Trips!

Holy smokies, 2014 is blowing my socks off! Only a few months deep and already have completed a 10day self-support Grand Canyon of the Colorado trip, a week of creeking in Vancouver/Squamish/Van. Island area, and a month long road trip down the coast to California for some big surf and competition. Currently on the verge of a solo sea-kayak expedition down the BC Coast, so thought this would be a good time to dust off the ol’ paddle blog. Turns out I am unable to get into old site so welcome to #2. Saddle up! (link to old paddling adventures: http://lukebors.blogspot.ca/)

After completing an 8 month nursing contract on my Haida Gwaii home-land, I was very anxious to get off on some adventures. Don’t get me wrong, there are zero complaints about this past winter. There is definitely something to be said about living 5minutes away from a class “A” surf break and working with a great team of doctors and nurses doing some cowboy shit in our isolated little hospital. But, as my nature, I started getting a little squirrely after a while and was looking for change. During a nightshift in December, I received an email from a paddling bud that she had scored a permit for the Grand Canyon and was putting on beginning of February. Bingo.

In early February myself and 10 others put on for a paddling trip down the mighty Colorado. In 2010 when I first paddled the Grand Canyon, it was a raft support trip and we did the river in playboats as all our gear was carried on the rafts. This time, it was just kayaks so trying to cram 10 days of gear and food in a creekboat was interesting. Easy thing to do in an ocean boat, not that nice for a riverboat. I remember the first couple of days having to sit in my boat in the morning, and cram individual beers all over my legs and feet in order to have everything fit in. A swim would have been horrendously exciting, but no such (paddling) carnage occurred. That’s more than I can say about camp carnage and general trip debauchery. Great times, many highlights:

After the Grand I flew back to Haida Gwaii and packed up life and dog into my car, and after a few weeks of surfing I hopped on the ferry to Prince Rupert and began to drive south. Scored a powder day up on Shames mountain, then King Louis and I rallied down to Vancouver and met up with Sam Drouin and had a few days creeking around Vancouver and Squamish before heading to the Island for the Gordan Creek Race. This was the second annual race on the Gordan, and we were all stoked at how many boaters showed up to race and partake in the beer swilling afterpartys. This year, the downriver race hosted 24 teams (double than the year before) with two people per team. Including the people who showed up to paddle and did not race, there was probably easily more than 60 people running the river that weekend. I have never seen so many paddlers on a river at the same time, and mega props to the organizers for a smooth running rollercoaster of a weekend.

This was my first downriver race, and after a few warm up laps on Friday afternoon, me and Sam partnered and placed 3^rd out of the 24 teams racing. First place was Mikkel St Jean and Chris McTaggart, and second was Steve Arns and Maxi Keinwasser. The highlight of that weekend was the river rising by a couple of feet due to excessive rain so during the slalom at the end of the day, some rapids that had been breezy all day turned into some spanky mayhem which ended in carnage for an unfortunate few. Ill be back for the Gordan Race next year for sure!

After the Gordan raceweekend I parted ways with Sam and Louis and headed across the border and drove down the coast to California to compete in the Santa Cruz Paddlefest. It’s the biggest annual kayak surf competition in the world and showcases the best in the sport. I competed in Mens High Performance and Mens International. After the first day I was sitting well in points, but managed to miss my High Performance heat the next day so did not advance far in that category. Huge bummer as that is my best category. Fail. Ended up advancing to semi-finals in International Mens and finished 7^th. Missed finals by 3 points so next year I will be fired up as I know that I could have done much better. Organizers of this event said that the amount of carnage this year was more than any had remembered from previous years. Respect to the guys running the jet-skis, and thankfully no serious injuries. Those waves are big and the cliffs are menacing. After the competition, me and a good buddy Alan Lore from home drove back up the coast to BC as I needed to begin to prepare for my big ocean trip.

classic steamers lane

photo: alan lore

photo: alan lore

photo: alan lore

photo: alan lore

tasting it

first time in a bed in 4weeks

 

In Vancouver I stopped at Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC) who generously provided a spanking new Kokatat GMER Drysuit and an MEC Silicone Guides Tarp for me to use on my expedition. Mucho appreciated, this gear will be invaluable as I make my way down the length of the BC Coast.

As of now, my launch date from the Nisga’a Village of Gingolyx in the Nass Valley is Wednesday April 16^th. I plan on reaching Victoria, BC sometime late May or early June. The trip will take me through 10 separate First Nation’s lands and cultural boundaries, and I am planning on stopping in at least 6 villages along the way. In addition to the personal physical and mental challenge of soloing the length of the Coast of BC, I am very much interested in speaking with each different Indigenous band/clan/nation, especially the youth who have grown up in each community. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say in regards to growing up in isolated west coast communities (as did I) and how they feel their lands and culture are being threatened today. I am currently on Haida Gwaii organizing gear and preparing mentally for 6 weeks alone on remote coastal waters. Yikes! Heres to hoping I don’t forget anything…