When: Saturday, August 9, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Winners announced at 4 p.m. Rain date is Sunday
Where: Crane Beach, Argilla Road, Ipswich
Cost: Teams pay $7 each plus the parking fee, $7.50 per car for members of The Trustees of Reservations, $22 for nonmembers. Non-competitors pay the parking fees only; cyclists and walkers pay $2 each.

The Annual Crane Beach Sandblast competition, one of the most popular north shore beach events, is being held on Saturday, August 9th. The theme of this year’s competition is focused on superheroes,  ”Super Heroes Go Green,” as in environmentally friendly.

Sand carvers compete in six divisions, from masters to kids. There’s also a  division for businesses and organizations, another for families, adults and teens.

Crane Beach fills up early. Arrive early (before 10:00 a.m.) or you may find the parking lot full. Gates open at 8 a.m. Crane Beach has a concession stand and facilities.

Fees: Teams pay $7 each plus the parking fee, $7.50 per car for members of The Trustees of Reservations, $22 for nonmembers. Non-competitors pay the parking fees only; cyclists and walkers pay $2 each. All proceeds benefit The Trustees of Reservations.

For more information, visit the Trustees of Reservations website.

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Thomas P. Bracken, A.D.C.R.G., a choreographer for the Duffin-Murphy School of Irish Dance, has taken over as Director. The former Director, Christine Duffin, has left to pursue other interests.

Formerly known as the Duffin-Murphy School of Irish Dance and located on Bridge Road in Salisbury, Thomas will be changing the name to the Bracken School of Irish Dance in September.

A native of Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland, Thomas is a graduate of University College Dublin and has specialized in education and the Arts for the past 25 years. His experience as a senior high school administrator facilitates the educational foundation of this dance school. He also holds the highest accreditation afforded to an Irish Dance teacher which is the equivalent of the Masters Degree.

Thomas has conducted master classes throughout the US, Canada and Australia for the past 20 years and he had the honor of judging at the World Irish Dance Championships on a number of occasions.

A number of Mr. Bracken’s former students now grace the stage in both Riverdance and Lord of the Dance and have toured the world extensively and was ranked #12 in North America by Irish Dance Magazine International in its league of most successful Irish Dancing Schools.

While the school is very accomplished in competition and performance, its goal and mission is to introduce and expose this cultured art form to as wide an audience as possible, so that they may enjoy it and add it to their cultural experience in life.  The school shares the joy and discipline of an age old genre of dance which has become a modern Broadway sensation.

Classes are currently being offered for beginners through champions at the former Duffin-Murphy School of Irish Dance at 102 Bridge Road, Salisbury, MA.  Special ALL Boys classes are available. 

To inquire or register for classes, please contact Heidi at irishdancens@comcast.net or 978-994-5664. 
 

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This saturday morning at approximately 7:45 a.m., the Cape Ann Rowing Club will kick-off the 22nd Annual Blackburn Challenge in Gloucester in the Annisquam River near the railroad bridge.

The Blackburn Challenge is a 20+ mile open water circumnavigation of Cape Ann. Participants row or paddle small boats in the open ocean waters around Cape Ann, and conditions can vary dramatically throughout the day. Occasionally the water can be very rough, with strong winds and high waves.

The Blackburn Challenge is open to all seaworthy oar or paddle powered craft. Classes include men’s and women’s Banks dories, fixed seat singles, doubles, multi-oars with cox, multi-oars without cox, sliding seat singles & doubles, single & double touring kayaks, single & double racing kayaks, surf skis, and outrigger canoes, in about that order.

A staggered start by boat class begins at 7:45 a.m. and continues until approximately 8:30 a.m. when all the craft have made their entry into the race. You can view the finish at Pavilion Beach on Stacy Boulevard in Gloucester, which is pretty close to where the Gloucester Fisherman statue is located.

The boats start arriving at the finish line at approximately noon time.  Award ceremonies & Festivities are held at 3:00 p.m.

The Blackburn Challenge both celebrates and helps to keep alive the story of Howard Blackburn’s desperate mid-winter 1883 rowing of a small fishing dory from the Burgeo Bank fishing grounds to refuge on the south coast of Newfoundland.

Blackburn and his dorymate Thomas Welch had become separated from the Gloucester fishing schooner Grace L. Fears during a sudden squall and found themselves nearly sixty miles from the nearest land. Over the course of the ensuing five-day ordeal, Welch would give up and succumb to a merciful death, whereas Blackburn would allow his bare hands to freeze to the shape of the oars, and row until he reached land.

Though Blackburn survived he ultimately suffered the loss of most of his fingers and toes due to frostbite. In spite of his handicap, he later went on to twice sail solo across the Atlantic Ocean, earning himself the title “The Fingerless Navigator”.

For more information on the Blackburn Challenge, visit the following website:

• The Blackburn Challenge

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 For a complete schedule and pricing, visit the Clipper City Gymnastics website.

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The 3rd Annual Ray Larnard Memorial Golf Tournament will be held on Friday, July 11 at Apple Hill Golf Club in East Kingston, NH. Registration is from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

All proceeds from the tournament will go toward scholarships for two Amesbury High students, a donation to be made to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and contributions made to an education fund for Ray’s young daughter.

This is the third year of this tournament. The 2006 event fielded more than 72 golfers and 37 hole sponsors and was a fun and celebrated day. In 2007, there were more than 80 golfers, 4 cart sponsors and 24 patron and hole sponsors.

The Golf Participant’s Fee of $100 includes:

• Golf greens fees and use of golf cart
• Opportunity to purchase “mulligans” at registration
• Ticket to awards/banquet dinner catered by “Wings Your Way”
• Ticket for Grand Prize and other raffles
• Closest-to-Pin contest
• Longest Drive contest (Men’s and Women’s)
• Closest-to-Pin on 2nd Shot contest
• Longest Drive with Opposite Hand contest (Men’s and Women’s)
• Longest Drive Blindfolded contest (Men’s and Women’s)
• Las Vegas Betting Hole contest

Website:

• Ray Larnard Memorial Golf Tournament website

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Clipper City Gymnastics is having its 26th annual gymnastics show on Sunday, June 22 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.at the Rupert A. Nock Middle School, Newburyport.

Tickets for the show are $7.00.

For more information visit the Clipper City Gymnastics website.

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Once again this new trend is moving from the west coast to the east coast. Though paddleboarding has been around for a long time in Hawaii, it’s only during the past few years that it’s made its way to California.

The main difference between traditional surfing and stand-up paddleboarding is that the stand-up surfer on the paddeleboard is on a longer, wider, fatter board, which he or she stands on and uses a long paddle to move through the water.

While looking slightly awkward, the paddleboarders can still catch waves like a longboard. One of the selling points of stand-up paddleboarding is that during days of bad waves, paddleboarders can still go out to get some exercise while the regular surfers are sitting on the beach.

Even on the west coast where trends and fads are adopted faster than you can change a pair of shoes, stand-up paddleboarding has been slow to catch on with traditional west coast surfers.

It’s only a matter of time, however, before we start seeing stand-up paddleboarders at the beaches and in the coastal waters of Greater Newburyport, Cape Ann, New Hampshire and southern Maine.

View the following video to see what stand-up paddleboarding is all about.

For more information on stand-up paddleboarding, read the following articles:

• Paddle Boarding Trend Making Waves Among Traditional Surfers by Zeke Barlow,Sunday, June 15, 2008, Ventura County Star

• Stand Up Guy, Forbes Magazine, June6, 2008, by Finn-Olaf Jones
  

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The Intertown Twilight League was founded in 1929 and is the oldest active amateur baseball league in the country. A fact that has been recognized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The ITL fields teams from Beverly, Hamilton, Ipswich, Manchester, Rockport, Rowley, & Topsfield. Most of the players are college or former college/high school players; a few have had professional experience.

The baseball fields used by the Rowley, Ipswich, Hamilton and Topsfield teams are pretty easy drives from Newburyport.

Check out their website for more information and their game schedules.

Website: Intertown Twilight League

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The annual Newburyport Wall of Fame Golf Tournament will be held Thursday, August 7 at Ould Newbury Golf Club.  The cost is $75 per player with four players per team.

For more information, please contact Roger Fuller at 978-465-8029 or jefuller61@comcast.net.

Website: Ould Newbury Golf Club

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Amesbury chiropractor Dr. Eric Cutting is offering a free “Get On The Ball” class on Wednesday, June 18, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Carriage Room at Amesbury Health Center, 24 Morrill Place, Amesbury.

The free class will demonstrate how to strengthen the body by training the core muscles that stabilize it. Class participants will use a stability ball to learn how to do full-body opening stretches.

All fitness levels are welcome to attend the class.

You must register in advance to attend. Please call Joyce at Cutting Chiropractic & Healing at 978-388-7133 to make your reservation.

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