January 22nd - Mill Bay with Gordon Brown (#8)

I accompanied Gordon Brown while he instructed a SISKA clinic for beginner-intermediate paddlers in Mill Bay. though it was a bit damp, the wind was kind to us and we had a great day of learning. Basically we paddled around in front of Brentwood College School. There were some swans as well as the usual buffleheads, cormorants, kingfishers and gulls.

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5km, YTD 73 km

January 21 - Saanich Inlet with Gordon Brown (#7)

I joined a group of five other SISKA instructors for a day with Scottish paddler Gordon Brown. We had a nice paddle to Spectacle falls and over to McKenzie Bight as we discussed instructional techniques and practiced various skills. It was an excellent day on the water where I learned skills to help me teach better as well as a few extra paddling skills for me!

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15 km, YTD 68 km

January 15th - Discovery Island (#6)

I went for a nice morning paddle with Dan, Dennis and Rob out to my favourite local islands! Conditions were wonderful - flat calm, sunny and not too much current ( a reasonable ebb as you can see on the plot). We met Cheryl who had been observing the wolf, though we did not see him and then later met Alan's SISKA paddle group of 20 paddlers coming around the top end of Chatham as we were about to head back across Baynes.
Nice to have a decent paddling weather day again after a lot of cold windy ones! Lots of birds out today. Hooded and common mergansers, black oystercatrchers, double-crested and pelagic cormorants, bald eagle, buffleheads, long-tailed duck, surf scoter and more.

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15 km, YTD 53 km

January 13/14 - Surge narrows (#s 4&5)

I went up to Campbell River to paddle Surge Narrows with Alan and Craig. Friday the 13th was not a great one for me as I had brought the wrong spray deck and had left the spare at Alan's house. Craig lent me his deck for a while and I had some good rides early on. I then tried his delphin surf and had a couple of good rides followed by a capsize and a swim! I managed a cowboy self rescue in the rapids, but I had not zipped up the Peak leg zip drysuit enough so had a wet left foot for the rest of the day. On Saturday the wave was not easy for me to stay on as it seemed to want to throw me off to the left. I did get some good rides, but I think my confidence had been shaken by my swim the day before. I need to edge much more agressively.

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8 km, YTD 38 km

January 8th - Discovery Island (#3)

Dan and I went for a morning trip out and around Discovery - first trip of the year! The weather was a bit cold and grey, but not too bad as the wind stayed under 15 knots and there was little current. We saw the Oak Bay Sea Rescue folks out on training and the tide was so high we were able to paddle through places we had never been before! Plenty of birds around including harlequin ducks, loons, cormorants, buffleheads, mergansers and more.

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15 km, YTD 30 km

January 7th - Ten Mile Point (#2)

David and I went for an afternoon paddle out to Ten Mile Point. The current was ebbing pretty quickly so we decided not to try to get past the point and made our way across to cattle point instead.
There was a bit of wind, perhaps 10 knots at times, but we had a good chat and paddle. We saw loons, buffleheads, cormorants, oystercatchers and mergansers.

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9 km, YTD 15 km.

January 1st - Cadboro Point (#1)

I decided to start the 2017 paddling year (the 12th of my blog) with a short  paddle out to Cadboro Point. There was a stiff north wind (pretty steady 15-20 knots) and it was pretty chilly. I hugged the north shore of the bay to avoid the wind as much as possible.I was reasonably successful and stayed warm in my new Stohlquist Shift drysuit

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6km, YTD 6 km

Caddy Bay from the calm corner click to enlarge

looking out towards the point - click to enlarge