Paddling Planet

The following article first appeared in issue 29 of Ocean Paddler magazine, which was published in December 2011. Since it was published I have developed a possible third recurrence of skin cancer and it was surgically removed earlier this week. I now await the pathology report to see if any further surgery might be required. I have decided to publish the article in full here. By coincidence

Estoy cercano a estar malito.

Pero no creo que sea por el entrenamiento del miércoles sino por la llegada de la lluvia.

Mientras, he descubierto como funciona el Garmin Connect para poder colocar la información en Blogger.

Hay que darle a la primera opción del menú "Compartir", copiar el código y dejarlo caer.

Es una tontería, pero hasta que no lo sabes ...

Efectivamente, la media del otro día era de un poco más de 8 minutos por kilómetro.

Bien. Hay un gran ámbito de mejora.

Creo que mañana no habrá bici ni kayak ni nada. Pero falta ver como evoluciona la garganta y la lluvia.

Aún puede ser todo.

Seguiremos informando.

Day 7 – Friday 27 January. 7.24 am: We are leaving Buen Suceso at high water. We hope to reach the south west corner and edge round into the Beagle Channel if it is not too windy. 3.05 pm: We have seen hundreds of albatros along this stunning mountainous coast. A strong north westerly wind has made heading west hard work so [...]

The weather report was for stormy conditions, high seas, 4 to 5m, and strong winds. So  even there was no paddling this morning I went down to look at the surf and feel the power of the storm

Soon Hadas and Pupik came strolling up to the clubhouse, and over a cup of coffee I heard all the details of yesterdays close call

Yesterday morning the sea was beginning to turn from calm to stormy, G and R went out first on their Fenn surf skis and Shalom was on his short surf kayak out at the rock. By the time they came back the waves had gotten bigger and the sea was rougher. Just as they were turning to shore G capsized and from then on things went from bad to worse to dangerous. Mind you this is all second hand  info, but I heard it from 3 sources so its pretty accurate. After failing to get back on his surf ski and floundering in the now cold water G was beginning to feel pretty wiped out and worried, to say the least. R had not managed to help him and had been capsized by the attempts too. G had not worn a pfd and  by now was feeling helpless. By this time Shalom had seen what was happening and come to help, he separated G from his kayak because of the danger of getting pulled onto the reef , and towed the kayak back to the beach, in the meantime Z and I had arrived and Z gave G a pfd to put on .Z had to jump into the water and help G put on the pfd, in fact the first time he put iit on backwards and then had to jump back into hte water to correct this mistake. He got no help from G all the while. Then he towed G out of the danger zone until  shalom arrived.  This helped him float and gave a bit of warmth.  they could not help G in the water without danger of more capsizes and so tried to give moral support and encouragement. By this time Shalom had managed to get a dingy out and with some difficulty in the rough water pulled G into the boat and got him back to shore. G was badly shaken by  the incident , suffered from beginning hypothermia, exhaustion and panic, but after a hot shower managed to feel a bit better. He lost his paddle but his surf ski was saved. I'm sure that there are a lot of lessons to be learnt from this incident and will leave by saying that the least you should do is wear  your pfd ALL THE TIME , especially in rough water. The picture above shows Israel demonstrating how to hang on to your surf ski in rough water. Good if you can do it.

Ulrika Larsson/Green Adventures, Nick Cunliffe/Kayak Essentials och Oswestry Adventure Education anordnar festival borta på Anglesey i Wales. Festivalen har undertiteln ”en hyllning till havspaddlingen”. Datumet är 20-22 oktober 2012.

En festival med kurser, workshops, turer umgänge med mera.

Så här beskriver de festivalen lite kort:

Vad festivalen går ut på:
Vi bjuder in havspaddlare på alla nivåer för att bli en del av en 3 dagar lång kajakfestival för att hylla de allra bästa paddelvattnen i norra Wales. Vår bas är den världsberömda (i paddelkretsar i alla fall) ön Anglesey. Under festivalen kommer du att kunna ta del av ett spännande utbud av coaching, workshops, guidade turer, utflykter, presentationer och inspirerande kvällsunderhållning. Allt med havspaddlingen i fokus.
Coacherna som instruerar är alla välutbildade och många har vattnen kring Anglesey som sina hemmavatten. Du kommer att bli väl omhändertagen och vår strävan är att se till att alla, oavsett kunskapsnivå, ska trivas och bli inspirerade av miljön, människorna och det sociala umgänget.

Så här kommer delar av utbudet att se ut:
Tidvattenrace/Vitvatten/Surfing/Rock hopping/Båthantering/Ledarskap för 3*/4*/5* paddlare/
Framåtpaddelteknik/Praktisk navigering/Expeditionsplanering/Guidade turer

Länkar:

• Green Adventures
• Sea Kayak Essentials
• Oswestry Adventure Education
• Lite bilder från när Pia var där hösten 2011

A short video on Greenland rolling in South-East Queensland starring Stika and Toddy. This video is under license from Geggamoja Industries Camera and rolling: Greg and Moira Schwarz (additional footage by Tess Dodd) Paddles: Greg Schwarz custom laminated hollow-core Western Red Cedar .

It looks like there won't be a Vancouver Island Paddlefest this year. An announcement this morning on the Paddlefest website indicates that the event will take a break this year to develop future plans and strategies. "The Society recognizes the paddlesport industry has evolved greatly over the past 14 years and it is time to look at re-structuring the volunteer/business model to develop a new mandate which will accommodate the needs of the public as well as the contributing partners," said the statement.
Hopefully, Paddlefest returns next year as it's always a welcome part of the paddling calendar here on the island.

Hello from Buen Suceso Bay, on the east coast of Tierra del Fuego! Barry and I are  6 days into our kayaking trip and are having a great time.  The first few days down the Northeast coast were similar scenery to last year  with low sandy grey cliffs, gravel beaches and occasional wide peaty rivers. [...]

Earlier this year I had to take the Seaker down to Washington for a repair job and while I was down there the good people at Innova offered to loan me a couple of prototypes of their new Swing kayak, just released this year. The Swing comes in both a single, and a double version, and appears, to my eyes anyway, to be Innova's attempt to compete with the Advanced Elements kayaks, which have

A 1400 mile weekend trip to Michigan in January.  I wouldn't do it for anything other than to pick up a Kruger.  MarkP of Kruger Canoes is lending Alan and I his Kruger Cruiser for the River Section of the WaterTribe Ultimate Florida Challenge.  Read more about it here.

This striped 25m tower was built in 1832 near Fowey in South Cornwall, to distinguish Gribben (aka Gribbin) Head from neighbouring headlands, hence allowing safe approach to Fowey.

Because this is the internet, absolutely anything is possible, including building your own daymark.

 

Filed under: Lighthouses, South Cornwall

Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast, in the southeast corner of the lake, runs approximately 50 miles from the sand spit of Whitefish Point to the first safe harbor at Grand Marais, Michigan. As part of my Port Huron to Home trip in the spring and summer of 2011, I kayaked past this mainly undeveloped area. At the time, I wanted to paddle past it in two days to avoid getting stuck there during bad weather. In the end it took me five days, because of wind and waves. Out of the entire 800-mile trip, the Shipwreck Coast, also known as Superior’s Skeleton Coast, was the most hauntingly beautiful and monotonous section of the trip.

I wrote this description of kayaking Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast for a magazine article:

Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast runs approximately 50 miles from Whitefish Point to Grand Marais, Michigan. Its unending flat sand beaches backed with a boreal forest so dense that you can’t see past the first row of trees extend for as far as the eye can see. Few roads reach the shore, and it has little development. It feels like the end of the world, and a newspaper article that I stumbled across at Crisp Point Lighthouse described it as the “Loneliest Stretch of Shoreline in America.” While the beaches provide great landing sites for kayaks in calm water, the exposed beaches, hidden sandbars and shallow shoreline turn into a sea of forth when the wind blows.

The prevailing northwest wind wails across Superior’s surface and builds waves that converge at Whitefish Point. Add in fog, crystal clear waters that rarely rise above 50 degrees Fahrenheit and the fact that all ship traffic must squeeze past Whitefish Point to pass into the lower Great Lakes and you have the ingredients for ship collisions, wrecks and deadly disasters. Over 300 of Lake Superior’s 550 plus shipwrecks occurred along the Shipwreck Coast. In 1975, the 729-foot Edmund Fitzgerald, Lake Superior’s most famous wreck, floundered here in 30-foot waves just before it reached the safety of Whitefish Bay.^[i] The coast is so deadly that in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the U.S. erected and manned a series of life-saving stations along the coast. Daily, men walked the beaches from station to station looking for wrecks and survivors. I hoped to pass through the Shipwreck Coast in two days in calm weather.

When researching this area, I found a great description from  Lieutenant James Allen. He kept a journal during the Schoolcraft Expedition of 1832 to find the source of the Mississippi River. To reach the Mississippi, the expedition paddled, rowed and sailed across Lake Superior in several Mackinaw boats and birch-bark canoes. At the time, few, perhaps 1,000 American Indians, lived on Lake Superior’s shoreline.

 The whole of the coast passed to-day, presented a very plain bank of fine sand from twenty to a hundred feet high, and a continued forest of pine, generally small, but sometimes large and beautiful. A picturesque grove of white pine (Pinus strobus) of more than a mile extent along the lake, occurs about ten miles from our encampment. The growth is all large, and unmixed with any other trees, the pines straight, tall, without limb, and thickly set together, on level ground, as far back as wee could see.

We passed Twin [Two Hearted] river, twenty-four miles from Whitefish point. It is a small stream, and its mouth is so much filled with sand that it can only be entered by very light craft, and in smooth water. We have traveled to day forty-five miles. ^[ii]

I don’t remember passing the stand of pines described by Allen, but I expect that they had been logged by barons of the late-1800s. Closer to Whitefish Point, I did camp within a small grove of white pines similar to Allen’s description. I stayed there two nights to wait out a cold, rainy and windy day. The limbless pines provided no protection from the wind and my tent shook constantly. When I looked out the door a fine, airborne sand twisted and swirled around the tree trunks. The sand was slowly burying the trees and anything else around it. Nearby where I camped I found an outhouse half-buried in the sand.

After I finished kayaking the Shipwreck Coast, I met a National Park Service Ranger, who told me the story of his grandfather who worked for the U.S. Lifesaving Service or maybe the U.S. Coast Guard. Every day, he walked a desolate section of the coast. He would leave from one station and another man would leave from another. They’d meet at a shack located between the two stations. There they’d write their name in a log book to prove that they had walked the complete distance, and then they’d turn around and go back to their respective lifesaving station.

The park ranger, a weather elder with a big grey beard, remembered visiting the shack with his late wife when they were young. He reminisced about a photo of her crawling in through the window. The picture showed sand building up around the old hut. He tried to find it after his wife passed away, but found that it wasn’t there anymore. The sands of the Shipwreck Coast had devoured it.

My friend, Tim Gallaway kayaked the Shipwreck Coast a couple of years ago. Here’s what he wrote:

Unluckily, a strong east wind cooled the air as the day progressed, and I was going straight into it. The wind grew stronger all day. If I stopped for even a few moments I was blown backwards. It was miserable paddling. The wind fought me all day and the shoreline was an uninterrupted ribbon of sand. If the weather didn’t wear me down then the boredom and toil of paddling along the empty shore would.

I passed the mouth of the two-hearted river and camped east of the Crisp Point Light on a beach where cobblestones floated on the windblown sand like islands in a tropical sea. Black sand ripples flowed between the stones and sparkled in the brilliant sunset light. Driftwood abounded, and the only footprints I could find were my own.

The day was draining. There isn’t much more disheartening for a paddler than a solid, unyielding head wind. A climber or skier knows that the up-hill exertion will end and they will have gravity on their side for the way down. A kayaker isn’t so lucky. I was drained, physically and mentally, but I was making good progress. I would be off of The Skeleton Coast with one more good day’s paddle. ^[iii]

An experience that sounds surprisingly similar to mine, windy and stormy. The one feature that proved to prevent the mind numbing feel of the coast was the driftwood, dry and bleached grey from the sun, stacked up all along the shore, but most was pushed up against the dense forest where larger waves from the Gales of November deposited it in years past.

Between the sand and the evidence of waves, the disappearing buildings and the lack of humanity, the Shipwreck Coast feels like no other section of the Great Lakes. While roads reach it now in a few places, I’m sure that most kayakers experience a shore that is little changed since Allen’s trip in 1832. That could change. When I paddled it, I noticed newer summer and weekend cabins tucked back in the woods. I imagine that much like the rest of Michigan’s coast, that the Shipwreck Coast will be developed with condos, hotels, cabins and summer homes. If you want to experience it as Allen did, you should plan to take a kayaking trip there soon.

---

^[i] Stonehouse, Frederick, Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast, Marquette: Avery Color Studios, 1994

^[ii] Allen, James, Journal and Letters of Lieutenant James Allen, Expedition of 1832. U.S. House Executive Documents, No. 323, 23d Cong., 1 Sess.

^[iii] Gallaway, Tim, PaddlingLight: THE SKELETON COAST: Paddling Lake Superior’s Desolate Southeast Shore, September 5, 2011

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Kayaking Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast (Skeleton Coast)

Detta kreativa och snabba recept på glass med romrussin har jag fått av Jonas på bokförlaget  Calazo.

Rusa ut i köket när det är reklampaus. Plocka snabbt fram glass  ur frysen och sleva upp lagom mycket i favoritskålen. Ta fram vitlökspressen – jo, du läste rätt!! – och pressa lite russin över glassen. Avsluta med att ringla över rejält med rom. Sen fort tillbaka till soffan!

Nu behöver man ju inte göra som Jonas. Han tröttnade på en lyxig 15-årig El Dorado och använde den till sina romrussin. Spar  finrommen till avecen. En enklare Appleton Estate V/X duger gott!

Jonas, tack för tipset, men hur tusan gör du rent den geggiga vitlökspressen?

Enligt säker källa funkar det utan russin också!

Postat i:Övrigt, Lagrad rom Tagged: appleton estate, glass, rom

Pos: here Loc: Peninsula Brecknok Acc: tent Dist: 0 km Rain, rain, rain all day, is all what I can write today, not much of drying my clothes… At least the charging of my e-book through my laptop is working all right, hopefully lasting until Punta Arenas…this is not my favorite way of making (not [...]

Pos: here Loc: Peninsula Brecknok Acc: tent Dist: 21,8 km Start: 14:30 End: 20:20 It is a horrible feeling to be trapped in your tent while outside it’s raining cats and dogs…yesterday was the only about 80% dry day, but it was obviously, though I tried those short 3 km, too windy. Or I was [...]

Out on the water.

Even if the weather does not look so appealing from the hearthside,

it is always good once you are out on the sea.

article paru dans le Ouest France du Samedi 26 Novembre 2011.

We are about to lose our house...

Oh, our name will stay on the deed. Actually, it has happened before, and we face it again and with no fear. In fact, Lady Linda and I look forward to this new challenge in our lives. Still, one feels the energy building around here as we realize today is the day that our home of many years will slip from our control. It's no surprise. The signs have been present for several days now:
1. All sorts of miniature furniture has appeared in the family room
2. A car seat has been brought up from the basement.
3. There is a booster seat on one of the chairs at the table where we regularly eat.
4. A temporary bed rail has appeared on one of the beds.


It is inevitable...and only hours away. I must go and prepare. There is much to do: Charge camera batteries, etc. But have no fear. We have done this before and evolved better, stronger and happier for the challenge and the experience. After all, we survived her mother.

Day 6 – Thursday 26 January A bit windy this morning but not too bad. The sea looks calm from our sheltered position here. We are going to San Diego Cape at slack water and will continue round it if conditions look good. Hoping for ‘Buen Suceso’ – good success – in reaching the bay [...]

Nu är inte jag någon stor löpare, men kutar runt en del hemomkring för att få lite frisk luft och för att motverka barbapappamagen en del. Eller löpa, kuta och springa låter ju lite väl ambitiöst och sportigt egentligen. För min del är det mer toppluvebetonad lufsning, lite som med paddlandet alltså, det går sällan särskilt fort, men tid ute räknas ju så det gör ju inget om det tar en stund.

De senaste vintrarna har det i alla fall varit rejäl vinter även här i söder och jag har halkat runt med korta steg i vägkanterna där det varit minst is och i skogen har man fått springa i tät skog för att kunna ha nåt att ta stöd mot Förra vintern skulle jag köpa skor med dubbar och besökte en springbutik i Hbg och hörde av mig till ett par men det var slut överallt så det fick bli fortsatt halklufsning.

I år var jag ute i bättre tid och fick tag på varsitt par Icebugskor (ett par Hiko BUGgrip till mig och ett par Attla BUGrip till Pia). I år har det hittills varit lite snålare med rejäl vinter fast lite snö och halka har det ändå varit och vi har använt skorna en hel del. Första intrycket är att det är tokigt bra grepp och då inte bara på isiga och/eller snöiga partier utan även i skogen bland blöta löv, mossa och hala grenar. Råkar man hamna på asfalt (vad man nu där ska göra?) låter det roligt och man sliter säkert ut dubbarna rätt så kvickt?!

Riktigt skönt att lufsa runt utan att det ska kännas som om man ska trilla varenda steg och man vågar sätta foten på ett fallet träd eller mossig sten utan att det känns farligt. Blev lite sugen på deras kängor också, kanske kan vara nåt för både vintriga och blöta skogspromenaderna och ute på halkiga klippor i skärgården där i alla fall jag brukar ha oförmåga att hålla mig upprätt

Icebugs hemsida, www.icebug.se

Icebug på Prisjakt

54.6346 71.8206 21.8km 14.30 to 20.20 Peninsula Brecknok to late for full update and all is soaking wet = yuck!

This is the view that the solitary camper at Bracken Bay had as we impinged on his solitude. One by one, we appeared over his horizon.  The latest addition to our little band is Andrew in his nice new Etain.  Jim came in next...  ...followed by Tony to join Phil and I on the beach. The camper had pitched his tent in the field, which is just to the right of this photo. He came over

Siguiendo las reglas duramente aprendidas, añado un 15 % de tiempo al habitual para correr 46 minutos, marcando, desde que me he acordado, los cambios de las canciones y el punto medio, en tiempo del recorrido.

Hoy me he llevado el gps para desanimarme. Vaya espectáculo, en una mano el ipod y en otro el gps.

Dice que he corrido 5,83 km en 47,41 minutos. O sea, a 7,37 kph. O sea, a algo más de 8 minutos por kilómetro.

Bueno. Por volumen podría entrar en tiempo en los 10 km de Sagunto del día 26 de febrero. Extrapolando.

Lo bueno es que le he robado otro minutito al paso por pérgola. Y que la música ha ido bastante bien.

Empiezo calentando sin ritmo durante 5 minutos con el Peón del Rey de Negras (129), para pasar a Shoot to Thrill (140) directamente y saltar  ya a Antes de que cuente Diez, La Casa por el Tejado , Agotados de esperar el fin, Tubular Bells y llegar a una grandísma y desconocida canción hasta hoy para mí que es High Hopes, de Pink Floyd, todas ellas a 150, continuando con Friends will be friends y acabando con Divina, de Radio Futura. Poco ritmo, pero no se puede aumentar volumen y ritmo el mismo día ¿no?

Posiblemente, el próximo día sea el de pasar de 120 a canciones de 155. Pero para hoy tampoco está nada mal.

Al llegar ya no tenía fuerzas para hacer lo que inicialmente quería, que era correr otros cinco minutos con los Five fingers. Pero no daba para más.

El domingo conseguimos patinar un rato por la mañana. Sin tiempo, ni pulsómetro ni nada. Menos da una piedra. Y ayer natación. 900 metros. No está mal.

Pero lo mejor de la semana es que llevo yendo toda a trabajar en bici. Ya lo sé. Eso no es entrenamiento ni es nada. Conforme a las definiciones puristas. Pero es mejor que ir en coche. ¿No?

El viernes se tuerce todo. Lluvia. A ver si es verdad que sólo es el viernes o ni eso.

Seguiremos informando.

Vi besökte givetvis Havana Club-museet när vi var i Havana, Cuba.

Där fick jag syn på en nyhet för mig, Havana Club Selección de Maestros,  som enligt museets butik inte var avsedd för export. Given kandidat att köpa med hem alltså! Men när jag såg text om samarbete med Pernod-Ricard på flaskans förpackningen blev jag inte så lite misstänksam. Enligt butiken på museet så skulle den möjligen exporteras i framtiden, men just nu säljs den bara på Cuba…

Jo jo jo… Mycket snack! Nåja, den var grymt god och gick för svindlande 300 kr så det fick bli ett par flaskor. Väl hemma kollar jag Systemet och givetvis finns den på beställningssortiment, nr 87535 till 599 kr. Mycket snack var det ju, men grymt god är den, så visst det är väl en himla tur att den exporteras!

Seleccion Maestro är en 10-årig rom som blandats under ledning av Don Jose Navarro, master blender på Havana Club. Han har tillsammans med 5 kollegor valt ut 10-årig rom som sedan fått en finish på utvalda ekfat. Konceptet känns igen från deras Barrel Proof, och om jag förstått saken rätt kommer Selección de Maestros att ersätta Havana Club Barrel Proof.

Smaken då? Jodå, visst märks det att man plockat fram det bästa man har i lagret. Mörk i färgen, kryddig doft av kaffe, tobak, ganska torr i smaken, lite rökig med smak av ekfat och karamell. Perfekt balanserad – godis!

Riktigt snygg och stilig flaska som gör sig riktigt bra i barskåpet.

Gammal sockerrörspress.

Sockerrör, sockerrör och ännu mer sockerrör…

Hans namn nämns inte gärna – i stället säger man ”han med skägget”.

Trinidad på södra Cuba.

Vi, stranden och pelikanerna.

Det är kontrasterna som gör Cuba.

Tobaksodlare.

Helene i böljorna på Cayo Largo Sur, en pytte-ö 30 min flyg söder om Cuba.

Postat i:Lagrad rom Tagged: havana club, rom, romprovning

There are lots of arches and stacks on this section of the Moray Firth coast, but I was delighted to find this one on the Portsoy side of the West Head.  I've paddled here many times but not found this slender arch before. It's narrow, but looks like it can be paddled at most states of the tide. 



There are three narrow channels which cut straight through the West Head.  It's rare to get conditions which will allow easy passage through them all, but today was one of the rare days.  This is the widest of the three and even today the swell was being magnified through the gap.  Perhaps the best thing about these gaps is that they teach observation, timing and above all, patience.  In winter the cliffs are quiet but in the Spring and early Summer the racket and smell of thousands of seabirds adds to the special atmosphere.




Around the West Head and into Sandend Bay, I landed at the abandoned croft Redhythe before paddling on to Sandend where I had a break and ate my lunch.  The harbour entrance at Sandend is tiny and faces just about north, which means that in the winter the sun will almost always be in your eyes as you approach.  Not a problem today, but in the rough conditions prevailing here it can be tricky to judge correctly.




Heading back around to Portsoy I stopped at another small pebble beach.  Although the sun was touching this section,  a frost had formed below the high water mark.  Since low water had just passed, the frost must actually have formed during the morning.  It was certainly cold - the roof straps were freezing as I put the boat back on the car at Portsoy.

The 10 kilometres of this short route had taken me over four hours - mainly due to poking around all the little features of the cliffs.  All in all a nice winter afternoon!

Now here’s a bit of interesting news.  Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Makers of great big ships among other things.) has come up with this cool, efficient, and dare I say, “fun” way to cut up to 25 percent of CO2 emissions from large cargo carriers.  Heck, they’ll even go a bit faster as well!  The big idea?  [...]

Matt here with my first blog post for California Canoe & Kayak.  Last Friday I took a standup paddleboard to Yellow Bluff for the first time and it was challenging.  I hoped to arrive to perfect conditions and a smooth front wave that I could surf on.  The weather wasn’t great, but the radar showed a break in the rain from noon to 2pm that lined up perfectly with the 1:50pm max ebb.  By 12:15pm I paddled into the top of the eddy at Yellow Bluff without rain and with skies clear enough to see across the Bay.  Light winds from the south and strong currents set up an okay wave up front.

At first it was difficult to stay in position, but after several attempts I finally got a really nice surf.  Turns out it was a passing passenger ferry that created the wave.  The ferry wake mixed with the waves of the tide race and created a nice set of waves – up to 2′ each, at least four of them at peak height.

Between passing boats I made my way into and out of the current practicing ferry glides and maneuvering.  Balancing the board in such confused water is pretty difficult and bracing is absolutely crucial.  I found myself bracing much more than I would normally brace while in a sea kayak in those conditions.  After playing in the waves for awhile, I paddled up the tide race into the eddy above.  It was a workout paddling up current at a fast cadence and reinforces the need to develop proper stroke technique.  While taking a breather in the eddy above, another boat passed and by the time I made it back down to the tide race, the wake had reached the top and turned into four nice, steep, clean waves.  With more skills I would’ve spun the board around and tried to surf them, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen so I headed straight into them.  I couldn’t resist the chance to plow the board over those waves at a quick speed.  I did pierce cleanly through the top of one while maintaining my footing.  After the charge I pulled into the eddy, took a break and then played for another 20 minutes.  As I paddled back to Horseshoe Cove the rain began falling again, the skies grew darker and in my mind I began planning my next trip here.

If you’re going to venture out onto San Francisco Bay on a paddleboard, be sure to bring your skillls up to par first.  Take a course, practice as much as possible and learn what you’re doing on flat water before paddling in wind, chop, current or surf.  SF Bay is very complex so take the time to develop an understanding of tides and moving water before you consider paddling an SUP out there.

CCK is the only Bay Area paddling school with ACA certified SUP instructors and offers classes in Oakland and Half Moon Bay.  SUP classes resume in February – check our calendar for dates.  Book one today to improve your balance, technique & speed.

Sunrise at Maple Bay - the "companionship" of the changing morning sky.

Despite the need to be somewhat gregarious and convivial in the practice of my chosen vocation, I am very content to have the "companionship" of the natural world. An introvert (and really quite very thankful for that as I would not have the energy to be otherwise), I find respite in being alone...outside. Perhaps that is why the darkness of the early morning hours is so very special.

In our small corner of the world, when we step outside, we are usually greeted by the resident deer and the rabbits - neither of whom ever seem to need to sleep. In the darker shadows of the deep woods that surround our home, I always imagine there is at least one bear and one cougar eyeing our every movement - the slight feeling of apprehension that this thought brings is rather delicious after all. (Much better that this be a "delicious thought" to me than to them.)

On the water, as we launch and paddle out into the warm glimmer that promises the coming sunrise, we hear (first) and see (second) the ever-present seals and the sea otters. Tiny pulsing "disks", the tiny and virtually transparent jellyfish, hover beneath us, somehow visible in the dark sea. Sea birds are already stretching their wings and preparing for their day. I imagine the giant octopus and the other such sea creatures that inhabit the deep waters of the narrows, and feel a slight shiver. That strange amalgam, the feeling of both vulnerability and cosiness in the confined but comfortable cockpit of our narrow craft...again, it's delicious.

As do many of you, who find meaning and value in self-propelled activities such as kayaking, running, hill-walking, and hiking, we have discovered that there is a wonderful experience of companionship in nature. I will confess that an hour in a busy pub, filled with loud noises and frenetic movement, leaves me feeling overwhelmed and rattled. Perhaps that is why I show reluctance, when invited, to join with much loved and appreciated friends. The promised and anticipated ambiance and companionship with others would be broken by the chaotic miasma (perhaps a rather strong word) of disconnected voices, conversations, and clattering of cutlery, glasses and dishes. I would yearn for that gentleness in nature that, surprisingly, can even be felt on the days when gales rage and our heavy Vancouver Island rains are blown sideways.

Skies lightening over Burgoyne Bay on Saltspring Island.

The sound of the bow of my boat, gliding through the water, delivers a "voice" that I can hear. It is the same voice that was heard a thousand years ago by an indigenous paddler on these same waters. This familiar voice, speaks the same universal language today as it did in the countless millennia before recorded time began. The waves that caress, and sometimes crash upon, the sandstone shores feel like they are moving right along with us, enjoying our company as much as we are enjoying theirs. They are never far away. The creatures of land, sea, and air offer their companionship - sometimes even calling out to us. We call back, and maybe their "grin" is as wide as ours? Sometimes I feel we are sharing laughter together, we most certainly share curiosity and perhaps even delight.

Watching the sun rise through the "notch" at Burgoyne Bay, we feel as though we are fellow travellers "on the way". We know where the sun is going and when it will return to our familiar horizon.

In all of this there is "companionship".

It is a context where one can be alone...but rarely lonely.

Perhaps this is how Henry David enjoyed such good "company", in those quiet early morning hours, alone in his tiny cabin and around his lovely Walden Pond.

Pax,

Duncan.

Er du til roture over længere strækninger, så har Michael Jacobsen via Havkajakroerne indbudt til en tur rundt om Samsø den 8. til 10. juni 2012. Turen starter den 9. juni klokken 10 fra stranden tæt ved Østermarken 32, Nordby og er på ca. 70 kilometer. Om der ros med eller mod uret rundt aftales på dagen.

Det er gratis at deltage, men du står selv for mad, transport og selvfølgelig roturen. Du kan lade dig indkvartere i eget telt hos arrangøren, der selv vil deltage i turen. Ellers er der mange muligheder for indkvartering på Samsø. Turen er iøvrigt åben for alle typer både, der ikke benytter motor eller sejl, men er primært tiltænkt havkajak.

Tilmelding til Michael Jacobsen senest den 7. juni 2012 på mobil 30 23 71 79 eller email:  guldsmeden@greennet.gl

Læs invitationen her, eller se mere på Havkajakroernes forum.

Jeg har engang arbejdet på Kalundborg-Samsøoverfarten, da jeg gik på gymnasiet – og min far var ‘strømer på Samsø’ i nogle ferieperioder for mange år siden. Jeg har dog aldrig været rundt i kajak, så…. hmmmm…? Hvorfor ikke? Jeg tror sgu….!!

Further to the Four Sparrow business - as I mentioned in a post on Facebook yesterday, that meeting report actually ended up being a rather hard one to write:

" don't know why I'm having such a hard time doing it, used to do that sort of thing all the time...guess I'm out of practice. Or Mill Basin doesn't feel like my turf the way the Hudson River Park was, where I first got involved when the Trust was a Conservancy, knew the people, followed the stories, maybe even got to help write little bit of its now and then before they shut down the barge and I left for the shores of the Paerdegat. This one, I was seriously jumping in in a chapter in the middle of what turned out to be a much longer tale than I realized & aside from the initial incoherent spluttering I did the other day I'm at a bit of a loss."

I did finally cough up a report last night, but I was reading it and feeling like it just wasn't very good precisely because I didn't have any sense of the backstory or how this one development fits into the bigger picture.

Fortunately the same paddling birder friend who told me about the plan and the meeting in the first place forwarded the following message that had been sent out among the birding community. I saw it AFTER I'd posted last night, looked at the link this morning, and there it was, a summary the big picture that I knew I wasn't seeing. Wish I'd read it before I wrote my report, might have made it easier!

Thanks, Prof. M!
*****************

A Walk in the Park: City Releases Wetlands Strategy Draft.

The attachment in the link above ( "Read On" in the second link ) is a very important conservation proposal put out by our city Jan 18th ( last Thursday) . The draft is 63 pages long but necessary to understand how critical this proposal is in the fight to save places like 4 Sparrow Marsh ( 64 acres) which the latest development plan threatens the marsh ecology with a large car dealership Kristol Auto next door at the current Toys R Us site; Kristol Auto is under investigation by the NY State Dept of Environment Conservation (NYSDEC) for its current location elsewhere for brownfield contamination

If you can comment on the proposed Wetlands policy, please do even if it isn't much. The deadline is February 18th.

Thanks for Brooklyn's birds and her habitats !

P

Get in touch with Mark if you would like a booking form or have any questions or queries.

Day 5 – Wednesday 25 January. Started at 5.45 am and rounded Cape Vincent one hour after slack water so it wasn’t very rough. We then headed in to wonderful, sheltered Bahia Thetis, where we have set up camp in a hut with a log burner. We saw a thousand sealions, a cloud of petrels, [...]

Greenland Time-Lapse Reel from Murray Fredericks on Vimeo.

NorCal Yak pal Lisa paddling through the mist north of Inverness INVERNESS – Kayakers can only worry as favorite rivers and lakes shrink during an unseasonably warm, dry winter in Northern...

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I received an e mail the other day from someone called Zegul Marine. Have no idea where they got my e mail address (could be from this Blog...). Anyway I append the URL for those who are interested. No idea who this crowd is and I don't have the time to mine down through the confusing "website"  but a little bird in the know whispered that one should be careful about the quality of some products...

The UR is http://issuu.com/zegulmarine.com/docs/zegul

regards

-Tu ne tueras point lecormoran qui t’as piqué le seul poisson que tu as pêché
- Un seul Kayak tu adoreras
- Tes pagaies et gilet honoreras
- Tu ne mentiras point enracontant un surf d’anthologie que tu n’as pas fait
- Tu ne déroberas point la bièrede ton camarade parti se soulager
- Les dimanches tu garderas pournaviguer dans la joie et la bonne humeur
- Tune prononceras pas le nom de ton embarcation on le connaît depuis le temps.
- Tune feras aucun kayak en cousu-collé à  l'image de celui de ton camarade

(UPDATE: Tomales Bay park wins a reprieve. See Christine Sculati's blog.)  Three down, 67 to go. That’s the latest score in the California State Parks survival game. Earlier this month, the National...

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This no snow thing is getting ridiculous and I'm getting as tired and bored with writing about it as you are of reading about it. The problem is that it has turned many outdoor lovers winter into what I imagine it's like for the people who curl up and cocoon at the first sign of cold or snow. Weather induced SADS. The indoor life stinks and if you do anything to excess, whether it be TV, Netflix, reading books (beer drinking excepted of course) it tends to drain a person mentally and emotionally. Hiking is fine but lets face it folks, the fun part of winter is its unique difference from the other seasons. You can hike on a stinkin' beach for God sakes! Sure, that chance of slipping and falling on your ass on the ice makes winter hiking a bit more interesting but it pales in comparison to the classic ski, skate, and slide. No, I want to glide over snow and skate on the ice, moving much faster and more effortlessly than can be done on plain old dry ground. We have not all curled up in the fetal position with a bottle of Bushmills and Tolstoy's "War and Peace" however.


Last weekend found me strolling out on the ice of Lake Nokomis for the US Pond Hockey Championships. There were a couple dozen rinks with a half dozen divisions competing for the coveted Golden Shovel Award and lots of spectators braving the 15F temps with a rare southeast wind. I had planned on a beer in the tent but the organizers had sold out to Bud as some sort of Gold Level sponsorship deal. Instead I spent my money on a useful container called the Whiskey Puck. It's pictured right with what became it's contents. The outdoor exposure continued when I headed over to the BessemerConvivialists annual Jilleah Loppet, typically a ski event but this year kickball had to substitute for the skiing. It was a great idea and great outdoor fun but it was obvious that only about 15% of the group had any idea of kickball and its similarity to baseball. Once we realized that throwing to the wrong base, ignoring base runners, and other baseball atrocities would be the norm, everyone had fun. Had the whiskey puck been full it would have been quickly emptied by the kickballers.

Sunday I sucked it up, after being encouraged to abort my downhill ski plans due to freezing rain, and headed over to the Elm Creek Hamster Cage. It consists of a couple kilometers of man made snow cross country trails, one of what I think are three such areas in the metro. It was congested like a rush hour freeway with everyone from elite Birkie racers getting in their 'K's' to plodding classical skiers, basically walking on skis along the trail. I resolved that my Elm Creek trail pass would be for two sessions: my first and my last. No more of that, I'm waiting for real snow.

Which apparently we will find this weekend. RonO, the ManFromSnowyLegs, and I are joining a number of the usual suspects on Lake Namekagan for the annual Intensive Training weekend. This is mainly classical skiing on the superb Rock Lake loops east of Cable with a bit of skating on the Birkie trail. There will likely be a beer savored and a card dealt as well after the intensive ski training. The VOR is joining the Wild Women for a weekend of skiing on the private yet tortuously confusing Fauerbach Maze in rural Saxon, WI. Some wine drinking and extensive menu planning and recipe discussion will be featured as well.

There is still no snow in the forecast so I guess a bit of driving is the only solution. The one thing the hamster cage bluntly pointed out to me is that although the brakes and supsension are top notch, the motor on the Olson ski machine is carboned up, out of tune, and missing on several cylinders. There is no hope for a complete tune up before the Vasaloppet on February 11th, if its held, but I will take comfort in the fact that every little bit helps and that I will be enjoying real winter, if only for the weekend.