GREAT BEAR SUP EXPEDITION BEGINS

After a 20 hour drive to PRince Rupert, a 4 hour ferry ride to Hartley Bay an incredible meal with my adopted family, Jen, Masa, Taylor and I are ready to head out early tomorrow morning for the first ever exploration of the Great Bear Rainforest by SUP. I will be paddling the most beautiful board i have ever seen. Andy Lambrecht from Pemberton custom built me a Red Cedar Stand Up Paddleboard. It is a stunning board and paddles incredibly well. I will be sending pictures and updating the whole trip when i get back to Hartley Bay on the 22nd. It should be amazing. I can't wait to tell you all about it.....stoked.....norm

Stand Up Paddleboarding the Queen Charlotte Islands

Stand Up Paddleboarding the Queen Charlotte Islands

For the last two weeks i was up at the Outpost Fishing Lodge guiding salmon fishing tours. Manager and great friend, Ken Beatty had an old Bic Windsurfer that he brought up to train on and explore. The Outpost Fishing Lodge is located on the remote west side of Graham Island. It is a stunning shoreline with vast amounts of power and energy emanating from the ocean. It is a goal of mine to paddle this shoreline and SUP into some of the untouched big reef breaks. Till then Ken and I have been working on our downwind paddling on the very unstable Bic Windsurfer. I have a new line of Imagine SUP's arriving in the next couple of weeks Kenny B already has his name on the Eco 12 foot SUP. Kenny's goal to salmon fish off the SUP is not far away........nor is the goal to explore this shoreline by SUP.

Monster Charlotte Halibut

Just back from my 2 weeks of Salmon fishing in the Queen Charlotte Islands. Check out these halibut taken a few days ago. These halibut were 198 and 175 pounds. There are a lot of these fish up there but we really need to think about conserving them. Killing these big fish is like chopping down big trees. It's a really old way of thinking and we have to be putting these fish back. All of the big halibut are females and have exponentially larger numbers of eggs as they get bigger. It's all about education. 

Paddlefit Explore

 
It's time to get back on the SUP and hit the water again. This will be the first PaddleFit Explore class in a series that will run sporadically throughout the summer. Here are the details: 
 
When:    Monday, July 13th 
Where:   Edgewater Outdoor Center, Green Lake, Whistler
Time:     7pm - 8:30pm
What:    A combination of on water exploration & on board fitness
Pre-req: Completed a previous PaddleFit or Learn to SUP class. Essentially, you need to be proficient and comfortable on the board!
$25 
Pre-Registration Required
 
To register, please RSVP to this email and we will give your further instruction. If you know of someone who you think would love to try the SUP and especially the PaddleFit Explore class, have them email us about taking a Learn to SUP class prior to Monday. We are around all weekend and will be teaching.
 

Queen Charlotte Island Chinook- Caught and Released

Just one of the beauties caught and released this week. These fish are becoming rare.

Back to Haida Gwaii

I am back up on the west coast of Haida Gwaii salmon fishing again for The Outpost lodge. The past few weeks prior to coming up here were great. I was over on the island with Jen and we did the Kusam Climb. Really tough 23 km race as the first 8km were straight up, 4500 feet. I managed to place 5th out of the 400 racers. Last week i ran Comfortably Numb and thats what my legs felt like in that 25 km trail race. They did not quite seem recovered after the Kusam but it was fun to run anyways. I only race so i can pig out at the junk table afterwards. I placed 11th which was okay since there were some pretty good runners. One of these days i may train for these races but for now they are just fun to compete in. 

So this monday i came up to the Charlottes to fish. Fishing has been a little slow but it picked up today. I had some nice fish this afternoon. Yesterday everyone did well on the Halibut. I released a hali that was 6 feet long which puts it at around 180-200 pounds. Another guide brought one to the dock that banged the scale at 225. Unreal. Weather has been pretty good considering its the charlottes. I see a nice sunset right now so tomorrow looks promising. I will try to keep updated on the fishing up here and i will try to send some pictures.