Joy on Misery Bay

Dear NEWJ,

1994 started off great. A long holiday weekend and there was going to be ice and wind! Knowing that the bay in Erie would be frozen soon, we put away our water boards and turned to ice and snow boards, our new Snowfers. Having ridden our Snowfers only twice before on relatively clean
ice in Canada, we were really looking forward to getting more time on them.

Misery Bay in Presque Isle State Park was mostly snow covered and swept by 30 mph winds on Thursday,
Dec. 30. We had a good day sailing back and forth
( I even had my photo taken by the local newspaper). The next day was continued gale warnings with 4" snow patches and intermittent bare ice. We cruised all day with our kite skiing friends.

After a Happy New Year, we came back to the same spot on Jan. 1. The ice got softer and wetter and by the afternoon, rain made it al quite slushy. By Sunday
morning the rain had deteriorated the surface so we took
off the optional ice blades and used our Snowfers with the basic snow blade, which allowed us to sail without
breaking through the surface ice.

The whole weekend was great because of our versatile Snowfers. Before this winter, when it snowed too much on the ice, we went snowboarding. My husband and I are avid windsurfers, so being able to hold a boom in our hands during winter is always a bonus. With the unpredictable weather conditions in Erie this January, our Snowfer got
us out on the ice. Thanks to Charles Chepregi, the Snowfer's inventor!

Debbie and Joe Krineski
Erie, PA