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

Nov 6&7 - Lake Samamish (#104)

Monica and I drove down to Issaquah for the weekend so that I could participate in the 2010 Greenland Week event put on by Kayak Academy on Lake Samamish. It was a great weekend meeting fellow Greenland paddlers. I watched the start and the finish of the 10 km race and practiced harpoon throwing on Saturday (going round and round a practice throwing route - see track!). On Sunday I competed in the rolling competition and came fourth with 120 points which made me very happy! All in all it was a great weekend. Duane Strosaker was the well-deserved champion of the event.
photos and video to come...

2 km, 1 NM, YTD 999 km...