November 6th - Trial Island (#83)

I went to McNeill Bay to paddle with Pete around Trial Island and over to Gonzales Point. It was a beautiful day with sunshine and weak currents. the tide was high so it allowed us to explore "new water".

Lots of marbled murrelets, pigeon gullemots, surf scoters, double-crested and pelagic cormorants, harlequin ducks and Canada geese!

click to enlarge

7 km, YTD 712 km

May 7th - Trial Island (#28)

I joined 5 other SISKA instructors (Mark, Mike, Michael, Jennie and Dorothea) for a morning of sharing. We paddled around Trial Island, stopping to discuss teaching techniques and to demonstrate some tips. I think we all learned from each other! On top of that, it was a glorious day to be on the water!

click to enlarge

6 km, YTD 267 km

April 9th - Trial Island (#24)

I joined Michael, Mark, Jennie, Dorothea and Jo for a day of SISKA instructor sharing as we paddled around Trial. It was very foggy to begin with!  The tide was low so we had lots of inter tidal critters to investigate. We also saw quite a few ochre stars which is encouraging - perhaps they are recovering from wasting syndrome...

click to enlarge

6 km, YTD 271 km

January 11th - Trial Island (#3)

I went for another test paddle of the surf ski, this time with Alex and Ben, and had a nice afternoon run around Trial and along the shore by the golf course. We did get to surf one wake there which was fun and got the speed up a bit. (in the track plot you can see the boat that made the wake! not!). Nice to chat with Alex a bit more and to catch up with Ben!

click to enlarge

8 km, YTD 28 km

May 23rd - Trial Island (#35)

I joined a SISKA workshop with Nigel Foster on kayak directional control. We spent the morning mostly going round in circles in McNeill Bay and I definitely picked up some good tips to help both turning and going straight. It was a rainy but calm morning, good conditions for learning!

5km, YTD 322 km

October 10th - Trial Island (#75)

Paulo, George and I went for a short paddle around Trial Island. Conditions were superb - what an amazing October! It looks like we may have another week of sunshine ahead as well! We saw that there were some guys rebuilding the radio antennas on trial. They were just taking down the last old one. Now I am curious as to what kind or radio they are for...
We stopped for a snack at the beach by the golf course and picked up a fair bit of garbage from a recent party. It looks like they had a fire that got out of control too...

click to enlarge

7 km, YTD 879 km

December 21 - Trial Island (#119)

Dan, Gordin and I set out from "rat bay" to paddle around Trial Island and enjoy some of the wind and waves. The winds were in the 20 to 30 knot range for most of our paddle. Trial island reported  a steady 21 knots at 10 AM. Discovery reported similar winds between 10 and 12. Shortly after we came in the wind picked up another notch to 35/40 knots (Trial island 1 PM). Ten Mile Point also reported similar winds (main 10 mile site):

We played around in the "bumps" off Trial, but found more fun in the waves between the two islands. We then paddled over to the cardinal buoy by Mouat reef and found the largest waves between there and Enterprise Channel (we estimate 3 metres or more at times)

click to enlarge

I managed to leave my trusty carbon paddle (made by Superior) in my garage - fortunately Gordin (thanks!) was able to lend me his spare. However, I found myself surprised at how much less comfortable I felt with a Euro paddle. The Greenland paddle just seems to be smoother,more efficient, more stable and reassuring in big conditions. To test this I borrowed Dan's paddle at the end and went back into the lumpy stuff to check - no question, the GP felt better..

8 km, 4 NM, YTD 1172 km.

November 21st - Trial Island (#110)

Gordin, Dan, Mark, Dorothea and I went for a morning paddle around Trial Island. Conditions were nice, and we tried playing in a couple of spots, but the wind and current were not quite strong enough to build good waves. My Level 6 Mitts kept my hands nice and warm throughout the paddle but my bare hands got cold quickly as soon as we were back on land! One of these came in handy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heating_pad.

click to enlarge

8 km, 4NM, YTD: 1071km

August 24th - Enterprise Channel (#79)

Dan, Gordin, George and I set out from "rat bay" by McNeill Bay and went out to play in the waves of Enterprise channel and Trial Island. The wind was steady between 30 and 40 knots, so it was fairly exciting stuff - hard work to paddle into and good waves. I tried a few storm rolls in the waves and they worked OK though they still need finesse.

5 km, 3NM, YTD 785 km

June 12th - snowbirds (#49)

Dan, Dennis, Scott, Mark, Christine and I set out from McNeill Bay to paddle towards Royal Roads to view the navy ships and the snowbird show. The paddling was good and the show was spectacular. We had favourable currents both ways.

2010-06-12_snowbirds

17 km, 9 NM, YTD 575 km.

June 13 - McNeill Bay (#65)

Gordin, Dennis, Dan and I set out from McNeill Bay to play in the wind and waves. We had a blast in the waves, saw some orcas in the distance, got some surf rides and did some rescue practice. I was in my Sirocco.

10 km, 5 NM, YTD: 711 km

June 19 - McNeill bay (#50)

Gordin, Dorothea and I set out from caddy bay a bit after noon and decided to paddle into the breeze. The wind was mostly 5 to 15 knots and gusting between 10 and 20 knots for much of the afternoon. I put my Tuilik on at Gonzalez point and did a bit of rolling in the sirocco. I had forgotten how much fun the sirocco is to play in! Once we got back to the beach, Gordin and I spent some time practicing rolls. A very nice afternoon paddle!

15 km, 7 NM, YTD: 547 km