Sunday, October 30, 2011

October 29/30 - Greenland Week (#94)

The 6 mile race
Alan D and I drove down to Issaquah for Kayak Academy's Greenland Week Competition. We arrived Friday night and camped in the State Park. On Saturday I took part in the 6 mile race and came 5th place in the Greenland Division with 1:05:52 which I was pretty happy with since it was almost 5 minutes better than the only other time I tried paddling this distance at a pace. Roy S came second, just over a minute behind the winner Wayne H.
On Saturday afternoon, we practice Harpoon throwing with Henry, Alan showed me how to do a vertical sculling roll, and finished the day off with a great salmon dinner and talk by Chris Avery about his trip to the Aleutians.
Sunday's activities began with harpoon throwing. I came third in distance (I should have done much better but fluffed my second throw!) and then came first in accuracy (Henry had made a really cool floating target) which was a demonstration event this year. The last event was the rolling. I was really happy with a third place  finish with 129 points - a couple of new rolls for me made up for a couple of other rusty ones! 16 year old Chris S from Victoria came second with 183 points and Alan from Campbell River came first with 189 points and a nail biting elbow roll to finish a close competition. Great job Chris and Alan! Team Canada took all three places in the rolling.
My 5th, 3rd, and 3rd place finishes earned me 3rd place overall in the competition  which was a great way for me to finish the event.
11 km, YTD 1078 km

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Off to Seattle for "Greenland Week"

I'll be heading down to Seattle on Friday for the weekend to participate in the Greenland Weekend competitions again this year. looking forward to meeting like minded Greenland Paddlers! There will be a few of us heading down from the Island! I will need to demo either the Great Canadian beer Roll or a Hockey Stick Roll!

Sunday, October 23, 2011

October 23rd - Discovery (#93)

Jennie, Michael and I took Tim (visiting from the UK) for a trip out to Chatham and Discovery Islands. Conditions were superb - sunny and no wind to speak of and a reasonable flood current. I was surprised that there was no current in the "sluice". Tim got to try my Greenland Paddle and may be a convert! We stopped off in Loon Bay on the way back and did some rolling.
A great day on the water!
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16 km, YTD 1067 km

Sunday, October 09, 2011

October 9th - Cadboro Ppoint (#91)

I went out with Kirby to do some filming of a traditional style kayak for a video project of his. Conditions were nice and calm and it was great to be pout in the Disko bay again. Hopefully the footage turned out well!
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7 km, YTD 1040 km

Saturday, October 08, 2011

October 8th - D'Arcy (#90)

I led a SISKA energizer paddle today from Island View Beach to D'Arcy Island and back. We were a group of 19 and conditions were excellent - no wind and a bit of current. The early morning fog had burnt off before we left the beach. All in all a very nice paddle! In the evening I helped host a pool session and did a bit of rolling.
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18 km, YTD 1033

Friday, October 07, 2011

October 7th - Cadboro Bay (#89)

I went out for a quick afternoon paddle to check on some moorings and do some geocaching. I checked on the boat that is sitting on my mooring and left them a note... I looked for Simon's mooring which seems to have disappeared... I then checked out two geocaches that are fairly kayak accessible in the bay.
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3 km, YTD 1015 km

Sunday, October 02, 2011

October 2nd - Brentwood (#88)

Dan, Bill and I met up in Brentwood Bay to do a test 6 mile/10 km route as a sort of practice for possibly racing at Greenland week.The 9.5 km course took us an hour and 10 mins, at an average speed of 8.2 kph (4.4 kt, 5.1 mph). It was a reasonable workout and a good pace for that distance. After that we spent some time practicing with Bill's harpoon. Bill had at least one good throw of 40 ft.
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10 km, YTD 1012 km