October 22nd - Loon Bay Rolling (#73)

Dan and I paddled over to Loon Bay to do some rolling. I am happy to say that I can still do forward and reverse finishing standard rolls, butterfly rolls, storm rolls, norsaq rolls and hand rolls! I am definitely a tad rusty and not as limber as I would like to be!

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2km, YTD 671 km

November 23rd - Golden Gardens Park, Seattle (#66)

I joined Setsuko, David and Marc for a Greenland rolling/paddling session at Golden Gardens Park in Seattle. We did a bunch of rolls and had fun experimenting with a Greenland paddle. The park is right beside Shilshole Bay marina.

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3 km, YTD 519 km

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!

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5 km, YTD 438 km

May 28th and 29th - PPS (#40 & 41)

I was at PPS for a wonderful weekend of paddling. Great to spend time with old friends and make new ones! I went out for a full day trip to Rock garden from Whiffen Spit with Rowan and Jaime. Conditions were as flat as can be so we were able to get deep into many slots with little or no risk which was fun. we practiced many handy manouevering strokes and stopped for lunch on Secretary Island (landing on the rocks). On the second day I went for a short paddle in Pedder Bay itself to experiment and play with the Motionize Paddle unit. I am intrigued...

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9km, + 1 Km, YTD 411 km

November 1st - Albert head (#105)

I joined James and 3 others for a day long Greenland paddling and rolling course. We did some paddling in the morning, including some fairly lumpy water. It was good to see everyone in the group using their GPs well. After lunch we went into the lee of the head to do a rolling session. James is a great instructor, clear about how things work and also good at spotting errors. The weather was fairly windy and rainy but we had a good, productive day. I was able to improve my forward finishing rolls.

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7 km, YTD 866 km

May 23rd - Breton Islands (#47)

I went up to Quadra Island to participate in the annual Pautik campout, an informal gathering of Greenland paddlers. WE camped on Rebecca Spit and had a leisurely morning of rolling practice and instruction. I spent some time working on my forward-forward norsaq roll which has been eluding me for some time. After spending some time with Alan coaching me, I made some good progress to the point that I got several double norsaq forward finishing rolls. I need to keep working on this as it now seems close! I estimate that I paddled 1 km in total, but decided not to count it!
In the afternoon I went for a paddle over to the Breton Islands with Andrew and Alan. The main  (south) Breton island  has a very nice campsite. I also saw several the Ochre sea stars (Pisaster sp) which have virtually disappeared around Victoria
It was good to see Andrew who had come all the way from Olympia to join us. It was also nice to meet up with several others of the "pautik clan".

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10 km, YTD 394 km.

April 17th Cooper Cove (#30

I helped Gerhardt run a Greenland rolling clinic at the Sea Kayak guides' exchange. I did not cover much distance ( under 500m) but helped a few folks working on their rolls.

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0 km, YTD 262 km

February 16th - Cadboro Bay (#15)

I went out for an afternoon paddle with my nephew Ed around Caddy Bay. It was Ed's first time out in a sea kayak and he caught on quickly. We even paddled through a 2-3 knot current getting into smuggler's cove. We saw river otters, Canada geese, buffflehead, wigeon, common and hooded mergansers, harlequin duck and great views of Baker and Rainier.

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7 km, YTD 134 km

January 24th - Flower Islet (#8)

Julia and I went for a short afternoon paddle to Flower Island and back. We had calm conditions with a light drizzle, We saw a good collection of wildlife: river otter, harbour seal, common and hooded merganzers, Canada geese, harlequin duck, bufflehead, american wigeon, great blue heron, and cormorants.

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4 km, YTD 72 km.

October 9th - Discovery Island (#86)

Dan and I went for an afternoon paddle around Discovery. Conditions were sunny and calm but the fog came in soon after we reached Jemmy Jones and then again on the south side of Discovery until we reached home! Happy to have the GPS with me! I was wearing a Reed  tuilik for the paddle and finished the afternoon with a few rolls in the fog! A small amount leakage around the face and wrists I think, but pretty comfortable to paddle in.

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15 km, YTD 834 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

May 4th - SISKA spring BBQ (#29)

I helped Gary set up a navigation course in the bay for the SISKA spring BBQ activities. Set one up on my mooring buoy! Later I went out and was one of the "sfaety boats" (with Reale) on the course. In spite of the poor weather, the BBQ was fun and well-attended.
After the event was over, I took the SUP out for a quick spin over to the yacht club.

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7 km, YTD 300 km

April 17th - Cadboro Bay (#24)

Jenny is back in town for the weekend and we got out for a leisurely afternoon paddle together. We paddled two Tahes, which looked pretty nice together. Nice conditions and good to spend time together.

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5 km, YTD 263 km

April 9th - Discovery Island (#21)

Danand I went for an afternoon paddle around the islands. Sunny and calm with little current! We stopped off at several beaches looking for oil spill cards, but did not find any! I paddled the LC instead of the T for a change...

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16 km, YTD 237 km

February 18th - Cadboro Bay (#12)

Dan and I set out on what was forecasted to be a windy afternoon to do some rolling in Loon Bay. The winds were from the S and W, so the bay was fairly protected and we were able to get some good practice in. I am still a bit rusty on some of the advanced rolls! After we had cooled down from the rolling we went for a short paddle around the bay, and I wanted to gather some more plankton for school. I trolled the plankton net from the yacht club to Flower Island. We had a wonderful rainbow on our way back to Loon Bay seen from the yacht club.

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6 km, YTD 120 km

September 28th - Rolling at the Guides Exchange, Ucluelet (#72)

Gerhardt and I led a Greenland rolling session for half a dozen participants at the fall SKGABC guides' exchange in Ucluelet. Despite a windy day, we found a nice quiet spot to teach and practice at Little Beach. We spent the morning on rolls and then part po0f the afternoon on Greenland paddle strokes. We also took some time to poke our noses out into the bigger sea conditions outside the bay - long enough to decide it was not a place to take a group! People made good progress, and we managed not to get too rained on. The day finished with a magnificent meal at the Kwisitis feast house. On Sunday the waves were even bigger so surfing was not recommended. Instead,I went for a great little hike along the Wild Pacific Trail. I also got to experience sleeping in a yurt at the Wya campground - very nice!
Gerhardt has posted some nice pics of the exchange here

3 km, YTD 855 km

August 12th - Discovery (#58)

Dan, George and I went for a morning paddle around our favourite islands. Conditions were good with a reasonably strong current. good chats as always and nice paddling!

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16 km, YTD 735 km

August 10th - Langford Lake (#57)

I joined a group of 6 others for a one day workshop with Cheri perry and Turner Wilson of Kayakways, organized by James Manke of Qajaq.ca. I set out from the Langford Boat ramp and paddled over to Martin's place where the event was taking place. We spent the morning working on strokes, with a particular focus on paddle cant. I found this intriguing, but am not yet convinced that it will work for me! We spent the afternoon on rolls, and I was able to learn a new forward finishing butterfly roll and at the very end figured out that I can do the elbow roll (video) fairly consistently if I slide myself far enough forward in my cockpit! I also made good progress on forward finishing norsaq/hand rolls and have some exercises to work on!
We finished the day off with a nice dinner followed with games!

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5 km, YTD 719 km

June 16th - Harbourfest (#41)

I went down to the harbourfest in the afternoon to do a short demonstration of Greenland rolling. I did not get any distance in and didn't use my GPS! :) There were about 50 people watching and I had fun doing some rolls I have not done for a while.I also got to throw the spear that Bill made for me!

Douglas Bain took some great shots (including some showing poor form!) which are posted here: http://bluegiraffephoto.zenfolio.com/harbour/h6e2ff07a#h6a298d5b

what is he looking at!

0 km, YTD 428 km

June 15th - Discovery Island (#40)

Dan, Paulo and I went for a morning paddle around Chatham and  Discovery islands. On our way past Flower Island we saw a dead head log poking a few inches out of the water. I called it in to Victoria Coastguard Radio as we had no marking equipment with us. It was vertical and solid - would cause significant damage to anything that hit it! We then made our way over to the bay by Heritage point to practice some rolling. I am doing a demonstration tomorrow in the harbour and needed to check that I could still do them all! After a good rolling session, we paddled on around Discovery, stopping to chat with the folks on the ORS Discovery Shuttle tour. After paddling around to boathouse bay, we met Bob, Ken and Alfonse coming in the opposite direction. We noticed at least two sets of campers in the wrong locations on Discovery Island! We made our way around the top end of Chatham Island and back over to Cadboro Bay. We checked on the dead head (14 km mark), and it was in the same location. Hopefully someone can get a marker on it sometime.

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15 km, YTD 428 km