March 18th - Surge Narrows (#23)

I went up to Surge Narrows again with the group and had a wonderful morning on the "wave". It was fun watching it gradually build from 9AM until almost noon when I left. I really felt that I had got the hang of the Delphin on that wave by the time I finished the morning. We met up with Jonathan, Alan and Brent who gave me some good tips. By the time I finished I was staying on the wave and moving around on it as well - great fun!

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5 km, YTD 234 km.

zoom into surge narrows

It was a great St. Patrick's weekend spent with Monica, Reale, Gloria, Dave and Alison, Kevin, John, Walter and Huw!

March 17th - Settler's Group (#22)

I went for an afternoon paddle with the group over to the waterfall on Maurelle Island. The current was now ebbing fairly strongly which made for many interesting crossings.

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10 km, YTD 229 km

March 17th- Surge Narrows (#21)

Monica and I went up to Discovery Islands Lodge with a wonderful bunch from Duncan and Nanaimo for the weekend. I managed to get up to the narrows for some tide race fun on the first morning. I had fun getting to know how my Delphin and the Shuna paddle worked together. We also ran into Brent there.

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6 km, YTD 219 km

March 10th - Currents Clinic (#20)

I helped Gary lead a currents clinic for SISKA. We were four instructors and 11 students and we had fun learning about eddy lines, ferrying and more. It was great to see smiles on faces when they felt their first good eddy turn!

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10 km, YTD 213 km

March 4th - Jordan River (#19)

I joined Zyoji, Dom, Justin, Ryan and Ted to go surfing at JR. Zyoji and Justin were on SUPs and Dom, Ryan and Ted were on regular boards while I was in the Delphin. The Delpin performed well though the waves were not quite pushy enough to be perfect! I got some nice rides and had to do a couple of combat rolls. I was wearing my new Comfort Paddling Tuilik which is sized to fit a larger cockpit. It was nice to wear a bib and tuilik instead of a dry suit!

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9 km, YTD 203 km

March 3rd - Oak Bay Marina (#18

Tom, Dan and I went for a morning paddle to Oak Bay Marina. There was a strong south-westerly blowing so we decided to keep in the lee and follow the shore to Oak Bay. Tom was trying out my Tahe Greenland and I was paddling the Delphin. As you can see from the track back, we had a nice tailwind push across Oak bay!

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9 km, YTD 195 km

March 1st - Discovery (#17)

Dan and I went for an afternoon paddle around Discovery. Conditions were nice with a good ebb when we started that had dissipated by the time we came back.  Dan had some trouble with his skeg, so we stopped for a while near Commodore Point.

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15 km, YTD 185 km

Feb 26th - Baynes SAREX (#16)

I coordinated a group of 13 SISKA paddlers to venture out into Baynes to do a kayaker rescue exercise with Oak Bay Sea Rescue. We set our selves up by Strongtide island and then had our two swimmers enter the water. OBSR crew were on scene quickly and had the swimmers out of the water quite quickly. Once again this was a useful exercise for the kayakers and the sea rescue crew.

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12 km, YTD 170 km

Feb 23 - Chatham (#15)

Dan and I went for an afternoon paddle over to Chatham. I did not get out last weekend as I was in Vancouver for a science conference, so I was ready to get on the water! We had a nice paddle. Dan used his new NLP GP with 18 inch loom insert and I used an NLP Aleut-inspired with a 20 inch loom insert - both paddles worked very well and we traded back and forth. There was a pretty good headwind on the way back over to Cattle Point!

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13 km, YTD 158 km

Feb 12th - Baynes (#14)

I paddled out to Cadboro Point to have a play in the tide race at Baynes. There were a good number of us there (Gerhardt, Reale, Jo, Sheila, Dave, Scott, Mark, Michel, Dorothea, Yves, Patti) but I managed to get in a few times and have some great rides. I was paddling the Delphin with the Werner Shuna paddle which works well under these conditions. I hope to have some video to upload later...

click to enlarge - the whole trip

click to enlarge - zoom in at Cadboro Point

8 km, YTD 145 km

Feb 11th - Discovery (#13)

Dan, Dennis and I went for a morning paddle out to Chatham and Discovery Islands. The current was running a strong ebb and Dan and I had a "roller coaster ride through it on the way out. The prediction was for close to 6 knots at Race rocks... We made it over to Vantreight, went and played in the sluice, only to find the current was to strong to paddle up through!. We went around the other side of Vantreight only to find the same thing so we decided to portage across a corner of Vantreight!
By the time we came home the current had waned and we had a steady trip back.

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14 km, YTD 137 km

Feb 6th - Discovery Island (#12)

Dan and I went for a morning paddle out around Chatham and Discovery Islands. There was a brisk (15-20 kt) northerly wind and there were some fun waves in Baynes. We stopped for a snack in Rudlin Bay and then again to pick up some crab trap floats and line that had come ashore. It was a good workout, especially the return trip across Baynes. The Northern Lights Aleut-inspired definitely was a good paddle for the day. I could really feel it bit when I wanted some power. We averaged about 3.5 kt throughout.
It has been nice getting out 4 times in 4 days!

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15 km, YTD 123 km

Feb 5th - Port Renfrew (#11)

I went for a short surfing session at the north end of Port Renfrew's beach. There were a bunch of surfers there in the best spot, so I had to accept occasional good waves! However, I did get some great rides and had fun! Another beautiful sunny, calm winter's day! On the way home we stopped for a nice walk at Sandcut Creek.

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5 km, YTD 108 km

Feb 4th - Port Renfrew (#10)

Monica and I went for a paddle up the San Juan River. The tide was on its way out so it was quite an effort to paddle up stream! It was a beautiful afternoon! After we got back to the beach by the lodge, I went for another short surf and again had a few nice rides!

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8 km, YTD 103 km

Feb 3rd - Jordan River (#9)

I went for a quick surf with Gerhardt and James at JR on our way to Port Renfrew. The Delphin and GP  performed well and I had some fun rides.

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3 km, YTD 95 km.