GoPro Video Camera

Have I ever mentioned how awesome my brother is? My sister in law, too. This year for my birthday they gifted me with a GoPro Wrist Hero camera. Fully rigged it weighs just under 5 oz. Has a waterproof housing and audio capabilities. I am now forced to learn how to use iMovie on my mac! There are worse things to have to do in life.

I tried to video the outrigger race yesterday but was having some technical difficulties with the media card. I'll have that worked out for the next one. Enjoy these for now and expect to see more in the future.

My very first video, you can see my torso, Jasen, Lisa, and Doug M.



My second video, Stan has the boat with the red deck, and later in the video you can see Doug M and Sabine headed towards me. I still need to work on getting a more level set up on the rear iako or learning how to level the video in post production.

Change Out Race 8/30/08

There's lots that has been happening and I'd like to bring you up to speed. It would be far too much to post it all in one blog entry. I think I may post multiple individual entries on a given day. Just fyi!

Saturday August 30 was the big change out race that SSP and Kikaha co-host in Lake Washington. The course starts out at the SSP beach heading east towards Kirkland until we pass the point near the dog park, then we head south under the eastern highrise of the 520, along the Bellevue and the western coast of Mercer Island, under the western span of I-90, around the southern tip of Mercer Island, under the eastern span of I-90, back north under the eastern highrise of the 520, around the point and back to SSP. An easy 26 miles!

It’s called a change out race because we have a nine member crew, 6 in the OC and 3 in the escort boat. Periodically the escort boat will drop paddlers into the water and the OC will come alongside them, they grab the gunnel and heave their-selves into the moving boat as their seats occupants fling themselves out the other side to be retrieved shortly by the escort boat, another experience in heaving ones-self into a boat. We do this over and over until the race is finished! When in the OC you paddle long and hard, trying not to think about being tired or thirsty (we don’t wear our hydration packs during a change out, we keep bottles of liquids in the escort boat), or cramps, just paddle strong until your seat is called to jump out of the boat. Once in the escort boat I change my wet shirt for a dry one, put on my fleece, and start re-hydrating and snacking for the next go round.

There was one other women’s crew, they were from Kikaha. They started out strong, staying in front of us for the first mile or so until their first change. Their second crew was not as strong and we were able to overtake them. They were changing more frequently than we were, every 15-20 minutes to our 20-30 minutes. At times we were ¼ mile ahead of them, at others they were nearly even with us. Being that close made them hungry to catch us and made us hungry to stay ahead of them.

At the last two miles of the race we made what we thought would be our last crew change and Kikaha brought back their strongest crew, we could hear their yells, they were entirely too close for comfort! Kristen wanted Lianne and Minnie back in the boat NOW! They had only jumped out maybe five minutes earlier. Our finishing line up was Meilee, Lianne, Melissa, Jen, Minnie, and Kristen. Within a couple of minutes Kikaha’s voices faded to silence. The SSP women went on to beat them by over a minute. What an excellent race! It was awesome to have such close competition really keeping both crews motivated.

The full SSP women’s crew was (in alphabetical order): Jen, Lianne, Kristen, Meilee, Melissa, Minnie, Rives, Shelly, and Tanja. Way to go ladies!!! And big mahalos to Dave for being our male escort (boat driver) and Marth for coordinating our changes!

The Good, The Bad, The Busy

Apologies, it's been far too long since I've posted. I've had a fair bit going on and been spending too much time in my head rather than putting what's in my head down. Lots going on lately since Lotus (and before). During the race my camel-back hydration pack rubbed my sides raw; the wounds are nearly healed, thankfully, just in time to rub them raw this coming weekend up at Gibson's! I stitched up a new pack out of fleece and bought some 2 inch wide webbing for the belt and made a fleece sleeve for that. Ok, just realized my mind is going in about 50,000 different directions at once and if I hope to get to bed at a reasonable hour I need to focus and try to reign in some order to my thoughts.

Fourth of July rocked! It was kinda more fluid in terms of planning than I had expected but it was all good. I'd hoped to go sailing with Scotty, but it was a bit too windy for my little sailboat. I ended up playing mini golf at Interbay with Diane, Dave, and his two daughters. It was lots of fun, they are always fun to hang out with, and I didn't suck nearly as badly as I expected. In fact, I got the second lowest score. Who knew! Scotty and I went up to have a wonderful supper at Mark, Nancy, and little Miriam's house. Grilled salmon, grilled and steamed asparagus, grilled and steamed corn on the cob, steamed kale with balsamic dressing, mmm mmm mmm. It was all excellent but the grilled asparagus was heavenly. They needed to get Mark's mother, Wynne, to the airport (flying back to Boston) so Scotty and I went down nearer my place, Magnuson Park, to light fireworks off. We found a very nice, large, empty parking lot and we having a lovely time when a parks guy rolled up and asked us to move along, we nodded and said sure thing. After he rolled off we proceeded to continue lighting stuff! A few minutes later he came back chastising us for disregarding his request to move on. We tried to find another part of the park where we could light stuff but he cruised by as we were packing our bags. We decided a total change of venue was in order at that point. We went over to Matthew's Beach and aside from the underage drinking that was going on and occasional fireworks lit amongst the trees it seemed like the perfect location. We went down to the water and had an excellent little show. The drunken youth even cheered! We scooted when a guy started lighting stuff behind us and it was falling over shooting firey balls in the direction of people. In all an excellent time! By the way, taking photos of fireworks is harder than you'd expect, but you can tell we had some fun!

We finally have sorted out our Gibson's crew for next weekend. Sabine from Seattle Outrigger will be stroking for us, we practiced with her last Saturday and I think it's going to be an awesome crew for the race. Anyway, following Sabine will be Lianne, Minnie, me, Chantelle, and Kristen will be steering. Our practice last Saturday was a 16 miler down nearly to the eastern span of the I-90 bridge. It was an excellent practice, a bit drizzley but perfect conditions otherwise. I need to get some sort of headband to keep the sweat out of my eyes. Sweat drips into my eyes and the burning was quite blinding. The new fleece hydration pack worked out just fine. I think it could use a few slight refinements but it should do me just fine this weekend.

Sabine and I will be carpooling up. Leaving around 9 am Friday, crossing the border (I finally get to use my new Nexus pass) and then up to the ferry at Horseshoe Bay leaving at 2:15. The boats will be on the 6:45 ferry so we will have a few hours to settle in and get some supper before we have to rig the boats. My neighbor Kyle will be looking after the dog boyz, thankfully. It's such a relief knowing she can take care of them and they will be in good hands.

The rest of Saturday was quite busy. I went down to Olympia to go through the last of the photos with Uncle Leonard and then a BBQ at Craig's house, a former co-worker. 16 miles is a very long way combined with lots of visiting and driving, I was pooped once I finally made it home.

Sunday I went for a nice easy paddle on my OC1 to try and loosen things from that long paddle. Finally got Steve out on his OC1, too. After the paddle we went down to Agua Verde for some lunch. One day I still want to try and paddle down there for lunch, it may happen.

Today was a day of emotional ups and downs. An offer was finally made on the Mother's house which has been on the market since last September. My brother made a counter offer which was accepted today! They want to fast track the deal and if all goes well the deal will close on July 25. Thank goodness. On the other hand things have been very slow at work for a lot longer than I have ever seen before, that anyone has ever seen before. The president of the company called a meeting for this afternoon which threw everyone into a dither, she never calls meetings and we have our regular staff meetings on Wednesdays. Until further notice we are having our hours (and pay) reduced by 20%. Projections are promising for September and October, but July and August are still looking very grim. I guess a 20% reduction is much better than 100% but it's going to be tough considering I pretty much live paycheck to paycheck. Well, please think good economic thoughts in my general direction and if you have any data that needs quality third party validation please let me know, we have a full staff ready to do quality validation work to suite your needs!

Lotus was long!

We took three crews up to Lotus Iron Saturday. We didn't have enough women available to field a full women's crew so we had a mixed crew of Minnie, Rives, Melissa, Will, Todd, and Lianne steered her first race. Our men's blue team was Alan, Eric, Jesse, Clem, Kevin and Tom steering, the men's white team was Frank, Ernie, Patrick, Ed, Jason, and Troy steering. It was the latest race start I've ever had before, scheduled for 2 pm. In Canada the women's crews race together and afterwards the men's and mixed crews race together.

The race course was leaving in front of the Lotus Clubhouse across the Burrard Inlet north in to the Indian Arm, turn around Raccoon Island, then south towards Cates Park, then west back into Burrard Inlet to a turn around McBarge, and then a final eastward run back towards the Clubhouse. The race distance was posted as 17 km which converts 10.56 miles. I think it was actually closer to 19 km because my GPS read 12.1 miles at the end of the race and we really didn't do that much zigging and zagging around.

Two boats huli'd within 3 minutes of the start line. The wake across Burrard Inlet was substantial, there is a lot of big (huge) boat traffic along the Inlet. We may have been a little cautious but I'd rather be cautious and not huli during a race. Will and I worked out a system where Lianne would call out "Protect the ama!" and whoever was on the right side would switch over to the ama side, I kept calling the changes so the others wouldn't become too fatigued staying on one side too long and when things had calmed down Will or I would switch to the side we should be on. Once we were further up Indian Arm it was less bad but there were still moments of some pretty big wake. As we came upon Raccoon Island I saw a couple sunbathing, I'm not sure if they were completely naked but they definitely were from the waist up! I didn't call it out to the rest of the boat, didn't want to distract the guys (lol). On the other side of Raccoon Island there was a boat full of partying youth, I didn't see them but heard afterwards there were two topless girls, I just heard the guy hollar that we were dead last; not true there was another boat behind us! However, they did pass us once we were back into Burrard Inlet. We were getting tired by this time and had nothing left to try and fend them off. On our way to McBarge one of the chase boats was hanging nearby us and the crew which had just passed us. It was both endearing and a wee bit annoying that the guy was calling out to pull and twist, general pep-talking kind of thing. One part of me just wanted him to bed quiet, while another part of me actually pulled a bit better for the encouragement!

We were finally into the home stretch, tired and needing to make it that last bit, Lianne dipped the her steering blade in for a slight correction and the current ripped it out of her hands! Todd gave her his paddle and went for the spare paddle taped to the iako. We started to turn back for the blade when the guy in the chase boat offered to get it for us! We kept on towards the finish line and he passed off the blade to Lianne. With the exception of the start of the turn to go back those of us in the front would never have known there was anything different happening! Way to go Lianne! I was (and I think most of our crew was) thinking that the finish horn would happen a minute or so before it finally went off, but we had to keep paddling until we heard the horn. So tired, so tired, but finished!

Our men's blue team finished first overall/first open men's, at 1:24:17, the men's white team finished 11th overall, eighth open men's, at 1:39:00, and our mixed crew finished 19th overall at 1:57:40. I was in line for the BBQ plate lunch when I heard one of the race officials asking around for one of the SSP mixed crew paddlers. I called him over, he wanted to confirm that we had registered master category (35 and over). Yup, we were all over 35, we were masters. He then said we'd taken first place! Seems we were the only crew to register master mixed. HA! We went from last to first in a heartbeat!

Between the late start, long race, lunch, awards, and loading the boats we weren't on our way home until 6:45 pm. Talk about a long day. I finally got home at nearly 10 pm. Thanks to my neighbors for taking the dog boyz out for a few potty breaks today and feeding supper, too.

14 Miles Saturday

We had ideal weather conditions for our Saturday morning paddle, warming but not hot and partly sunny but not too much. Since you should be paddling reasonably hard you really don't need the sun beating down on you, too. Our crew started out with Kristen stroking, then Meilee, Nancy, me, Rives and Lianne steering to get practice for Lotus Iron coming up on June 28. Can I just say 'I love following Kristen at stroke!' Her pace is comfortable, her reach is long, and her stroke is powerful. She is so easy to follow, she is also an awesome steerer. Too bad we can't clone her to have her sitting both ends of the boat! Minnie and Lianne are doing a fine job stroking, but they are still quite new in those positions. Over time I have no doubt they will really grow into those positions. Lianne is already showing a lot of potential at steering, too.

So, we paddled south past the 520 bridge and onward towards the I-90 bridge. We hit the 7 mile mark off the marina at Leschi. No chance of seeing our dragon boating team members, they were all up north in Vancouver for a huge weekend of racing. We took a nice easy turn and then stopped to swap people around. Lianne to stroke, then Rives, Nancy and I kept our places, followed by Meilee, and a somewhat tired Kristen to steer. Kristen hasn't sat anywhere but steering much at all this summer and that is a very different type of fitness.

The last mile or so were tough. We went 14.2 miles total and it felt like it. It was a good workout and it helped bring us another step closer to being ready for Gibson's.

After we got back to SSP Clem and I documented dings and wear spots on the three OC6s. We're hoping to get some rough time and cost estimates from the guy who is repairing our ama so we can figure out when to pull the boats for maintenance.

11.5 miles today

The plan is to race the last Gibson's race which is more formally known International Howe Sound Outrigger Race held at Gibsons, BC. This year will be both the 10th anniversary and final running of the race. The race is 18 miles long so we need to beef up our training. We are aiming for longer distances on our Saturday practices.

This morning Chantelle, Meilee, Nancy, me, Rives, and Kristen headed north off the SSP beach and up towards Kenmore and into the Sammamish River slough, which connects Lake Sammamish to Lake Washington. Up in the slough it's quite pretty, very peaceful. We saw 3 or 4 herons today, a momma duck with her ducklings, some geese with their babies, too. I thought I'd seen a raptor of some type but it turned out to be a heron way up high in a tree.

As we passed under the bridge in Kenmore we smiled and waved to Nancy's husband, Mike, who snapped a few pictures of us. I hope to get copies and post them. When we came back around Mike was now under the bridge at the boat launch snapping pictures from near water level. At that point we were nearly out of the slough and back into Lake Washington where Kristen went from steering to sitting stroke and Rives steered us back into port. Following Kristen as stroke was wonderful. She was a fantastically long reach and rotation. And she is so consistent about putting that barely perceptible pause at the top of the stroke allowing us to set up properly and really maximize our pull. Wow, never mind we were at the back half of an 11.5 mile paddle, it felt so easy.

It was an excellent workout. Thank you ladies. I'm thinking about planning an OC1 adventure exploring more of the slough. It's approximately 12-13 miles to Lake Sammamish from Kenmore. Might be fun to go with someone and leave one car at the finish so we can drive back. Next weekend we are heading for I-90!

SSPO in a one two sweep!

Wahoo! We kicked some serious butt today! Our crew was Albert, Lise, Jason, me, Jen, and John steering. There was a little confusion at the start, the starter insisted all the boats had to be lined up between the two bouys. Our boat had lined up just outside, there was no room at the near end so we had to paddle down the entire length of the start line so we could line up at the other end. We got set and the horn went off, we leapt off the start line and never looked back. We opened the gap between us and all the other boats. Our nearest competition was the SSPO women's crew made up of Minnie, Meilee, Lianne, Nancy, Chantelle, and Kristen steering. I was surprised how close the were at the turn, we turned on the juice after the turn and extended the gap between us.

There was never any threat of any boat catching us! I've never been in that position before, it was kinda cool. Our SSPO women seemed closer during the turns but there was never any chance for them to actually catch us. Although the last 25-30% of the race everyone had slowed down and was feeling tired. It was a challenge to convert what energy we had left into moving the boat faster. Keep paddling until you hear the horn, keep paddling. We heard the toot of the air horn and we made it! A few moments later we hear another toot and see the SSPO women crossing the line! We'd taken first in open mixed at 1:20:35 and first in open women at 1:21:00. Way to go!

We fielded three men's crews. The open blue crew was Kevin, Tom, Clem, Than, Ryan, and Alan steering. The open green crew was Frank, Claude, Todd, Patrick, Michael, Koko from Kai Ikaika steering. The master's white crew was Brady, Ernie, Ed, Ken, Karri, and Troy steering. With our Mirage out of commission since the race at Jericho the first open men's crew used a boat borrowed from Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club (SOCC). Even paddling an unfamiliar boat the blue crew was able to turn in a strong performance, they were second in open men at 1:05:14 and were second across the line. The white crew took first in master's at 1:10:06 and were sixth across the line. The green crew took seventh in open men at 1:16:46, still nearly four full minutes ahead of our mixed crew time, and were thirteenth across the line.

We'd hoped the men would sweep their race as well. But I think it was a good day racing all around. The weather was decent if a bit cool and there was no rain. Next year Da Grind should be back at it's regular August weekend and the weather should be a more like summertime. Thanks SOCC for hosting a great race.

Can I Get a Whoop! Whoop! for Seattle Harbor Patrol & Morgan

I didn't get much work done at home today. Not for lack of trying or desire, though. I just got hung up doing other stuff. I figured I'd have a good paddling practice and then be up working late tonight. Little did I know... We ended up with 7, but Tanja, not having a definite seat for the race Sat opted to head home and get out of the rain. That left us with Lianne, Meilee, Nancy, me, Jen, and Rives steering. And Clem went out on his OC1.

It was raining and quite windy. We headed out towards the dog park and around the point to the south. Once we made it around the point the swell really picked up, 1-2 ft, and washing over the bow and gunwales of the boat. Rives suggested that if it was feeling too gnarly we could turn around. Given my fall last Sat I gave her the signal to turn around after 5-10 minutes of going into that mess. Last time we were in wind like that I was leaning over towards the ama to help keep us stable and it really funked up my back, didn't want a repeat performance.

We made our turn and were headed back towards the point and we ended up beam to the swell. A wave picked up our ama and over we went before we realized it was happening! Wow, a huli in real life! I'd never done one in an OC6 outside the huli drills we have in the fall when the water is warmer. Everyone kept their heads, Jen gathered up the paddles. Nancy and I went to the off ama side of the boat. Lianne and Meilee pushed the ama up and Nancy and I pulled it back over. Then Lianne and Nancy got into the boat to start bailing. The only problem with that was every time they'd bail out a bucket full of water a wave would wash over the gunwale and replace twice as much!

I pulled out my cell phone in it's water proof bag and called Harbor Patrol, I have them on speed dial for just such situations. I'd hoped I'd never have to use it, though. They have to come over from Lake Union, about six miles or so. They said they were on their way and while we were waiting Lianne, Nancy, and Rives were in the submerged boat paddling gently trying to guide the boat towards shore. Clem had caught the bag with the pfd's, it would have floated off to Juanita otherwise. Finally the Harbor Patrol arrived, we were in the water around 30-40 minutes. Their faster boat was broken so they had to take the slower one, the inflatable zodiac type.

We got everyone into the Harbor Patrol boat and all the paddles. The guys tied a line to the OC6 and tried to tow it. Submerged as it was, with the wind and waves as they were, the boat was just not cooperating. They finally had to release the OC6 so they could get our shivering crew to shore. They promised they would come back for the boat and tow it over to the motor boat ramp at Magnuson Park. We were very reluctant to let it go, but, really, what choice did we have?

We got to SSP, waving to the kayakers who were looking quizzically at us. Their expressions said, 'um, aren't you missing something? a boat perhaps?' While the others dashed off to find warm, dry clothes I dashed off to find Morgan, the head of SSP and a pretty good guy. I told him we huli'd the OC6 and had to call Harbor Patrol. He asked why we didn't call him, he'd have come and rescued us. I said, "Honestly, I wasn't thinking that clearly, the Harbor Patrol number is at the top of my contact list, and without my glasses there was no way I could find your number." Living so nearby I often don't bring dry clothes down with me. Morgan lent me some ski pants and I had an extra fleece pull over in the car. A hot shower and dry clothes would have to wait until I got home.

We then set to figuring how to get the OC6 back to SSP. Our first plan was to hitch a trailer to Morgan's truck and load the boat onto it. A bunch of the kayakers offered to help us load even. By the time everyone had changed into dry clothes and gotten some hot tea from the SSP office the wind had completely died down. Morgan suggested we tow the boat back with one of the SSP motor boats. Seemed like a good idea to me.

I rode over with Morgan and Dave in the boat. Nancy & Mike drove Jen, Lianne, and Meilee over. Morgan rigged the lines to the OC6. Lianne sat 5 to steer, I sat 4 with the back up steering blade, and Meilee sat 3 and helped lean left to make sure we didn't huli again. Being towed back was really a lot of fun. At one point they started going a little fast-ish and we went off towards the right as if we were on a wakeboard, they slowed down after that. At one point it felt like they were trying to play crack the whip, Lianne was still trying to get things figured out though. After Lianne got the steering dialed in, we sped up again, this time she totally kept us in the middle! We got back to SSP, put the boat to bed, and headed out in search of hot showers and warm suppers.

Thanks everyone for keeping calm and cool under pressure. We were in a serious situation and we all kept our heads and worked together. It was key that we stayed with the boat, kept our paddles, and even though help was on the way we still worked towards saving ourselves. Had Harbor Patrol not made it we could have made it to shore, it would have taken a while and we'd have been a bit hypothermic, but we could have done it. Everybody made it back ok, the boat and paddles were all fine as well. Our only losses were 2 water bottles, a flip flop, a water shirt, and Nancy's GPS, not so bad, really.

damp but good & flowers

We had seven show up this morning for practice. Makes it a little difficult in an OC6! We tried to go out with Kristen steering from sitting on the tail of the boat but it was too cold for her to continue that for very long. We went back to the beach and I got out and rigged my OC1 to go out solo. They headed out for Denny Park, directly across the lake from SSP. I busted my butt to catch them over there. They had stopped for some drills allowing me to catch up. Then they headed north a ways and I realized it was going to be too hard on my back to try and keep up with them so I decided to head back in to the beach.

I'd brought my camera out again in the housing and had passed it off to Kristen to take a few snaps. She seemed to have a little difficulty with figuring out how to point and shoot as evidenced by the second photo shown here, there was a whole series like this one! Kinda funny actually.

A bit later in the day Diane, Dave, his girls, and I headed up to Skagit to the tulip festival. They'd extended it by a week because the cool weather had delayed the blooms opening. It was pretty grey and rainy, ranging from barely spitting to actively raining lightly. Thankfully it wasn't pouring. The soil there is mostly clay and when you add a bit of water to clay it gets really slippery. People really showed kindness by offering hands to help others through the worst of the slippery parts. Tulip Town has really great fields of flowers. I'm glad I made it up this year, I love looking at the tulips. And I have a history of photos of tulips. When I was in high school I snapped a few photos of some slightly past their prime tulips that my mother had planted in a half oak barrel. One turned out particularly well. I don't have it digitally, but I recently got a scanner so I'll try to get that scanned in sometime soon.

to infinity and beyond! ok, maybe just the 520 bridge

What a glorious evening. Such a dramatic difference from Tuesday night. Tuesday we were Nancy, me, Matt, Lianne, and her 11 year old son, Kyle, was steering us. He is a great young steersman, when he gets a bit older and bigger he will be a force to reckon with! The wind was coming hard out of the north. We paddled into it for half an hour or so and then headed back. There were white caps by the time we were back on the shore and it was rather hard getting the boat out of the water, the wind and waves were pushing it so hard. Ended up getting quite we and the wind was very cold.

Tonight was a bright sunny afternoon. The water was glassy flat. We ended up with Minnie, Nancy, me, Meilee, and Lianne steered us. We headed out towards the dog park and then south towards the 520 bridge. We did a pyramid on the way out, increasing periods of intensity interspersed with 1 minute periods of active rest (paddling at a moderate pace). It was a little strange there was a motor boat that was following us, at least it felt like that. I think they were just heading over through the cut, but I think they were enjoying watching us paddle, too.

We turned around just before we got to the bridge. We took a moment to sip some water and I took a few snaps with my digital camera. I just got an underwater housing for it and wanted to test it out. All the photos posted here were taken with it today. At one point I stopped paddling to take a couple of snaps. Got a great complement from Meilee after I did that. She said you can really tell when I've stopped paddling, feels like we've practically started going backwards! I guess I *do* make a difference (smiles). The paddle back to SSP was lovely. We were in the groove and it felt really smooth and I felt like my stroke was flowing nicely. Twist, reach, drive, pull. Just the sound of me calling the changes and the water dripping off the edges of the paddles. The water was so glassy and there were occasional rollers from the boats going by. It was a perfect day for paddling. Days like today are what it's all about. It was a glorious 8 mile paddle today. Anyone want to go out tomorrow???

SSPO Rocks!

The race went really well Saturday, but it was a very long day. I ended up leaving around 5:30 to go pick up Kristi and then Lise and then we were off to pick up Kristen in Tacoma. We got down to Portland in very good time, arriving around 8:30 or so. The first order of business was rigging the canoes only one hadn't arrived yet, we'd passed them on the highway. We off loaded the Mirage (our fastest canoe) and rigged it for the race. I turned in our forms and payment and received our race t-shirts, a much better design and color than last year. Then off to the very long line for the toilet, get changed and make ready to race. Our race crew was Minnie in stroke, then Rives, Nancy, me, Lise, and Kristen steering. A few sucks on the albuterol before we started and I was ready for the warm up. I asked Claude from our men's novice crew to shoot some snaps with my camera, he did a great job and shot some videos with narration, too! Thanks Claude! The first video is us leaving the beach to begin our warm up and the second video is our race finish.



We lined up with all the other boats, a dozen or so, if I recall, and waited for the horn to start the race. And we're off! Paddling hard all the boats stayed pretty close together in the beginning. There were lots of fishermen out hoping to catch some salmon. They were fairly decent obstacles that the experienced steersmen had no difficulty avoiding. However, there was one very green crew with an even greener steersman that had a very hard time keeping a straight line. There was some serious full contact paddling going on. They hit us on the right side of our boat, we had to switch some paddlers over to the left side to be able to keep paddling. Their crew was nearly rabid with intensity and couldn't hear their steersman telling them to stop paddling and allow us to get clear of them. We finally extricated ourselves and continued on passing around behind them only to have them come up against us again. Only this time our ama popped up onto the rail of their boat! I hiked way out as did Kristen to keep us from huli'ing, Nancy, right in front of me didn't even notice our ama was up that high. We managed to get them off us again and continue on. We ended up sprinting nearly all the remaining way to the first turn. At the turn they were technically in front of us but their steersman was sufficiently unsure of herself that she couldn't press her advantage, we made it through the turn first and made a hard push leaving that troublesome crew in our wake.



Now it was the long hard press up river past the start line to the next bouy turn. This was my first ever race last year and that section of the race was brutal last year. This year it was a long hard stretch but we all were able to keep our stroke long, good rotation, and reach, with a good hard pull. No other canoes were nearby us for the remainder of the race. The wind was to our backs for the against current run and once we made the turn to head down river again the refreshing breeze in our faces combined with the current made it feel as if we were flying down to the finish line. You can see in the video, we all still look really strong as if we could continue some distance further.

Our finish time was 1:14:32 and we took second in the master women category. And I think we were 6th across the finish line. The official results are not yet posted or I would have more details. Our post race team photo is at the top. Here is the photo of the SSPO open men's crew, they took first overall in the men's race with a time of 58:17! They rock! In the photo they are Kevin, James, Geoff, Alan, Tom, and Eric. Our golden master men's crew crossed the finish line 5th, I think, and their finish time was 1:02:35. Their crew was Dave, Doug, Koko, Ed, Mike, and Clem. I have referred to them as our 50+ guys in the past. They rock, too! And then we had a third men's crew, the novice men. Their crew was Ryan, Frank, Ken, Claude, Troy, and Ernie. They finished in 1:08:16. As with all of SSPO, they rock!

I think in all SSPO had a pretty darn good day. Everybody raced hard and raced well. SSPO represented with 24 club paddlers, what an awesome turnout for the first OC6 race of the season. Props to everyone! Let's keep it up. Here's one last photo of everyone in the club that paddled here at the Rusty Iron.

How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?

Ok, it's not really a broken heart but that sounds much better than 'how do you mend a slightly kicked around and mistreated heart', now doesn't it? One of my many CL adventures was actually giving me the illusion of potentially working. Granted things were moving at glacial speeds, but still. He had all the trimmings of an acceptable partner: a wickedly irreverent sense of humor, fun, kind, easy on the eyes, taller than me, and seemingly interested in me. Ya, well, that's kinda where it all falls apart now isn't it? I got an email from him Saturday (email and IM were our primary modes of communication) stating that he's started seeing a new someone and the relationship is taking a new development and he wants to see where it goes without having to explain hanging out with me, hope you understand. OUCH!

So, what do you do when that happens? First I was very sad (approx 2 hrs), then I was rather pissed off (approx 30 min), then I reposted my ad on CL and went out for game night (approx 4.5 hrs) with Diane, Dave, Kristi, and Dave's older daughter, Nikita! By the time I got home there were four responses to my ad in my inbox. One was obviously a scammer. One was 'I'd love to meet you'. Yup, I'm sure you would! I wrote back asking his name, age, and some interests. Thought I'd give him a fighting chance before I kicked him to the curb. He answered "Name is Moe, age 53, interests and desires are fun and travel and passionate love." Ya, ok, next please!

The last two were definitely interesting, articulate, and funny. John and Paul (I'm hoping George and Ringo will write soon, too!) seem quite nice. One lives in Olympia which would be very hard. To one of them I wrote "My glass half full attitude compels me to toss my hat out again and keep trying (re e-dating). At worst it's worth a laugh with my friends and a post on my blog!" He seemed to think that was an acceptable penalty. I spoke with one on the phone this evening ... for an hour and a half! There was laughter from both of us, sharing from both of us, and the conversation never felt stiff or awkward. I'm looking forward to meeting him sometime soon.

While I'm still a bit disappointed about the other guy I seem to have plenty to occupy my thoughts these days. Besides, we have our first OC6 race of the season this Saturday down in Portland.

muscle memory is a good thing

I went paddling tonight for the first time since I tweaked my back at the Lake Sammamish race on March 22. And looking at the calendar I have only paddled three times since March 15, between my back and slicing my hand open, dreaming about paddling is as close as I've gotten. My back seems to be doing much better and my hand is completely healed.

We had a good crew tonight, Lianne, Nancy, me, Kyle, Matt, and Neil steering. This was Kyle's second time paddling and Matt's first time, combined with my lack of paddling the last few weeks, I was hoping for a gentle workout. We headed out past the dog park and then south towards the 520 Bridge. It was a good workout, not too hard, and at our turn around point we saw a boat from Seattle Outrigger Canoe Club so we paused to say our hellos and talk about upcoming races.

Enough chatting, time to get head back to SSP. Neil did an excellent job giving tips to Matt and Kyle and guiding our workout. He was able to get us to step up our efforts in a positive manner that encouraged us (me anyway) to work harder. I was a little worried that I'd be so out of shape and have forgotten quite how to paddle. It seems muscle memory is stronger than my memory and it's, as they say, like riding a bike.

It was great to be back on the water after such a long time away, especially since the last winter series race is this Saturday. I plan to race, but I think I would best off cruising the race and trying to keep my back fit and healthy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be a slacker, I just don't want a repeat of what happened on Lake Sammamish.

mid-week post

I'd hoped to post Tuesday night but never quite got to it. We ended up having seven people plan to come down, a little challenging in a six person boat. I used it as a weak excuse to take out my spiffy new boat. I'd planned to take it easy, my back was still acting twingey from last Saturday, it's not always an easy thing to do, either. I still need to get the technique down for assembling the boat, Tuesday was the first time I'd done it completely myself. Soon it will be easier, quicker, and more smooth. I got down to the water just as the OC6 was being put in. I figured I'd have to work to try and keep up with them, but they took their time figuring out what they wanted to do for their workout. I decided not to wait and headed off to the north, thinking they would catch me in fairly short order. I was trying to settle into a nice pace, kept it around 5 mph. Looking at my gps I could see I'd made it about 1.7 miles when the gps pooped out, I think it needs new batteries. I looked back and the OC6 was a bit north of Matthew's Beach. I continued north until I passed around a no wake bouy and headed back towards SSP. I paused for a moment to try hitting the power button on the gps, it came back to life and seemed to work properly the rest of the way back to the beach. Round trip I went about 3.5 miles, maybe a bit further and maintained that 5 mph pace for the bulk of my paddling time. It was good without over taxing my back. I was able to take apart the boat more easily than it went together and came back home for a quick supper and a bit more work I had to finish up. In all a good afternoon/evening.

Tomorrow should be a good paddle. We've got 6 already lined up for practice. I'll go in the OC6 this time. We have gotten some workouts from Kristen so we will have some good training exercises to work on. I'm looking forward to it.

It started out well enough

This morning I went down for another team practice for the Rusty Iron, the first OC6 race we plan to do down in Portland on April 26. Our crew will be, in seating order, Minnie, Rives, Nancy, me, Lise, and Kristen steering. We had a nice ten minute warm up, gradually ramping up our intensity and pace, a quick break to adjust clothing and get water before we were off for the big part of the workout. We headed south towards the 520 bridge keeping pretty close to a race pace. Minnie is really coming along as a good stroke person. She is setting a good pace and keeping it very steady. We got all the way to the western high rise, passed under, went along the bridge to the eastern high rise, and back under again in about 45-50 minutes. The water on the south side of the bridge was messy and slowed our pace somewhat. The wind was blowing the water towards the bridge and then it bounced back towards us creating a little bit of chaos.

Once we were back on the north side of the bridge we took another short break and got ready for 3-10 minute pieces, the first was to be at a higher stroke rate, around 62+ per minute, then back down to 58-60, and the final piece back up to 62+ again. Well, 2-3 minutes into the first piece my back up and rebelled. The message was clear, you want to race on 3/29, 4/12, and/or 4/26 you better stop this nonsense right quick! I pulled up and told Kristen that I couldn't do the fast pace so we backed down to the slower pace and my back was still rather pissed off. I asked Kristen if I could steer back. You know things aren't going well if I want to steer, my hind parts don't fit in those seats, I have to sit up on one hip to be back there. Kristen moved up to seat 3 and Nancy moved to 4. I discovered there is enough space behind seat 6 for my legs and feet so I could sit on the tail section of the boat! I didn't have to wedge myself in, huzzah!!! They kept a decent pace and I tried to keep a straight line, I think they did better than I did, but I didn't do too badly. I tried to paddle a couple of times, bad idea on two counts, our course became rather erratic and my back said no. So, I just poked and sat, sat and poked, poked and sat, and got cold, I'd worked up a decent sweat during the first half of the workout and now wasn't really working so hard. I thought I did bring us in rather nicely, right up along the shore followed by a quick turn and a couple of back paddles and there we were.

My neighbor, a nice young woman named Kyle, came down for her first time paddling. She went out with John, Meilee, Marth, Neil, and Judy. Sounds like she really enjoyed it and plans to come out again. Her boyfriend has expressed interest as well. Since her boat came in earlier she was able to let the dog boyz out of the car. By the way, Gus is feeling much better, he started perking up last night. Gus could recognize me in the boat coming in and raced over to the ramp to meet us, or rather me. Llelo followed in short order and I could tell he'd been rolling in goose poop. Dumb dog! I dragged him into the water for a rinse and somehow he managed to roll in more between the rinse and time to go home, got another rinse and then into the car. During the ride home I could make out 'ew de goose poop and made the snap decision to give the both baths! I have a friend with 2 corgis down in California and her boy dog, Redd, has made the connection that if he gets skunked he gets a bath, he HATES baths, he takes pains to not get skunked, the girl dog, Cosmo, ya, not so much. I can only hope that Llelo will make the connection that when he rolls in goose poop he gets a bath, but I think he's going to be more like Cosmo, sigh.

I wanted to extend a big public (as big an audience I my blog has, anyway) mahalo to Steve E for letting me use his Kaimana OC1 this winter! It has been wonderful to have a boat to use for training (wish I'd done more!) and to take to races! I still think he should have sold it to me, but since I actually saw him down at the club going out for a paddle this morning perhaps he really does intend to get back into paddling! ;-) And since I'm getting my own boat tomorrow maybe we can go for paddles together on our OC1s. So, Steve "Mahalo ā nui loa (thanks very, very, very much)". And now it's time to go ice my back.

Vampire Weekend & Other Stuff

I was on my way home today, listening to NPRs All Things Considered where they reviewed the debut album by Vampire Weekend. They've tagged themselves as 'Upper West Side Soweto'. I bought the album from iTunes shortly after I got home. It's fun, infectious, happy sounding music, makes your feet tap. Check them out.




It's been a crazy busy week at work, few weeks actually. I've got something like 230 hours worth of work that I need to complete by the end of the month. Crazy talk, you say, ya well, me too! Just going to try and do the best I can.

Had a great paddle last night. We went out with 5, Minnie, Nancy, me, Judy, and Neil steering. We did a couple of pyramids, one minute fast, one minute easy, 2 fast, 1 easy, and on up to 5 fast and worked our way back to one. Then we did a second one up to 4 fast. We could feel a huge surge whenever Neil started paddling, it was pretty cool. We only went 6 miles, but they were hard miles. We all felt like we'd had an excellent workout.

Saturday I'm heading up to Vancouver, BC for the 5th race in the winter series. It should be pretty fun. I'm hoping it will be less harsh than the last race I paddled in Vancouver. Be sure I'll let you know about it soon.

A Period of Darkness

I had a good, hard paddle with the 50+ guys Tuesday night, just over 9 miles. It was just four of us, Doug, Ed, me, and Clem steering. Another beautiful night, it was still light when we slipped the boat into the water. And for a surprisingly long time afterward parts of the sky seemed to remain illuminated as if from some other worldly light, back lit almost.

We went over to Kirkland as we did last week and then south towards the 520 bridge. It was down near the bridge just as we were beginning to turn back towards home that I was hit with the realization that it was this time last year that I last saw my mother alive, was really able to interact with her. It was really hard to keep paddling, I was barely able to keep count and call the changes while the tears streamed down my face and the ache of grief clenched my heart. I did keep paddling and with only one exception was able to keep calling the changes. That one time Ed, sitting directly in front of me, was the only one who heard me and he called the change again so the others would hear it. A while later, perhaps 5 minutes or so, the wind we created by paddling so hard had dried my tears and my grief powered down some for the time being.

We finished our paddle, got the boat put away and I felt as though I'd gone much further than our 9.1 miles. It was definitely time to go home, shower up, eat supper, go to bed early. If that night is any indication I guess I can expect the next month to be an emotional roller coaster.

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Our Wednesday night paddle was a good workout. We had a full boat, a nice change for a Wednesday night. We sat Minnie, Ernie, Nancy, me, Dave, and Neil steering. Nearly 15 minutes into the workout Alan cruised up alongside in his spiffy new OC1 and gave us some coaching tips. I love being coached, I want to improve and being left to my own devices so much of the time I'm not sure whether I'm developing bad habits that need to be broken.

On the left side I was feeling really good, smooth, rotating properly, entering and exiting the water nicely. On the right side, not so much. My timing was good, it just didn't feel as good on the right, it didn't have the same flow as the left side. I was having to think about it more. I think that was my problem. I need to work the right side to the point where it just happens, without having to think about it. Alan was saying with outrigger it's 90% mental and the other half is physical. I think I've got some work to do...

Full Moon Paddle

A nearly full moon peaking through the clouds, still showing hints of pink and orange from the setting sun.

A full boat, we're off. Water like burnished glass, no wind, sharp, cold air. The sound of water dripping from six perfectly timed paddles, working together as one.

Across to Kirkland, then south, faster, harder we go. In unison, twist, reach, dig, pull, and again, and again ... I can feel the sweat trickling down my scalp, neck, back, hoping it doesn't go into my eyes and burn.

Not sure I can go any further. Finally, we stop for a short break in Yarrow Bay, near-ish the 520 Bridge. Drink my water, pull off extra layers, and we're off again.

Feel the boat glide, twist, reach, dig, pull, and again, faster than the outbound run. My lungs cry for more air, my throat for water, in my head counting ... sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, "HUT!", twenty, switch sides, one, two, three ...

The lights on the shore mixed with the inky blackness, where are we?, doesn't matter, keep paddling, twist, reach, dig, pull, and again ... Feeling my lats start to cramp, doesn't matter, keep paddling, twist, reach, dig, pull, and again, and again ... We must be near home, how long will they keep going?, doesn't matter, keep paddling, twist, reach, dig, pull, and again, working together as one.

Paddles up!

The Hardcore Crew

This winter of the Wednesday night paddlers the most hardcore paddler awards go to Ernie, Nancy, Neil, and me. And Minnie gets an honorary mention. It seems like we four consistently show up for Wednesday practice regardless of weather. Although we *can* be a little wussy when it comes to big wind. :-) Not sure if we're nuts of merely passionate. I'd like to think we are passionate about paddling.

Tonight I sat stroke from seat 2, Ernie seat 3, Nancy seat 4, and Neil was steersman in 6. It was mostly clear out tonight, lots of stars out. We headed east towards Kirkland/Juanita Bay, then north into the top of the bay. We could see the constellation Orion on our outbound paddle. Then we headed southwest towards the dog park at Magnuson Park and then headed west back to the SSP beach. There was no wind and it was nice and cool but not cold at all. We went about 5.5 miles total. As we were backing the boat onto the ramp I looked up and saw the Big Dipper, pretty spectacular. In all it was a very good practice. Thanks people for coming out.

Honorary Member of the Men's 50+ Crew

An acquaintance restrung a necklace of rose quartz chips into a shorter necklace and bracelet for me. She lives in Everett and Ed, good guy that he is, coordinated it's collection for me. I was to be down at SSP to get them from him Thurs evening at 6, just before the men's practice began. Well, it wasn't paddling related so I completely forgot about it, got hung up at work and didn't walk in the door at home until 6. As I was leashing the boys for their potty walk my phone rang. It was Ed, "Grab your gear and get down here!" "But, I *just* walked in the door, dogs, potty, change clothes, take me at least 15-20 minutes to get there. "Well, hurry, we've only got three people tonight!" So left a pile of clothes in the entryway of my apartment and scrambled into my paddling duds, inhaled a quick snack to keep the blood sugar from totally crashing and raced out the door. Of course people were driving sooo slowly, what are they thinking driving the speed limit, people never drive the speed limit on Lake City Way. And every light between my house and SSP was red. Finally got there as they were moving the boat down to the water.

Clem was stroke in 1, me in 3, Ed in 4, and Doug steering for the first time in 6. Wind was looking pretty significant, too. We were faced with a similar situation a week ago and the Wednesday night practice was canceled. With this crew I was confident we'd be fine. We set out to the north, wind to our backs, holding close to the shore to help minimize the effects of the wind. Clem kept a nice pace and we easily slipped into a strong rhythm with me calling changes every 20 strokes. We made quick time to the two point light in someone's yard, it's about 2.5 miles north of SSP, and we kept going and going and going and going. I turn and ask Ed, without breaking stroke, "how far *are* we going?" "until Doug turns us around" he replied, nonplussed. Dang, this wasn't like the Wed/Sat workouts at all. We went a ways further and finally got the call to hold up. Nobody had any idea what time it was but it seemed like a good place to turn around.

The trip back was where the workout really kicked into high gear. The wind was brutal and the wind swell was pretty big. I was thinking that I wouldn't have wanted to be out on an OC1 in that swell or wind. I was also glad that I wasn't sitting stroke after seeing some of the waves break over Clem's waist. It was time to dig in and 'git er dun'. Conditions like that always pump me up, I'll reach further and dig deeper, hoo ya! It's an odd sensation, sometimes it feels like we are paddling faster into the wind than when we have the wind at our backs, can be with just about any crew, too. Don't know why. Past the two point light, keep going, watch out for that bouy Doug, keep going. Finally coming up on Matthew's Beach, only about half a mile left. I swear that was the longest half mile I've ever paddled. I think the wind was stronger there, too. Can see the end of the SSP dock, we're nearly there, can't ease up yet, the wind is still too strong. Finally, we make the turn around the dock and get in close to shore, we can ease up, warm down.

As we were clambering out of the boat I learned that this was Doug's first time steering. Dang, talk about a challenging maiden voyage, all that wind and having Clem and Ed paddling on the same side (if you have more strength on one side the boat can tend towards circles) and me on the other. All that really put Doug to the test. But he did an excellent job, I'd never have guessed that he'd never steered before.

Wow, we went about 9 miles round trip, felt like more with a small crew. Thanks guys, Clem, Ed, & Doug, for letting me come out to paddle with you. I had a great time.