Rock Island Icefest 2010

By Stephen Wright

It seems as though an evil arctic snowstorm has been following me for the past 6 weeks. It all started in Reno, where two 6" dumps on successive weekends failed to melt for 2 weeks. I then fled the state to usually-milder east coast for christmas. The day before I flew into Charleston, a blizzard dumped more than 2 feet of snow over most of the mid atlantic. With a snowy Christmas behind me, I happily drove south to TN (with a day of surfing the New Dries on the way down :)). Within 3 days of my arrival in TN, the region was slammed with motivation-crushing bitterly cold weather that has proved to be unrelenting.

After nearly a week of sub-freezing temperatures and snow, everyone began to feel the itch to paddle. This is a feeling that will cause us to risk toes and fingers to the elements for an hour’s worth of fun. Clay, EJ, and NIck headed out to surf in a balmy 23 degrees. John McConnville and Justin Owen headed out after we were off the water–demonstrating their decisions have the potential to be just as irrational as anyone elses’. I’ve been just getting over a cold, and felt that paddling on Saturday might be detrimental to my recovery. So I just hung out on shore to shoot some photos and video. Enjoy the images 🙂

Live from Rock Island, TN
Stephen Wright

PS Happily no toes or fingers were actually lost in the making of this update.