June 18th - MEC Paddlefest - Willows Beach (#47)

I went to willows beach to participate in the MEC paddlefest. I was instructing two clinics, one on the forward stroke and the other on Greenland paddling. Both were well-attended and went well.
Though the day was a bit grey and drizzly, the winds were calm, so conditions were nice. I also got to meet Finn Steiner (and his mom who took one of my clinics). Finn is the youngest person, at 17, to paddle around our Island. Check out his blog. Finn Graduates high school this coming week!

click to enlarge

5 km, YTD 438 km

May 18th - Cadboro Bay (again) - (#34)

I went for a quick after dinner paddle with Mark and Paul so that Paul could test out different skin-on-frame kayaks. I had to come back early, but he tried out my Cape Falcon  F1 and the Disko bay.
The Disko bay is a pretty kayak! :)

click to enlarge

1 km, YTD 302 km

June 7-8 - SSTIKS (#43,44)

Bill and I drove down to SSTIKS at Twanoh State Park at the south end of Hood Canal for a weekend of traditional paddling events. There were around 120 participants and some great instructors as last time. On Saturday I worked on my rolls and participated in a rolling "competition" in which I came third after Dubside. On Saturday I helped a few others work on their rolls and organised a team to participate in the "wedding of palo" race in which we came second (next time we need a small kid along to be the bride!). Bill did the race on Saturday and came fifth in spite of breaking his aleut paddle on the first stroke. He actually had the fastest time for the race by a minute since he started more than 2 minutes later! It was a great event and nbice to meet several old friends and make some new ones.
No track map since my GPS batteries were dead...

Twanoh state park beach

2 km (est), YTD 390 km

September 2nd - Cadboro Bay (#67)

I took Claire, Jayson, Julia and Rebekah for a paddle around the bay. I paddled the Disko Bay, Claire the LC, Jayson the T, Julia the Delphin, and Rebekah the F1. Amazngly I had enough safety gear for all of them! (I probably could have done one more!). We had a nice paddle around the bay in great conditions. I finished the paddle with a short rolling demonstration. This was the first time in a sea kayak on saltwater for all but Claire and me! A nice thing to do on my last day of the summer holiday!

click to embiggen!

4 km, YTD 891 km

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

Feb 6th - Discovery (#10)

George, Dan, Gordin, Paulo, Gerhardt and I set out from Killarney to paddle around Discovery. It was a grey misty moisty day. Gerhardt wanted to try the Disko Bay and I decided to paddle the Tahe. When we got out to Cadboro Point, we metu up with Patti and Yves who had been having a blast playing in the waves. We joined them for a while (I wished I had the Delphin today!) and then made our way over to the "sluice" by Vantreight. Nice currents. We then continued on around Discovery, had a nice lunch and carried on around Discovery. the wind picked up a bit during the afternoon. We stopped between cadboro pt and flower islet to do some rolling - Dan had to try his new Comfort Paddling Tuilik!

17 km, YTD 139 km

December 31st - Maynard Cove (#124)

George and I set out to finish the year off in good paddling style and we were able to squeeze in a last paddle of the year. I started off in the Tahe and George paddled the Disko Bay ands we switched half way. despite botrh being "Greenland boats" they handle very differently. The OBSR crew was helping Cliff get his boat off off my mooring (see this post) as he now has an outboard that works, and I helped them to hook up a couple of lines. While they were in the bay they found a couple of other boats that were only just on their moorings after all the chafing that has happened of late with the storms. George and I went out to Maynard cove and then tootled back along the shore stopping for lunch in a tiny pocket beach. When we got back the OBSR crew was done and just about to head back to base. It was nice to the boat from a paddler's perspective - looks a lot bigger!

last paddle of the year - click to enlarge

7 km, 4 NM, YTD 1214 km

December 18th - Thetis Lake (#117)

Monica and I joined Bill and Heather and six others (Michael, Joy, Lisa, Diane, Olivier and Liz)  for a "plan B" paddle in Thetis lake. Conditions were sufficiently windy that we cancelled the club's relaxed paddle across Esquimalt Harbour, but a few of us decided to get our boats wet anyway since we had them out! In Thetis lake, conditions were good and we had a nice paddle.

5 km, 3 NM, YTD 1147 km.

June 10 - Cadboro Bay and Elk Lake (#47 and 48)

I went for a short paddle over to Loon Bay with Steve who wanted to try out my Cape Falcon F1 and Disko Bay. He seemed to enjoy them both and had no problem paddling the Disko bay.
In the evening Dan and I went to Elk lake to do some rolling practice and coaching with SISKA.
2 km, 1 NM, YTD 558 km

January 20th - Rolling the bay (#8)

Dan and I went out for an afternoon paddle in the bay. dan had his newly made Tuilik and his Gulfstream and I was paddling the Disko Bay with my Brooks Tuilik. We made our way out to Maynard Cove and back, stopping in virtually every cove to try some rolls and braces. Conditions were good and fun was had. you can see all the spots on the track log where we stopped to roll.



7 km, 4NM, YTD 108 km

December 2nd - Discovery (#107)

Dan, Paulo and I went out for a afternoon paddle from Caddy bay to Discovery and back. I was in the F1 and Paulo was in the Disko Bay. Clear skies, light northerly winds and a beautiful evening. We watched the sun set as we paddled back to Cadboro bay. Its getting a bit colder!

  Paulo in the F1 eith Baker in the background

15 km, 8 NM, YTD 1271 km.

July 29 Cadboro Bay (#77)

George and I went for a morning Greenland style paddle. We took the Tahe Greenland and my Disko Bay and we did a bunch of rolling practice as well as a paddle over to Willows beach. Sunny, warm and calm!

7 km, 4 NM, YTD 804 km

June 11 - Elk Lake (#50)

I went up to Elk Lake for the SISKA gathering and spent an hour or so rolling in my Greenland SOF. Practiced forward and reverse rolls, chest sculling, butterfly rolls, static braces, and norsaq rolls. I also practiced a wet exit in the SOF – it was easy enough to get out, but without adequate flotation it was very hard to get back in. Eventually the only way of getting back in and up was to do a reentry and roll and then a lot of pumping!

2 km, 1 NM, YTD 501 km.

May 31 - another day rolling with Dubside (#41)

I did not put on any kms today but had a great morning and afternoon with two more clinics with Dubside. I definitely improved my rolling, learning a few new ones and refining some “old” ones. The morning was at the ORS dock and the afternoon was at Elk Lake

Yours truly doing a static brace. By the end of the day I was doing this without a norsaq or paddle!

From 2009-05-31_dubside

A video of me doing a norsaq roll

May 30 - cadboro Bay with Dubside (#40)

Mike, Dan, Yasu, Ellen and I participated in a Greenland Paddling clinic led by Dubside. We learned about the history of modern greenland kayaking and then developed our strokes on the water. In the afternoon we went to Beaver lake to do a beginner rolling clinic. Fun was had by all!

5 Km, 3NM, YTD 427 km

May 14th - Chatham (#33)

Dan and I took our Greenland boats out to Chatham Island and did some rolling in the bay at the north end. Weather was excellent, though there was a bit of a wind. It was good to try these boats out in a bit of wind and for a longer paddle. The slip on skeg worked well and I am getting used to the tippiness of the Disko Bay boat.

There was a liveaboard boat up on shore that must have washed up there last night in the winds…

9.5 km, 5 NM, 333

April 15th - Cadboro Bay (#23)

Dan and I went for a “Greenland Paddle” to put our two Greenland boats through their paces. We both were in Greenland style SOF boats and were wearing tuiliks. We checked out my new mooring and added a pick up float to it. We then paddled over to Flower Island and back to see how the weathercoking was. Dan and I experimented with the removable skeg that Brian Shulz designed and built for my boat and it perfored well. It definitely reduced weathercocking and also was fairly easy to put on and take off – a successful test! We then went to look bay to practice braces and rolls. My new Greenland “Disko Bay” boat rolls and braces well. We then went over to the yacht club to see how the SMUS sailing intramural was going - and did some rolls for them.

5 km, 3 NM, YTD 212 km.

March 24th - Oregon sand dunes and Siltcoos Creek paddle (#18)

Monica and I spent a full day touring and hiking the sand dunes south of Florence – spectacular! The morning was spent hiking in the Oregon Dunes day use area – we had the place to ourselves for four hours.

8.5 km hike

After lunch I went for a short paddle down Siltcoos Creek. I took the newly made Disko Bay replica to the mouth of the creek and back.

From 2009-03-24_oregonmjj

From 2009-03-24_oregonmjj

Pictures posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/mhjackson123/20090324_oregonmjj#

4.5 km, 2 NM, YTD 166 km.

Day 8 - kayaks are complete! plus a pair of maiden voyages (#17)

Today we spent the morning getting the holes made and the decks rigged as well as installing seat backs and foam seats. We then cleaned up and to ok the kayaks to Nehalem State park and gave them thrie first tastes of the water…

Pictures of the day posted on picasa at: http://picasaweb.google.com/mhjackson123/20090322_oregon#

2 km, 1 NM, YTD 162 km