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Well, this year is again as all years very interesting. And I am not talking about the freaking election. I am talking about supping!! This was/is a great year for firsts!! I was lucky with good weather and not that bad winds, heck, I even had a bit of a tail wind coming back on the west side of the island! Awesome!! Finishing that race  I decided that it was time to step it up and do something longer. After looking at what events are long I realized, there is nothing longer in a true race format than Bowen, so…  The idea was to do 55k!! All around green lake and I would raise some money for charity. I did both in the end, raised money for wag and completed the 55k in 9:57 minutes!! Yup!! No swell assist or wind to really speak of to help us, which is ok, sorta. I did it. Now, time for some longer ones. I am planning some cool things in the future and will keep you sort of up to date! cheers and go paddle!!

It just turned to May and we have already hit 30 degrees. I screwed up my first phone, paddled hundreds of kilometres, traveled around the world and went to Tsukiji market in tokyo. Jeez, this year is turning in to a kicker. Became one of the only white? guys to circumnavigate lake Sowa in the Chino district of Nagano, 20k. Lets hope the rest of the year is as exciting as the first part!! woot woot, go paddle boarding!!

4 inches of snow on a lake.
So hard but so cool

Well, it may signal negativity to some, but others relish the onset of new. Me, kinda excited about what the new will hold. Were I will go, how I will do and, will I get a new board? hehe. All the wonderful thoughts about the new year. As far as 2015 it was a tough one but I learned a lot and obviously I will keep learning cuz thats the type of guy I am!! Had some great fall paddles!! The wildest was definitely the one on Alta Lake with almost 4 inches of wet snow on the water!! What a slog!! Soooooo awesome though, only did about a k, but it was one of the toughest ever!! Got the pics to show for it!! Thank you Joern Rhode!!! Sorry about the wardrobe malfunction. Lets look forward to a great year with great success and lots of fun and wicked stories!! Make sure you keep your cameras handy to catch the moment!! Cheers and go paddle!!

Well, finally I do not have to use the weather as an excuse!! I almost did because the weather in the morning before the race was unbelievable!! Torrential rains mixed with 50 plus k winds!! Everyone was thinking I was crazy!! My wife of course, she kept asking me as we were driving down, Are you sure you wanna do this? I said yup. Just before the race the rain let up and everything was looking good!! The field was strong!! Only 30 people in the 14k but that was ok with me as I don’t care about anyone but myself and trying to best my training time was my goal. I estimated that it would be a time of 1:45 hours for the 14k course. I did it in 1:46 hours. I did fall in once and when I got on my board I realized that my leash was wrapped around my left foot!!! arghh! It was my first foray in to flat water and I loved it!! Now all I have to do is get a new board and train hard!! What a great race Deep Cove Kayak put on!! Thank you and what a great spot you have there Bob Putnam!! Look forward to next year!! ps the famous Simon Whitfield only beat me by 4mins!! woot woot!! Next year I will crush him!!

Hi everyone!!  You must be bored with my paddle board entries, and, if not? Let me shove another one down your visual throats!! As of a couple of weeks ago I ventured in to the realm of long distance racing, open ocean racing. Actually, racing around a freaking island type racing. It was called the Race around Bowen Island Challenge. Wow! Race and Challenge in one sentence!  What a humbling experience. It was not due to lack of training, or the wrong food, or even dehydration. It was the conditions! As most good races are only abruptly stopped by weather. Case in point this time.

As last year, which in my opinion was the wrong choice, we went north around the island. Everything was somewhat groovy as we headed in to the channel except for the fact that I was on the wrong board and I found that out quickly as everyone but a small handful pulled away. Things were not bad yet. It was when we came around the north coast and headed south in the channel that the shit hit the preverbal wall! The first thing that sucked the most was that we had a constant 22 knot wind, aka 35 kmh winds head on. Then, we were privy to 3 to 4 foot swell, side chop, tide and boat wakes. Needless to say it was half way during the race that the support crew came and picked a bunch of us out of the water.

The race was over and I hadn’t even done more than half of the intended distance. What a disappointment. Alas, even getting on the support boat in those conditions was a legendary feat.

I know what I have to do for next year. Drink more beer!

hahaha,

details to come?

the end of the line

Well! That was one of the best days Paddling ever!  Jon P and myself went to Horseshoe Bay. From there we paddled to Bowen Island. We took a short break and headed out to wait for the Ferry so we could ride it’s wake! While waiting we were greeted with the most unsuspecting surprise ever! A pod of Orca went right by us!!!! We were a few hundred metres away and couldn’t quite catch up to them, alas, we were near enough!! We then did catch the Ferry’s wake but this weeks was smaller than last. We couldn’t really ride it as it was a smaller. Though it still was one of the best days paddling ever!! ahhhhh

Well you might say that is a good start to the topic of this post. Shows. Books. Productions. hmmmmm, books. Yup, I am having trouble deciding which series I will use for my first big book or real size, sort of.  I think the Olympic series will win. The story is simple, stand on the same spot before, during and after the Whistler Winter Olympics. I was working sporadically during the games and I wanted to show the change to the surroundings and the site.  The results were more than interesting!! What a cool concept for a book I thought. And there you have it. Book is now in production, wish me well!! 

Jon-e P in Howe sound

I know, I know, who is a bad boy for not taking advantage of such a wonderful page. See, here is a new one!! cheers  Had a great day with Rik, Rick, Jon in the beautiful Howe Sound, the estuary and the Squamish River!! We turned what could have been a bad day in to an epic one!! Love Squamish!! Ohhh, see how long it takes to find Jon in the photo.

Hi everyone!!  Yes, it has taken me some time to update my blog. I have been busy.  3 carib islands, kauai, lots a paddlin and stuff but the big news is that after 10 years I have finally got accepted in to State of the Art on my own! Not part of a group thing but, just me. Should be fun! My idea is simple. Everywhere tropical I go I always find single flip flops. So. I started amassing these fotos and I will be making a small book out of the fotos. Then, I will display a multitude of them.  Hope you can come check out the show! I will keep you up to date? hahahaha, I hope so! ciao

So, everyone thinks they have them or we all want them. The mega million fans on fb. Really who cares. Sometimes it’s just one good one to make you smile. She’s been featured on the page before but I will do so again. Thank you M.

Other recent news.

I don’t have any upcoming plans of showing anything anytime soon!!

Don’t worry. I will still be pluggin away and makin stuff and doin stuff and stuff.

yeah.

As always, stick around and keep checking things out.