MORE SUP

This weekend I was back on the SUP. We had some spectacular weather here in Sea to Sky country so we had to take advantage of it. I picked Jen up and we headed to the Squamish River, me on my Kalama and Jen on her Sitka Longboard. We took turns paddling down the river, thank goodness for the wetsuits because the river was pretty cold. It took us a couple of hours to get down to the spit from our launch at the Mamquam River. We did not time things right because we were paddling into a strong inflow wind by the time we got close to the ocean and a flooding tide as well. Great workout though and the scenery was spectacular.

Sunday we had to head up to Whistler to meet some friends so we had another workout on Alta Lake. Jen paddled her kayak to get ready for the world adventure championships in Brazil and I paddled my SUP to get ready for the World SUP Championships(no such thing.....yet) It was a really cold morning with a stiff northerly outflow wind. I did manage to paddle up a short river where i ran into a family of otters and a lone coyote. That was pretty cool. The weather here has been really amazing so I am hoping to get back out for some more SUP training. Soon i will head to Tofino to try to surf this thing. We had post adventure breaky at the Function Junction Wild Wood(the best) and  it was great to see my old guiding buddy Tankers with his better Swedish half, Laura. 

Bigger day on the SUP

Last sunday I went for a longer paddle on the SUP. My roomate Cindy dropped me off at Porteau Cove on the Sea to Sky Hiway. There was a little bit of a northerly outflow which made the paddling a little slower as I started but I enjoyed the challenge. It was a beautiful day to paddle and as I hit Brittania Beach the northerly stopped as the sun warmed the Squamish Valley and a light southerly inflow began to push me along. It was great paddling, no one out in the sound aside from a couple of pleasure boats. I was pretty hot in the wetsuit but it was nice to have it for safety incase I hit the drink. Things again slowed down as I hit the outflow of the Squamish River. Pretty incredible view though of the Chief, Mt. Garibaldi and the surrounding peaks. I think the distance was close to 16-17km's which took me 3.5 hours to complete. I am hoping to get out again this week and soon I will head out to Tofino to try surfing this thing. Should be a lot of fun. 

Morning Coffee on the Squamish River

Yup, coffee on my standup paddle board. Spectacular morning and day in Squamish. I did not have a lot of time but I managed to launch my SUP off the dyke and onto the Squamish River to begin to get comfortable in moving water standing up. If you are not familiar with Stand Up paddle boarding its an ancient Hawaiian Sport where you stand on big longboards and use a long paddle to propel yourself forward. The sport is huge in the states and Hawaii but has yet to take off up here. Guys like Laird Hamilton are dropping into 40-50 foot faces at Jaws on Maui and tackling one of the heaviest waves in the world, Teahupoo, in Tahiti on these things. Guys are paddling down class 4 and 5 rivers on them and guys including myself are looking at doing overnight expeditions up on the north coast with them.I am looking at some big epics since so much of this coast has never been seen by stand up paddle boarders. Something about this sport has really got me excited and all I want to do right now is paddle since there are tons of things that have never been done on a Stand Up Paddle Board. 

Today I was paddling with Harbour Seals who were chasing salmon up the river and with Mergansers and Blue Herons. It was really an amazing morning and I am looking forward to getting into the Sound for some Fjiord paddling. We are coming into the rainy and stormy season on the coast here but there are going to be some amazing adventures to be had over the winter. Combine that with another heavy schedule of ski touring and I'm set up for a good one.......

STAND UP PADDLE BOARD CAREER BEGINS

Ohhhhhh I am so excited, after a month of searching I finally found a used stand up paddle board. Its actually the first SUP i had ever been on. I rented this board from Neil at Second Wave in North Vancouver and after a couple of weeks of bugging him he finally sold it to me and now a whole world awaits. Its really all I have been thinking about lately so my first paddle was of course with my love, Big Sea on Alice Lake. I really thought it was going to take me awhile before she got comfortable on this thing but she stood on it for a second, got off, realized I was going to go and hopped on and sat down on my feet. So there I was for my first paddle with Big Sea happy as a clam. (not sure where that slogan came, do clams get happy and sad??) So we paddled around the lake as I got used to the board. Its a sweet board, an 11'6" Southpoint Timpone Kalama Edition. Pretty sick ride. Stable yet moves well. It's an awesome workout and I have just been dreamin as to all of the places I will go. For starters I will be heading into Howe Sound to put a few miles on in the upcoming weeks with hopes of heading to the west coast to try my hand at surfing this thing and tackling a few overnight expeditions with it. It is so much fun, I just love trying and getting good at a new sport, especially when it includes paddling, surfboards, surfing and the ocean. Awesome.......stay posted for Adventures of a Brackendale SUPer 

5 Days of Island Multiventure

End of September I was on the island for a wicked weekend of multiventure and celebration of my friend Jen's birthday. Thursday we ran the Juan De Fuca Trail with Jen's friend Don. The conditions were horrible, heavy rain and muddy trails. I couldn't think of better conditions for the west coast, actually I can but whatever, its the west coast. We ran the 47km trail in a cruisy pace of 8 hours. Friday we recovered in Duncan and sampled the various coffee shops in the area. This was our recovery day as we had to race the Cumberland Momar on Saturday. We raced in the 4 team division and I was fortunate enough to race with half of the Dart Nuun team, Jen Segger and her teammate Ryan Van Gorder. His wife Jen fell ill right before the race and we found a great replacement in a strong competitor, Tom Roozenvald. I realized why Ryan is on one of the top adventure racers as he towed Jen uphill during one of the steep hills of the mountain bike section while I blew my quads out about 3/4 way up. Very impressive show of power and teamwork. It was a very enjoyable race and the training i have been doing chasing Jen around Squamish really paid off for me as I felt pretty strong throughout. We ended up winning our division and placing 5th overall. It was great to compete in this last Momar. I completed all three with varying degrees of success throughout. Momar Squamish I lost my map and my mind in the solo category unhappy with the way things worked out but happy i didn't walk off the course. We learn through experience and I made a great decision for Momar Lake Cowichan, I teamed up with Jen and we won the co-ed division and place 4th overall. These races are a lot of fun, Bryan Tasaka does and outstanding job and I am looking forward to next years races. I now have three really cool Tshirts too. 

We spent post race in Tofino surfing incredible conditions. Sun and beautiful glassy swells. Jen got a chance to ride her new Sitka Longboard and made the most of it with sweet rides and thoughts of heading towards the nose for some hang ten action. Happy Birthday to Jen and thanks for such and amazing weekend.

Lately I have been coaching a ton with the Quest Women's basketball team. We played our first game against Douglas College last Friday and this weekend we are in Capilano for a 3 game tournament. You can check out our results on questuwomensbasketball.blogspot.com.

Still searching for a Stand Up Paddleboard.........