Quick update...DART was going to send a last minute kick ass team of our 3 ladies and Glenn to the expedition race in Alberta Canada, The Best of the West, but had to pull the plug at the last moment. Looks like Jen will be joining me in Tahoe for an extended weekend of training and hanging out
The Yukon River Quest started today. Local superstars Eric Abraham and Robin Smith are racing in a tandem kayak, go gettum fellas!
Missy the missle found herself in trouble, bad news...hope it ends up all good.
Showing posts with label kayaking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kayaking. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Monday, May 12, 2008
Desert Winds...we beat the heat
Desert Winds II was nothing short of an epic race in great terrain. We started out hot and I was thankful that the first of three legs had swimming mixed in with the desert trekking. I'll let the pictures do the talking, overall it was a successfull weekend and I achieved my goals of not having another heat stroke and enjoying the race. It was cool to race against the other DART team too..a new perspective for me.
Heading into this race, which is my first 24+ hour after entering fatherhood, I had some reservations about where I was physically and whether or not I would be ready to handle a fast paced race in the heat of the desert.
I focused most of my training over the last 4-6 weeks on running and treking, basically spending time on my feet in rugged conditions. It paid off, as this race was a meat grinder on the feet and was a real push.
As far as the heat went, I focused on being hydrated and staying out of the sun as much as i could. This meant that I used nuun in all of my bladders and water bottles and I carried a bit more than I normally would. For clothing I made sure that I wore a long sleeve, white and breathable layer as well as something on my head to be able to keep cool.
The race itself was fast paced and we found ourselves jockeying for first with the other DAT-nuun team comprised of Cyril, Aaron, Aaron and Mari. It was a blast beign competitive with them and at the same time enjoying some humor here and there. I think I saw Rinn sneaking some rocks into Glenn's pack and we tried to gang tackle them, didn't work. We held the lead after the first leg and got passed by the other team in the second leg...the third leg saw teh lead change a number of times until we threw in the towel and decided to complete the race together, it was an easy decision.
It was also nice to get the victory, you can see the results here.
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Here are a couple of paddling pics from the race director...
Heading into this race, which is my first 24+ hour after entering fatherhood, I had some reservations about where I was physically and whether or not I would be ready to handle a fast paced race in the heat of the desert.
I focused most of my training over the last 4-6 weeks on running and treking, basically spending time on my feet in rugged conditions. It paid off, as this race was a meat grinder on the feet and was a real push.
As far as the heat went, I focused on being hydrated and staying out of the sun as much as i could. This meant that I used nuun in all of my bladders and water bottles and I carried a bit more than I normally would. For clothing I made sure that I wore a long sleeve, white and breathable layer as well as something on my head to be able to keep cool.
The race itself was fast paced and we found ourselves jockeying for first with the other DAT-nuun team comprised of Cyril, Aaron, Aaron and Mari. It was a blast beign competitive with them and at the same time enjoying some humor here and there. I think I saw Rinn sneaking some rocks into Glenn's pack and we tried to gang tackle them, didn't work. We held the lead after the first leg and got passed by the other team in the second leg...the third leg saw teh lead change a number of times until we threw in the towel and decided to complete the race together, it was an easy decision.
It was also nice to get the victory, you can see the results here.
********************
Here are a couple of paddling pics from the race director...
Friday, February 01, 2008
Learning to kayak smart and safe...Loss of a paddler
I recieved the email below as a forward(thanks G) from the Sound Rowers and thought it was worthwhile to include as a post for other kayakers to learn from, the last thing anyone needs is another avoidable loss. The questions asked at the end of the write up really strike home...ask these questions before you head out...it might save your life.
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Forwarded from Sound Rowers:
As some of you heardthrough the grapevine, the paddling community in Bellingham, Washington suffered a loss this last November. Out ofrespect for the family and friends, we refrained from releasing thestory right away. It's time that the story be told so that others maybenefit from this incident.An unfortunate accident….It is with much regret that I write this posting because seldom dowe hear of an incident that the paddler does not just walk away afterthe event.
On Thursday, Nov. 15th, Lanny `Bip' Sokol, a local paddlerhere in Bellingham WA, headed out onto Bellingham Bay just beforedark by himself in order to exercise. Bip was a local emergency roomphysician and a devoted father. He had been paddling a surfski foralmost 4 years but was unable to join us on most of our scheduledevents because of his work and his family. Instead, he often paddledalone and periodically; one or more of us would bump into him on thewater and paddle with him. Bip was 48 years old but he looked morelike he was 35. He was very lean and very fit. I was fortunate enoughto work with Bip at our local hospital so I probably knew him as wellor better than most of the local paddlers.
When Bip headed out, the wind was about 10 knots or less from thesouth. The sky was heavily overcast. Just before sunset, Bipencountered another surfski paddler and the two of them headed southtowards Post Point Buoy. Before they made it all the way to thePoint, the wind went from a steady 10 mph to 30-35 mph with nowarning. The water turned choppy and steep, with high winds againstan ebbing tide, and it started to rain. Bip let the other paddlerknow that he was out of his comfort range and that he was turningaround. Bip turned and headed north. The other paddler also turnedand was following him by about 100 feet. Bip either fell from hisboat or was blown off by a strong gust of wind. The other paddler sawhim in the water with one hand on his paddle and the other on hisboat; but only a second or two later, Bip's boat was tumbling across the water.
The other paddler dashed for Bip's boat and caught it, butthe high winds rolled Bip's boat over his and knocked him into thewater also. It took him 5 or 6 attempts to remount because of thewind and steep waves. After being in the water for 5 – 10 minutes, hehad been blown far enough away from Bip and it was now dark, so hecouldn't see where Bip was. The second paddler couldn't take hishands off his paddle to use his VHF and still stay upright. He choseto paddle the ½ mile to shore and get the Coast Guard to initiate arescue mission for Bip. The last time that Bip was seen was about 5pm and was recovered by the Coast Guard approximately 8 pm.Bip was wearing a headlamp, a dry suit and a PFD when he headedout that evening. His headlamp was knocked off when he fell in (thepolice said it was detached from his battery pack which was insidethe drysuit).
He had lightweight polypro clothing under his dry suitso he wouldn't overheat while exercising, but the protection it gavehim was only good as long as he was above water. When the Coast Guardfound him, he was face down in the water with no pulse. They beganCPR and rushed him to the local hospital. Never have I seen suchheroic efforts to revive someone. The cardio-thoracic team wasalerted before Bip was off the water and was standing by to put himon cardiac bypass to warm his core. He was cold without a pulse sothere was a chance that he could be revived. Despite the best effortsput forth by the numerous persons involved in the rescue and resuscitation, Bip was not able to survive this incident.As they say, hindsight is 20/20, but in this instance, there aremore than a couple of factors that led to Bip's death. First, thelack of a leash (there was no evidence of one on the body, boat, orpaddle which were recovered); here in the northwest, most all of ususe them. With these colder water temperatures, it's important tokeep your boat leashed to your body. Another factor was the time ofday; a search after dark is much harder to do than during daylight.Bip was wearing a headlamp so he obviously was expecting to be outafter dark. The wind was blowing north against an ebbing tide: thiswould inhibit even the strongest swimmer from making it to shore.
These facts, plus the lack of insulation under the dry suit, probablyamounted to Bip succumbing to the cold water and becominghypothermic. It was hard for me to fathom that someone wearing a drysuit and a PFD could die in our local waters in only a few hours.Bip was a swimmer, a cross country skier, and a triathete. His leanbody offered little or no protection against the elements.Bip will be missed by many people besides those in the heath careand paddling communities. His death is an opportunity for all of usto focus on our safety and determine if we are truly safe or if wejust have the perception of safety.
If you call for help, can theCoast Guard or private vessel get to you within an hour? Can they see you if it's dark or stormy? How good is your leash? How good are your skills if the winds kick up above your comfort zone? Are you dressedwell enough to spend up to an hour in the water? Can you actually be rescued by another surfski in rough weather if you are separated fromyour boat?Paddle on and be safe. Larry Goolsby
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Forwarded from Sound Rowers:
As some of you heardthrough the grapevine, the paddling community in Bellingham, Washington suffered a loss this last November. Out ofrespect for the family and friends, we refrained from releasing thestory right away. It's time that the story be told so that others maybenefit from this incident.An unfortunate accident….It is with much regret that I write this posting because seldom dowe hear of an incident that the paddler does not just walk away afterthe event.
On Thursday, Nov. 15th, Lanny `Bip' Sokol, a local paddlerhere in Bellingham WA, headed out onto Bellingham Bay just beforedark by himself in order to exercise. Bip was a local emergency roomphysician and a devoted father. He had been paddling a surfski foralmost 4 years but was unable to join us on most of our scheduledevents because of his work and his family. Instead, he often paddledalone and periodically; one or more of us would bump into him on thewater and paddle with him. Bip was 48 years old but he looked morelike he was 35. He was very lean and very fit. I was fortunate enoughto work with Bip at our local hospital so I probably knew him as wellor better than most of the local paddlers.
When Bip headed out, the wind was about 10 knots or less from thesouth. The sky was heavily overcast. Just before sunset, Bipencountered another surfski paddler and the two of them headed southtowards Post Point Buoy. Before they made it all the way to thePoint, the wind went from a steady 10 mph to 30-35 mph with nowarning. The water turned choppy and steep, with high winds againstan ebbing tide, and it started to rain. Bip let the other paddlerknow that he was out of his comfort range and that he was turningaround. Bip turned and headed north. The other paddler also turnedand was following him by about 100 feet. Bip either fell from hisboat or was blown off by a strong gust of wind. The other paddler sawhim in the water with one hand on his paddle and the other on hisboat; but only a second or two later, Bip's boat was tumbling across the water.
The other paddler dashed for Bip's boat and caught it, butthe high winds rolled Bip's boat over his and knocked him into thewater also. It took him 5 or 6 attempts to remount because of thewind and steep waves. After being in the water for 5 – 10 minutes, hehad been blown far enough away from Bip and it was now dark, so hecouldn't see where Bip was. The second paddler couldn't take hishands off his paddle to use his VHF and still stay upright. He choseto paddle the ½ mile to shore and get the Coast Guard to initiate arescue mission for Bip. The last time that Bip was seen was about 5pm and was recovered by the Coast Guard approximately 8 pm.Bip was wearing a headlamp, a dry suit and a PFD when he headedout that evening. His headlamp was knocked off when he fell in (thepolice said it was detached from his battery pack which was insidethe drysuit).
He had lightweight polypro clothing under his dry suitso he wouldn't overheat while exercising, but the protection it gavehim was only good as long as he was above water. When the Coast Guardfound him, he was face down in the water with no pulse. They beganCPR and rushed him to the local hospital. Never have I seen suchheroic efforts to revive someone. The cardio-thoracic team wasalerted before Bip was off the water and was standing by to put himon cardiac bypass to warm his core. He was cold without a pulse sothere was a chance that he could be revived. Despite the best effortsput forth by the numerous persons involved in the rescue and resuscitation, Bip was not able to survive this incident.As they say, hindsight is 20/20, but in this instance, there aremore than a couple of factors that led to Bip's death. First, thelack of a leash (there was no evidence of one on the body, boat, orpaddle which were recovered); here in the northwest, most all of ususe them. With these colder water temperatures, it's important tokeep your boat leashed to your body. Another factor was the time ofday; a search after dark is much harder to do than during daylight.Bip was wearing a headlamp so he obviously was expecting to be outafter dark. The wind was blowing north against an ebbing tide: thiswould inhibit even the strongest swimmer from making it to shore.
These facts, plus the lack of insulation under the dry suit, probablyamounted to Bip succumbing to the cold water and becominghypothermic. It was hard for me to fathom that someone wearing a drysuit and a PFD could die in our local waters in only a few hours.Bip was a swimmer, a cross country skier, and a triathete. His leanbody offered little or no protection against the elements.Bip will be missed by many people besides those in the heath careand paddling communities. His death is an opportunity for all of usto focus on our safety and determine if we are truly safe or if wejust have the perception of safety.
If you call for help, can theCoast Guard or private vessel get to you within an hour? Can they see you if it's dark or stormy? How good is your leash? How good are your skills if the winds kick up above your comfort zone? Are you dressedwell enough to spend up to an hour in the water? Can you actually be rescued by another surfski in rough weather if you are separated fromyour boat?Paddle on and be safe. Larry Goolsby
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Free Beer
If that didn't get you to read this what will? I noticed on baarbd this morning the page for their season kick off and cross train party. It sounds like a blast and I thought it was a great way to get people fired up about this years races and adventures. Feb 9th in SanFrancisco is bound to be a good time with AR vids, good beats and lots of beer.
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On another note, team mates Glenn and Aaron knocked another two islands off of the Puget Sound checklist last weekend in freezing temps...these guys are animals and you can get more details here. Harstene and Squaxin are located just north of Olympia and proved to be an "excellent and beautiful paddle," as put by Aaron.
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On another note, team mates Glenn and Aaron knocked another two islands off of the Puget Sound checklist last weekend in freezing temps...these guys are animals and you can get more details here. Harstene and Squaxin are located just north of Olympia and proved to be an "excellent and beautiful paddle," as put by Aaron.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Vashon Island Circumnavigation Completed!
Sunday January 20th, Aaron Rinn, Frenchy and I met up with Glenn at the North tip of Vashon Island. We took the Fauntleroy Ferry over from West Seattle and Glenn came from the Southworth station. In our quest to paddle around each of the Islands in the San Juans, Vashon would be our next target. We chose to cut off Maury Island with the portage and save it for another day.Saturday called for partly cloudy skies, cold temperatures and heavy winds. The forecast was right on.
We were on the water by 10:20 and paddled clockwise around the Island. Glenn paddled with his GPS so we could get exact mileage and track our pace as we paddled. The heavy tailwind pushed up to 9+ miles per hour towards the portage (Labeled 'Portage' on the map). The waves also helped and we had a wild paddle down, only hoping the wind would die for our paddle North on the West side of the Island...wishful thinking.
Once through the portage the wind was blocked by the Island and we had a glassy paddle to the South side as we approached Tacoma and Mt. Rainier. Wish I would have brought the camera but it did not make this trip. The paddle North was a slog to say the least. We hugged the shore and tried to use the coves as shelter from the wind, probably blowing at 30mph, and the waves. At time we were paddling at 2.4 miles per hour and getting really wet.
Throughout the paddle we switched paddling partners and stretched out our legs. This helped ease the discomfort a bit. Although the wind was hindering our pace we did have the tide in our favor and this helped.
At about 4:45 pm we approached theNorth tip of the Island and we were treated to an unbelievable sunset. This is part of the reason we were out there...unbelievable nature sights all day. Another that stood out was a young bald eagle stalking a Grey Heron that was in the water...quite a sight. As we round the corner the waves from the open sound hit the sand bar and wer 6-8 feet...WOW. Frenchy asked Glenn a question in front of me and I heard som F bombs dropped and a statement we had heard before, "Dont stop paddling now!" We hammered up and down these short steep waves and right into the beach next to the ferry terminal.
Margaritas and burritos were on deck next and some revelry over our cold conquest...see you on the trails.
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Kayak training with Outdoor Adventure Center
Our adventure racing team spends an awful lot of time working on our fitness, but this time of year we spend a bit more time honing our technical skills, whether it be on a mountain bike, running, climbing or kayaking. Friday night we hooked up with our good friends from the Outdoor Adventure Center in the Juanita high School Pool and went over bracing techniques, wet exits and most importantly rescue techniques in a kayak.We have been in some pretty hairy conditions in our sea kayaks and are all pretty confident with our open water rescue skills with the exception of an eskimo roll. Glenn, Rinn and I set out to master this skill and be able to teach all the members of our team what they need to know about assisted and non assisted recovery techniques. We got teamed up with Buckey who has been river and sea kayaking since the beginning of time and has a very large cache of tricks and tips.
So what are we in for? This Friday was 1.5 hours of bracing and assisted rescue. Next Friday will be class time and some pool time and then the following friday we will graduate with some unassisted eskimo rolls. Can we roll a double? I think so. Has anyone ever heard of a triple kayak eskimo roll? Bucky is sure he could get it with some practice and the right people in the boat.
We Finished off class with 20 minutes of kayak water polo...lots of fun and skill building at the same time.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Bainbridge Island
It was time to saddle up in the kayaks and get out into the sound. This Saturday turned out to be the perfect day for a circumnavigation of Bainbridge Island! It ended up being just shy of 30 miles and took JVG, Aaron and I 6 hours and 30 minutes to complete. We stopped for about 45 minutes total, including 3 bathroom breaks, one time to put on more layers and a nice picnic stop on the northern most part of the Island.We paddled the Seascape 3 from Northwest Kayaks and had smooth paddling for almost all of the trip. We did leave our spray skirts in West Seattle (dumb mistake) and took the ferry over with the boat on the car thinking they were in the boat. As we started our Clockwise paddle from Eagle Harbor (E/SE side of the Island) and headed out into the sound the wind was starting to pick up and we thought we might be in for some bilging excercises. But as we rounded the Southern tip things mellowed out and we got into our groove. This paddle was a great change of scenery and had all of us looking forward to the next bend in our route to see what was next.
The tide shifted from high to low at 7:45 AM so we fought the current for a bit on the SW corner as all of the channel heading into Bremerton was flowing towards us. We viewed the tidal flow before our trip off of the Sound Rowers link list. Once we headed North we were cruising, and although I did not have a GPS, I would guess our rate at 7-8 mph...totally awesome.
We saw some sea lions and sea otters while out but not much more wild life. It was great to get out in the Sound and see the tides really move some water. We discussed setting a long term goal of circumnavigating every Island in the Sound...wonder how long that will take? Next up, Vashon Island!
I need to get a camera...ours is at the bottom of the Pacific from our Baja exploits. Hopefully getting a new one this week so I can continue keeping the posts picture heavy.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Mercer, May Valley and Tiger Mountain...
Big weekend and lots of fun to go with it. Saturday was a blast and Aaron, Glenn JVG and I paddled from the NWOC out the cut and around Mercer Island in a clockwise fashion. We cut accross near 520, said hi to the guards at Bill G's house on the lake (it's amazing) and finished the 26 mile loop in about 6 hours with three stops to switch paddle partners.The lake was very calm and the wind was not too heavy, which made for great paddling and everyone was looking good. Our pace averaged 5.3 miles per hour and held constant over the entire paddle. JVG is looking good in the boat and it is fun to see her skills get better and better each time she kayaks. We are getting ramped up in the boat and could be very strong in the paddle at the Traversia.
Sunday we did one of our favorite trainings around the South end of Lake Washington and out May Valley with JVG, Glenn, Frenchy and MG. We worked our way to Issaquah high school where we stashed our bikes and ran up Tiger Mountain for the first big brick of the year. It is amazing to me how this training gets easier and easier over time...perhaps I am more comfortable out on a 6 hour brick now. The first time we did this it was miserable, everyone was cold and I could not wait for it to get done. Now I wanted it to go another four hours. Just can't get enough. It helps to have adventerous outings and fun people to do them with.
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