Stephen Shore - photographer

  

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/23/arts/design/stephen-shore-photography-book-early-work.html?smid=url-share

North of Ordinary - the Arctic Challenge- Tulane University

Tulane University is not the kind of place where polar dreams are likely to flourich.

My duaghter went to grad school there a the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

I associate New Orleans with sweltering summer heat, and  once took a boat ride to see alligators in the wild.

But here we are.

The ARCTIC Challenge

By Mary Sparacello

Hannah Walker Huppi (B ’11) and John Huppi (SSE ’11, A *14) made history this summer as part of a four-person crew that completed an impressive, 584-nautical-mile, unassisted row across the Arctic Ocean.

The team’s time of 10 days and five hours broke the previous record by nearly five days, making them the fastest four-person crew to complete the crossing from Engvik, Norway, to Longyearbyen, Svalbard.

“We all are ambitious and competitive, but I don’t think any of us were expecting to smash it out

 of the water quite that much,” said Hannah Huppi.

Joining the Huppis were former New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham and retired Navy SEAL 

Andrew Tropp. The expedition marked a series of historic firsts: the first all-American crew 

to row the Arctic Ocean, the Huppis as the first married couple to complete the feat, 

Hannah Huppi as the first woman to do so, and Graham as the first Black person 

to accomplish the crossing.

The Arctic Challenge 2025 wasn’t just about breaking records — it was also about giving back. The team raised money for two New Orleans nonprofits: Laureus Sport for Good and Covenant House. Final totals are still being tallied, but the impact was central to their mission.

That sense of purpose helped carry them through the grueling conditions. Rowing during the Arctic’s Midnight Sun offered 24 hours of daylight, but because it was late in the season, the sun stayed low on the horizon — the result: constant fog and overcast skies.

To make the record, the team rowed two at a time in 90-minute shifts, with little more than 45-minute naps two or three times a day. Hannah battled the worst seasickness of the group. “I loved being on the oars because it was the only time that I felt good. For the first 36 hours or so, I couldn’t eat or drink. I was hallucinating, but I got through it.”

The Huppis were both on the club rowing team at Tulane, which is how they first met. After graduation, they rowed nationally and internationally, co-founded the New Orleans Rowing Club and opened ErgoFit, an indoor rowing studio on Magazine Street. John now coaches Tulane’s men’s and women’s rowing teams and teaches in the School of Architecture & Built Environment.

KEEP READING

Azalea Marie

"isn't she lovely, only a minute old" - Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life

 

Sailing like a Viking NY Times

To Study Viking Seafarers, He Took 26 Voyages in Traditional Boats https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/science/archaeology-vikings-fyringer-garrett.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

Newborn 6:45 EDT today - our daughter and granddaughter - isn't she lovely, just minutes old.

 

Chadwick House: 2025

 

Back on the Back River

 

 

Project Healing Waters

I met a man today who heads the Augusta, Maine chapter..  I was reminded of my late friend John  whose PTSD made sobriety difficult.  We were sailing buddies.  He was an adventurous solo sailor.  But the companionship that Healing Waters offers would have been a balm for him.

 

Project Healing Waters

"This journey has been a transformative one for me, especially in dealing with my PTSD as a disabled veteran.
The process of crafting a bamboo rod, the tranquility of fly fishing, and the victories in each catch are my own forms of therapy, healing me in ways traditional medicine couldn’t. It is a respite from my typical solitary existence and a welcome diversion that offers not just a physical activity but also an engaging and rewarding mental exercise."

Mikael Madsen - U.S. Army Veteran

Maine highway grooming

Football kills college diving teams

These twins were college divers. Then new NCAA rules changed everything.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/07/06/house-v-ncaa-nonrevenue-sports/