And so it starts... our first possibility of some tropical activity has been predicted. Tropical Storm Colin is cruising towards the east coast in a weak, unorganized fashion. Even though it's way to early to tell anything, people are already making crazy predictions and talking about head plus waves on the way. The buzz is back and you can hear it at the coffee shop and see it on the web at surfline and facebook. TS Colin is giving us the possibility of waves. I'll take that for now and sit tight and see what happens. What has caught my eye is the large system that just came off the western coast of Africa. Now if that thing gets organized then I'll really have something to talk about! Danielle I'm here in NH waiting for you, come give me a smooch!
Pioneers history lesson... Bathing Machines???
When I came into the shop today Steve started telling me about bathing machines. I've know Stevie long enough now to follow his tangents but I have to be honest, he lost me on this one. He pointed me at this website and away I went to learn the history of the so called bathing machine. I'll try and keep my description brief.
In the picture you can see it's basically a changing shack on a wheels. The bather would climb on in and put on his or her swimming suit. While that was happening the attendant/driver would use a horse to pull the bathing machine into water that was deep enough to be level with the carriage platform. The horse would then be attached to the other side of the carriage an a set of stairs would be placed on the ocean facing side. The bather would then exit the changing room and plunge into the water or the dipper/attendant would dip the bather, sometinmes rather roughly. When the bather had enough they would climb the stairs back to the changing room and proceed to put their beach gear back on. The attendant would then pull the carriage out of the ocean using the horse and then place the horse back on the ocean side. The bather would exit the bathing carriage in their Sunday's best and make their way back to the beach.
Remember at this point in history men and women were segregated on beaches and the bathing suits worn by women left everything to the imagination. (This was the law in England until 1901.) To allow women to change into their bathing suits in private and be able to enjoy the healing benefits of saltwater "without violating Victorian notions of modesty," the bathing machine was invented. According to the sources I've encountered, Benjamin Beale at Margate, Kent developed one of the first bathing machines sometime in the first half of the 1700s. Ocean bathing was commonly prescribed by doctors to combat against fainting, TB, and other know ailments.
Pretty crazy that people would go to this extent just to take a dip, but bathing houses were the rage back then and if you had some coin and wanted a little ocean swim this was your only option. Steve commented that the fish houses we have dotting our coast today are the modern incarnation of the long forgotten bathing machine. I hope that you found this as interesting and strange as I did and that you feel empowered to create your own bathing machine and kick it truely old school with me at the beach sometime. I'll be the guy in the porter potty duct taped to the red radio flyer and Stevie will be my dipper, you can't miss us.
Speaking of that time of year again UGGs are back in stock in FULL FORCE!!! Classics in tall, short, kids, lots of colors, lots of sizes. Grey is so hot right now and we have full size runs. As fall get closer our UGG selection will get smaller. If you want it to be a sure thing now is the time, strike while the UGGs are HOT!!!
Lots of skate product in the door today too. Powell decks, Bones wheels, and Bones bearings. The Bones skatepark formulas are hands down the best park wheel available. Try a pair and you'll never skate anything else at Rye again. Also come in and we can build you up a replica of the exact board that Nolan skates. You may not be able to skate anything like him but you have the opportunity to look just like him.
Skatepark tonight! Who's coming? Be there at 7ish.....
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