Great Gear from Maxfield Provisions

The folks at Maxfield Provisions provided us with some outstanding quality gear for the Cape Cod Bay Challenge. Shawn was an amazing guy to work with….so much enthusiasm for what he does….a true commitment to quality and a stoke level that goes off the charts. Very infectious too….I always had a big smile after each phone call.

A few words from their website:

“We are Purveyors of Goods Built for the Waterman.  Our purpose is to stock staple goods of interest, value and necessity for everyone who loves the ocean.  All of our merchandise is Made in USA and we take tremendous pride in that.  Everything we produce will bear that quality and our love for all things built to last.    
Mahalo”

Simple words from a small company that others could learn a lot from….not only do they produce extraordinary quality gear, all built right here in the U.S.A., they do it while giving back to the community. Not only did they support our efforts very generously but they also are a percentage partner with Surfaid International, and a sponsor of SEA Paddle NYC for Autism Awareness. Companies like this deserve all of our support. Make sure you visit: http://www.maxfieldprovisions.com

Maxfield Provisions Hydration Pack (you may need to contact Shawn about these…we were the 1st to get them…in a word…awesome) Plenty of capacity (72 0zs), 2 open pockets( 1 full length, 1 half) with a barrel tab strap, 2 zippered pockets (one small perfect for keys and such, the other big enough for a couple of sandwiches and some fruit) You could pack enough provisions for a day trip in this well thought out pack or just filled with water its light enough for that hard workout.

Great fit without binding….I’ve been using this pack a lot and have adjusted the straps to fit perfectly. 10 mile paddles are pretty common….very comfortable.

It even fits old guys that are still trying to lose some weight (It even fit Bill and he doesn’t look anything like that picture of him sucking in his gut from last fall….:) )

How come nobody told me these shorts are this bad? Sheesh…!

Maxfield Provisions Paddle Blade Cover
I don’t think I’ve ever seen such attention to detail paid to getting a logo printed correctly. I really wasn’t too concerned about it but now I’m glad that Shawn and crew were. These came out beautiful. It was funny…before we got them a couple of the guys said “What the heck do you need a paddle blade cover for?” Now every time I see them they have the covers on their paddles. Not only do they do a primo job of protecting the blades of our Oh so expensive paddles but they look too cool doing it. Great workmanship, no doubt about it, these will outlast the paddles.

Maxfield Provisions…great gear from great folks.
http://www.maxfieldprovisions.com

Training with a GPS

I ordered a GPS training system to help me optimize my paddle workouts. After reading a thread on best GPS units on the Standup Zone I decided on the Garmin Forerunner 305. So far I’m very pleased. I tried it out today on the course I’ve been using to train for the Battle of the Paddle. Only problem is that I have no way of knowing if this is fast or slow. I suspect fairly slow. I have a month to work on the speed and now I have a good baseline. Here’s today’s workout.

I got the version with the heart rate monitor. I used to do my bicycle training with a heart rate monitor and it was very useful. Looks like I’m staying at about 85% of max for my age. My max heart rate is supposed to be 159 (you find max heart rate by subtracting your age from 220)

You can see that I stopped twice–one time when I realized I forgot to put my iPod earphones in (gotta have that music) and once when I hit a log and thought I might have lost my fin. It was just shoved to the end of the fin box, I pushed it back towards the front and it felt good again.

This Garmin 305 has lots of features, most of which I’ll never use. One that looks like it might be useful is the Virtual Partner. You can set up a course and pace and the watch shows you when you are on, ahead, or behind the pace. The Forerunner is really made for running or cycling, and I’ll probably use it with my bike. I think the GPS will also be handy for doing some long open water paddles. I’ll keep you posted as I play with this thing.

One good thing, it says I burned an extra 726 calories paddling. I guess I can have that beer.

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Training Log

I’m training for Brother Bob’s (or Stoneaxe as he’s called in the Forums) Plymouth to Provincetown paddle–24 miles in open ocean. I’ve been doing some long flatwater paddles in the Willamette river and Multnomah channel to get in some semblance of condition. Somehow I’ve gained about ten or so pounds since we’ve been back on the mainland. I haven’t been overeating, I guess my metabolism must be in “lay back” mode now that I’m not spending the whole day in the water.

Most of the guys that are participating have been training since May. I only decided to do this in late June. Got to do an accelerated schedule. My first run will be a tough one to see if I can even get in the ballpark of doing 24 miles.

Here’s my training log so far:

July 1st: I did 17 miles today, the last eight against a nasty headwind. I think it was equivalent to at least 20. I’m sore, but I didn’t have any real problem doing it. Willamette river, from Cathedral Park under the Saint John’s bridge to the dock at Tom McCall Park in downtown Portland, and then paddled back. The first leg I had a mild tailwind but I was paddling against the current. On the return I was going with the current but the wind picked up and I was struggling into a headwind. the last few miles were very tough.

July 3rd: 18 miles, from Fred’s Marina at the top of the multnomah channel to Rocky Point Marina and back. the trip downriver was into growing wind, with the last mile being very hard, paddling into at least a ten knot wind, with gusts to fifteen. Enough wind to make rollers and whitecaps in the middle of the river. On the way back I was paddling against a strong current with favorable wind. The rollers were big enough to surf, and I had a really good time.

I didn’t do much for the last week and a half–my daughter Cassie and her kids have been here. I count playing with Grandkids as training, though it isn’t all that physical. I also race one weekend in Seattle and one in Portland.

July 12th: Eighteen miles in a little over three and a half hours, including a brief stop for lunch (two bars and some water). Favorable current going against a light wind in one direction, strong wind against the current coming back. As far as I can tell I’m paddling about as fast as a fat lady jogs.

July 19th: I tried to do 25 miles today but it turned into about six. The wind picked up too much on the river. Had some fun wake rides behind a skiboat though. Bunch of guys and one seriously festive young lady in a bikini were out wakeboarding. Their boat had tanks and bladders enough to add 1500 pounds of water besides the eight hundred pounds for all the passengers. Threw a really nice wake. For some reason I couldn’t stay in the wake very well though–I only got a few hundred yards each ride. Finally I tried turning into the wake and aiming at the center of the boat and I zoomed right up within a few feet of the tail. Could have gone any distance in that slot–I even had enough momentum to do some gentle maneuvers. I finally tried a noseride and got five toes on the nose before I ditched.

July 20th: Brother Bob posted on the forums that he thought we could do the 24 miles in three hours if we had a fifteen knot tailwind.

My response: THREE HOURS–to go 24 miles, have you lost your mind? You have us confused with Dave Kalama. We’ll be lucky to do it in five. I did three hours this morning, before watching the F1 race (a GREAT race btw, Hamilton was amazing, overcoming a truely boneheaded pit strategy by McLaren that left everyone scratching their heads, and Nelson Piquet JR got on the podium with a very lucky second, though I certainly don’t discount the fact that he managed to hold Massa off, who probably damaged his undertray going all rallycross when Hamilton block-passed him.)

I didn’t figure my mileage for three hours but it wasn’t much since I was fighting a headwind for the first half, but I doubt I did ten miles. I hope we do have a little chop. I’ve learned that my hip starts to hurt if the water is too glassy. When it’s a little choppy I get enough wiggle in that the joint doesn’t seize up. Maybe I’ll have to put some Shakira on the iPod. I guess I never did post my video “Shakira SUPs”–it’s pretty goofy. I’ll have to do that one of these days when my ego is feeling EXTREMELY secure.

I need to pick up the training pace–only three weeks left. I’m going to get out at least five times next week–that’s my goal.

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.

Grand Gremlins and SUP

I’ve found a great use for SUP boards–entertaining grand kids. I attached a carrier to my Starboard 12′6″ recently, planning to use it for fishing and camping, but the grandkids who have been here for a week (God give me strength) took full advantage of it. [Read more]

Team Industrial and the Catalina Challenge

The Prolific Paddler and Paddlebuilder Ernie Johnson sent me two great photojournals for races he’s done recently. This makes three stories so far from Ernie (and makes all the rest of you look like slackers–how ’bout getting those stories to me–you can’t just be sitting around reading about this stuff!).

Ernie Johnson and Tony Mueller teamed up to compete in the Catalina Challenge using Ernie’s sailboat (and home) as their chase boat. Here’s Ernie’s story:

[Read more]