Latest Update: August 18, 2001 by Ben Marcus

TIME SATURDAY AUGUST 18, 2001 BIRD POINT, TURNAGAIN ARM, ALASKA

MONEY
AA batteries for Garmin GPS
Tacos at Girdwood taco place.
Gas at Texaco outside of Anchorage

Daddy, I'm bored! I'm bored and waiting for the bore, playing around with one of those Garmin Hand-held GPS units, taking photos of this and that, watching strangers play with Ike, waiting for the Turnagain Arm Tidal Bore, which has an ETA of around 5:45.

I'm in the parking lot at Bird Point and I've seen not one but two married couples wearing matching foul-weather jackets. Anything goes in Alaska, I guess. That's get you killed in South Texas.

I also saw a guy today walk out of Bird Creek with three nice silver salmon in his hand. That would get you arrested in California, but in Alaska it's all perfectly legal. The silver salmon are running crazy

Wow, there's a surfer in the water just down from us, the crazy fool. Is that a surfer? Yes it is. Time must be getting close. He's about halfway between Bird Point and where I saw the tide last year. He must know something I don't.

He's paddling halfway across the stretch of water between the land and the sandbar. He might be a bodyboarder, actually. Whatever. I'll go talk to him later.

Gus is wandering around up on the point and Ike is hopefully leaving the beaver alone. The surfer/bodyboarder and disappeared behind a tree. The wind is blowing offshore or off-glacier or whatever you want to call it. It's mostly cloudy with a bit of blue and there are mountains all around caked with snow. There are lots of tourists around. There's a big difference between now and September.

Back to Bird Creek. I had read in the Anchorage paper that the silver salmon were running and when we went past Bird Creek there was a bit of a feeding frenzy going on, at least 50 people flogging the river for salmon and pulling quite a few out.

I saw all kinds of different techniques, including very deliberate attempts to snag the poor fish. I saw about six fish landed, which means they must not be all that easy. A limit of three tells me there are an awful lot of fish going up Bird Creek. It was a cool scene. I might go back there on the weekdays, because the crowds won't be so bad.

We passed Bird Creek on the drive down to Bird Point and Girdwood to watch the tide. We got there when the tide was going out, and it was pretty amazing that that current was tidal. It was ripping out of there like the Colorado River

1:14 ALASKA TIME SUNDAY AUGUST 19, 2001 KINKOS IN ANCHORAGE

MONEY I'm too tired to describe to today, and exciting day, with any enthusiasm, so I'll wait until tomorrow to do it right.. In brief, we saw lots of silver salmon on Bird Creek and then went to the part of Turnagain Arm near Girdwood where I saw the bore last year.

After much waiting around, we finally saw it coming. It passed Bird Point, backed off and thwarted a kayakers and some surfers who tried to catch it .

Nope. Can't finish. Too tired. Had four hours sleep last night and drove all day. Not enough. Good night. I'll finish tomorrow. Saw the bore today and it was better than I thought. Had some oomph. We missed it.

9:30 AM ALASKA TIME SUNDAY AUGUST 19, 2001 KINKOS IN ANCHORAGE

MONEY
Eleven bound copies of Fin from Kinkos: $143.55 Elevn manila folders for mailing Fin: $ 3.85

I'm still tired, but I'll try to type this. I'm at Kinkos, putting the Fin drafts into manila envelopes and prioritizing who I should send them to. So far I've addressed one to Pentagon Bob and one to Scott Anderson, the shark biologist who did all the Shark Cam stuff in the Farallones.

I also just sent an e-mail to Derek Agnew at ABC Alaska and Susan Richter at CNN San Francisco. It went a little something like this:

Derek Agnew
ABC Alaska

Susan Richter
CNN San Francisco

Sunday August 19, 2001

Derek

I saw the Turnagain Arm Tidal bore yesterday in the afternoon, and it was better than I thought. There are places where the wave has a fair but of force and is even a bit "gnar gnar," as the kids say in Santa Cruz.

It would be interesting to see what a really good surfer could do with it.

We're missing it, a bit. The tides for yesterday and today rate "five stars" on the bore tide chart posted at Bird Point. Next Friday and Saturday, when the Russia guys will be here (I hope) are only three-star days.

But John Markel says that chart is deceiving and that the days with more water in the Arm when the tide comes in are better for surfing. I would like to see a tide of yesterday's force come through with more water underneath it.

Anyway, if ABC Alaska or CNN still interested, I have some suggestions for how to film this.

We definitely need some kind of chase boat. Ideally we will take the surfers to the top of Bird Point and let them ride the bore when it comes around the corner.

Yesterday the bore backed off as it passed Bird Point. A kayaker tried to catch it, but failed. Then a couple of surfers farther down tried to paddle into it, but they failed, too.

When I caught up with the bore in my car, it was very catchable. In fact, it would be impossible to avoid.

With a chase boat we could put the surfers in the path of the bore where it is rideable, then pick them up and chase the bore when it backs off. Once it gets into that channel between the highway and the sandbar, all that power funnels into a little channel and it has more than a little oomph.

The bore has been surfed but never by someone like Flea Virostko or Keith Malloy or Anthony Ruffo. I'll be very curious to see what they can do with it.

If you are interested, I'll start asking around for someone who has a shallow-draft inflatable that can maneuver in there.

After seeing the bore I drove out to Seward and while there I saw a small hover-craft that could be just the thing, although I don't know how maneuverable it is.

Let me know if you want to pursue this.

It looks like most of the crew will only be able to surf the bore next Saturday, and I think the tide is at 9:00 in the morning.

This is worth doing, I think.

I've included some MPEGS to give you some idea. They're only five seconds long and don't do it justice. I have better MPEGS that won't read on my computer, for some reason.

I'll do a better job today. I'm going back up there.

I'll be in Anchorage until next Sunday.

Thank you.

Ben

So that was a nice e-mail, and so was this.

Leah Butler
Smith Optics

August 19, 2001

Leah

The trip is heating up. Why just this morning I swagged Natalia Johnson and Tomek Bogdzieiwicz at the Magadan Airlines ticket counter.

This was an attempt to foam the runway, so to speak, in anticipation of our departure next Sunday. We are going to need all the baggage leeway we can get.

Thanks again for everything.

Ben

P.S. I suggested to Tomek that he take the sticker off but he was adamant: "This is how is done in Poland."

I also sent this e-mail to all the campers.

Gentlemen

I was up at 5:00 AM this morning and went to the Magadan Airlines ticket counter to pay for the plane tickets for myself and William Sharp.

I thoroughly swagged Natalia and Tomzec the ticket counter people with some fine Smith Optics.

I also saw the plane. It's a jet, not a prop plane. It looked okay to me, and I don't think the crew had been drinking-much.

Although they are likely to give us a break when we fly out next Sunday, there are still some limitations we need to heed.

The maximum length of a bag is 81 inches, or 6 feet, 9 inches. Hopefully you guys have board bags that are no longer than that, and can fit all your equipment in there. If you go over that, it could cost as much as $135 per bag.

I doubt you will need any 10-foot boards on this trip.

Also, the weight limitation is two bags times 35 pounds each, with a 17-pound carry on.

We'll have to sort this all out when you all get to Alaska. Hopefully we'll have a day or two to sort through the equipment and make a list and etc..

Magadan does not accept credit cards, so bring cash in case we have to pay excess baggage fees.

I saw the Tidal Bore yesterday and it was pretty good. The wave had more height and force than I thought, and was even a little gnar gnar in the middle. There is a chart which rates the bore tide with stars. Yesterday and today are five-star days. The tides on the 24th and 25th will be Three Star days, but I'm told that the bore is better with more water around it. Yesterday was an extreme minus tide.

I'd really like to see what good surfers can do with it, and I'm hoping to get ABC and CNN down there, because what I saw yesterday would be worth filming with a good crew of surfers and a support boat.

I'm working on that.

So the visas are being processed this week, I hope. This all should have been done a month ago, but oh well.

Again, bring lots of swag. It's just going to make our lives easier.

If you need to mail it to somewhere, use this address:

Ben Marcus
C/O Scott Liska
10921 Kasilof Boulevard
Anchorage, Alaska 99516

Any questions, send an e-mail.

Ben

So, I'm falling asleep again. Need to finish all my Kinkos work, then drive back up to Girdwood, clean out the van, get some sleep and watch the bore this afternoon. It's an amazing amount of water sloshing in and out of there every day. Amazing. The tidal current going out was at least 10 knots.

We saw that then killed time, waiting around for gravity to change momentum. We hung around Bird Point watching tourists go back and forth. I saw two couples wearing identical jackets. Did I say that above? I'm so tired I'm repeating myself.

Eventually the bore showed up. A bunch of people were at the top of the overlook and through their heads I saw a line of white-water coming around the corner up at the end of Bird Point. The wave took awhile to change or go anywhere, and it looked like it was standing still.

I saw a kayaker and some surfers down the way, then walked out onto the point-using my hand-held Garmin GPS to guide me-and watched with all the tourists.

When I saw the kayaker miss the wave and then the two surfers, Gus and I bolted for the car and chased it. By the time we caught up with it, the bore had moved into the narrow channel between highway and sandbar. I was impressed with it. The wave had more force than I had expected and it was ñgnar gnarî in he middle. It was pretty exciting. I drove while Gus shot video. My digital camera will record little five-second MPEGS, so Gus got a few of those as we moved along.

At one point we stopped where we shouldn't have stopped, with RVs and trucks honking at us. But I was a bit jazzed at seeing all this, and disregarded safety and courtesy for a few minutes.

I'd really like to see a good surfer like Flea or Brock or someone try to ride this bore. It's like a wave pool with cold water and glaciers and power.

Ideally we'll have a chase boat or a PWC tagging along to pick up surfers when they fall or the wave backs off.

I shot a bunch of MPEGS but could only download a few.

So, the Tidal Bore was a buzz, and then we kept driving. Went all the way to Seward to find Scott Liska and check out his boat. I might do a thing on surfing Alaska for Alaskan Airlines Magazine, and I'm trying to organize an Alaska boat trip for after Russia, or maybe in lieu of Russia.

Anyway, we made the 90-mile drive to Seward and arrived in the middle of the Seward Silver Salmon Derby. It looked like a scene from Jaws with dozens of people running about and lots of fish being hung up and displayed and lots of fish being gutted and cleaned and seagulls flying everywhere.

This was the second to last day and there were a lot of people spending a fair bit of money to join the tourney, rents boats and try to catch the $10,000 fish.

I walked around looking for Scott Liska and asking if anyone knew where The Viking was tied up. When I saw someone nice with a bunch of juicy red salmon filets, I gave them my secret Brooke Johnson-approved salmon recipe: soy sauce, garlic, ginger, brown sugar and orange juice. A few people wrote it down. They'll be slapping their grandmas soon enough.

I eventually found Scott tied up at the end of D Dock. He showed me some promising surf photos from Montagu Island, and I took photos of the photos.

Apparently there is a south swell coming in from Japan on Monday. If I were still a surfer I'd be out there. Guess I'm not.

Anyway, while in Seward I saw a little hover-craft and thought that might do for the Tidal Bore attempt. We drove all the way back in the evening and got into Anchorage pretty late. We parked at the airport and slept in the van near some RVs. The rules are pretty lax up here about where you can sleep. A lot of RVs sleep in the Fred Meyer or Wal Mart parking lots. There are entire universes out there I know nothing about.

Woke up around 5:00 and went in to see the people at Magadan. They were running around and I talked to the guys from Oregon flying over there and there were two other hunters who were grumpy because Magadan had charged them $134 for their guns. Weapons, not surfboards.

They were busy so I hung back and when everyone had cleared out I approached Natalia. I gave her a check for $2500+ for myself and William Sharp. Later I asked about baggage.

To make things potentially easier, I swagged Natalia and her co-worker Tomek Bogdziewicz with some fine Smith Optics. It could make for a smoother runway next Sunday when we show up with 10,000 pounds of gear.

I'm out of here. Need to sleep. Going to head back to Girdwood and catch some Z's and catch the bore this afternoon.