Sunday, August 30, 2015

Great Colinet Island

 Last week Dean decided he would like to do a little camping trip and asked a few of us to join him for the weekend.  We made a weekend trip leaving from Admirals Beach, around Great Colinet Island, and back again.
We left St. John's around 9:00a.m. and before long we were at Admirals Beach filling our boats with gear.

We weren't on the water 10 minutes and saw a handful of seal so I had to try to get a little closer for a picture.

Few good shots to start the trip with.  




Straight across from our launch at the top of the island was a small overhanging cliff I thought made a nice picture.

I missed taking pictures at lunch but we stopped at a little beach, relaxed for a few minutes and had a snack before our trip to camp.
After we ate we made our turn to come down the outside of the island and just a short ways down came across a deep cave everyone had to play in.
I've got a video of this I'll post within the next few days.

I like this one. Good Picture.

Derrick, Dean, Gary all in a row

As we got to the bottom end of the island we come into some rougher conditions and so for some it was play time.

There was a little family of seals as we came around the bottom of the island but I didn't get any good pictures.  We carried on and made our way back up the shore to our campsite.

Perfect spot to camp for the night.  Everyone set up tents on the beach and myself and Dean found a few trees just up the hill into the woods a bit where we could hang our Hammocks

Most comfortable sleep.  I have some work to do to get my hammock outfitted like Deans but it still beats a tent.  I love this thing.

Shot of mine and Deans hammocks.  Deans is the fancy one ;-) 

Supper time!!  One of my favorite parts of camping.  Tonight's menu is striploin steak and KD.

My little supper time setup.

Most of us were on this end of the beach while the honeymooners Tina and Derrick ate down by their tent.

No one had anything bad to say about the supper time view.  You can't beat this kind of stuff.
"It'll change your life"

After the meals we gone and everything put away it was time for our camp fire.

My camera skills aren't good enough to show off how awesome the full moon was but I gave it a good effort anyways.  The moon lit up the whole beach, what a great night we had.



After a few drinks, stories, and a couple good laughs we finally packed it in around 11:30.
Great first day to our trip with seals, caves, perfect camp and amazing views!


When the morning came we all took our time, had some breakfast, and packed up our gear for the trip back to Admirals Beach.  We found a few caves on the way back and as you can see some of the scenery was pretty incredible.  This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Shot of Julie and Dean


Good picture of Tina and Derrick in their cedar strip boats.


More cliffs and caves.  That's the stuff I love to see.




This one is another favorite of mine.  The picture doesn't say enough.  Its so awesome to take this kind of stuff in while your sitting in a kayak on the open ocean.



I tried to add some videos but I'm having trouble getting them on here.  I'll try to add them later I might have to put them in a new post. 

As you can see from the pictures this is a beautiful area and I would do this trip again in a second. Huge cliffs, sea caves, seals, the list goes on.  Thank you so much to all the people on the trip and thanks to Dean for inviting us all along for an excellent weekend.
Kayaking / Camping is by far my new favorite thing to do and I hope to get a few more trips in before the summer is through.




































Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Greenland Paddle Build

After trying out a few of the guys greenland paddles I decided it was time to make my own so here is a few pics of my first greenland paddle.

The paddle is made of spruce, cedar, oak, walnut, and padauk.  The paddle is still fairly light because I only used accent strips of hardwood.

The center of the paddle is spruce and cedar.


The blade of the paddle has a small strip of walnut which shows a really nice accent on the loom then the outer edge is oak with a padauk tip.



I'm working on my second paddle now.  There isn't much difference except I'm using spruce with very few knots...if any, and I'll be replacing the walnut strips with padauk to match the tip.
I really enjoy woodworking so this was a great project for me.  As with the first of anything its a bit of a learning curve but it turned out really nice all the same.  I'll post better pictures of my second paddle when I have it finished.  Until then anyone who is considering making their own greenland paddle here is a few links to help you out with your new project!










Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Learning how to roll

After MANY unsuccessful attempts to roll my kayak I finally pulled off my first roll a few weeks back.  I tried again right away for a second but had no luck.  After watching a few more videos I tried again last Wednesday and got 2 in a row, I thought I'd end with a good note and quit while I was ahead on that one haha.  Saturday I did 4 consecutive rolls followed by many more failed attempts. Monday after a half dozen fails or so I got my rhythm and managed to pull off 4 or 5 rolls where my wife finally got a video, so I thought I would share.

My roll needs some work but its a good start I'm happy with. 
Along with some help from my kayak friends this video helped me out a lot.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

How To Roll

Terry showing me how important being able to roll is! :-)


Pictures From Our 4 Day Kayak Camping Trip


Just leaving the beach in Burnside.  Everyone excited to get the trip started!



I thought this was a cool shot of Dean with a view.


A close up of the last scene.  Looks Awesome!


A little Group meeting with Hazen, Ron L, Ron S, and Terry to confirm our course.


Love this Picture.  Flat Calm.


Setting up our first nights camp.  Tried out my new Hennessy Hammock and loved it.  I got a few good tricks from Dean to go with my next setup.


Except for a few short minutes we had great weather with a perfect camp side view.


After we got settled it was supper time.  Most of us brought a treat for the first night, steak, pork chops, chicken burgers, baked potatoes, a can of corn...or two.  All cooked on an open fire and it was delicious!!


We had a great fire and a few drinks to relax and the weather topped it all off.  You could pick out every star, not a cloud in the sky.  I got a pretty good night shot of our beach view.





The second day was a bit choppy but it made for a fun day of paddling.


Little clip of out trip on the way to St. Brendan's




We made it to flat islands and set up camp for the second night.





The views around the place were amazing




After camp was set up and we had some supper it was time for a fire.


Got a good one of the whole group enjoying our beachwood fire.



Heading out on our 3rd day to explore Flat islands



Came into a small cave it was shallow so we could see lots of fish and jelly fish.


Came across a small collesction of lobster pots on our way back from mussel picking.

Found a bigger cave we all had a turn exploring.





Jelly fish movie..Big Jelly Fish



Hit a little bump in the road...we could have went around but this is more fun.


Last shot I got of Dean, Terry and a few other by's playing in the waves.

Check out MY NEWFOUNDLAND KAYAK EXPERIENCE and Newfoundland Kayakoholic for more great pictures of out 2015 Burnside trip.