| Vancouver Island Expedition: Once around the Island and home.... |
| The trip around British Columbia's Vancouver Island. At roughly 1100-1200 kilometers it will make for a pretty good "little paddle"! The fastest circumnavigation around the Island thus far is said to be 28 days. Well, I've always enjoyed a good challenge, particularly when it comes to paddling. The goal of this expedition is to do a solo circumnavigation of the Island in a time of 21 days...or less! Joining me in this venture is Nigel Dennis of Sea Kayaking UK from England who will be providing the expedition kayak for Vancouver Island. I'll be paddling a Greenland Race, a very fast and sea worthy sea kayak that is built to make short work of long sections of challenging waters! Many thanks to Nigel for his support of this new expedition. As I write this out, on Feb. 5th, 2007, I have just come back from a weekend visit to Vancouver Island where I visited with some good friend over in Nanaimo, the location where I'll begin and end the upcoming expedition. A good friend of mine, John Kimantis, is author of a series of guidebooks on British Columbia sea kayaking. Over the weekend we poured over charts and talked about the route, things to watch out for, where to set-up camp and what to see along the way. John has an excellent website for British Columbia sea kayaking at www.thewildcoast.ca The downside to this new expedition plan however is that it has forced me into canceling my plans to compete at this years Yukon River Quest on the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City...an epic 700 kilometer paddling race. I'll be heading back to the Yukon once again in 2008 however. |
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| Feb. 13th update: Things are progresing nicely towards my circumnavigation this year of Vancouver Island. I've been spening some time going through John K's guidebooks and am getting more excited all the time. In the next few days I'll be starting to build a food dehydrater and will then commence getting my food supplies for the expedition. Locally right now, my waters are still frozen over for the most part....am hoping to hit the water this week but will re-evaluate tomorrow morning after checking out the ice conditions. Currently my training consists mainly of cardio workouts on my roadbike on the indoor mag-trainer, a bit of running and some XC skiing. On water training begins within....well...possibly within hours!! The new kayak, the Greenland race, is expected to arrive in Canada sometime in April! In May, there will be another speed attempt at going around the Island. Keirron Tastagh from the United Kingdom, along with his partner for the expedition, Jeff Norville, are planning for a May 7th launch in a Nigel Dennis/ Sea Kayaking UK Triton II tandem sea kayak in an attempt to become the fastest kayak around the island Paddling a tandem, they have a stated goal of just 14 days!! See HERE for more... More info coming shortly.... |
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| Click on the banner below for Keirron Tastagh's website and the details on the tandem expedition that he and Jeff Norville recently undertook around the Island as they too take aim at a record tandem kayak circumnavigation of Vancouver Island. They launch on May 10th! |
| March 8th Update: A few days ago the Nigel Dennis Kayaks website was updated with a link to my site and references to my expedition. A couple days ago I added a link to keirron Tastagh's website, he is the UK paddler behind the TANDEM expedition around the Island this May. They too are aiming for a record setting performance 'round the island. I'm hoping to have actual photos within the next couple of days of my Greenland Race sea kayak as it is being built at the factory in England! I can hardly wait to get a look at the actual boat that will take me around the Island this June in 21 days or less! Training is going well and I'm getting in some wicked workouts in my race boat lately. Also doing some road cycling which is giving me some awesome cardio training...nice to be on the open road now after several months of indoor training on the Taxc trainer in my living room. If the cycling training goes well, I'll be doing a roadrace in the Vancouver area later this month! Check back soon for the next round of updates. |
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| March 19th Update: Things are progressing nicely towards my June expedition around Vancouver Island. Just today, I got an email from Kokatat, confirming that they are now onboard as a new sponsor and will be providing a variety of gear and clothing such as a PFD, Drytop, paddling pants, quick-dry clothing etc. I'm very excited about this new partnership with Kokatat, a leader in the paddlesports industry! Paddling has been going well now this last month and half or so and dispite a late start to on water training (due to ice), I've never padled stronger this early in the season! The shiny new Nigel Dennis Greenland Race sea kayak should arriving in April and I'm pretty excited about that. Can hardly wait to get it out and put in some distance, practice a bunch of rolls etc. edia attention is now picking up on the expedition...I was contacted last week by Conor Mihel, a writer with Adventure Kayak Magazine. Watch for the April issue, due out soon. There could be a brief piece on thepending Vancouver Island expedition! |
| May 19th Update:
Things are now shaping up fast for my solo sea kayak circumnavigation around Vancouver Island to chase down the solo speed record of 28 days. I hit a bit of a setback recently when I found out in an email from Nigel Dennis that the custom Greenlander Race had not been built in time to make it onto the container for North America. This was a major setback as I was counting on the speed from the 19’8” sea kayak. Instead of the Greenlander Race though, Nigel instead has shipped a Greenlander Pro, built of carbon fiber & kevlar. Although giving up some speed by switching to the Pro, nearly two feet shorter than the Race, it is still a very fast sea kayak. It is also more of a true rough water boat and this could prove to be a plus when encountering the rough waters of the wild west coast, Cape Scott and the Brooks Peninsula in particular! The kayak should be arriving on Vancouver Island any day now and I’ll then make arrangements to have it delivered to the BC Interior to begin training in the actual expedition boat. Yesterday, my sponsorship gear arrived from Kokatat and this stuff looks awesome! I’ll be trying some of it out later on today when I hit the water for the first of three long training sessions during the long weekend. Many thanks to the folks at Kokatat for the box of goodies. I’ll be sure and put it all to good use! The tandem expedition is well underway now in their quest to become the fastest TANDEM kayak to make it ‘round the Island. They launched on Thursday May 10th and rounded Cape Scott last night. You can read about their progress at http://horrendousexperiences.blogspot.com/ This expedition is also sponsored by Nigel Dennis Kayaks as they are paddling a tandem Triton II as they attempt to make it around the Island in just 14 days…a very ambitious goal! My own stated goal is 21 days, well under the solo mark of 28 days set back in the ‘90’s. |
| EXPEDITION UPDATES... NEW Speed Record set! Vancouver Island Solo...23 days and 10 hours! Shattering the previous record by more than 4 and a half days! Click here for full reports! UPDATED with the final 3 days of the expedition at 8:10 PM, Wednesday August 22nd. Pacific Time! |
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| The expedition is now complete and there is an expedition report available on the Updates Page. Going into the expedition there were several goals. ONE:...To break the solo speed record for circumnavigation Vancouver Island. The record was 28 days. My final time was 23 days and 10 hours. Mission accomplished! TWO:...To promote the effectiveness, speed and efficiency of Greenland Paddles for major long distance sea kayaking expeditions and under extreme sea conditions. Mission Accomplished!: THREE:...To enjoy paddling a sea kayak around beautiful Vancouver Island. Mission Accomplished (Although I look forward to circumnavigation the isalnd again, in a more leisurely fashion, maybe an 8 week trip with no emphasis on speed or records. For now, the record is mine. However, like all other records, it will be beaten. It is just a matter fo time. When it does fall, no doubt I'll start preparing for an attempt to reclaim the record...that's just the way I am! The Greenland Kayak Paddles worked out extremely well under allconditions on this expedition. I also used a carbon fiber Werner on about 3 occasions, averaging about 3 or 4 hours per occasion. This was my spare padle on this trip and, having not used a Euro style for a couple years, felt I should paddle with it a bit just to get used to that style again in the event I needed it. I originally brought it along in the event that I felt a need in heavy surf to use the big bladed Werner. The Greenland paddle however worked well in all the surf conditions I encountered and I'd not hesitate to use it soloey, both as primary paddles and my spare, in future expeditions. And yes...these paddles are for sale for those wishing to purchase. I'll be adding a seperate section to my website shortly on Greenland Paddles. For now, click on my Gear Sale page. More photos are available as are various lengths paddles, looms etc. |
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