My Life In a Shed and a Van and other images Published in Adventure Kayak Magazine Spring 2014 Issue

This spring I got Asked by Virginia Marshal (editor of Adventure Kayak Mag) if she could do a feature on my life living simple in order to paddle more, and here is the result. I also had a number of other photos published from adventures over the years and from the Bay of Fundy Symposium last Fall (Bay Of Fundy Blog Here). Enjoy. 

Also thanks to TRAK Kayaks   (featured in the main image) for helping my life be lived the way it is.

Read more in the Free online Spring 2014 Issue here

The TRAK Files Episode 6.

Better Late than never I just Realised I had not shared this episode of "The TRAK Files" on my Blog yet. so here is Episode 6 which came out in May this Year.
Episode 7 has been put on the back burner for now due to New projects I have been doing and the needs of TRAK kayaks, though it will be out in the next year.

SKGABC Guides Exchange to Tromso Norway

May 13^th Sea Kayak Guides Exchange

The past weekend I found myself at the SKGABC Guides exchange on Quadra island. I had been asked to come and present and talk on the Grand Canyon by Sea Kayak adventure from last Christmas, read more on that adventure here, this also meant a great social/ learning occasion with industry pairs, and of course surfing kayaks at Surge Narrows.

The event basically composed of two nights and two days. I got my big Van back on the road, cleaned out and loaded up with Kayaks, with my friend Arnaud on board and we chugged our way up the coast of Vancouver island in “The Portable Diesel Powered Kayak Shop” of a van that contained three full sized composite sea kayaks, 3 folding TRAK Sea Kayaks, and a white water play boat (not to mention a bed, clothes, kayaking gear and all the kitchen gear and food needed).
After crossing the 10 minute ferry to Quadra Island http://www.quadraisland.ca/, we drove to the spit campsite to meet up with all the other people attending. The campsite was an amazing thin spit of land with all sites looking into the sheltered lagoon it created, truly one of the most beautiful drive in campsites I have ever been too!

That night there was eating, drinking and socialising at the local Inn, that then lead to a campfire and movie watching back by the water, where we all got to see Justine Curgenven’s “This is the Sea 5”.

 
The next day everyone awoke to a rainy day after almost 6 weeks of sun on the coast, and the keen ones partook in self rescue training and rolling practice, while others toured the Nimbus paddle Factory or learnt about moving water theory. I myself spent the morning getting my talk finalised, and I ended up making it about more than just the Grand Canyon trip, I incorporated some of my best adventures to date and how I ended up doing what I am now doing for living.

That afternoon everyone headed onto the water to paddle in moving water, either learning basics on smaller side channels or attempting to shred the challenging Surge Narrows. Now I have surfed Surge probably 6 times now over the last 6 months, and every time it is different and throws new challenges of how to get on to the wave or how to stay on the wave. On this trip the wave had to be the hardest to have fun with I have experienced yet, to get on you had to navigate through an large space of swirling boils and cross currents from small channels, before pushing onto the wave, a wave which to start with was an angled wave that you had to fight with to stay on. As the flow increased it became more a big boiling hydraulic that took those who managed to get on for a bucking bronco ride, later in the flow it shifted in shape again and became slightly easier to get on, and lots of fun to play on, then from there it pettered down to a small wave only for fast boats. Luckly for me with the adjustable rocker of the TRAK Kayak I was able to adapt to the changing wave easily, though I still struggled to get good rides, and probably only ended up getting 4 good rides in the 4 hours we were there.

Here is some random footage Liam Mcneil got of me surfing the TRAK at surge Narrows.




I was glad to have the chance to paddle with and witness the skill of Albert ____ who lives near Surge at Discovery Lodge. This young soft spoken and humble young paddler, is awesome and eats up the wave or foam pile with ease. The best thing I witnessed that day was albert pulling off a 360 degree spin in his 16 foot sea kayak, then continue surfing. Albert is also very skilled at staying on top of the foam pile, keeping the nose of the boat loose and getting some great aggressive turns out of it, where others (like myself) would drop in get our nose caught up in the current, then have our selves fired off the wave in whatever direction the nose was pointing on engagement, or bury completely and do a bow stand.
Tired and sore we all loaded back into vehicles with boats on trailers or roofs and headed to the Legion for dinner , prizes and off course my talk. I had managed to piece together a rough collaboration of photos and video about my journey of life change and embracing becoming an professional kayak adventurer. I spoke on my life changing Decision to leave my loving Fiancé, and risk everything to go back to NZ and realise my dream of an epic adventure by attempting to paddle the length of NZ down the east coast from North to south. Here is the the rough video I threw together for the presentation.
I then went onto discuss what I learnt, lost and gained from the trip. I learnt a power and humbleness of taking a step to a life I wanted, I learnt to find the success in perceived failures (eg I failed to paddle the length of NZ, though learnt the success of daring to live), I learnt what it was like to be put in hospital by a poisonous spider. I lost a love of my life (my Fiancé had moved on and found a new man, which was fair enough as I broke off the engagement to go do all this and had been gone for 6 months), though I gained a new job with TRAK kayaks and a new direction in life.
TRAK Kayaks had sponsored me with a boat two years earlier and I had done some fun things with there great performance folding boat, and now they financed me to make the video series I had wanted to make about the boat, and so began the TRAK Files series and many great adventures traveling the world to make it over three and a half years. Here is the episode I played that night
see more of the TRAK Files Here
 
From there I lead on to talk about the Grand Canyon trip, how it came to be and more importantly show images and film on the experiences. Read more about our “Project Grand Canyon” Trip here.
That night, after we returned to camp most went to sleep early, though I partook with a hardy few, nestled bellow a large tarp sheltering us from the light rain in the darkness by the waters edge, in some beer drinking, shit talking, Joke telling, guitar playing, singing and of course laughing and merriment until the wee hours of the morning.
The last day found everyone tired and happy, no paddling happened and no one returned to paddle Surge narrows again, despite the fact it was flowing again, nor paddle at all. We partook in an industry seminar, ate lunch packed up, said our fond farewells and headed home.
After Chugging home in the beast I call a van, I finished packing for my coming Adventures in Norway and Namibia, at the time of writing this (the day After getting home from the Guides Exchange) I am on the plane to Norway to meet Jeff Allen and explore the coast for two weeks. Read a little more about the adventure proposal in this post http://expeditionpaddler.blogspot.ca/2013/05/back-to-northern-norway.html?view=classic or in the next few to come after this one.

Jaime Sharp.

photo from last time I was paddling in Norway, blog post here

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

June 2012 “The TRAK Files” Filming in the surf, Tofino

 

 

I headed out in the newly Set up Wagon to Tofino on Vancouver Island, the goal was to film the TRAK’s In action in the surf, I had a couple of Friends lined up ( Ben Doffe and Liam McNeil) to have some fun and the surf was co operating having some steady sized stuff rolling in. The wind on the other hand was not in favour, and was blowing 20 knts cross shore most days. though we certainly had some fun! good surf, some good air, and some good laughs.

 

I also tested out the P and H Delphin as a comparison to the TRAK folding Kayak, I loved the outfitting for the seat in the boat, though apart from when it is on a wave (where it’s planning Hull makes it super fun) it was an absolute pig to paddle and very unresponsive to lean turns. I was not a fan and felt it was far to specialised and not diverse enough. Read more of my experience with the Delphin here.

The TRAK surprised everyone who paddled it with its ability to surf and be nimble and quick, the only up set was the lack of solid white water style thigh braces, and appropriate hip padding. I am working on some options for this, and one is the adjustable wrap hip pads from Nimbus Kayaks, they fit the TRAKS perfectly and are easily added and removed and adjustable. I will look into thigh brace options later.

 

Ben was first up and we hit the surf for about 4 hours, the surf was about 7meters in the morning and we got some solid drops and rides, as the afternoon progressed the waves got smaller, though cleaner as the wind died off. here are some Images of Ben at play.

Next session was with Liam two days later, the surf was smaller at most beaches though at Cox beach we found some nice solid steep faces and got a good trashing. In one instance we had to paddle out hard and we ramped up the face and got air of the back of a number of waves. we also went and did a bit of rock gardening out around the point and enjoyed the large surges off the rocks.

TRAK Files Episode 4 part 2 Panama!

This  TRAK files vid gives you some insight into our panama trip, with living color!

The TRAK FIles Episode 4 Part 1 is Out!

This is the beginning of the real meat of the series. First with a journey with gaint sea beasts in

this episode, which explores British Columbia Canada, and then int the tropical wilds of Isla Coiba, Pnama, in the coming part 2.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed being on and filming the adventures.

J.

Jan 31st: Red Eyes Glow amongst the Mangroves

 

Sunny, Hot, light wind form the NE
Distance 6.5 KNM to camp another 4 paddled in the mangroves.
Dinner: Coconut and Garlic Poached fish with beans lentils and rice.
I sit writing by the campfire as a young Crocodile sits quietly watching me from the water that is barely 3 meters from me. When I look up and out across the lagoon, the crocs eyes glow back at me in the light from my headlamp. The Croc is maybe 5 feet long at a stretch and quite curious (especially compared to the other one who came around for a look and swam off as soon as I shone a light on it), this one will let us approach and observe, seemingly as much as it is observing us. In the light of our headlamps we can see the large reptiles whole body, when Allie and I approach to close the croc submerges and we watch it walk off along the sandy bottom, only to pop up to the surface a little further out. Perhaps it is the smell of freshly cooked fish that brings these crocs to us, or maybe it is just the movement and the firelight? Either way I am sure it is in hope of food. Allie and I caught 3 fish for dinner, Allie 2 and myself 1; they are Small fish but more than enough to feed us, especially poached over the fire in Coconut water fresh from a young coconut with a touch of garlic. Hmm hmm!
Today we paddled only 6 KNM down the coast before we came to the estuary mouth of Barco Esgadelan and we had to go in, the time was only 10am and there was the planned 12 knm we wanted to do today; however the area looked amazing and beckoned us in. The entrance to the lagoon was a touch tricky we had to work our way through surf around and past a rocky, crocodile tail like, natural groin. Dog legging through the surf, timing the swells, Allie was nervous sitting in the surf zone, though she followed me through and we cut first right through the small waves, and then took a sharp left behind the rock wall entrance before avoiding the bigger surf. Then, in the calm behind the jagged rock wall, we entered a lost world, a big lagoon of clear water and golden sand bottom.

Surrounded by giant mangrove trees, some 50 feet tall, my mind instantly was thinking “we need to camp here and explore!”; Allie was also awe struck and we mutually decided to paddle up the river into the heart of the mangrove and consider a place to camp on return to the lagoon. This was a pristine and diverse mangrove forest, at least 4 species of mangrove existed here, some as tall as 50 feet with big leggy roots, others a tangled mass of tangled support roots and twisted trunks, some had buttressed roots like the fins on a rocket ship. It was a beautiful place and a prime example of how amazing these, often misunderstood and underappreciated, forest are.
 

Spot the Crocodile.

We returned from the tight clustered depths of the mangroves after paddling for well over 2 hours and set up camp under an almond tree on a beautiful beach. After a siesta it was fishing time were once again hermit crabs on hooks caught us dinner (I really like hermit crabs and feel terrible that I use them for bait, however they work a treat). In front of the camp is a deep main channel and it is like being at an aquarium; while fishing we saw a number of large fish swim by, a shark, a big Snook and very big Jack, two big Moray eels. At one point Allie hooked a huge Sheep head snapper (it must have been a 30 pound fish) and even before it got to fight, the hook in its mouth snapped, leaving us relieved we didn’t have to deal with the hassle of a huge fish on a small hand line. There are Macaws here as well, they seem to be everywhere on this island, quite magic. At dusk, Grey throated Wood Rails settled into the trees to roost with their cackling “whoot a coo” of a call, and the sun set on this yet again magical day.
I look out again now as I finish up this log entry and the crocs eyes still glow across the water; it is time for me to go to bed, where Allie is already asleep. We aim to round the SE point of Coiba tomorrow and finish the exposed section of coast; it has been truly magic.