Port Renfrew Playtime!!

Yeah I know .... I haven't blogged in a few months (shamelessly holding my head low). So a quick update on our adventures.

Our September Nuchatlitz trip tracks

Since our last post in August (really??) we went on a multi day trip to the Nuchatlitz in September with four other paddlers which was so amazing in every aspect that I will blog the adventure for you now that the rainy winter season is upon us.

I managed to get out on to the ocean once with Kari Challenger who was with us on the Nuchatlitz trip for a day of rescue refreshers while on a paddle to Rum Island. More about rescues with Kari in a future blog post :-)


Since then Robyn and I have been in the pool a couple of times working on things like the other side or if you prefer the offside roll. ;-) Surprisingly I figured it out during our first pool night which is cool so now I can spend the rest of the winter pool sessions refining it.

Other than that we haven't been on the water at all as our other life stuff (volunteering and work) has taken up a lot of our time. Refocusing our energy we have decided to step back from a few volunteer obligations and focus ourselves to a couple causes that are dear to our hearts. This will leave us time to do what we love best .... go play on the water!!!

A couple of weeks ago we managed to join up with Patti and Yves of Go Kayak who were camped out at the Pacheedaht Campground in Port Renfrew for a day of rock gardening. Shortly after arriving fellow paddlers Gene, Reale, Michel and Gerhardt joined the group to do some rough water play paddling.

Launching at the mouth of the Gordon River

The campground is situated right at the mouth of the Gordon River which makes for easy launching of our kayaks especially on this day when the surf was a gnarly mess of 5 foot cresting waves pounding the beach. Great conditions for the mass of surfers present but there was no way a kayak could launch from the main beach without basically getting the crap beaten out of you.

Lots of moving water today :-)

Our group paddled out of the river and explored the many sea arches, slots and other rock formations on the north side of the inlet on our way out towards Thrasher Cove. With no wind we only had to contend with big sets of swells arriving in a cycle of every 7th or 8th wave which challenged us every time we went into a play zone.

A BIG 'boomer' at Hammond Rocks

The wave energy was pretty amazing and it was the most we have experienced at Port Renfrew creating some interesting timing issues as I found out quickly a few times when the "big ones" exploded around me (us) while in the middle of a feature. A little unnerving at first but only a few close calls of nearly capsizing with some colorful language got me pretty stoked quickly. Ya!! I loved every minute of it!!

Here's a little video of our fun and it's "G" rated with the music replacing the odd &$#@(&%!!!

2015 Paddle #40 - Port Renfrew Rocks!!
Distance: 8.50 nm (15.74 km)
YTD: 256.15 nm (474.39 km) Needs editing once Nuchatlitz blogs are complete.

East Sooke Rock Gardening ... The Video

After 3 plus years of writing about our kayak adventures I have to admit that I kind of lost the "mojo" to hammer away on the keyboard after a long day or weekend on the water. Inspired by The Hurricane Riders' Rowan Gloag and Marty Perry I decided to try and tell the story of our latest adventure out to East Sooke by creating this video. Enjoy!  

        If you want to watch it in HD click on the YouTube link.

2015 Paddle # 5 - East Sooke

Distance: 9.31 nm ( 17.24 km)

YTD: 32.02 nm (‪59.29 km)

That's Not Rain .... This is Rain!!

I love my girl Robyn! It rained pretty hard all day in Victoria on Tuesday, in fact it was a record setting rainfall for September 2nd. I hummed and hawed all day about going out to practice rolling but when the sun came out briefly Robyn said "Let's go". 

Arriving at Gyro Park in Cadboro Bay there was just us and a few other crazy kayakers heading out on the water to practice skills. Sure enough just as we were leaving the shore it started to sprinkle ... HA!

Robyn getting it done!

Our goal for today's practice session was fix some roll elements and the weather was just a minor distraction especially when the bolt of lightning and thunder got our attention fast! Thankfully it was the only "BOOM" we experienced and we went about our completing our goals. 

Someone's pretty happy about her rolling tonight! :-)

Robyn took the lead and completed 3 successful rolls on her own while I stood in the water next to her "hands off" as she put it all together. SWEEEET! 

I then practiced several non set up rolls on both sides and although I failed a few on the first attempt I reset up and completed the roll. Mission accomplished for both of us!

On the way back to the put in we practiced some towing skills to finish off our practice session. An awesome evening paddle in just a shower. :-)

Hummm .... never paddled in snow storm. Next weather bucket list item.

2014 Paddle # 39 Practice Time

Distance: Zippo! nm (Nada! km)

YTD: 235.02 nm (435.25 km)

A Tale Out Of Two Bays

Saturday August 30th - Genoa Bay

After mentioning to Gary Jacek that I got my new Lendal Rebel paddle from Cowichan Bay Kayaks, he wanted to head up there on Saturday to check them out for himself. We were in for going there too as it would give us a chance to work on some skills while I christened the Rebel on a paddle to Genoa Bay for lunch.  

Gary & Robyn suiting up on the Cowichan Bay Kayak's dock.

My "Buzz Lightyear" pose. I always wanted to be a superhero!

I have found that when working on skills getting wet before hand somehow takes away the psychological block of wanting to stay dry once I'm in my kayak. Solution? Wade into the water to burp my dry suit or in this case just jump off the dock and then deflate the suit.

We headed out across the bay and spotted the osprey's and seals that are popular on the CBK Wildlife Tours and then made our way to the Genoa Bay Cafe for lunch.

Just as we were sitting down to eat the rain started and we were the only customers who stayed outside under the partial protection of the patio umbrella. The waitresses must have thought we were nuts until they heard that we kayaked in so for us, water ..... what water? LOL





After lunch we paddled around inside the bay exploring the shoreline and some of the interesting inhabitants. One might think that these dwellings were nothing more than derelicts but on closer inspection they showed some signs of life.

Gary with a demo Lendal and myself working my paddle past the residents? of the bay.

Caught on the web cam at Cowichan Bay

We headed back across Cowichan Bay to allow Robyn to work on some rolls just outside the Oceanfront Suites where we were caught on their webcam.

Actually I knew where the camera was so we sort of planned to photo bomb ourselves into the picture. By the looks of things there was a wedding that was going to take place outside as well but the weather had different ideas. Checking the webcam later it was moved indoors. :-)

Robyn almost has it but ....... Head!

Not long after Robyn started working on her rolls a torrential downpour came into the bay so we started to head to the CBK dock where of course the sun came out. It figures :-) Dave Nichols met us on the dock and he managed to get me to try a P&H Aries on loan from Mark Hunt at MEC in Vancouver. The Aries is the composite version of the P&H Delphin that both Robyn and I have and I found it to be as responsive but a little quicker than the Delphin. One thing for sure .... it sure is a "blingy" kayak!

Feels like a P&H Delphin, looks like a P&H Aries :-)

The only thing that I didn't like about the kayak was the positioning of the fixed thigh braces on the cockpit combing. I found them to be too far back towards my hips and as a result they hurt my thighs when I edged the kayak. As a note, Robyn and I went to MEC Victoria on Monday and saw a new P&H Aries and it had the same adjustable thigh braces that our Delphins have.

Tomorrow would be another day on the water with Gary but his wife Jane would be joining us on a paddle from another bay closer to home.

2014 Paddle # 37 Genoa Bay

Distance: 5.56 nm (10.29 km)

YTD: 225.90 nm (418.36 km)

Sunday August 31st - Cadboro Bay

Peek-a-boo!

They don't exist in these waters anymore .....yeah right! It seems that a friendly sea otter has migrated to the south coast and has been hanging around Cadboro Bay for the past couple of weeks.

We had the pleasure of it coming to check us out at Cadboro Point while on a paddle with Gary and Jane Jacek to Discovery Island. The unfortunate thing about this sea otter is that it is way too friendly and was trying to climb onto our kayaks.

Ok ... what have you got on your PFD that I can take?

From our encounters with sea otters on our recent west coast trip we found them to be curious but they sure didn't want climb onto our kayaks. We figured that this little fella must be rehabilitated as he showed no signs of fearing contact with humans.

Continuing on our paddle we crossed Baynes Channel and made our way into the Chatham Islands to explore a little bit. This was Jane's first trip over to these amazing islands and so far she was getting her money's worth on this wildlife tour. We met Mike Jackson, George and Dan who were out on a paddle and I told them about the sea otter encounter. On the way back to Cadboro Bay the sea otter found them and it climbed onto Mike's kayak. You can check out his encounter here.

Myself and Jane paddling through the islets that make up the Chatham Islands

We headed to the Discovery Island Marine Park which would be our lunch stop on the trip. Being a long weekend we fully expected to see the place packed with tents and power boats but to our surprise there wasn't anyone there.......

Robyn and Jane all alone at the campsite. Where are all the long weekend campers???

Except for a very large family of Asian campers that had just arrived by powerboat. By the looks of all the gear they were bringing ashore it looked like they were planning on staying a while.

The only kayaks at the campground

The Ocean River Discover Tour was also at the park and we watched them head off on their paddle while we finished our lunch. It was one of those times (again) where it would have been nice just to set up camp and stay the night but who would have thought that the place would be deserted?

Yup folks that there is wild swimming deer!

It was time to head back to Cadboro Bay and our crossing of Baynes Channel had a little excitement for Jane to experience in the form of a few tide rips that were generated from the wind against current that was happening.  Making our way back through the little channel at Flower Island we saw a deer swimming across to the point. Another planned part of our wildlife tour for Jane to experience. Tip Please! LOL

2014 Paddle # 38 Discovery Island

Distance: 9.12 nm (16.89 km)

YTD: 235.02 nm (435.25 km)

Tuning Up With Cowichan Bay Kayaks

Yesterday Robyn and I headed to Cowichan Bay for another tune up session with Dave Nichols of Cowichan Bay Kayaks in advance of our upcoming Paddle Canada Sea Kayak Level 3 course. We have been practicing hard the last few months in preparation for the course and Dave has been mentoring us along the way, so this session was more of trying to refine some of the skills we would be assessed on.

Robyn did some work on her rolls and then both of us worked on towing techniques and I got the opportunity to try a capsize, release and roll while towing for the first time. Although I consider my roll to be pretty reliable, adding the tow line release and then completing the roll was a bit of a challenge simply because of the time it took me to locate my quick release on my tow belt. Although I could easily locate the release toggle sitting in my kayak, under water it was like "where the heck is it?".

Not a good finish to my non set up roll. Head, paddle and torso are not where they should be and I knew it!

I almost completed the skill but it became evident that I need to work on my non set up roll recovery techniques as I am used to using the momentum of rolling 360 degrees. In a real situation there might not be an opportunity to set up on top of the water which means it would have to be done underwater resulting in a 180 degree roll from the inverted position.

Dave suggested a few exercises to practice my non set up roll which included just holding my paddle in one hand or tucked under my arm and then roll into the water. All the set up would have to be done under water and the key is patience while under the kayak. After all it's just a matter of relaxing and holding your breath while the set up is completed. So I have to ask the question, 'How many of you can do a non set up roll?' If you have never done it before I urge you to give a try because that is probably how you will need to roll when it matters.

So guess what Robyn and I will be doing this long weekend? Yes .... spending more time under our kayaks refining our skills. :-)

No, I'm not signaling boaters to come to me.  I'm preparing for a non set up roll.

With my Werner Ikelos paddle in the US being repaired because of a broken ferrule, I had the opportunity to try a demo 4 piece Lendal Paddle yesterday. I was really interested in obtaining a second paddle that I could use for my every day touring needs but that would also work good in surf conditions. I'm used to having a big blade like my Ikelos has and found that the Lendal Rebel blade was similar but with a little bit more acceleration. On thing that I really liked is the indexed oval shaft that allowed me to naturally locate my fingers around the shaft.

Back at the shop Huw and Dave put together a new paddle with Rebel blades and a 210 cm X Range 2 piece straight carbon shaft which I think will work great for my rock gardening / surf adventures.  Now its time to head out there and put it to use.

Testing out a Lendal Paddle for the first time.... I liked it so much that I bought one.

2014 Paddle # 36 Cowichan Bay 

Distance: 1.13 nm (2.09 km)

YTD: 220.34 nm (408.06 km)