October 1 - Loon Bay SUP (#25)

I went for a short afternoon SUP paddle to Loon Bay and back via the yacht club. I could see Rainier today as the air was much cleaner after the rains!

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2 km, YTD 277 km

October 7th - Cadboro Bay (#27)

I went for a short afternoon SUP around the bay ( a partial objective was to feed some salmon carcasses to the crabs!), but conditions were gorgeous.  There was a group of kayakers working on a course and a few sailboats returning to RVYC. I went by Statia and the yacht club.

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2km, YTD 240 km

April 4th - Loon Bay (#35)

Jenny and I SUPed over to Loon Bay via the yacht club for a short afternoon paddle. Great conditions and a nice little paddle! The tide was way out as you can see from the starting position!

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2 km, YTD 348 km

March 25th - Cadboro Bay (#32)

Dan and I went for an afternoon SUP around the bay and encountered very nice almost windless conditions. It is neat how much more one sees of life under water from a SUP versus a kayak due to the angle.

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6 km, YTD

February 28th - Cadboro Bay (#22)

I decided to try the SUP as a "crabbing platform" and used a kayak paddle while seated. I came home with one nice crab which will do us both for dinner. There were not as many birds visible on my route today - only 3 species: buffleheads, Canada geese and g-w gulls. https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S82541263

The SUP board with a kayak paddle worked pretty well and I may have been going faster sitting with a kayak paddle than standing with a SUP paddle! The board was definitely stable enough to bring a trap out of the water as well as rebaiting etc. You can see where I drifted while bring the trap up and emptying it as the orange section. The ten knot SE wind was pushing me slowly back into the bay.  

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3 km, YTD 191 km

February 5th - Cadboro Bay (#14)

Dan and I went for an afternoon SUP around the bay. It was a bit windy from the SE to begin with which made paddling out hard. We crossed the bay, which was a bit lumpy, kneeling and then took a big rest at Flower Island. While we were resting the wind died down. A bit harder to see birds today but I still saw the usual suspects: https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S80486902

Paddling a SUP definitely uses a different set of muscles!

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5 km, YTD 128 km

February 1st - Cattle Point (#12)

Dan and I went for a nice afternoon SUP paddle out to Cattle point. We managed to miss the rain and the wind as Dan wanted to try SUPing again. It was nice to be up high and seeing the water from a different perspective. No murrlets today, but we did not go very far from shore. Not as many species as normal but we still saw most of the usual suspects! https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S80292520

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5 km, YTD 110 km

November 14th - Cadboro Bay- Flower Island (#44)

I went for a morning SUP around the Bay and made it out to Flower Island. It is interesting to me that the SUP is just over half as fast as the surf ski (not sure how much of that is the vessel and how much is the paddler!). The first birds I saw on the water were buffleheads, but I also saw hooded mergansers, belted kingfisher, great blue heron, Canada geese and more.

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4 km, YTD 325 km.
PS, looks like I could easily make my 50 paddles/year goal, but not so sure about 500 km this year!

July 8th - Catlle point (#48)

I went out for an evening SUP paddle to Cattle point and back. It was a gorgeous calm sunny evening with very few people on the water. I could see both Mt. Rainier and Mt Baker in the distance. Along the shore there were several large schools of tiny (one to three inches long)baitfish. One school was rippling the surface for 50 m and about 5 m across! I can't imagine how many thousand fish were in that school. There is a nice big sailing yacht moored in the bay - Tristan from Newport Beach, CA.
I saw a couple of black oystercatchers, a single marbled murrelet, a single great blue heron (if I ignore the ones across the street!) and a bunch of Canada geese. It was a nice change to go a bit slower (the SUP seems to cruise comfortably at about 4.5 kph, compared to 6.5 for a sea kayak and over 7.5 for the surf ski)

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5 km, YTD 375 km

April 22nd - Caddy Bay (#25)

After going for a walk on the beach, I decided that I had to go out for a paddle! So I grabbed the Oarboard Adventure and went for a spin around the bay. A few buffleheads, mnergansers and a couple of great bluer herons out. Stopped by Natural C-lection to check on it! :)
Beautiful day for Earth Day. You can really see the difference in speed between the SUP and the surfski when you compare today's track with last Fridays!

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4 km, YTD 205 km

October 29th - Jemmy Jones (#80)

I went for a late morning row out to Jemmy Jones using the oarboard  SUP combo. The system worked pretty well and I think I have just a few adjustments to make to make it excellent. It is definitely a workout rowing the SUP! Again, another lovely clear day with nice views of Mt.Baker.
I also checked out my new slip at RVYC... I will be keeping Natural C-lection there once I have the bottom painted. Again, a little slower against the northerly wind...

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6 km, YTD 686 km

September 23rd - Gorge (#69)

I went for a morning SUP paddle in the Gorge. Nice conditions. Lots of snail(?) eggs on the eelgrass. Plenty of Canada geese around. Lots of airplanes in the harbour. GPS battery did not work so track is manually created!

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12 km, YTD 596 km.

September 1st - Cadboro Bay (#65)

Jenny and I went for an evening paddle on SUPs along the south side of Cadboro Bay. It was a beautiful clear cal evening, with the view clear all the way to Mr. Rainier.

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3 km, YTD 562 km

May 22 - RVYC (#35)

Jack and I went out for an evening SUP session over to the yacht club and back. A glorious evening, with views all the way to Mt. Rainier. I forgot the GPS, so this is a manually created track!

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2 km, YTD 304 km

May 18th - Cadboro Bay (#33)

I went for a morning paddle on the Oarboard Adventure SUP. Conditions were nice and calm and it was fun being back on a SUP. I notice that paddling on my left side seems to track much better than on my right... not sure why. You can see the track is much more wiggly that my kayak tracks and my average speed quite a bit lower - 5.1 kph instead of 6 to 7 kph...

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5 km, YTD 301 km

April 28 - Staines Island (#24)

I went for an afternoon row to test out the new Oarboard SUP with the Oarboard rowing rig. I have some adjustments to make, but overall it worked very well. This SUP has been the nicest to paddle and to row that I have tried! You can see quite different speeds against and with the wind!
(PS, I think I am a bit behind on my paddling km this year!)

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3 km, YTD 214 km

April 22 - Pixie Lake (#23)

I went to the Port Renfrew area to camp with the camper and do some fishing. While I was there I managed to do a little paddling with my new Oarboard inflatable SUP as a SUP as well as my inflatable Aquaglide kayak. Both worked well for paddling around the lake. It wasn't a very big lake so not much of a test! :) Fun all the same!

2 km, YTD 211 km