Jul 31 2007
Archive for July, 2007
Jul 29 2007
Paddling History Log
Began Kayaking in 2000.
Awards
BCU Canoe Safety Test Award
BCU 3 Star Award
BCU 4 Star Sea Award
Sea Kayaking Trips
Pictured Rocks Miner’s Castle to Spray Falls round trip 2001
South Haven to Saugatuck one day trip 2001
Crossing to Bois Blanc Island 2001
North Manitou Island 2002
Pukaskwa National Park 2002
Cleggan to Inishbofin and Inishturk Island Ireland 2003
Silver Islet to Rossport 2004
North and South Manitou Island 2005
Apostle Islands 2006
Lake Superior Provincial Park 2007
San Francisco Paddle Bay Golden Gate to Marin Headlands roundtrip 2007.
Surf Specific Kayaking since 2005
Numerous solo trips Lake Michigan.
San Diego 2007
White Water Kayaking since 2003
Wolf River Class III Section
South Bend White Water Park
Jul 28 2007
Stolen Moments
Funny how things move in cycles.
When the wind started to howl, I woke to check the weather report and the surf cam. Making promises of future familial devotion and activity to Laura, I peeled out of the driveway towards South Haven.
How am I still married, is anyone’s guess.
For once I was rewarded for all of the risk.
Steep glassy six to seven foot waves greeted me on the outside. The wind was gusting, but manageable once out. I felt a strange sense of uneasiness as I was taking my first set of rides. Not sure why. I managed to settle down. I started to get my diagonal takeoff dialed in. I got three or four beautiful rides. I also quickly got a sense of which waves were going to dump and close out.
I tried to get a picture of a curling wave with my paddle underneath my arm. I was rewarded with a shot, but succinctly nuked by a good size wave. I managed to roll up with my paddle and retrieved my camera from it’s dummy cord.
I caught a series of good rides on the north side of the pier. I began to feel the need to get home to fulfill familial obligations, I returned on time.
No TagJul 17 2007
How to say so much with so little
The trick with most things in life is to be able to say a lot with very little. Sometimes I do it by accident, sometimes on purpose. The best of us can do it repeatedly. Charles Bukowski, Philip Levine, William Gibson, and ee cummings.
Music is one of those areas where you can either be Nick Cave and insert a Faulknerian epic into your punk rock love ballad.
Or you can be the fella’s from the “National”.
This band can say it all through tone, half phrases, and a subtle waft of Leonard Cohen’s cologne.
The song
It’s all in there for me, Laura, and the kids that we’ve had it on auto repeat for the last few weeks.
I hope to see them live soon. Check out the National and their new album at Pitchfork Media
Fake Empire-
Stay out super late tonight
picking apples, making pies
put a little something in our lemonade and take it with us
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
Tiptoe through our shiny city
with our diamond slippers on
do our gay ballet on ice
bluebirds on our shoulders
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
Turn the light out say goodnight
no thinking for a little while
lets not try to figure out everything at once
It’s hard to keep track of you falling through the sky
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
Jul 12 2007
3 Star
Compulsory, like latin or greek to a traditional classic education, I went back to get my 3 star. I speak as if I did it with the thought I dropped something on the pavement and went back for it. Not sure.
I feel ready to take my next step towards my Coach 2. I It just seemed funny last night when I went through the hoops, because I already had my 4 star, and I had also taken my canoe safety test. Was it necessary? Maybe not, is a reverse figure of 8 really ever strictly necessary? No, but having done it, I can say I’ve passed the exam, no one can take it away from me, much like crossing the line (the equator in sailor speak). It is a rite of passage, and for me it is part of the experience.
Ron Smith made an excellent suggestion that I travel outside the midwest for my coach 2, to get some new perspectives on the whole thing, maybe hear some things from people out on the east, west, or some unknown foreign coast.
I agree. New perspectives are needed.
No Tag