Top 5

Top 5 things to do in New Hampshire while dropping your child off at camp

I have been operating summer camps in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire since 2008 and one of the fun parts of my job is helping our camp families with the logistics of camp drop-off and pick-up…seriously I love this stuff!

Way back before advanced NAV systems on our phones and in our cars ‘logistics’ meant providing step by step directions to camp from wherever a family was driving from. Finding camp is now the easy part but beyond getting here there is so much more that I often help families out with.

The Lakes Region of NH is centrally located in our state just about 2 hours north of Boston and 4 hours north of New York City. Within the Lakes Region are…tons of lakes!…as well as access to mountains, fun towns and small cities, rivers, shopping and more. From hotels and restaurants to adventures and leisure activities here are the top 5 things that I recommend during a quick trip to NH for camp.

  1. Get out on the lake!

    • What trip to NH in the summer would be complete without time spent at our gorgeous, pristine lakes? Some families like Lake Winnipesaukee (the ‘big’ lake) for its variety of hotels, restaurants, boat rentals and general wild vibe. From big hotels in Meredith or Laconia to AirBnBs in Moultonborough, Wolfeboro and Alton there are choices and price points for any visitor. You can do anything on Winni including rent a boat or a jetski to navigate the thousands of acres of water, hop on a guided scuba dive to explore a wreck, post up at a beach bar for food, drinks and people watching or just relax on the shore and soak up the sun. If the big lake isn’t your thing (it’s definitely not mine) head to a smaller water body like Newfound, Crescent, Squam, Winnisquam, Bow or Merrymeeting where the pace is slower. On smaller lakes there is more of an opportunity to enjoy watersports like waterskiing, wakeboarding and wakesurfing or non-motorized options like Stand Up Paddleboarding, kayaking and canoeing. Basically there is a lake in NH for whatever you and your family are into and wherever you choose will let you unplug and relax just steps from crystal clear water.

  2. Hit the mountains for some hiking!

    • Just up the road from the Lakes Region are the White Mountains, a range that spans the central/north portion of the state and encompasses dozens of peaks. Some are easily summited in a couple of hours while others may involve multi-day treks. A great jumping off point for some hiking exploration is North Conway, NH, our adventure hub. A solid itinerary here for a few days could include hiking one of our 4,000 footers, floating the Saco River, hitching a ride to the top of the notch on the Cannon Aerial Tram, driving the famously windy and scenic Kancamangus Highway and enjoying a beverage at a local brewery. Cheers!

  3. Chill out near the ocean.

  4. Bike!

  5. Stay in our ‘big’ city

    • If getting outdoors isn’t your thing don’t worry, we have a couple ‘cities’ too! Just an hour from camp is Manchester, NH, where you can take in some culture, do a bit of sales tax free shopping, catch a baseball game or a concert and enjoy a little night life on Elm St.

Hopefully this little list helps you out in your NH trip plans so that it’s not just your camper having fun this summer!

-Evan

The future is here!

Boat talk is a constant at camp. MasterCraft, Nautique, Malibu, wake size, wake shape, seats, hull, tower, cupholders, engine…I could go on. That is why news like this is so exciting:

https://plugboats.com/nautique-electric-wakeboard-boat-seattle-show/

Electric wake boats!

Here are my top 5 reasons why electric wake boats are the future:

  1. Weight - ‘There’s no replacement for displacement’. Forget about lead weight and fat sacs when you add thousands of pounds of batteries to the mix. What may be a downside to electric cars is a benefit to electric wake boats. Designers could place battery banks strategically to boost the wake size/shape and supercharge wakeboard and wakesurf wakes.

  2. Instantaneous Torque - Just hit it and rip. No more launch control (or old-school launch control having passengers shift around to get to plane faster). Electric motors provide instantaneous torque so as soon as the throttle is pressed the electric motor transfers its power to the propeller.

  3. No More Boat Exhaust - We have all gotten a face full of boat exhaust surfing on a chilly morning. Surf pipes kind of worked to divert the exhaust but how nice would it be to just eliminate it entirely? An added benefit - no more engine noise! Hop in to the water and all you hear are your friends and music from the boat and nothing else.

  4. Rethink Boat Design - Remove the engine and boat designers could radically rethink the cabin, cockpit and hull. No more fire suppression systems or fuel tanks, no transmissions, no oil changes! Bring on the future and remote joysticks that let you drive while coaching at the stern!

  5. Save the Environment - If you know Water Monkey you know we are obsessed with saving our planet. Imagine a charging station at your dock hooked up to solar panels and mini wind turbines on your property. Imagine saving thousands of dollars a season on fuel…money you would surely pump right back into new equipment and boat toys! Save the planet, save money, a win-win for boaters.

Of course there are some big question marks. What happens when you swamp a boat loaded up with batteries? How long will the charge last and how long will it take to recharge? Will I miss the sound of the engine firing up in the morning?

One thing is for sure, though, the future of wake boats is electric.

-Evan

it's earth day!

It is Earth Day today! If you know us here at Water Monkey you know that we are obsessed with the outdoors, conservation and tackling the issue of climate change. You may think that a wakeboard camp that burns thousands of gallons of fuel every summer would not be the best messenger for saving the planet but since our first summer we have been a zero-carbon company through purchasing carbon offsets, making our buildings more energy efficient and educating our campers and staff about being responsible citizens of our world.

Here are five simple things you can do on Earth Day to help the planet:

  • Offset your yearly CO2 output.

    • You create CO2 when you drive, heat/cool your home, take a shower, turn on the TV or charge your cell phones etc. You can use the EPA Carbon Footprint Calculator to figure out how much CO2 your family produces: https://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/

    • Then go donate to offset that CO2: https://www.cooleffect.org/ . I have been researching these charities for over a decade and Cool Effect puts almost all of its donations towards CO2 offsets, not other unrelated expenses.

  • Stay put today!

    • Driving around needlessly creates tons of CO2, literally. Think about skipping that extra trip to the grocery store, biking/walking somewhere instead of driving or carpooling with neighbors to reduce the gas you burn.

  • Switch your home power to WIND!

    • No, you do not need to instal a windmill to do this. There is an amazing organization that takes over your monthly electric bill and pairs your consumption with wind power being generated around the country. This is a great way to eliminate a lot of your CO2 emissions every month with just a click of a button. Plus, their service can save you money by automatically picking the cheapest provider in your area.

    • Just go to their website, enter your electric utility info and sign up. They will source 50% of your energy from wind for free. For a small fee they will source 100% from wind.

    • Their online dashboard shows you your monthly impact:

  • Eliminate ‘ghost’ electricity use in your home.

    • About 25% of your power use every day is from devices that are plugged in but not being used. Getting rid of this waste not only helps save the planet by reducing your electricity use, it also can save you a significant amount of money.

    • The biggest culprits are cable boxes, computers (and accessories) and chargers (phone, tablet etc). These devices are sucking power 24/7 as long as they are plugged into the wall. Here is what you can do:

      • Unplug devices that are rarely used. Yes it is inconvenient to have to plug something in when you have to use it but if it goes unused for more than a day or so it is worth pulling the plug.

      • Use power strips on devices you use more often. Plug your computer, printer, speakers etc into a power strip and flip that switch when you are not at the computer. It takes seconds to turn the power back on and it will save you hours of juice that would otherwise be wasted. My power strip on my nightstand has six devices on it and only goes on at night saving about 16 hours of use every day!

      • Check the settings on your devices. Cable boxes notoriously use about the same power as a standard refrigerator. Most have an energy saving setting that reduces power use after an hour or two of not being used. (Your DVR won’t miss a single show.)

  • Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

    • We drill these three words into our campers’ heads all summer.

      • Use less ‘stuff’! Carry a reusable water bottle instead of buying bottled water. Use washable tupperware instead of plastic ziplocks. Make your home more energy efficient by insulating pipes, replacing all lightbulbs with cheap LEDs, minimizing your use of air conditioning and turning your water temperature down a few degrees. Simple steps can make a big difference.

      • Reuse everything! Single use plastics are choking our waterways and destroying our environment. Repurpose stuff that you would normally throw away (I love using plastic packaging as trash bags and turning old clothes into mountain bike grease rags).

      • Recycle what you can. If your community recycles you should take advantage of it. Clean and sort everything the best you can and remove labels and stickers from plastic, glass and tin products. Grocery store plastic backs can be dropped off at the grocery store or your local WalMart for recycling.

There is so much more you can do but just thinking about your impact and getting started is a major step. Happy Earth Day. Get outside!

-Evan

five ways to deal with feeling intimidated

Ever go to do something and not know how to start? No matter how you approach it you just feel like you will never be able to succeed so what is the point in trying at all?

The feeling of intimidation is daunting. It discourages us from trying new things, from sharing our accomplishments and from being the best we can be. Intimidation is born from many sources: a peer who is 'good at everything', a preconceived notion of how you should look/perform/interact or pressures felt from companies/celebrities displaying their concepts of perfection. One of the biggest intimidation sources is social media. It is easy to think that everyone out there is cooler, better, happier, more popular etc etc than you based on their curated Instagram feed or flawless 'Snap Streak'. 

Surely everyone has felt intimidated at one point or another so here are our Top Five Ways to Deal with Intimidation:

  1. Be confident in your own path. - You make choices every day that shape your life. Those choices make you who you are. As long as you are happy with the path you are on do not worry about what others may think and stay true to yourself. 
  2. Public image ≠ reality. - People generally do not post bad pictures of themselves. People generally do not let you know about their failures. No one is perfect and whenever it seems like person x is living the dream and better than you at life just remember that they have their own fears and limitations that you may not know about. Do not compare yourself to someone else's ideals but rather focus on your own.
  3. Set goals. - The best way to ignore the crowd is to set some goals. These can be goals to a specific accomplishment or just daily goals like be a better person, help others and try something new. We help each of our campers set goals every day at camp and it allows them to tackle big things without getting overwhelmed. Break whatever you want to do into pieces, master each piece and put it all together to dominate.
  4. Seek help! - There are resources all around you. Parents, coaches, teachers, peers, online tutorials, the list goes on. If you want to do something chances are there is someone nearby that can help you out.  
  5. Disconnect! - Stop worrying so much about what others are doing and focus on what matters. Put your phone down and do not check social media for a few days. Likewise do not do something new just to post about it to your friends and followers: do it for yourself. 

So go learn a new instrument. Try out some public speaking. Ask out the person you have been scared to approach. Do something that would usually make you 'uncool'. Above all, when you feel intimidated by something just take a deep breath and dive in.