Is Sea Kayaking a Commercial Sport?

I was asked by my good friend of LuckyKitchen.com Aeron Bergman’s father a good number of years ago when Turtleneck.net was still in action if I felt that the internet was over-saturated with content. It was a really interesting question. I didn’t really have the context at the time to answer the question, it was 1999 for pities sake.

In the sea kayaking blogosphere and especially in the expedition blogs there seems to be a plethora of dynamic people creating top flight content. Unfortunately it seems mostly created out of misery, breakups, arguments, failed partnerships, failed romances, divorces, but surrounded, if not wrapped like a falafel sandwich in the pita bread of spectacular paddling trips and seasoned with heroic efforts. Of course people like Shawna and Leon break that rule.

Greg Stamer has created his first Blog for his trip around Newfoundland as a sponsored paddler. In his post on blogging he stated that he doesn’t enjoy reading blow by blow travelogues of kayaking trips. I can understand the aversion to the gory details. But I also wonder if this is also an aversion to the medium due to the seeming over-saturation of kayaking expeditions to the same four places: Iceland, New Zealand, Australia, and Newfoundland. Do we need another one?

Who wants to read another blow by blow of a trip round New Zealand? Chris Duff pretty well had that covered in his spectacular book, Southern Exposure. I wonder though if Chris might have been tempted to blog if it had been available as a mass consumed medium in 2003. In five years so much has changed about the web. Certainly the overused phrase of Web 2.0 and consumer generated content is paramount here.

Sea kayaking has seemed to me; as an athlete of both running, cycling, and soccer a sport that is horrifically uncompetitive. Before this comes off sounding terrible, there are some very athletic, talented sea kayakers that are very impressive. But in order to become sponsored as a runner, or a cyclist, or as a soccer player, one would have to be so much better than everyone else that it would stagger you to think about it. I’ve played soccer against a few semi-pro and professional players in pickup matches and I can tell you that despite years of training the difference between us was night and day. Running and cycling again are perhaps even worse. My marathon time of 3:40 while quite fast for an amateur and a first marathon is still one hour and thirty minutes slower than the guy who won the race. Cycling again is so competitive that in order to stay in the game performance enhancing drugs have become the norm not the exception.

So where am I going with this? I think with Greg Stamer stepping into the realm of professional kayaking, his blog, and his trip Sea Kayaking might be entering into the realm of professional athletes. As strange as this might sound to Greg, I see this as the end of amateur night. For better or worse. And before you say it this is not so much about Greg, but about the trend. Greg whom I’ve never met, and only emailed with occasionally when debates got heated on Qajaqusa.org forums. He seems to me to be a terrific person and a very dedicated paddler, and who is a great ambassador for paddling in general, not just traditional paddling.

Justine Curgenven’s This is The Seavideos over the last few years, Brian Smith’s Pacific Horizon Video all lead to an increasing marketing push to fund bigger and better trips for more people over a year. This is great in that it brings visibility to the sport, but maybe sad in a way. I think it may eventually lead to a decline in accessibility to good informal training from people as great as Greg Stamer, Leon Somme, Shawna Franklin, Justine Curgenven, Jeff Allen, and Simon Osborne.

Because I help plan a small symposium I’ve noticed that most of the professional paddlers in the years between 2003 and 2006 were fairly accessible and inexpensive to consider, as the years have gone on there are more and more symposiums every year, and a growing number of great paddlers with very booked social calendars. This is great! But also I fear the beginning of the end for smaller local symposiums with low budgets.

For those that might not know this, these symposiums have traditionally been run by local clubs with no profit at the end. The object is to net out at 0 so that the symposium pays for itself. And this may be how all symposiums are run, certainly no one is getting rich, not even the sponsored paddlers. There aim is solely to get their name out to do more symposiums, support their sponsors, and because it is fun. My worry is that the little, out of the way symposiums, in non-glamorous places like Muskegon Michigan may no longer be part of the whirlwind tour. I hope I am wrong.

William Gibson said at the release of his previous novel (2003), Pattern Recognition, that life these days doesn’t seem to be so much about the avoidance of marketing, but the inevitability of it. And for Sea Kayaking that time may have come. White Water paddling has certainly been there for ages with a small number of inapproachable stars who compete for small pots of cash at events. Eric Jackson being the most notable. Surf Kayaking also has its stars, note the wrap up of the Santa Cruz Surf Kayak Festival.

Because Sea Kayaking is more about journeys than pulling of sweet tricks in a hole, (this is the sea notwithstanding), I think climbing may be a more accurate partner for the commercialization of sea kayaking. Who knows perhaps it is this approachability to the amateur that makes Sea Kayaking so great. Anyone can get in and do it. And unless we really are talking about circumnavigating Iceland it is a relatively low impact, easy going sport with little risk.

The people I’ve met through paddling have been some of the greatest I’ve ever met. I certainly am not calling up old soccer buddies to crash on their couch and play pick up games when I have free time. But I certainly will call up just about anyone I’ve met paddling even once to go paddle, sleep on their couch, eat their food, and vice versa.

I think this may be that moment for paradigm shift, or a nodal point where everything seems to change, but who knows maybe some people saw this moment 10 years ago. Paddle sports are quite unusual.

No Tag

Alpine Mountain Climbing is frankly something that terrifies me. Razor edged peaks that ascend into the clouds don’t tempt me. That said, the achievement of Hillary and Tenzing Norgay boggles the mind. With primitive equipment and clothing, but superior skill and determination this pair stepped onto the summit of the world’s tallest mountain in 1953.

Mt Everest at 29,028 feet high is the tallest mountain in the world. Mt Everest is in the Himalayas on the Border of Nepal, Tibet, and China.

No ladders through the Khumbu icefall, no fixed ropes run by sherpas. No ladders up what is now ironically called the Hillary Step. No one carried Hillary and Tenzing’s packs for them, no one helped them up the mountain. This pair climbed onto the summit without all of the support that most modern climbers receive. This feat would not be surpassed until Reinhold Messner summited alone without supplemental oxygen. Because the world is shrinking, I don’t think the likes of Hillary will ever be seen again in this world. RIP you noble beekeeper.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

No Tag

Had my first sub twenties commute of the year. I felt much warmer than last year. Ninjaclava from Outdoor Research was a plus, as were the Cyclone Booties from Pearl Izumi.

However as I had some new gear on that seems to be working out, I thought I would point out a few losers from last year that I thought would work out well but ended up failing miserably.

The Bad and the Ugly

1. The EKG Base layer from Pearl Izumi
I bought two of these as base layers. They were comfy and next to skin good for about two days. Both of them developed holes in the armpits that grew in size. Either I have acid in my sweat like a Geiger alien, or Pearl Izumi needs some QC/QA.
2. Thermafleece Tights Pearl Izumi discontinued. These started out warm, snug, and terrific. They now have developed a hole in the arse and in the crotch. Again is it acid eating sweat, or poor QC/QA? Do the people that rave about Pearl Izumi all the time actually use their gear at all? For the price, almost double HIND or Sugoi gear; they better last more than a season.
3. Louis Garneau Cycling Gloves-these things suck as cycling gloves. They do not block wind in anything below 45 degrees, and they are not water resistant.

1. Lendal Paddle Kinetic XTI White Water paddle-Previously posted

   Editorial note, they are shipping me a new paddle that has as of yet not arrived.

   The Good

2. CW-X Lite-fit Top
I bought two of these to replace the Pearl Izumi tops. One year on, they are still taking the abuse of my acidic alien armpit sweat. I’ve worn them under drysuits, ski jackets, and cycling jerseys. No rips no runs, still like new.
3. NRS Toaster Mitts

Great 30 dollar investment.

1. Mega Maverick

Great carving machine, many many fun rides in this downwave maniac. I can’t say enough good things about Mega’s surf boats. More fun than I am legally allowed to have.

1. IR Custom Drydeck

Great heavy duty rubber randed sprayskirt custom made to my kayak. No more cold water ejections. No Tag

Jill Homer plans to ride the Iditarod by Bike! I like the way this woman thinks!
Riding this legendary trail typically run by dog sleds seems like an epic ride. She plans to do 350 miles of the trail. She is training now, but is really going to up her miles now that the race is drawing near.

I would love to Cross Country Ski this trail, or bike it!

Good Luck Jill

Check out Jill’s NPR Audio Story

You can also check out Jill’s Blog Arctic Glass

Also on a usability note, NPR finally went to a flash player for their stories. No more crappy real audio. Next is the embed object copy and paste option for NPR content, then their official web 2.0 status can be invoked.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

No Tag

In 2004 Hollywood actor and uber boy toy Ewan (pronounced you-an) MacGregor otherwise known to the general public as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and his fellow actor and best mate Charlie Boorman set upon riding around the world by Motorcycle. While I generally think motorized transport is for pansies, the idea of a cross continental journey on the back of bike struck me as an evocative idea. My father recommended this movie to me ages ago and I just never got around to it.

Ewan and Charlie share a lifelong passion with motorcycles something I at least understand a little. They decided they would ride all the way from the UK through western Europe, (France, Belgium Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia,) to the Ukraine, through a little bit of Russia almost all the way through Kazahkstan, through another little part of Russia again, and then into Mongolia, and then back into Russia again along the Road of Bones, and then over to North America by plane, down through Alaska, into Canada and then down through Montana, the Dakotas to New York, in total some 20,000 miles.

The beginning of the journey is the most difficult to watch. Ewan and Charlie attempt to get sponsored by an Austrian Motorbike company called KTM. KTM sends out a consultant who informs them that the Road of Bones section in Siberia may defeat them. KTM renegs on their offer of sponsorship and the pair are pretty despondent. Ewan thankfully confesses a little sheepishly that maybe they are behaving like petulant asses. He admits that expecting to receive free motorbikes for a trip they want to do is a little silly. Who else would expect this kind of treatment. In fact though it wasn’t mentioned, the KTM consultant did part of the trip on a bike he paid for himself.

I thought about this in terms of the sea kayaking world. I think sponsorship is a great thing. But if you wouldn’t be willing to do the trip on your own without a free kayak or free gear, did you really want to do it anyway? Granted if you could get a free kayak/motorcycle that would help with your trip why wouldn’t you? But should you expect anything? That’s another story.

I found it amusing, but not surprising that the high spirits and the exuberance lasted as long as the tarmac did. Ewan and Charlie became quite despondent when the road turned to trail. The struggle to remain on two wheels was pretty epic. Everytime one of the BMW bikes went over, everybody had to pitch in and help the rider get up again. Due to the extreme weight of the bike lifting it solo appeared to be impossible.

Once Charlie and Ewan made it to Mongolia the real pain began. But so did the beauty. It seemed they were surrounded by endless plains, prairie, mountains, and river valleys. The Mongolians they encountered seemed genuinely curious and interested in the pair. I kept wondering if a bike tour would be crazy in that area of the world. Jon Turk and his daughter passed through part of Mongolia on their Altai tour. On their blog, I read a lot about pushing bikes and running out of water. Our erstwhile hollywood stars had a support vehicle that the hardy Jon Turk could not afford. I know it’s not apples to apples here, but it just furthers a deep, deeeeep respect for Jon Turk.

The ups and downs of long trips can be like drug addiction, the ups are so up you become giddy, and the downs are so low you become almost suicidal. Separated from home and family for months on end, hardship and suffering are not passing moments, but a daily reality. The only thing that keeps you going is the tunnel vision of the finish line, and your friends. Certainly many people will never understand this. When I saw Charlie and Ewan hit tarmac after 600 miles of hard off-road riding in Mongolia and they actually laid down and kissed it, I completely got it. Having paddled into 20 knot headwinds for three days while towing a paddler between islands has left me with an appreciation for the sudden twist of fate that puts the wind at your back. When you coast for 20 miles with a twenty knot tailwind you know what it is to see God after feeling forsaken.

Ultimatley Charlie and Ewan toughened up quite a bit and when the riding became ludicrously hard, they just focused on minigoals, and began to laugh at how silly they were for imagining they could fly through the miles and miles of offroad riding.

I am not a celebrity worshiper by a long shot, but I do respect folks who achieve something tangible. For the riding through Asia and Russia’s Road of Bones I salute the Long Way Round. It seems I am also on the cusp of something monumental too. When I can say more I will. You only live once, you may as well chase the dream right.

No Tag

There is no garland of ivy leaves for the average runner. Each mile is its own reward. If you make it to 26.2 someone might tell you “great job”. But you must want to make it the distance on your own. No one can do it for you. You might have training partners, you might even have someone to run the race with, but really every step is your own.

When I ran my first marathon I trained every mile alone, and then planned to run Chicago with Joe. I never found him in the crowd. I ran the whole distance surrounded by a crowd, but I was completely isolated inside my own head.

I am embarking on this training journey again. I don’t necessarily relish every run. It is sometimes hard to want to put in all the time necessary. It is hard not having someone to run with, but at the same time, moving at your own pace means you never have to depend on anyone else.

All of the miles and training in complete isolation are also tied with a victory that is solely your own. You do not share the proverbial crown of ivy leaves (if you get one) with a triumvirate of team mates. It is yours alone.

No Tag

My wilderness trip this year led us to Lake Superior Provincial Park. Somehow I always run out of gas to wax poetic about the wilderness trips. I will say this, it is every bit as beautiful as Pukaskwa. However towards the end, Highway 17 is clearly audible and visible at many points. I could only get a fraction of my pictures up on flickr due to bandwidth. I may have more later.

We paddled south from the Michipicoten river towards Agawa Bay.

We really took our time and tried to see everything. There was however a lot of Patrick O’Brian novel reading going on, naps being taken, and generally a more vacation like pace than in previous trips. It was actually relaxing rather than exhausting.

Check out the pictures here: Lake Superior Provincial Park

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

No Tag

I picked Jon Turk up at the Kalamazoo airport on Friday after work. I’d heard that he wasn’t as chatty and vivacious as some of the younger pups we’d had to symposium over the last few years. Simon and Justine definitely are very fun and very very social, which is great. Jon Turk though is in a class all his own. We hit the road and he started talking almost immediately. Much to my surprise he is a listener as much as he is a speaker, or better yet a story teller.

I’m always interested in hearing about couples that have children young who have their adventures too. What sacrifices are made? What are the repercussions from those long periods of time away from home might have been. While I have ultimate respect for Simon and Justine, I have a deep affinity and respect for a man like Jon because he made hard choices in life. He had to choose to be away from home and family to do the things he needed to do, and he had to live with those choices. Further, his family had to live with them too.

Jon has done some amazing things in life, probably so grand that it boggles even his mind how he did it. He’s crossed the northwest passage, gone from Japan all the way to the Siberian straits, paddled in Greenland, climbed and mountain biked in Asia.

Our talk in the car circled around the inherent social dynamics of human beings, adventures, his children, and ultimately his dead wife Chris. We could talk about anything from UFO’s to paddling and Jon ultimately circled back to Chris. Her death clearly haunts him. How could it not. For the full story read this.

I remember listening to Cold Oceans Jon’s first book in the car when I was making a very difficult work commute to Detroit from Paw Paw. The book is about more than his monumental expeditions into the Arctic. It is also about the lifelong love affair with Chris, his children, and how long it really took to get the two of them together. It is written like Hemingway without the need for pointless machismo. It moved me, and his reading of it is phenomenal if you get a chance to buy it on tape, Jon reads it!

Jon’s talk at Symposium is on the topic of the Romantic vs the Pragmatist in man. It’s clearly not really a strictly paddling expedition talk. Which clearly sums up why most of us get into paddling. It certainly isn’t pragmatic to kayak at all, which is why Jet skis are so popular. There is a certain nobility and simplicity to paddling that makes it difficult to think of it in rational terms. I can say from my first time in a kayak it was like touching a dream. The kayak glided through the water effortlessly and my hands dipped into a mirror smooth lake on every stroke. The notion to get into a sport that costs thousands, is completely individual, and not at all practical was not something that made sense, I just did it because I caught the bug. Every paddler has that perfect moment they are searching for. It’s a lifelong quest. You never really get it. Or at least I hope I don’t, because then the trip is over. I keep going back out there because that dream is still out there, the dream of that perfect wave, or the perfect downwind ride in a sea kayak, that perfect moment in the wilderness where you see God.
We all know it’s out there somewhere, so we keep going. Jon’s talk based on the book, In the Wake of the Jomon
is based on the notion that people did not cross on a land bridge to North America from Asia, but perhaps paddled here in canoes and kayaks. This is based on the premise that at our hearts we are not pragmatists, but romantics. Or at the least, we are dreamers in addition to being pragmatists. The argument itself is poetic. And this Yeats Poem says it all:

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I think Jon Turk still has some expeditions left in him. When we were in the car, he even hinted he might have a few left to do by kayak. His talk smacked of the sort of lyricism that moves the soul, rather than cold details about what happened each day. Sure he had the usual death defying heroics we expect, but it was backed by a long life full of adventure, pain, beauty, and hard work; which is not something you get to hear everywhere. We were priveleged to have him. And he also cut the rug on Sunday night with Betsie and the band like a madman!

As usual the Symposium had a mix of weather, rain, sunshine and a little cold in the evening. The training and the classes were great. I got to play with the kids, and the adults a bit. I cough accidentally knocked a few students over. But managed to teach them something too. I got to learn from some students as usual!

I also managed not to disgrace myself in the rolling demo, for which I was thankful. I had to add a little sculling on my forward recovery handroll, but hey who’s counting?

The feelings I have for the WMCKA symposium can’t be taken out of context. Essentially whenever I think about WMCKA I see the cut-away version of the human anatomy. I see how colors are interpreted by the optic nerve, how pain is transferred from the nerves to the brain, how food is chewed and then digested. Serving on the board, and on the symposium committee has been a privilege. Most of the time it’s been great fun, but it also changes how I see things when it comes time to have fun. So when it came time to arrive on site Friday night, I had the distinct distaste of having seen how the sausages are made. Which let me know, it’s time to take a break.

I’ve heard from lots of folks it is one of the best run symposiums in the Midwest, so I trust my efforts and the efforts of the board have not gone unnoticed. I hope to attend next year and just stick to playing with the kids and knocking students in the water. Poor poor students

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

No Tag

The islands of Lake Michigan trip for me will be postponed indefinitely. I am still drawn to this trip. I wish Steve and Jim Viviano good fortune and tail winds.

I’ve been in San Diego for the last week with the family. Made it out surfing three times on the Pacific. For those who are curious, I have two words, Reef Break. I have some photos to share. I think I may have another trip up my sleeve for June. We’ll see…

No Tag

MEN WANTED FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS, CONSTANT DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS.
_{Newspaper ad announcing Sir Ernest Shackleton’s trans-Antarctic Expedition}

This was the newspaper ad for the Shackleton expedition to transect the Antarctic continent by dog sled and on foot if necessary. It has a ring of realism, sarcasm, and audacity that appeals to me. Because we set off in June of this year into the waiting arms of our beloved mother Lake Michigan, this is doubly poignant. We intend to tag no less than 10 Islands in the Beaver Island archipelago. It seems auspicious to mention that Shackleton brought all his men back alive. We hope to do the same.

In case you missed my other post, in the first week in June of 2007 myself and four other paddlers intend to paddle north from Good Harbor Bay and along the main islands of the Beaver Island archipelago.

I hope to outline each of the islands in the archipelago that we intend to at least touch terra firma upon, their history and their special appeal for the trip.

The first island we will visit is actually one of the most visited islands, and oddly one of the most interesting. I first landed on South Manitou on a day trip with the crew that ended up in This is The Sea II in 2005. To me it is a mystical place apart from time. There are endless sand dunes, shipwrecks, and ancient giant white cedar trees. If you wanted to walk off the map forever this is the place to haunt as a ghost. Based on this tourists flock to this isle more than North Manitou Island.

Indian legend, (Chippewa) tells us of a mother bear Mishe Mokwa, who fled a great forest fire in Wisconsin with her two cubs. Mishe Mokwa reached the Michigan shore and climbed a steep bluff to await her cubs. The cubs, exhausted by their long swim, never reached land. The mother bear waited day after day to no avail. Finally she died. The Great Spirit Manitou marked her resting place with the Sleeping Bear Dunes and raised North and South Manitou Islands from the spot where the cubs perished.

Is this the ghost on South Manitou? Don’t know?

American colonists came in the 1830’s in the hopes of lucrative lumber trade with ships passing through the Manitou Passage. These colonists started farms on the island and traded with merchant vessels. South Manitou Island has the only natural deep water passage along the northerly route for 220 miles, making it a hot spot for vessels to weather the frequent storms of the Great Lakes. It was not uncommon in the heyday of the mid 19th century to find up to fifty vessels crowded into the harbor. The little homesteads now stand all abandoned and in decay adding to the mystique.

Congress approved budget for the first lighthouse in the passage in July of 1839. After many years of mismanagement and decay another lighthouse was erected upon the sight of the first in 1858. This light served little better than the first two and by 1872 a third light of 100 feet was planned and constructed that is now the light that stands with its various outbuildings on South Manitou Island. (Anyone getting a Monty Python and the Holy Grail vibe on this?) The first castle it sank into the swamp, the second castle caught on fire and then sank into the swamp, but the third, the third one stayed up!

The history of Great Lakes light houses we will pass almost deserves several posts on their own, but I will bypass that in the sake of brevity.

Some of the more natural features of the island include a virgin stand of White Cedars that is eerily referred to as the Valley of the Giants. Thuja occidentalis is a massive white cedar not commonly found in Michigan anymore. They can grow to 34m tall and 175 cm at the base. Some trees have been known to live as long as 1500 years. The growth on South Manitou is dated around 5-600 years old. There is a story from the turn of the century where sailors in need of wood for a boiler tried to cut one down but due to either the large bulk of the trunk, or some divine intervention couldn’t cut through, thus saving the Valley of the Giants from extinction. I would like to think some spirit intervened on behalf of these amazing trees. It has a Hayo Miyazakish flair to the story. See Princess Mononoke.

The other main attraction of the island is the shipwrecks. The main one that is visible above water is the Francisco Morazon. This package freighter ran aground in the shallows on the leeward side of the island. It is now commonly referred to as Cormorant hotel by the paddlers who come to look. You can paddle right into the engine room as long as you can take the smell.

We may not get to do much but stop overnight, but I would like to explore a little more on this island next time. Maybe walk a little more in the Valley of the Giants, snorkel a little on one of the other wrecks. And maybe see a ghost or two.

Please note the pictures here are from Derrick Mayoleth when we went to the Island in 2005 before the WMCKA symposium with Justine Curgenven.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

No Tag