Black-Ice Friday Is Here!

What is Black-Ice Friday you ask?

The holiday is here!
Never mind the doorbuster super sales or the crowd trampling media events. We New England iceboat jocks know the value of a full vacation day! Consider this: Maine’s late iceboating legend Larry Hardman would blissfully don his fireball orange helmet and goggles for the season by epoxy stapling his helmet chin-strap tight under his chin while reciting his latest iceboat poetry. Another legend, Warner St Clair was known to visit his arch neighborhood DN competitors, gaining eager post-holiday access with a friendly knock and an entry-level gift, just so he could place his bootleg over a prized box of runners and release the #20 grit black beauty sandblasting sand down his leg from the carefully crafted hole in his pocket – such a clever competitor he was! Or, consider our cherished living local legend Lloyd Roberts… who on black-ice Friday is known to sit knee-deep in his rusty lawn chair in the ice-crusted waters of the Damariscotta public beach, under an umbrella, in his underwear, pontificating such things as the elastic modulus co-efficiencies of splintered Sitka spruce sliding along a perfect ice surface. The value of his all-inclusive hard-water daydreaming has yet to be fully appreciated. Get the idea? Make your plans NOW.

Take advantage of this all-important holiday… gather your buddies to safely check your local ice and forward your ice alerts to the NEIYA ice report (Contact me, John or Karen for details). Mark December 14th on the calendar to meet with your chillest friends by attending the 2019 annual tune-up clinic. Order a 50’ throw rope/bag, ice awls, two space blankets, a 6’ x 6’ poly tarp, and a couple of instant hand warmers to build the survival-assist kit we spoke of at the annual swap meet. If there is interest we can make a group purchase contack John (john@neiya.org) Make those last-minute trades/orders for the parts you needed last season.

The season is here…. and for many of us, it officially begins on Black-Ice Friday!!

See you on the ice!

Jay Whitehair
US3947
Norwich, VT
Vice Commodore NEIYA