June 29th - Loon Bay (#52)

James and I went out for an evening rolling session in Loon Bay. There was quite a bit of wind - gusts over 35 knots out in the straits - but Loon Bay was calm. The water is still pretty cool and I was a bit stiff. James taught me a new variant of a back deck roll he had come up with!

3 km, YTD 550 km.
Two of the go pro videos from the trip:

June 26th - Cadboro Bay (#51)

I took Heather, Paul, Josh and Becca for a Sunday afternoon paddle around the Bay. Conditions were magnificent again and we had a great paddle. Not much wildlife to be seen other than dozens of Canada Geese. Rainier and Baker were both visible - Rainier was particularly clear.

click to enlarge

5 km, YTD 547 km

June 26th - Discovery Island (#50)

Dan, Paulo and I went for a Sunday morning fast paddle around Discovery. Conditions were sunny and nice with not too much current. We managed a moving average of 6.8 kph  (3.7 kt) for the whole paddle - it felt good to get out and clear out the cobwebs!

15 km, YTD 542 km

June 25th - Portland Island (#49)

I joined a SISKA energizer paddle from Amherst to Portland. Conditions were good, though forecast to increase in the afternoon - did not happen. Bill and I helped escort a paddler who was not feeling well back to Amherst after making it almost to Coal and then caught up with the rest of the group at shell beach on Portland.
We were 20 in all - 18 for much of the paddle though. Thanks to Tom for leading.

20 km, YTD 527 km.

June 24th - Finnerty Cove (#48)

Dan, Kelly, Christine and I went for a paddle around Ten Mile Point to Finnerty Cove. It was a bit windy in Oak Bay so we figured that there would be a nice lee on the north side of the point and such was the case. Kelly and Christine were paddling the two F1s and Dan and I were in Tahe Greenlands. Lots of young geese around and we had a close encounter with an unwary river otter. It popped up to find itself a few feet from Kelly's boat and got the shock of its life! We had clouds, sunshine, a very brief rain shower and een some thunder!

13 km, YTD 507 km - nice to be half way to my annual paddling goal!

June 23rd - Elk Lake (#47)

I went up to Elk Lake for a SISKA meet and spent a couple of hours playing around with my new Northern Light paddles. Lynn, Brian, Michael and Dorothea were there too and all of us were using GPs at some point!
The lake is soooo warm!

4 km, YTD 494 km

June 19 - PC Intro Course (#46)

Tom and I taught a Paddle Canada Introduction to Kayaking course with 7 participants. They were a good bunch and we made steady progress with their skills - all passed! Conditions were a tad windy so we tucked up by the yacht club for all the strokes and wet work. Mike and Jennie helped out as well as they wanted to observe a course.

2 km, YTD 490 km

June 18th - MEC Paddlefest (#45)

I did an introduction to Greenland Paddling clinic at the MEC paddlefest at Willows Beach. I was up at UVic until almost noon and made it down just in time for my clinic. After the clinic I helped out with the Oak Bay Sea Rescue Table, did a little wandering around and also helped OBSR do a kayaker rescue - I was the rescuee! It was great to run into many friends at the meet!
The weather kept a lot of folks away but I think it was a successful event in spite of the cool damp weather.

2 km, YTD 488 km

June 16th - Discovery (#44)

Dan and I went for an afternoon paddle around Discovery. There was a reasonable wind and a good flood current building. I was test paddling my two new paddles from Northern Light paddles. I used both the standard 3 piece GP and also the Aleut inspired one. Both worked well and felt good. The Aleut inspired paddle does seem to have more bite/power - especially when used with the concave face as the power face. will continue to test it out - the GP can also easily be turned into a storm paddle.
I'd like to say that my pace never dropped below 10 kph after Seabird point, but my batteries were flat and I had not put the spares in my cockpit bag! The crossing of Baynes and especially the crossing of Rudlin bay were fast with a tail current!
Iam presenting a clinic on Greenland Paddling tomorrow at the MEC Victoria paddlefest. Stay tuned!

click to enlarge

16 km, YTD 486 km.

June 11-12 - SSTIKS (#s 42,43)

Dan, Dorothea and I drove down to Twanok State Park for SSTIKS over the weekend. It was a great gathering of Greenland paddlers and we met many very nice people. We ran into several Canadians which was great - James and Melissa from Vancouver, Ken and Tom from Campbell River and of course Gerhardt and Shannon from Victoria. I did a bit of work on my rolls, still working on my elbow roll but also got a start on a couple of sculling rolls. I also participated in a forward stroke clinic with Henry Romer and got a couple of good ideas for teaching Greenland Paddling. It was great to see Jeanette, David, Roy, Dubside and Helen again - last time was at the Greenland event in Seattle last November. The meet finished with a very fun competition which involved some unusual legs based on a 130s movie of a Greenlandic story of the Wedding of Palo. I also learned how to play dead fish polo which was good fun! The drive was not bad - 2 hours from the Port Angeles ferry.

click to enlarge - the short paddles around the park

click to enlarge - Twanoh is dead centre in this image

Update - here is the first clip I shot with my new GoPro - looks good in HD!

4 km, YTD 470 km

June 1 to June 5 - Telegraph Cove (#s 38-41)

I went up to Telegraph Cove again this year with our school's Grade 10 experiential programme students and had a great few days of paddling. We went by water taxi to Echo Bay and then paddled our way back to Telegraph Cove. We finished a night early due to 40 knot wind forecasts in Johnstone strait (that never materialized). On the way up in the water taxi we had great sightings of Pacific white-sided dolphins. In echo Bay we had a wonderful visit with Billy proctor and toured his "museum". On our way ti Owl Island we visited a salmon farm to learn a bit about the business. The next day we went to Village Island where we met the other group and also toured the old village site. A visit to the "Earth Embassy" to learn about the traditional use of cedar took up most of the next day. Our last paddling day followed the south coast of Hanson and then ferried over in the current to look at the pillow basalts on the Blinkhorn pennisula. We decided to head back rather than risk being wind bound the next day. We went for a nice hike up to a viewpoint above Bauza Cove the next day.The weather for the trip was excellent - virtually no wind and only some rain during the first night!

click to enlarge

65 km, YTD 466 km