer service at a chain grocery store in a town of 400 people. What bugs me is knowing that tomorrow I could repeat the same scenario with the same nice check out lady. And the next day, and the next day. It adds a further level of frustration to recognize that she is actually trying to help me. She's not trying to ruin my day. She wants to make sure that I don't end up sloshing around in a truck full of California Cabernet. She truly believes in the shock absorbing powers of nanometer thick plastic bags. This is actually better than average customer service. Unfortunately the customer is evolving ahead of the service or the store itself.
One of the things that I love about living on the Eastern Shore is that in many ways we are 20-3o years behind the rest of the country. It's not exactly a third world country out here, but it's one of those places that is going to be caught by surprise next month when all of our rabbit ears stop working. Another aspect of Shore living that drew me here is the fact that every life on this peninsula is in some way connected to the water. There are several of my friends who I'll agree to meet somewhere based on the tide clock rather than the time clock.
Given the amount of salt water running through our collective veins, you would think that we would be ahead of the curve on this whole Green Revolution. And we are if you think about it... Who else had re-usable grocery bags at the counter in 1984?

More Fun More Money... and more crap than I can fit in this box.

Every day is an adventure in the outdoor retail world, and today was no different. In the 10 years since we opened the doors at SouthEast Expeditions we have expanded into 4 new sports, dropped 3 of them, opened a huge new store, doubled it in size, closed the big shop, and are now moving all that merchandise into our outpost at the Sunset Beach Resort.
The logic for the move was pretty simple. We were spending too much time managing a break-even retail operation, and not getting to spend enough time on the water. With the advent of on-line retail, and the lack of extra cash in the wallets of our customers, we realized that this was a perfect time to focus on our strengths and have more fun at work. Our motto for the last few years has been "More Fun, More Money". And it's working. By cutting overhead and focusing our energy on marketing opportunities, we're actually figuring out how to make a living doing what we love, and we're expanding our trip catalog all the time to include exciting new adventures all over the Eastern Shore.
Today however, was not a play day. While the wind whipped up the Bay with a steady 25+ kts, I wrestled with shelving units, grid-wall panels, and boxes of inventory that should have either been better organized when we packed them, or left on the street for Goodwill. By the end of the day the shop started to look a little more like a place you might actually want to enter, but we're not at the "Wow! Let me empty my wallet here." stage yet. Give me a couple more days and we'll have the stage set.
Of course this is not the only major project we have going on right now. In addition to renovating the Sunset Beach shop, we're launching a new magazine in 3 weeks, preparing a new trip and mini-retail location in Quinby, building out a trailer for our beach concession in Cape Charles, booking our Kids Kayak Camp, and of course leading kayak tours and teaching kiteboarding classes. Never a dull moment.
So keep you eyes out for exciting things from the crew at SouthEast Expeditions. We're kicking off our season with a HUGE 10 Year Anniversary Party on May 24th, and will keep on rockin' all summer long.

A kiteboarder's take on the debate over competition formats and tours

Aside from helping the manufacturers and sponsors quantify their return on investment, why does it matter to any of us who is crowned the king of kiting? Kiting is an innovative sport with innovative riders doing innovative things with innovative equipment. Why are we trying to cram it into a traditional box? Ask 10 riders "Who's the best kiter?" and you're bound to get a dozen different responses.
Kiteboarding has already lost a number of marquis players to the brutal schedule and tedious demands of competing on the world tours. Lou Wainman, Adam Koch, Martin Vari, and Felix Pivek are a few riders who come to mind when I think about guys who still had tons of room to grow as riders when they dropped the tour limelight. They're still out there, taking the sport and their equipment to new levels. But they're doing it on their terms. I don't even know if Ben Wilson ever competed in a sanctioned event.
I'd like to think that these guys are pushing our sport because they are passionate about kiting, and that the sponsors who have stuck with them understand that. I respect riders who can't stand not kiting when the wind is blowing. Guys who still remember dropping into a perfect wave for the first time. Riders who can still relate to the elation the rest of us feel when we boost a huge air, or land a new trick, or just score a session when we didn't think it would be windy.
But the sponsors still need a way to measure their ROI right? Then let's give them a simple foundation to work from. Look for magazine placements of your logos, and media placements beyond our core publications. Look for mentions of your athlete's names in the forums. Look for the "riders choice" winners at multi-faceted events like the SPI Kite Roundup, the Real Triple S, and the Red Bull Kite Punks (which I just discovered - Thank you YouTube!). These are innovative events being put on by core kite shops that are run by kiters who have worked their asses off to support and build our sport. These are events that reach out to average kiters as well as the pros who are doing things that the rest of us struggle just to understand. By tracking these performance metrics, sponsors can see which riders are pushing the sport, expanding it to new markets, and reaching out to and relating with your customers. Aren't those the goals of sponsoring athletes?
For those riders who think that the only way kiting will be "legit" is to become an Olympic sport, all I can say is that I feel sorry for you. Kiting is legit because it keeps me up at night. It's legit because my friends will drop everything to get out on the water. It's legit because once you've started kiting, you can't comprehend giving the sport up. And if it's not "legit", who cares?
I've had the privilege of riding in beautiful places, and with a few of the guys we see in the magazines. At the end of the day, they're all just like you and me. They're kiters. They don't care who's the best in the world. They care that everyone got the best session today.
A fellow kiter sent me the new Hadlow video today. It blew my mind, but I enjoyed shooting a few pics of my friend kiting under the setting sun last night much more, and I enjoyed my session in the middle of the day even more than the 20 minutes behind the camera. So tonight in front of my computer, the best kiter in my world was Aaron Hadlow. Last night at the Cape Charles beach it was my buddy Erin. Yesterday afternoon it was me. I hope that tomorrow you have the chance to be the best kiter in your world.
The guys on my local kiteboarding forum know I can get a bit long winded, but after reading several pages of PKRA vs. IKA vs. ABC vs. DUI commentary on the various forum pages, I felt like a little perspective is needed on a lot of levels in this sport, or at least the computer surfers do. If kiting is going to continue to grow and succeed, I believe we need potential sponsors to see kiteboarding as a sport that has a very dedicated following of active athletes who live to ride, and who understand that we are so much luckier than all those suckers who sit on the beach and just watch. They also need to see a sport that is somewhat accessible to the rest of the world. If kiting doesn't sell cars, the car companies won't sponsor kiters.
The guys in the red shirts like to say that "Windsurfing's Been Canceled". In reality I think that Windsurfing Committed Suicide. Or at least it wandered off into the desert for a while. Let's not make the same mistake by focusing solely on the tip of the rider pyramid. Kiting allows the average athlete to fly. What could be more legit than that?

SE Kayakers Help Bottle Wine!

Dave (right), owner of SouthEast Expeditions, invited us kayak guides along to help Holly Grove Vineyards, a new Eastern Shore winery, bottle the final batch of 2008 Sunset Rose.

I envisioned pouring wine through funnels and applying labels by hand. Oh no! Owner Jonathan Bess has a shiny new bottling assembly line that fills the bottles, corks them, affixes the foil cap and the labels. All we had to do was load the bottles and box them at the end.

Oh, and quality control tastings. Lots of that!

Like many Virginia wineries, Holly Grove is a small, family-run operation, and each bottle truly gets individual attention. The family built their own house here. When the kids get out of school, they help with chores. A pair of pet goats, geese and couple of dogs roam the vineyards.

But the results are anything but home-grown. Bess’ Chardonnay and Merlot have been winning awards in international blind tastings. The new Rose we bottled is a drier style that is very refreshing for summer porch sitting. The label features sunset at the mouth of Nassawaddox Creek.

Each wine's label features a different waterfront or sunset scene from the cove in back. Another new wine, the 2008 High Tide Traminette, may just become a summer favorite for our wine porch: the label has kayaks on it!

Jonathan welcomes tours and tastings at Holly Grove daily. Pay him a visit, and then proceed on to nearby Chatham Vineyards, another family-run, award-winning winery here on the Eastern Shore Wine Trail!

YOU can 'paddle your glass off' on SouthEast's signature Kayak Winery Tour!