January, Poof........ Gone!

Where did it go? What happened? One thing I know for sure is that we didn't get on the water this month and it wasn't from a lack of wanting to or being prepared for a day of exploration.  Simply...... Old Man Winter made his presence on the "Wet Coast" and for a short period of time we even became a winter wonderland with a cold snap and snow.

It doesn't stop there because if it wasn't raining, snowing or sunny on my work days (it figures), it was blowing anywhere from 50 km/h to 90 km/h at peak gusts. Although we didn't see Toto fly by we did see the roof of our boat (not kayak...whew!) shed leave last Sunday.  So in a nutshell ....... January was a complete write off in terms of being on the water but we did explore other life opportunities.

Taking advantage of the inclement weather, Robyn and I have really immersed ourselves into yoga practice to increase our flexibility, tone our wobbly bits and bring a little bit of relaxation into our busy lives. After three weeks of five formal practices per week we have seen and felt a tremendous improvement in our bodies that will only assist us in the development of our kayak skills. Maybe my body will now be able to generate the much heard about "hip flick" for rolling. ;-)

This month Robyn gained another year of life experience and I will do the same on Monday. In moving forward with our passion for kayaking we heard about the South Island Sea Kayaking Association (SISKA) from kayak instructors and friends on Facebook over the past few months and attended their January general meeting this past week.

The meeting started with a "Gear Swap" and it was a chance to meet some of the kayakers (some local legends) we have read about in numerous blogs, forums and on Facebook. I managed to pick up a MEC 20 Litre dry bag in almost new condition for a great deal of $5 to add to my gear head collection. Sweet!

The business end of the meeting was a very relaxed format. Sheila (Chairperson) worked the membership with her sense of humour such as trying to explain "current" training in a pool environment, only to realize there are no currents in a pool.  One member suggested (in jest) that maybe a kayak could be dragged sideways with ropes up and down the pool to simulate the currents!!  Everyone had a good chuckle.

The guest speaker of the night was Nick Castro of Active Sea Kayaking.  Nick spoke about surfing with kayaks. He is the owner / instructor who surfs the Baynes Channel tide race and has some amazing video on You Tube.  His knowledge of techniques and etiquette while surfing with other kayakers and long board surfers was very informative and he also has a very unique sense of humour. His slide show of great surfing captured from cameras mounted on his kayak are so cool it just further tweaked my interest in getting a GoPro Hero2. After a great evening..... we signed up for membership in SISKA and look forward to participating with the club.

Did I mention that I'm a Gear Head?

After a few months of research and shopping around we picked up a GoPro Hero2 Outdoor Edition, LCD BacPac, Suction Mount, Grab Bag of mounts and a 32GB Class 10 SD Card yesterday. Visions Electronics gave us a skookum deal on the Hero2 and LCD and blew the other big box shops out of the water in price (even though they didn't have all the accessories that we were looking for). A couple more stops at Valhalla and Future Shop completed our accessory needs. I can't wait to start using this new way of capturing our adventures on and off the water!

Here comes February!