The Expert Center

Lots of great information on all facets of kayaking HERE. Highly recommended browsing.

Oskar Speck

to quote...

"Oskar Speck's route from Europe to Australia. Most travellers make this trip in a few weeks by liner, or in a few days by air. But Speck took seven years - paddling his tiny craft close to coasts wherever possible, risking the open ocean when he could find no other way."

This is a very interesting read of Oskar Speck's incredible seven year journey - from 1932 to 1939 - presented in three parts.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Telegraph Cove to Glencoe Cove Park

Was a gorgeous evening for a dinner-time paddle. No-one on the water. Met ~N at Telegraph Cove and had a very nice decompression paddle. Stress drifts away with time on the water.

Thanks my friend for a very relaxing paddle. Your choice of locations was excellent.
~d

Time on water - 2.5 hours

Oak Bay Marina to Trial Island

It was an absolutely fantastic day for a paddle out to Trial Island. Great company, sunny weather, calm water with a little bit of action in Enterprise Channel to play in. Saw a California Sea lion, Harbour Seals, Oyster Catchers, and lots of intertidal critters. Seems, by the sheer amount of sea-life, that they like the nutrient rich water that rushes around during tides.

Big thanks to all, I thoroughly enjoyed the day!

~daniel~

Time on water - 4 hours
Time volunteer guiding - 4 hours

Swartz Bay to Porlier Pass to Tillicum Bridge

Just got back from a three (and a half) day, at least 180km (need to check though as I used straight lines to plot course from memory in Google Earth), hopscotch around the more northern Gulf Islands. I'd hoped to make a loop around Gabriola but had to shorten up the trip because of wicked (by my standards) Nor'westerlies coming down from Nanaimo.

Swartz Bay to Porlier Pass to Tillicum Bridge.

Day one - Left Swartz Bay at 2000hrs, arrive Vesuvius Bay 0200hrs.
Day two - Left Vesuvius Bay 1100hrs. arrive Wallace Island 1430hrs. (made lunch, relaxed two hours)- left Wallace Island 1630hrs. played in Porlier pass, grounded due to rough weather at Refuge Cove for one hour, arrive Montague Harbour 2000hrs.
Day three - Left Montague Harbour 0800hrs. arrive Portland Island 1300hrs. left Portland Island 1800hrs. arrive McNeil Bay 2300hrs.
Day four - left McNeil Bay 0600hrs. arrive Tillicum 1000hrs.
Total trip time - 58 hours.

*Note - Times are very approximate as I was pushing hard and only keeping the most rudimentary notes on weather and current. I've also included weather archive links for the individual days. Click on the paddling day.

Did a quick calculation and speed averaged was 3.7 knots over entire trip.

...more to come

Time on water - 26 hours

Route followed below.

Discovery/Chatham Islands and Pool Session

Paddled out to Discovery and the Chatham Islands for a Sunday group paddle. Launched at Oak Bay. Weather was absolutely perfect and water was calm. Time on water - 4.5hrs.

Had a pool session to work on my off-side rolls. Quite pleased with the results.
Time on water - 2 hrs.

Time on water - 6.5 hours (two outings)
Time volunteer guiding - 4.5 hours

This is a wonderful National Film Board of Canada movie... some of you may remember it with as fond memories as I. I believe Bill Mason was involved in this one. For those of you unfamiliar with him I'd highly recommend reading his books and looking for his films.



Part One


Part Two


Part Three


...a really cool integrated coaming and dashboard idea. Could I do this on 'Humble Pie'???


...fishing handline setup. Note the rubber shock cording. Use bowline knots.

The Gorge with Kyle

Met my nephew at Craigflower schoolhouse for a paddle on the Gorge. He paddled 'Tassie' and I paddled 'Humble Pie'. First time out and the young fellow was performing rescues like a pro. I dumped half a dozen times in the the three hours we were out. I've yet to master a forward stroke of any signifigance with the K1. Crawl, walk, and THEN run... repeat. I can brace and balance the beastie nicely though.

My rescuer was exploring edging, strokes, and turning with remarkable comfort. We'll be at the pool practising wet exits and self rescues sunday after next.

Thanks Kyle!

Time on water - 3 hours
Time volunteer instructing - 3 hours

...and I found this photo of a beautiful piece of drift-stump art.

One more time cuz... well... cuz I feel like it... Tassie and I in the pool.

Photos of areas along Coast of Washington.
http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~walpole/Flattery.html
http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~walpole/Neah.html
...all from Jonathon Walpole's photo pages here --> http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~walpole/kayaking.html

Excellent photo albums of SOF's (also hypalon and neoprene applications) HERE

Hypolon coatings for SOF kayaks (as recommended by Tom Yost) HERE
...and liquid neoprene coatings for SOF (also recommended by Tom Yost) HERE

Roberts Bay and Tsehum Harbour

Nice waves coming into Roberts Bay today. Winds were 20+knots from South and Southeast, gusts above that. Waves were refracted into the bay from Roberts Point and rose up nice and clean. Roberts Bay is an interesting place, very shallow, with a silty bottom. Forecasts were for 30 knots in the afternoon but the winds died down around 1330 hours. Intermittent showers didn't bother me one bit once I was in my drysuit. Next time the wind is howling from the South I'll come here to paddle, especially on a low tide.

'Tassie' and I surfed some baby surf for a few hours in the morning, and then went out to play in the rough stuff nearer the marker. Chop was pretty big with some white caps breaking. Lots of fun! I sure missed my baby, feels great paddling her again.

Finished the day with an easy calm-water cruise around the multitude of marinas in Tsehum Harbour. Lots of interesting boats to look at... a beautiful little tug that has obviously seen some recent love caught my eye this time.

Had a very pleasant and thoughtful conversation over a cup of hot tea with ~P to finish the day of paddling.

Time on water - 5 hours

Cattle Point and Portage Inlet

Whoosh... lotta paddlin' yesterday.

Met ~N for a paddle off Cattle Point and a saunter around Cadboro Bay. Beautiful day to be on the water, with a mild breeze from the North, enough sun to stay warm but not enough to make it too warm. Sure feels great being back in 'Tassie' again... almost felt like I was cheating on her when I was paddling the K1. Still deciding on a name for it... at this point 'Humble Pie' is the most fitting.

Thanks my friend, really enjoyed the outing.
Time on water - ?3.5 hours

Full Moon at Midnight paddle.
Couldn't let a full moon, really high tides, and oddly warm night temperatures go to waste so I went for a second paddle on Portage Inlet... the recent high tides flushed it out nicely. Due to exceptionally high water levels I was able to get a long ways up both the rivers that feed into it. I ended up doing a complete circumnavigation of the entire inlet and the Gorge down to Tillicum Bridge and back. Nice currents flowing in under the bridge so I took the chance to practise ferrying across the current and back-eddies, many of which were sharply shearing in opposite directions. Great place to practise!

Worked on my sprinting and endurance and gave myself times where I could settle down into a touring pace. Tried to keep my knees off the braces as much as possible and maintain balance through my butt cheeks. Really helped me get that nice smooth, powerful stroke, vertical along the hull.

Full moon showed it's face a few times through the wee hours, often surrounded by a glowing halo of clouds.
Time on water - 5.5 hours.



Time on water (two outings) - 9 hours

Are you paying attention? ;O)

...a goldmine of the best Greenland vids I've ever seen. This man can paddle!!!

This little tidbit from a Paddlewise email.

From: Duane Strosaker
Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Catalina for Lunch Crossings, 38 NM-Video Report

snip... I'm 5'10" tall and at first I used GPs that were 88" long. In the surf it felt a bit long, so I made an 84" long one, which felt really good for distance too. Since then all of my GPs are 84s, and I use them for everything: crossings, touring, rock gardens and surf.

On crossings I try to eat about 250 calories each hour and drink at least every half hour. Typically for the 19 NM Catalina crossings I'll drink 3 quarts of water. I only stop long enough to drink, eat and pee. You may be interested in my group crossing procedures: http://www.rollordrown.com/tips/cross.html

I don't worry about actual speed. How my body feels is much more important. On long paddles I try to think of doing walking effort, a pace you could do all day and still enjoy it. On one crossing, a friend took the lead for an hour, and during that time, he really jumped up the speed.

Afterwards, I asked him why he paddled so fast. He said his GPS (I hate them) indicated we were going a speed that he didn't think was fast enough, so he speed up to what he thought was a good speed. I told him to "F" the GPS and go by how the body feels.

As far as avoiding cargo ships, a few times I've been in the fog and avoided them by listening to their horns, which they are required to blast in the fog. If you can cross a street safely, you can cross shipping lanes safely. It's the pleasure boaters zigzagging all over the place that freak me out.

Duane
Southern California

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...and I'd like to share THIS brutal slap of reality with others. Makes me evaluate the impact of my choices on my family and friends. No sport is 100% safe and it's up to each of us to make good, well-informed, and unfettered decisions EVERY time we paddle. I honestly try my best, try to stay objective and aware, and I hope that I never become a sad story for others to take heed from.

I'd like to think my years as a go-deep, go-grotty, caver prepared me for the tough decisions. Thanks Brad.

~d

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An interesting read that might help prevent shoulder injuries HERE.

Some interesting new links on K1 paddling techniques. Most of which are refinements of basic kayak skills. Thanks to Peter for pointing me this way.

http://www.olympiatoppen.no/fag/basistrening/Idrettsspesifikkeovelser/idrettsteknikker/page194.html technique videos of Norwegian Eirik Verås:
...and
http://flatwater.info/ Lots of good video footage at Flatwater.info
...and
http://bloggen.motionspaddla.nu/ In Swedish but Lars Ericsson offers some excellent information on his blog.

Emptying a flooded kayak

I'm looking for the best way to empty an unbulkheaded kayak on the water and came across this on QajaqUZA's site. Remains to be seen if it works but I'll try it out.
~d

"I use the technique that Chris Cunningham shows in his book Building The Greenland Kayak. Stand at the bow of the kayak with the kayak right side up, push down on the bow so that the water will all flow down to the bow and hold it there for a minute. then quickly lift the bow and rotate the kayak so it's upside down and the water will run down the fore deck and out the cockpit. This works very well for me. Hope it makes sense."

Dewatering_And_Self_Rescue.pdf

Who designed this thing?

Look at the girth of this kayak... yikes. Hate to be the guy paddling this mule in anything but a tail- wind. I'd call this a case of severe over-compensating for a perceived flaw.

Becher Bay and Pool Session

Paddled with the Sunday group out from Becher Bay to the point. Weather was warm and the paddle pleasant. Ten paddler's in total. Really nice way to spend a day. Hopefully I'll get out on more of these as I'd like to continue developing and refining my guiding style with groups before I decide if it's what I want to do for a partial living. I tend to be very watchful, a result of my emergency response background. Safety first, especially with an unknown group with unknown skill levels. I'll loosen up a bit now that I know the paddler's needs and styles better.
Time on water - 4 hours.

Went to the pool for a training session in the K1, balance keeps getting better, only thrown off twice all night and diabolically sucker-dumped by an evil, evil man... all in good fun of course... *wink*

All this sculling is giving me bulges where I don't seem to remember there being bulges before.
Time on water - 2 hours

Couple of videos of Harvey Golden, kayak historian showing off one of his favourite kayaks. Not too keen on the idea of denim for paddling... but hey, who am I to dress others. Cotton is truly nasty when wet though.






Time on water (two outings) - 6 hours
Time volunteer guiding - 4 hours
Time volunteer instructing - 1 hour

Portage Inlet and Pool Session

Spent 3 and one half hours paddling the K1 in Portage Inlet and the Upper Gorge. What a slimey mess in the farthest reaches of the inlet... ewwwwwwww.

Good news is that my head didn't go under on the capsizes, the bad news is that I accidently ended up in a disgusting oil slick which left all my gear slimey... took the hose and shower to it all. Big thanks to my paddling partner for the day Neil for repeatedly pulling me out and helping me get the water out of my... errrr... the... (as of yet unbulkheaded) hull. The pace wasn't fast most of the time, in fact it bordered on full turtle ahead.

Later on went to the pool and kept her upright for most of the night. Few spills but my balance is improving dramatically now.

Canadian Champion Adam Van Koeverdan has beautiful technique.


He's in #3, white kayak with red nose in this one...


bunch more...




...above all, paddling should be fun!



Time on water - 6.5 hours
Time volunteer instructing - 0.5 hours