it's been a while!

Yikes! We have not posted since early May! We had such a busy, awesome season at the lake there just has not been time to sit down at the computer and type anything. The summer is winding down, though, so we can refocus some attention towards our neglected blog!

Last week I had an hour to kill so Tuckerman and I ran up Mt. Molly to take in the view of the lake. No foliage yet which means summer is still in full effect!

These late summer days are pretty awesome here at Merrymeeting. The end of the season is also a bit bittersweet as we say farewell to our barely used boats.

After camp we were booked solid with private lessons but both boats were sold early in September so the fun had to end. The Black NXT22 (Betty) went with its new family down the road to Rochester, NH while the blue NXT22 (Fred) is currently traveling across the country to Bend, OR! I gave both boats a full detail, oil change and topped off the gas for the new owners before they rolled out of the driveway.

On Fred’s last day at camp (Monday, September 26) we had a beautiful sunrise and calm water. That steam coming off of the lake is really just the nice warm water turning cold (although as of yesterday, September 21, the lake was still in the high 60’s!).

Just because the campers are gone does not mean there are no kids having fun at Water Monkey!

Finn and Kai have been taking full advantage of the entire property. The beach is now their private play zone and the upper property is a giant driving course for their Raptor PowerWheels!

That is it for now. As always you should follow our Instagram account (@watermonkeycamp) for more consistent posts. Coming in the next couple of weeks will be our season recap!

Get out and have some fun!

-Evan

april showers bring...may showers

As hard as I try I cannot control the weather. In the summer I wish I could snap my fingers and make the wind disappear on the lake. Come winter I would like to dance a jig and get a few feet a powder. Every fall…well fall in NH is pretty perfect. This spring, though, I have definitely been trying to will the rain away but have had no luck yet. It is great for our trees, grass and the health of the lake but is really delaying our landscaping, painting and outdoor work at camp (and keeping mountain biking trails too wet to ride).

These shots are typical of the weather lately. The lake is super high (and a wee bit chilly still). Up at the cabins I was on the roof blowing leaves and pine needles away and snapped this shot just before the sky opened up on me.

The bottom line is that, according to our instagram poll yesterday, 72% of you say the sun will make an appearance again someday and that is good enough for me!

See you outside!

first sets of the season!

This past weekend we got out on the water for the first sets of the season! Our boats are not in the water yet but luckily we have some friends who are not scared of some cold temps!

We met at 6AM and were treated to a gorgeous display of sunrise, fog, the moon and a perfectly glassy Lake Sunapee.

Our ride for the day was this gorgeous Nautique G23!

Thick wetsuits were mandatory with water temps in the low 40’s. It was a blast getting out on the surfer for the first time since October! It is pretty cool to look at these pictures with still-snowy Mount Sunapee in the background.

Thanks so much to the Cole-Tucker fam for having their boat ready this early in the season and inviting me to tag along! Reed - on the left above - is one of our campers and an absolute shredder on the wakesurf board.

The season is just getting started!

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

staff bios are up on the website

Well our 2019 staff is finally assembled! This is a unique season in that none of our 2018 coaches were able to return so we had to build up an awesome staff from scratch. I interviewed about 45 applicants (out of over 150 applications) and narrowed it down to these eight fantastic guys and girls.

Check out the staff here: https://www.watermonkeycamp.com/the-staff

They are stoked to meet all of our campers in just a couple short months!

-Evan