First in Ucluelet!

My family is visiting and helping me get sorted for the Big Day coming up on Saturday!

In order to keep sane and have some quality father daughter time, we headed to Ucluelet so I could race in the 4th race of the island series SUP races. I also thought it would be a sweet place to chill before the mad rush of getting a wedding sorted!

I met the crew from Comox Surf SUp and Compass Adventures. They are great and put on a solid race! I got to race on a prototype Starboard SUP board which was fun and reminded me of the "New" board that I have been paddling lately.

I have to keep this one short for now as there is tons of organizing to do but I wanted to push hard and I did and managed to stay in front with three other guys, two of which were on the K15 boards (I was on a 12'6). Yay, it was about a 6km race with some headwinds and chop. I stayed upright, felt good and had loads of fun. The event finished off with a BBQ at Relic Surf Shop.

Jessie, my old roommate, took my dad out on a whale watching tour and it was grand. We saw humpback whales, jumping, playing, eating, and even a mum and baby swimming around. We saw some crazy sea lions and enjoyed the speeds of the Zodiac! Thanks Jessie and Jamie's Whale Watching Tours!

Now onto wedding things!

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!

lina

Standing Up to Granite Falls!

I'm still lovin' the SUP...

This past weekend to celebrate finishing of my one year teaching degree and officially becoming a teacher, Andrew and I headed down Indian Arm for an overnight paddle camping trip. I thought it would be fun to do it STanding Up on the "New" Starboard paddleboard... it was fun for 99% of the time.... Andrew (aka the mule) kayaked and carried the luggage... We figured loading down Andrew would slow him down a little so he wasn't waiting too much for my slower Stand Up paddling.

Earlier in the summer I wanted to get a bunch of friends out on kayaks and down the Arm but due to a variety of reasons it didn't happen. As we had it Andrew and I were free with no plans for the weekend and decided to take the opportunity to sleep in and then head down to Granite falls. As it happens, this past weekend we were blessed with our first rainfall in over a month and despite some serious lack of desires to head back out in the rain (after a bike ride into town to meet some friends for coffee and getting soaked and cold) we went anyways.

I on the "New" Starboard SUP and ANdrew on the Looksha IV sea kayak. It took us a blistering 2.5 hours to get down to Granite Falls, we were blessed with some little downwind waves which helped in speed and increased the fun factor due to some minor surfing opportunities. I did have to sit down and create a semi canoe type vessicle out of the SUP for crossing through a side chop.... I managed and enjoyed the rest from concentrating on my balance. Despite the dismal weather Granite Falls was still packed with folks but we managed to find a perfect spot waterfront with trees. We set up camp with tarp and all. We managed to hiked around the falls as the water levels were low, ate, drank, and had some proper chillin time out under the tarp and by the ocean... no complaints just smiles.

We awoke to calm weather and headed down to the Wigwam Inn. A posh unfortunately members only Inn.... As we headed up the Arm back towards the Cove the wind picked up and I had quite the baddle with at times on the SUP. I thankfully did not a tow but at times wondered how I would make it back. I kneeled at points to try and become more aerodynamic... all in all it took us twice as long to get back, we hugged the shoreline nice and tightly and cruised into the Cove in time to make it for breakfast at Honey's. I wonder if I was the first SUP'er to make to Granite Falls and back?!?

More PICTURES!

I am off to Ucluelet this weekend with ym dad to hit up the 4th race of the Island Race Series on the SUP!

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!

lina

Long weekend.... on the trails in Pemberton and a new Canadian

A fine crew of us headed up to Pemberton for the long weekend to ride our mtn bikes and to celebrate Andrew's becoming Canadian. On Thursday July 29th Andrew became one of 70 new citizens of Canada. The celebration was quite good and the diversity of people was surprising from Russia to Argentina and everywhere in between.

We stayed at the Owl Creek Campground which was basic with a beautiful river (Andrew, Kala, and I had a little dip in the freezing yet refreshing river), the necessary outhouses and somewhere to park our tents. It was dirt cheap and nice enough. It even had two great trees for me to set up the slackline.... Talking about slacklining, a big congrats to the Yogaslackers and Dart Nuun for an awesome race in Tahoe...

We rode the trail 'resurrection' from the campground on Saturday . It was blistering hot with an adventure race style defunked logging road that was so steep and so loose that riding was near impossible... hike a biking up a logging road with our bikes in high heat was not considered to be too much fun by most BUT there was an exciting descent to follow... a little sandy at points but it added to the adventure... I was glad to have my flats and pads on for that one... The rest of the day we swam in the river, enjoyed some sun, drank coffee during a rather abrupt thunderstorm at the Mount Currie Coffee Co, hung out in Paul and Angie's massive tent during the second portion of the thunderstorm and slacklined once the rain ceased a little...

Sunday we rode Nimby in attempts to find the new Stimulus trail but read the map at the bike Co wrong and after some failed trail finding attempts ended up heading down Overnight Sensation, which is one stellar trail.. so all good! This trail has it all from rocks, to smooth in the forest trails, to technical steep trails and of course the heat and lack of rain (the rain the night prior did nothing to dampen the trails) some sand! I found it a little frustrating climbing nimby in my flats but I think with more practice I will get the technique but again enjoyed the steep technical downhill with my pads and flats. I am totally on a mtn bike buzz (as well as SUP and everything else buzz)We finished the ride off with a swim in One mile lake, and ice cream.... Perfect!

Monday it was down to three of us, Andrew, Kala, and I headed up to Whistler area and rode Kill me Thrill Me... despite living in Whistler I had never rode this trail... Yup, one of my favs.... loved it and it made me miss Whistler even more than I already do... what a wonderful wonderful place!

Now its 1 more week of school and then WEDDING and huge Multi sport honeymoon extravaganza!

but for now Tuesday Night Deep Cove Race on the SUP.

PICS HERE!

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!

lina