Skookum Times at Skookumchuck Narrows.

 

This long weekend the weather was so, so but the flows were awesome. River surfers, Sea Kayakers and play Boaters converged on the legendary tidal rapid in Egmont BC Canada, and I was there amongst it.

Catching the 6.30 am Ferry from Powell river I Rolled into Egmont in the Paddle Wagon and made myself at home at the Back Eddy Camp Ground. This friendly camp and RV park is right on the water 30 minutes paddle (by sea kayak) from the Wave, I was a day late so eagerly geared up and then headed in for the flow. It was a fun few days and so many types of craft where present, I was there of course in the TRAK “Seeker”  folding Kayak, though I had also brought my Bliss Stick RAD WWA Play boat, as the wave was due to be a foam pile for a large portion of the time. Also there was Marty Perry from “The Hurricane Riders” who also had his play boat with him.

There was handful of play boaters from the USA, Canada And Australia present the most Notable was local NRS paddler Drew throwing huge air in his composite Play boat. Other notables where Jacob and Neil from Calgary who are River surfers, they were ripping up Skooks. These two run an organisation Called “Surf Anywhere”, promoting River surfing and sustainable Man made waves. It was a lot of fun to get to know these two and about their project. Check it out here.

I had some great Rides in my Play boat and then enjoyed some long green rides in the “Seeker”. I was also trying out Lendal NA’s New sea Kayak blade design “the Storm” and it was a real treat to play boat with in both sea kayak and WW boat. It is light stiff and responsive, and Lendals lock system held it solidly in place at the feather angle I know. The Storm Blade is slightly smaller than Lendal NA’s Kinetic 700 Xrange model that I normally paddle, and has a scalloped front face which gives a surprisingly powerful purchase and response; it is a nice addition to their range and my quiver.

That first night a group of us had a great campfire and beers under the stars of a crisp fall night and shared a few tales. Showing up that night, the Crew from Pygmy Boats in Port Townsend USA; Jon, Freya and Laura had brought with them 3 of their new boat designs, and I was keen to try them all out on the wave especially the Penguino 14, which is a short little Fat boat (145 feet and 25 inch beam). I was intrigued to see how its physics would allow it to surf Skooks, particularly in the Foam pile. the next morning we all paddled of before 8 am to reach the wave as it started to run on the flood tide. it was great to see so many different types of craft on the wave that day, wooden sea kayaks and folding, play boats and surf boards. I hopped into the Penguino and got to know it as the wave built quickly to a foam pile. amazingly this boat ripped it up and I was able to actually work back and forth from the big Foam pile to surfer left and back, getting big drop in carves. The next day I took out the “The Silke” (14 feet and 22 inch beam), and this boat too ripped in the Pile, but needed much more aggression to turn. “The Silke” was a breeze to get pop outs of the pile with.

That last day I was pretty much the only one on the wave, though while it was smaller Freya Fennwood got her Pygmy boat (named after her) out on the glassy wave and really was stoked to be riding the wave at a bigger flow than she had before. Another first was for Laura Prendergast from Pygmy to get her first Rolls in Dynamic water. It was a great weekend for all. That day I ended paddling for 4 hours nonstop, so fun and I got some epic rides, though now I am buggered. I sit in my Van at Back Eddy Campground recovering and doing work on the computer. Next to Vancouver, and if the rains allow, some Creek boating!

I had a great time and made a bunch of new friends and learnt to push my paddling in a new direction with these little wooden boats, which is always super satisfying.

Thanks to all for the Stoke, Inspiration, and Great equipment.

Jaime

Surge in the Black TRAK.

 

A couple of weeks back, Nolin from TRAK kayaks had returned from the Philippines, where TRAK parts are made, with a New for 2013 BLACK Skin for the TRAK T1600. This skin Meet up with me at the Chicago Boat Show while I was Rep’ing for TRAK there, and Came home with me.
Not only did I get to have a little fun, rolling the boat at show, but now I get to take the skin out for a photo shoot where ever I go, and this past weekend it happened to be a surprise run to Surge Narrows just of Quadra Island in BC. I had about two days notice for the Sunday Flood tide from Local Paddler Alan Dunham, but I was in.
So on Sunday 26^th Jan 2013 I woke up at 7am, despite having being out snow shoeing under the full moon till 2am that same morning. I drove up to Campbell river to meet the boys at the Ferry to Campbell river by 9am. There was a good turnout for the fun, Brent, Alan, John, and Brad, I was the youngest of the crowd, but that was awesome, I am highly inspired paddling with active and very able older generation paddlers. There is always so much to learn and you know you are always going to be safe if it happens to be a bad day for you. Thankfully no one was having a bad day, and even Brad, who was having his first visit to Surge, got some rides and slowly learnt to get some good rides.
It was a beautiful west coast winter day, you know the ones where it constantly drizzles light rain and there is no wind at all, little dimples all over the glassy water... love it. The current quickly stepped up to 6 and A half Knotts, which gave us a great building wave that soon stood high and deep for what seemed like 4 hours, with about an hour of build up and build down on either end. To begin with some of us played in the rocky features to that back of that wave that through in all sorts of different fun, from holes with piles, “V” waves, large eddies behind rocks. I was having a blast and so was everyone else, and It was great to have a sexy new Black TRAK along for the fun. The other new toy I was enjoying playing with was a Lendal Xrange Ti paddle, from Lendal NA. I had been given this paddle to play with by Lendal and it was fun, It is a great paddle to compete with Werner, it is just as light, has the foam core blades and is a four piece break down (great for Travel), the coolest thing is that it uses Titanium for its locking spigots, making an ultra tough join at all three points, the paddle performed well and was very quick and agile for linking strokes.

 

 
The end of the day seemed to take a long time to come, which is great when you are having to much fun, though with Aching muscles and a killer thirst and hunger, it was time to head back to the cars and get the ferry home.
Thanks Al for thinking of me when you went, and for some great shots of the TRAK and I on the wave.
Check out Al’s trip Reports here http://www.capemudgekayakers.com/

TRAK Files Episode 5, International TRAK Packing

OK so it has been a few Months since the last TRAK Files Episode! Finally I have worked my bum off at the computer and finished Episode 5, all about traveling the world in the TRAK Kayak. I hope you enjoy, it has been almost three years of filming to make it happen! ~ J ~

World Wild Adventures Ltd is Born and the SKC Kayak Symposium

 

Here I am in the UK for Business; meeting with my Friend and new business partner Rhoda Mcgivern, to solidify the foundations of our new adventure travel company “World Wild Adventures”! Some of you may ask “New? ....But ‘World Wild Adventures’ is what you have always called your little project company!”

And in essence those people are right. My hobby concept business was Called World Wild Adventure and was started in my mind in 2006 and put into practice in 2008, though the official Birth of the full grown company (now known as World Wild Adventures Ltd or WWA) is a new birth of that business, as of this year. The funny thing is that Rhoda also had started a hobby business about the same time and called it “Worldwild-Adventures” and that is how we meet (I found Rhoda and her company while Google-ing what I thought was my Unique business name) and came to realise after talking for a while and meeting in the UK, we had a vision for the same business. Now here we are over two years later with a business loan and partnership, starting our UK based Company; one that will merge my passion for kayaking and water, with Rhoda’s passion for bush craft and tracking, with the want to help create and solidify sustainable cultural tourism with a reflective adventure educational twist.

Through “Discovery of Adventure” (challenging one’s self to risk in order to gain in-valuable unique experience and growth), “Clarity of Old Growth” (Exposure to old knowledge, Skills and cultural beliefs of ancient tribes), and “Freedom to Slow” (being able to be in the moment), we promise to give you Amazing trips that you will take your breath away. The world is full of amazing moments and Journeys and we wish to help facilitate those and share them with whoever wishes' to take the step onto a wild journey of discovery with us.

Rhoda and I took a step into a journey of discovery when setting up the business over the last couple of weeks, by taking the offer to work with a Shamanistic business mentor to help define and solidify the powerful intent and future for the company. “A bit Woo Woo!” you may say, and perhaps it is, though through this system we were encouraged to really be true to what we want to make the company and its potential, plus embracing the ancient cultural knowledge that we hope to discover with other cultures on our adventures. The process was very much structured like any business development plan would be, just with a more human touch and a fusion of ancient knowledge. This process also worked towards discovery our logo and colours, so stay tuned for more developments on that, but for now here are the significant Images that are playing into the formation of WWA Ltd.

In between weeks of working with Rhoda on the business nitty gritty (while she balanced being pregnant and having a great family to look after, and I slept on their fold out coach in the lounge), I found time to head to southern Cornwall to “The 6^th Sea Kayaking Cornwall Symposium 2012”. I had been here two years ago roughly when I had first meet with Rhoda, and now I was returning again, and again with the TRAK Folding Kayak. However this time round I had the whole week to do an Advanced training course and film some stuff with Jeff Allen and Simon Osborne for the TRAK Files series and another film project I am working on. Plus I even got integrated into the BCU system.

The week was good fun, catching up with old friends I meet last time I attended, meeting new ones, Learning loads, paddling some big water, Doing a talk about my New Zealand expedition of 2011 and the hard and amazing lessons that where learnt (www.kayakdownundernz.blogspot.com), and paddling for hours in the middle of the night practicing night emergency incidents and Navigation. One of the coolest things was pushing the TRAK Folding kayak to do the skill set required by BCU 5 star training, and it handling it.

We dragged the TRAK up rocks, did rough water rescues from it, and to it, Rolled it in surf and rock gardens, Rock hopped and Surfed, as well as towed people through surf and during the night with it. This boat is truly awesome and has very little down falls as a folding boat in comparison to the hard-shells. That being said as with any boat it is the paddlers comfort and skill that sets the stage for the boat to perform, but it is good to know she can take me where I want to go. That being said, I finally broke some things, during the surf sessions and rolling I cracked the seat a little (this didn’t affect me paddling on though it was a break), I loosened the modified thigh braces from all the prying against them (by tightening the screws the issue appears fixed) and the deck line pulled free form the deck mount during a hit from a wave while doing a tow rescue. The main thing with the deck line mount was my spare Northern Light Greenland Paddle was stored on the bow, and when the big wave hit (as I was trying to create counter pull against the surf for the boats being towed in), the force of the wave lifted the paddle so hard the deck line pulled free of it securing tab;“No biggie though” and it should be easily fixed.

 

The whole week was one of my funnies social paddling adventures I have ever had, and I can suggest to anyone who may be looking to learn advanced rough water paddling and incident management skills, that if you get a chance to train with Jeff Allen, do so, he is a huge resource of knowledge and ability.

Contact Jeff at Sea Kayaking Cornwall

And or look out for him at a Kayak Symposium somewhere in the world near you.

My time Sea kayaking ended with a blast, when we were pulled out of the surf by police with whistles in order for the Navy bomb squad to set off to old World War II air bombs, that where found in a near by Paddock. Quite interesting to watch and here the explosion.

 

 

 

Any way I have had 20 days here in the UK and It is time for me to head back to Canada, tonight I am on the Sleeper Train to London (very Luxurious really, and cheaper than a hotel, plus you get a bit of free food and hot drinks). I had to say good bye to Rhoda early and Rhoda’s dad dropped me at the Station, as Rhoda went into labour with her second child a couple of hours before I was due to leave, unfortunately I can’t stay to meet the newest member of the World Wild Adventure Team, though I am sure I will have much to do with him in the future. So as I leave Cornwall someone new arrives into this world of wonder and adventure, what a lucky boy he is!

J