November 24 & 25 - Surge Narrows (#s 79 &80)

James and I drove up to Campbell River on Friday evening and stayed with Alan at his place. On Saturday we went over to the narrows  and had a great few hours on the wave together with Brent and James (#2) and Jaime. We came back to CR and had a nice dinner at the Coachman pub! We went back again on Sunday, this time accompanied by Jaime, Phil and Sam and had a second great day on the wave. Al did a great job of predicting fun yet friendly wave heights! Hopefully Jaime has some nice shots of us playing!

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13 km, YTD 928 km

November 18th - Chatham Island (#78)

Dennis and I went for a morning paddle out to the Chatham group. I had an afternoon commitment and we decided to get out early to avoid the forecast strong winds. Conditions were calm when we set out and a strong ebb was beginning to build as we rounded the north end of strong tide. The tide was so high that I was able to paddle through many gaps that I had not been through in the past! The sun even came out for us for a while and the wind began to pick up as we returned. I was pretty sure I could see Nick and Ben playing of Cadboro Point as we paddled back to Caddy Bay. By late afternoon the winds were strong enough to knock out power in several parts of town and prevent Monica's flight from returning from Kelowna!

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15 km, YTD 915 km

November 17th - Cadboro Point (#77)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to see if anyone was playing in the race, but no one was there so I decided to paddle back rather than play there by myself. When I launched the waves were crashing on Cadboro bay beach so I seal launched of some logs and slogged my way out to Flower Island, by which time the 20+ knot wind had abated and the sea began to calm quickly. The F1 paddled well in the wind and waves. I may take it up to Surge next weekend...

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5 km, YTD 900 km

November 11th - surge Narrows (#76)

I went up to Campbell River on Saturday evening and spent the night at Alan and Chris' so that Alan and I could go over to Quadra Island and spend some time at Surge Narrows. We met Brent up there and had a good time on the wave in spite of a nasty weather forecast. I had trouble staying on the wave when it was at max, but had some good rides before and after the current got too strong with me. i need to work on strengthening my maneuvering strokes! I am planning to head back up there again on the weekend of Nov 24/25...

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6 km, YTD 895 km

November 9th - Cadboro Bay (#75)

Monica and I went out for a short afternoon paddle in Cadboro Bay to test out a west marine Scamper 2 inflatable kayak. As you can see from the track, it is no speed demon, but it performed quite well and should serve well as a "dinghy" for Natural C-lection. Two of us can keep up 5 kph or so fairly easily and it seems reasonable seaworthy for bays and shorelines. We need to adjust the seat backs and the inflation a bit as the air contracts in cool weather.

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4 km, YTD 889 km