Snowy Night

Today I had a look at the weather and decided to go down to St. Philip's to see if I was up for a solo paddle.  It didn't look too bad from the dock so I thought I'd give it a shot.  I got about 80m past the dock and decided this was beyond my skill for a solo trip and turned around.  I played around in the swell rolling in for a few minutes and decided to pack it in.

I couldn't end the day like this so I went home, had some lunch, and around 4:00 me and my wife Amanda packed up the kids and headed to Quidi Vidi Lake.

This ended up being my first winter paddle as well as my first night paddle.

It was a great night on the water!

My wife packed up the kids, I got my gear ready and we were off.

The lake was very calm and I was paddling alone so there wasn't anything too exciting but it was a very relaxing and enjoyable trip with some great pictures.

Not too much to say I just thought I would share some pictures.

This is one of my favourites.

Old dock made for a good shot too.

Mirror.

On the way down I took the time to practice a few bow rudder, and low brace turns while I waited for my wife to catch up.  

When I got down to the Dam I played around a bit more waiting for my wife.  She didn't show up so I started back to the car.  Turns out she got cold and went back to the van about half way down lol.

This is the base CFS St. John's where my wife works.

That wraps up my snowy night on Quidi Vidi Lake.

It's great to paddle on a flat calm lake sometimes and just relax and enjoy the view.

Remembrance Day Tors Cove

Wednesday we had some decent weather and the day off so 10 of us got together for a paddle in Tors Cove.

My favorite quote of the day was from Dean- "This Is Sea Kayaking"

Here is a video of what brought us that quote.

Here is the link for the you tube video.  Its a little better quality.

https://youtu.be/FFhu5mUnt3M

Tors Cove is always a little intimidating for me but my next trip out there I'm going to push myself a little farther.

I started the trip with a fun seal launch

Here we are ready to head out.

Here is a good shot of us heading to Ship Island

So much nice scenery out here.

Sorry I didn't get a lot of individual photos but I have lots of video

I really like this Picture!

Gary

Some parts of the day were fairly calm and other parts were a lot of fun and kept you on your toes...

Little clip of Dean

Tony

 Lunch time at La Manche!  Here is a good picture of everyone.

This is another favorite picture of mine...this one might get hung on the wall.

One of my favorite parts of the day was on our way back we stopped at this Irish Loop coffee shop.  

Here is the view out the coffee shop window behind us.

Had an awesome day!  To everyone that joined in...Thanks for all the fun!!

Check out

http://mynewfoundlandkayakexperience.blogspot.ca/

AND

http://nlkayakoholic.blogspot.ca/

Sunday stuck on Land

Usually on Sundays a few of us get together to go for a paddle somewhere.  This weekend the winds were 50 km/h with gusts of 80 km/h so that kind of ruled out a day on the ocean.  I e-mailed anyway to see if anyone was up for a paddle thinking a day to play on a lake somewhere would be ok.  A few friends knowing I'm new to the sport e-mailed me to inform me about the winds thinking i was going to head to St. Philip's and suggested a day off maybe to take care of home projects.  I thought it through and took their advice.  There was no way I was going on the ocean alone and to be honest the lake probably would have been all work with very little fun, so here is how I filled my day.

So I'm going to say thanks to Tony and Dean for checking in with me and here is why...

I had to take a trip to St. Philip's to see what 50 km/h would produce and here is a few shots of the water.

As you can see there are some pretty decent waves.  The pictures never do this kind of stuff any justice but believe me it was intense.  

Again thanks for checking with me by's, you never know and its better to check because if anything happened and I was caught capsized alone in those waters.... we'll it might have been a bad day.

On a brighter note I did have a few thing to finish up, and one of those things was getting some deck lines on the front of my kayak.  My kayak didn't have deck lines all the way to the front and there were no points to add them so I did the best I could without drilling holes (its actually a loaner kayak) so I didn't want to drill new holes in it.

A few weeks ago I capsized in some rougher conditions and as Tony was trying to help empty my kayak a bigger wave came and he lost control of the boat because I had no line on the front.  Its not perfect but its something to grab on to.  That was the first order of business.

Fixed up the back deck line as well.  HARDEST part...tying the damn knots haha....thanks you tube!

I built my first Greenland paddle a while back but only used it for a few minutes because there was a crack in the loom I didn't notice until I started paddling.  A few weeks ago I made another paddle, nothing fancy, just for smacking around the rocks and things like that.

So last week I started a nicer looking paddle I plan on using for the calmer days or maybe on an overnight trip.  Its clear pine an padauk.  I add padauk on all my paddles just because its my favorite type of wood.

I started the rough cutting last week, now I'm down to smoothing the blank.

I tried to add a little style to the tip...I think it turned out pretty good.

Here it sits almost finished.  I just have some light sanding and then the clear coat. 

I'm also in the middle of making a foam core fibreglass greenland paddle so stay tuned for that one.  Should be finished within the next 2 or 3 weeks.

Even though I didn't get out on the water today I still had some fun fixing up my kayak and making another paddle.  We have plans already for a Wednesday paddle at Tors cove so check back for those pics later this week!

St. Philip's to Topsail

I really wanted to go for a paddle today so I sent out an email Friday to see who was interested.

A few people were either busy with other plans or sick but we managed to get a group of 4 out today.

Brian, Julie, Cathy, and myself had a great time on our trip to Topsail beach.

I was surprised it was so choppy today but that's what made it more fun.  Group shot of Brian, Cathy, and Julie

Cathy...she was in some pretty good stuff here.

 Julie

Brian

Gives a pretty good idea of how big the waves were today.  I like this picture!

Another nice shot.  

I was busy paying attention to my camera and not the waves.  At the last second of the video you can see a big wave caught me off guard.  I didn't tip over... here...thanks to my friends giving me a heads up haha.

Here's the still at the end of the video

We made it to Topsail and pulled up on the beach for a rest and a snack.  We had a chat about different boats and swimming and then took off back to St. Philips

 I like this one of Julie and Brian on our way back.

One more shot of the group...it goes Brian, Cathy, Julie.

So I thought I would finish today's post with some humour.

 Here I am thinking about it.

 Here I am going for it.

 And I almost made it when...

 Beached.

This was a really fun day I got wet a few times but that's all the more fun.  I think everyone enjoyed the day...it was a fun trip to Topsail back.  Thanks Brian, Julie, and Cathy for the great day and especially thanks to Brian for helping get back in my boat a few times and Cathy for the great pictures.

If you guys are up for another laugh check out this video.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rw9qlcu41ol88w4/2015-10-25%2009.57.12.mp4?dl=0

this link shows a better video.