Spraymasters Water Ski Club: Skis Optional

Posted on by farlane

Barefoot Ski Line

Barefoot ski line, photo by Mark Zacks

This looks like fun. The Spraymasters Water Ski Club says:

Our team was founded in 1987 by Bob Dowling. We have continued to grow and perform since then. For anyone unfamiliar with show skiing, it is made up of exciting acts that are not normally seen in recreational water skiing. These acts include barefooting, ballet line, doubles, swivel skiing, and pyramids up to four tiers high.

Throughout the summer, we perform our themed shows at our home site on Big Lake in Davisburg, Michigan. We also perform numerous shows for other lake associations and organizations around the state. Furthermore, Spray Masters is a part of the National Show Ski Association (NSSA). The team competes in several tournaments each summer as a team as well as individual performances.

The team starts preparing for each season before the ice is even off the lake. Beginning in February we practice in a gym learning the new moves we are going to perform that year. We practice pyramid climbing, doubles, trios, showmanship and dances. We usually start water practices in May and practice twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the summer. Our first show is usually in late June, and continue through late August.

Head over to their website for a calendar of their performances.

View Mark’s photo background big and see more of his lake photos on Flickr.

More summer wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.

Blizzard beats boat: The Blizzard of ’78

Posted on by farlane

Capsized and Ice Locked

Blizzard beats boat, photo by John Russell

Oh ice, I can’t stay mad at you, even when you misbehave like this.

Associated Press photographer John Russell shared this photo from January 29, 1978. He writes:

My office 37 years ago: Marty Lagina stands on the frozen pier at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy on January 29, 1978, viewing the capsized training vessel Allegheny, which capsized from ice buildup during the Blizzard of ’78. This image was on assignment for TIME magazine, who had seen my b&w image on the UPI wire and wanted a color image.

Marty and I were lucky – the sky cleared and the wind stopped for about 20 minutes, then the storm began again. I wondered at the time who TIME knew to make that happen….

The photo was taken in Traverse City, ground zero for the blizzard Seeking Michigan shared info about one of Michigan’s most significant winter storms:

On January 26-27, 1978, snowstorms with fifty-to-seventy-mile per hour winds pummeled much of Michigan. Snowfall totals ranged from eighteen inches in Lansing to an incredible fifty-one inches in Traverse City. More than 100,000 cars were abandoned on roads and highways, and travel was impossible for days. Governor William G. Milliken declared a state of emergency on January 26 and activated the National Guard to assist with the cleanup. The governor also requested financial assistance from the federal government and estimated damage totals to be more than $25 million, not including lost productivity from workers who were unable to get to their jobs.

Click through to view his photo bigger and friend John on Facebook – his “My Office” series is a great look at what’s happening all over Michigan.

PS: Sorry for all the pics from Leelanau/Traverse City lately. Sometimes it just works out that way…

Coming Home

Posted on by farlane

Coming Home

Coming Home, photo by David Frey

David got a great shot of the SS Badger car ferry arriving in Ludington on its last crossing of Lake Michigan for the 2014 season.

View his photo background bigtacular and see more of his Ludington photos right here.

More SS Badger pics on Michigan in Pictures!

 

A beautiful day on Partridge Bay

Posted on by farlane

Partridge Bay

Partridge Bay, photo by Cory Genovese

It’s raining like crazy here in Traverse City this morning, so let’s take a trip back to last summer and up to Partridge Bay, just north of Marquette on Lake Superior.

View Cory’s photo bigger, see more in his Portfolio slideshow and definitely follow him at PhotoYoop on Facebook!

More Lake Superior beauty on Michigan in Pictures.

Enjoy your New Year’s Eve!

Posted on by farlane

086

086>, photo by mark5032001

Here’s hoping everyone has a safe & fun New Year’s Eve as we all bid farewell to 2012 and enjoy the first moments of 2013!

View this photo from Bay City’s 4th of July celebration on black and see more in Mark’s photos from Bay City.

Rainboat … aka the State of Michigan

Posted on by farlane

Sorry about the bad link this morning…

Traverse City 9-15-2011, by Mark O’shaughnessy

It was quite the double rainbow last Thursday in the Traverse City area. I was off to the right end of the bow in Suttons Bay but I couldn’t fit it all in in any of my photos.

The boat is the State of  Michigan at the Great Lakes Maritime Academy in Traverse City, a  training ship that allows cadets to put into practice the theory and skill sets taught in the classroom. The vessel is a:

…224-foot former Navy submarine surveillance ship Persistent, which is now T/S State of Michigan. The vessel is relatively new, having been built in 1986 as part of a series of 18 Stalwart-class T-AGOS vessels designed to tow highly sensitive sonar arrays for the tracking of Soviet submarines. As the Soviet threat diminished in the 1990s, the Navy decided to decommission the T-AGOS fleet, and in 1998 Persistent and sister ship Vindicator were transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard for primary use in drug interdiction.

See the specs and check it – and Grand Traverse Bay – out on their webcam!

See this photo bigger on Facebook and see more from Mark on his photography website.

Rail Car Ferry Michigan Central on the Detroit River

Posted on by farlane

Car ferry, Michigan Central, entering slip, Detroit River, photo by Detroit Publishing Co.

It’s kind of cruel to post a photo like this while it’s still November. I think we all know what’s coming though…

I spent some time learning about this photo I found in the Library of Congress aka maybe the coolest place on the internet. (You probably paid 3 cents for it last year, so check it out sometime). I finally found the same photo on the fantastic photo blog Shorpy. One of the commentors writes:

This is the Detroit side. The river flows extremely fast, and the ferry docks were set up so the boats always entered dock facing upstream. Michigan Central was built in 1884 by Detroit Dry Dock in Wyandotte, while Transport was built there in 1880. Both were cut down to barges by the 1930’s. A nearly identical boat, Lansdowne of 1884, survived in steam until 1970 for CN/Grand Trunk, until she blew a cylinder head (I remember the shock among the Detroit trainwatching community at the time).

You can see the Lansdowne of Windsor on Michigan in Pictures and check the comments at Shorpy for more including a shot of this location from the Ambassador Bridge in 1957.

See the photo background bigtacular at Shorpy.