88-year-old Broad Channel native iceboats across Jamaica Bay
By John Schilling
With New York City experiencing a historic cold stretch, the below-freezing temperatures have encouraged many to stay inside, while others have fully embraced the chilly weather to explore the great outdoors.
Last weekend, Dan Mundy Sr., the founder of the Jamaica Bay Ecowatchers, went iceboating across a frozen Jamaica Bay, the 18,000-acre wetland estuary surrounded by the Rockaway peninsula, Broad Channel, and parts of both Brooklyn and mainland Queens.
For Mundy, an 88-year-old Broad Channel native, iceboating isn’t anything new.
Photos courtesy of Dan Mundy Jr.
Dan Mundy Sr. went iceboating across a frozen Jamaica Bay last weekend.
Photo courtesy of Dan Mundy Jr.
Photos courtesy of Dan Mundy Jr.
“He used to build ice boats with his brothers and other neighbors,” Mundy’s son, Dan Mundy Jr., told The Wave. “This recent cold has allowed [him] and others to get back out on the bay and enjoy the cold weather.”
According to Mundy, New York City’s current cold stretch marks the first time since 2014 that Jamaica Bay has been frozen enough to allow for iceboating, proving that even during record-setting cold, the beloved estuary remains a living, dynamic place of recreation for longtime locals and all those who live in the surrounding communities.