Liam’s Alaskan Adventure

Liam Wilmot of C4 Waterman submitted this interesting story of an Alaskan SUP adventure using a ULI inflatable SUP board.

–ALASKA June 6th. Field Report.

Being a surfer in a surf-orientated family that lives on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, a trip to Alaska in the middle of summer may seem a strange choice of destination. However, with the onset of stand up paddling and its potential to make any day on any body of water a blast, a trip to the land of 10,000 glaciers with a sun that never set promised to be a real adventure.

Flying up Shelikof Straight and Cook Inlet into our arrival point of Anchorage, it was stirring to see mountains and snow after such a lengthy tropical hiatus. When you see glaciers like this one below, so huge they’re easily visible from 10,000 feet, it’s mind-boggling to think that thousands of years of flow-freeze are now rapidly dissipating - inches every year, sometimes even feet.

With seemingly endless potential for flat water adventures it was hard not to pump up the ULI (ultra light inflatable) and paddle out at every turn.

My first attempt failed. Overcome by the scenery I opted to save time by dissing the wetsuit and confidently headed out in my shorts and vest! My toes nearly froze off. One word of advice on the ULI, be sure to inflate to the recommended level. Anything less and it won’t be anywhere near as rigid as you need it to be. It’s rigid or frigid in Alaska!

On second attempt I would go all out. The wetsuit was lent to me by Garrett McNamarra, who tested and proved it last year towing into calving glacier waves in SE Alaska. You really need a good wetsuit. This one was a 7mm Hotline full suit with a built in hood, plus booties and gloves. Toasty!! Thanks GMac. (Like all wetsuits, they make you look fat

I rode the converging waters of glacial melt from Exit Glacier and the flow of Resurrection River for about 7 miles.
It took me a little over an hour.

Freezing water, snow and glaciers were a totally new experience for me. My friend Charlie McArthur, C4’s team rider up on the Colorado River, probably would have laughed at me. The white water (mini) rapids hardly compare to the walls of white water he scales with ease. Any how, I figured I would wear the bright yellow rash vest for visibility. I had a WalMart issue 2-way radio in a zip lock stuffed down the front of my suit should I need contact my wife in the trailing RV. If I got into trouble and had to bail, a walk through bear country might be less scary if I could hear our kids arguing in the RV! I had a leash. I have read horror stories about surfers getting trapped, overcome by the force of the current and not being able to reach their leash to remove it, but I didn’t want to go with out it, despite that ‘free’ feeling. So… I fastened it to my elbow so it wouldn’t drag in the water and I could always reach the release tab should I need it.
Charlie might laugh but I hope water safety expert Brian Keaulana would be proud!

The waters snaked back and forth from the road every mile or so, splitting and merging at will throughout the gravel banks and wash-through of tons of fallen birch and spruce trees. All this gravel comes from the melting glaciers which grind away at the mountains over eons. Following the branching water’s strongest lead was a fun game in order not to become stranded in a weak off-shoot.

There are thousands more short trips like this in Alaska, It was nothing extreme, but to me that is part of the broad appeal of stand up paddling. Anyone can do it, and you can do it anywhere. Charlie, who is a top level white water kayaking champion says “it makes class I and II fun again”. For me, to get out into the wilderness and float along with the current through pristine wilderness is in a class all of its own.

Despite the sport’s broad appeal, I don’t recommend using your inflatable SUP as a snow toy.
My 2-year-old Maika loved it while I felt like pitching a new series to National Geographic: “I wish I wasn’t alive”. Turns out that the PVC coating switches gears from slip to grip when on frigid snow and ice. This is not a snow toy.

More perfect scenery. It was so still I would paddle out in my rubber boots and throw a lure straight from the board. I managed to catch a dozen or so rainbow trout. At Johnsons Lake, near Kasilof, I was cleaning my catch and a local guy comes over shaking his head to say “Now I gotta take a look at this! What do you call this?!”. All these guys with boats and I was in and out before they had even primed their engines. Not to mention the fact that the fish never heard me coming.

Open roads, endless possibilities and empty line ups………….

Seward, on a beautiful calm morning paddle. The surrounding mountains of Resurrection Peninsula reach higher than 5,000 feet, though the morning low-level cloud obscures the towering landscape.

Cook Inlet and Turnagain Arm have some spectacular paddling areas. With a tidal difference of 24ft the mud flats are literally quicksand, annually claiming the lives of those who don’t get pulled out fast enough and either suffocate or drown on the incoming tide. No joke.

Turnagain Arm is also home to the elusive bore tide, which I had every intention of riding but, like the salmon, it was the one that got away on me. You need to know the precise spot on the narrowing of the 40-mile probe of Cook Inlet where the incoming tide doubles up on itself and transforms into a muddy, churning wave. It happens in an instant. We ended up racing alongside it in the RV without enough time to get into the water before it dissipated after several hundred yards of rolling.

Below is an aerial shot of the Cook Inlet tidal flats on the outgoing tide. You can see how far it stretches inland. This Inlet was named after Captain Cook, who initially thought it may have an outlet but learned he’d have to turn his fleet around again to get out, hence the name given to its inland end: Turnagain Arm.

The board I took to Alaska was a C4 Waterman Ultra Light Inflatable ULI. It was fantastic for this type of thing. It handled the knocks and bumps of the shallow parts of the rivers, was a perfect mid-lake landing pad for the trout, and rolled up nicely into the side compartment of the RV - not to mention the fact that it fits in a duffel bag and can be checked in as a regular piece of baggage, rather than a bulky surfboard.

Check out our web store for more details. www.c4waterman.com

Thanks for reading,

Aloha,
Liam Wilmott.