SUP Expeditioning on the Costalegre

Dave Collins is at it again, another interesting (and heavily packed) SUP expedition. Last August we covered his last SUP adventure, a SUP expedition around Cape Scott, the tip of Vancouver Island (http://www.kenalu.com/2008/08/) . This time he’s in tropical waters, the coast of Mexico, but the amount of gear he’s crammed onto his ULI looks about the same. SUP cruising and expeditions are a growing part of the SUP adventure. Let us know about yours. Here’s Dave’s story.

Expedition Report
As I finally scramble out of the surf zone I´m reminded of how impractical it is to paddle a loaded SUP.  I´ve had to go back to shore once already to repack my load—shifted by the hammering surf.  I wave to Elysia to paddle toward me.  At first petrified by the waves, she dug deep and made it out of the surf zone before me.  She´s still a bit wide-eyed, but maintains balance and equanimity in the mild noon chop.  This is her first SUP expedition, and my second.  Our shuttle driver is nowhere to be seen now.  We are alone on the open ocean of the “Costalegre”, the southern coast of the state of Jalisco from Barra de Navidad north to the southern tip of Banderas Bay where Puerto Vallarta is located.  I sense that this realization is still sinking in for Elysia, as I sense that my loaded board is sinking deeper into the water unless I paddle—which is what we begin to do in earnest.

Where are we going to put all this?

Packing up

A rational load

There’s a SUP board down there somewhere

I packed it, I’m gonna use it

Pelicans and a Costalegre Sunset

Only five minutes into establishing a rhythm we sight humpback whales about 100 meters offshore.  In a magical instant two of them breach simultaneously about 60 feet out of the water, exposing some two-thirds of their cetacean mass.  Awestruck and humbled, I wonder if the expedition might all be anticlimactic from here…?  In any case, I take it as  a most convincing sign of an outstanding trip to come.  As Elysia and I look at each other there is a sense that the scene is a metaphor for our union on this long-awaited journey.  “Wow,” is about the only word we can conjure.  The whales cruise south with us for a while longer and then disappear.

Arriving at Punta Soledad

Heavy going

A headwind picks up and the paddling becomes even slower, especially for me as I am carrying at least three times the weight of Elysia and weigh twice as much as she.  My mind is drifting and I´m beginning to fall under the awkward load and increased chop, while she is flying ahead featherlike and laughing.  At me perhaps, but her laugh and lightness are inspiring nonetheless.  With renewed concentration I try to drive thoughts of the outer-world from my mind and drive my board forward.  There is no better moving meditation than this sport and the need to focus is magnified by the load.  With every new stroke thoughts of the economic recession are replaced with concentration on balance, strokes, foot placement and then flashes of the Snickers bar in my camelback.  After two hours of hard paddling we sit on the boards to eat lunch, until I realize that we are drifting north, away from our destination, at a disheartening rate.  There will be no opportunity for lunch on the boards today, and landing on the open ocean is not a viable option either considering the size of the surf and our already slow progress.  We throttle down our Snickers and get paddling once more, but from here on out, due to our, and the ocean´s, conditions, we switch between sitting or kneeling on the boards and paddling standing up.

Look out below

Punta Soledad

Moving the load back made it balance better

Shoot quick while we’re still standing

Stroking for the beach

Some two to three hours later we come upon the aptly named Punta Soledad (Soltitude Point).  A reddish volcanic sea stack capped by agave and Prickly Pear cactus, framed by scrub forest and unrelenting surf, juts out like an exclamation mark ending the phrase, “You are alone now!”  Initially we decide to paddle around it and look for camp, but this strikes me, in a fleeting moment of clarity, as not a very wise idea.  The sun is going down and we are completely exhausted.  Not only should one plan on going about half as fast as a sea kayak on a loaded SUP, one should also count on getting twice as tired.  I suggest we backtrack a bit and grab a protected cove for the night and Elysia agrees.  The first thing we do upon beaching our boards is rip open the dry bag that with yesterday´s leftover pizza in it.  Between mouthfuls we smile, laugh and comment on the bounty and beauty of this beach, which I later discover is named Las Cuatas, or “female companions.”  I´m not female, but I soon switch into my pareo, or beach skirt, the ideal after paddling wear in a tropical climate, and the name seems fitting.

Welcome to our camp

Cocktail hour, thank God

Dusk is upon us as we hike up to get a view of the surroundings, the sunset, and the moonrise—the brightest full moon of the year due to the phenomenon of perigree.  Along the way we spot a fleeting Orange-breasted Bunting, one of the 22 endemic birds found in the Jaliscan Dry Forest, and a group of snorting, scurrying White-nosed Coati, a carnivorous raccoon-like mammal common to the region.  At the top we are so enveloped in the sunset that we don´t notice the moonrise until we turn around to walk back down.  Once again, as with the rising humpbacks, we are stunned beyond words—this time though, my imagination, far from thoughts of anticlimactic occurrences, now explodes with thoughts of infinite possibilities.

Rise and shine

Threading though a basaltic maze

Coves and inlets

Pelican Crossing

The door opens to these on day three, our final day, when we find some secret surf.  This is when the slower and more exhausting travel of SUP-expeditioning gets paid off in waves.  The payoff is abundant this particular day: overhead faces smile in consistent sets, greeted by an offshore breeze.  Elysia bows out gracefully and sets up the camera gear.  I am unduly impressed with her performance on her first SUP expedition and grateful for her company.  I know it won´t be too long before she´ll be joining me not only to enter and exit the surf zone, but to play madly in it…

A little Costalegro shoulder

El Tubo

The invisible man carves a tasty face

A little sunset samba

The SUP Expedition Set-Up
I am testing different gear than that from my first SUP expedition around Cape Scott last July (http://www.kenalu.com/2008/08/) and wearing a lot less gear thanks to the climate. I am using two of Werner´s (www.wernerpaddles.com) new paddles, the Advantage and the Carve.  The Advantage is Werner´s new touring/racing SUP blade, and the Carve is their new specialized surfing paddle.  Compared to all other SUP paddles I´ve tried, Werner is dominating the industry hands down.  All those years of R&D in the paddle industry have transferred directly into their SUP line, offering superior quality, diversity and durability.

To start, the ABS Palm-style grip on both the paddles just feels right.  And ergonomically it makes all the difference for stroke control while also lending to less strain on the wrist and hand joints at the end of the day.  The attention to detail—just the right width, thickness, and angle of the grip—make all the difference, especially after taking some 10,000 strokes.  Also, although I´m still quite fond of my Werner Spanker, I find the tear drop blade design on the Advantage and Carve more sophisticated and fluid.  First of all, the surface area of the blade is now more elongated throughout and not as wide at the bottom of the blade.  This reduces torque and makes for faster cadence, especially faster on the smaller Carve blade, which is ideal for making short, rapid strokes where they count—up front—when you need to build hull speed instantly to drop into a wave.  The dihedral of both blades is also more pronounced, allowing water to spill off the back of the blade more quickly, further decreasing torque.  And there is more scoop in both power faces of the blades which means more water catchment, and ultimately more efficiency.  The versatility of the adjustable shaft makes it possible for me to fit Elysia with a properly-sized paddle as well.  Finally, the durability of these paddles under the extra stress of paddling a loaded board is unmatched, an especially crucial detail on an expedition.

ULI and Werner Carve

Regarding boards, I am now paddling an 11-foot ULI inflatable board (www.uliboards.com), and Elysia is paddling a 10-foot Infinity (www.surftech.com).  I´ve mentioned that one should plan on going half as fast on an SUP expedition versus a sea kayak one, but that is a very rough equation and has much to with conditions—e.g., headwinds versus tailwinds.  An experienced SUP paddler has potential advantage in a tailwind, but any SUP paddler has an extreme disadvantage in a headwind.  Speed is also relative to what length and width of board one is paddling.  ULI has now come out with a 15-foot board, which I imagine would cruise along much faster than the 11-footer.  However, what one gains in speed by using a longer board, one will lose in performance in the surf zone, so it all depends on one´s preferences.  On this particular trip my preference is catching waves at otherwise inaccessible spots, not on making faster time or longer distance.

The ULI board is proving quite worthy, though, once I figure out how to better balance and secure the load.  The first day I had the load packed too far toward the front of the board, and I have now moved it a bit further back which cures the problem.  Also, my previous method of gluing E-Z plugs to the board and using nylon cord to strap down the load is not working as well either because the plugs do not adhere to the inflatable board material as well as they do to an epoxy board (at least with the glue I am using, which is a marine epoxy).  The method I´ve switched to is simply using two cam straps and wrapping them completely around the load and the board.  There may be a little drag on the hull, but I consider it miniscule, and far outweighed by the newly achieved security of the load to the board.  I flip in the surf again on my take-off, but no going back to shore to re-pack this time—the load holds steadfast to the board.  There is also the issue of increased board flex using an inflatable board versus an epoxy one, which tends to make paddling a loaded SUP slightly more unstable and slower.  But again I find that the positives of the ULI board far outweigh the negatives for SUP expeditioning.  I can travel anywhere in the world with this set-up without paying outrageous airline fares and worrying about the board getting damaged along the way.  And finally, I don´t have to sweat dinging or breaking a board on an expedition, where the consequences matter more.

An Extremely Diverse Ecosystem Under Pressure
Globally there is little good news for the state of our environment.  The Jalisco dry forest eco-region is no exception.  Tropical dry forest is the most threatened tropical ecosystem on earth.  And among this type of ecosystem the Jalisco dry forest, encompassing 16,218 square miles, is the most biodiverse in the world.  It hosts 1,100 species of mammals, 270 of birds, and 1,700 of reptiles and amphibians, and contains the highest rate of endemic species—84 animals and 110 plants found only in Mexico.  This forest is largely coastal, containing the section referred to as the “Costalegre”.  The area has been identified by Conservation International as falling into the Mesoamerican “Biodiversity Hotspot”, one of 34 in the world, and by World Wildlife Fund as one of the 200 global areas in most critical need of conservation.  These areas are selected for being the richest, rarest, and most endangered freshwater, marine, and terrestrial reservoirs of biota left on earth.

The Costalegre is undergoing an unprecedented environmental crisis due to unsustainable and unregulated development, tourism, agriculture, fishing, deforestation, contamination and poaching.  In collaboration with the University of Guadalajara´s Center for the Sustainable Development of Coastal Zones, I formed the nonprofit organization Tierralegre (www.tierralegre.org) two years ago.  Its mission is to protect the biodiversity and natural resources of Mexico´s Costalegre.  As I paddle this coastline I never take for granted that it is one of the least spoiled, most beautiful places on earth—for now.

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A little Hydrodynamics

I gotta know.

That’s my burden, probably comes from the ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) that so clearly determined my career path (Motorcycle mechanic, nuclear reactor operator, PR flack, software entrepreneur, technology marketer, direct and interactive agency founder, surf bum). When I start looking at something critically, I have to have some kind of authoritative or at least comprehensible answer for the question “why is it like that?”. And I really can’t let the issue rest until I know.  Questions pop back into my head at any time, distracting me from whatever I’m doing. It might take years, I might still be looking for some particular answers when I kick the bucket. But I gotta know.

When I started looking at SUP race/distance boards they looked “wrong” to me. The majority had long, tapering pintails. How could that work? Most of the folks I talked to said the idea was to disturb the water as little as possible, to join the flow back at the tail of the hull. That sounded a bit too zen for me. It looked to me that the flow would start separating from the rails as soon as they started to converge. That you’d have turbulence on both sides, causing not only parasitic drag, but also uneven buffeting force against the rails and the stabilizing fin, which would add more drag.

The Ku Nalu board is known to be a relatively fast standard board with a short nose and squash tail that permit straight rails

Most race boards, even 12′ ones like this Naish Glide, tend to have long pintails

Joe Bark’s racing boards, like this 16 footer, are even more extreme

While the S.I.C. F16’s and F18 tend to have blunter tails

I talked with designers like Mark Raaphorst whose F16’s figure large in the top ten finishers at almost any race, almost any place. Most of Mark’s open class race boards have a somewhat flattened tail. I asked him why his boards didn’t have pintails.  I didn’t take notes, so these aren’t really quotes–just the sense of what I recall  Mark saying:

Some of them do. Depends on what people are using the board for and where they paddle. If people are going to paddle in flatwater then a pintail is great, but in swells, especially following ones or in high wind, the squarer tail separates flow cleaner and the straighter rails let you catch the swells and plane quicker.

I suggested that the pintail might balance buoyancy better and he said: Nah, look how little difference we’re talking about. He grabbed a pintail template off the wall and dropped it onto a F16 tail. I could immediately see that it wasn’t much. This is all about flow and making a board catch a swell, or not.

Mark’s explanation made sense–sort of, but I still didn’t really know why a pinail would work in flat water.  One of the guys on the Stand Up Zone came to my rescue with an email address for a guy named Al Bowers who he said was an aerodynamicist for Nasa and a Surfski paddler. I sent him this email:

A fellow Stand Up Zone member gave me your email address and said you might be able to blow some smoke away from the issue of watercraft tail design.  I’ve seen that most Surf Canoes, OC’s and racing SUP boards have a pintail, and this doesn’t seem particularly logical to me. Most of the designers I talked to say something like “All the successful designs have Pintails” or “The idea is to disturb the water as little as possible” but neither of these are satisfactory answers.

Viewing the issue strictly from a viscous drag and friction side, it seems the pintail would have more drag for a similar waterline length since the flow would (I think) be separating along the length of the converging sides and the unequal turbulence would create side thrusts as it does in race cars. Seems to me that straight rails and a relatively abrupt square or squash tail would offer less drag.

I would appreciate your views on the subject. I’ve done quite a bit of searching on the web, but haven’t found many technical papers that offered enlightenment. I’m not planning to design any craft, I’m just looking to satisfy my curiosity and perhaps stimulate some new thinking on these issues. People tend to design things because they have “always been done that way”. Absent budgets for tank testing and sophisticated analysis I don’t think attempts to make a better hull will be very creative without some discussion to spark experimentation.

Thanks for your time in considering this request.

In  remarkably short time I got this reply:

Thanks for the note. I dunno if you’ve received any info on my background. I spent 20 years as an aerodynamicist in the Fluid Mechanics branch here at NASA dryden (located at Edwards Air force Base). I love aircraft, especially low speed and motorless flight (both a hang glider pilot and a sailplane pilot). I did my graduate work on laminar flow and sailplane airfoil computer code validation against wind tunnel and flight research data. I’m also an avid sailor (since I was a kid), paddler, and rower. Used to swim a bit and freedive. The one thing I never did do was surf (long story here, but I didn’t have much time for it, you see I also backpack, hike, do photography at a very serious level, and a bit of climbing). I’m also a bit of a musician (guitar mostly), did some studio work a zillion years ago. After I did my 20 years as a working aerodynamicist, I was promoted to the position of Chief of Aerodynamics, and then did a stint as the Deputy Director of Research at NASA Dryden, and I did an invited residency as a Special Assistant to the Associate Administrator of Aeronautics at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. I am currently the Director of Aeronautics Projects at NASA Dryden. One other bit, I have sat on the board of Cal Poly University (San Luis Obispo) for 16 years for Mechanical Engineering, and two years ago I paid for four students to do their research project building a custom ICF Sprint K1 based on an optimal genetic algorithm (we were trying to rebalance the wave drag to skin friction drag, the theory said we should see a 3-4% decrease in drag at sprint speeds, we didn’t succeed, but the kayak worked as predicted, it failed due to other problems; I still have the boat and the molds). BTW, my wife and I paid for that project out of our own pockets.

ENOUGH! It turns out your friends are right. A pintail IS the optimum for most of the paddling we do. The flow REALLY does stay attached and flow back along the sides, FOR MOST OF THE PADDLING WE DO. Note the caveat at the end. Below hull speed (that taking the LWL in feet, take the square root of that, then multiply by 1.34, and that is the approximate “hull speed” in displacement mode) we are operating in pure displacement mode. Above this speed, we start to experience some hydrodynamic lift. By the time we get to double the hull speed, there is enough hydrodynamic lift that we start to leave the displacement mode behind. This regime is the transition range. Above this, we make enough hydrodynamic lift that we can consider ourselves planing. To plane is where all shortboard surfers and windsurfers operate. They need enough speed to LIFT the board and rider out of the water. At this point you don’t want a pintail anymore. You NEED straight rails and the hull should resemble a speedboat or a ski boat more than a kayak hull.

Now, back to those speeds, the “hull speed” of a 17 ft paddleboard or kayak is about 5.5 knots. A 21 ft surfski or solo outrigger is about 6.2 knots. So to breakout and plane we need to be going about 11-12 knots. This is well within the range of surfing.

There’s a long complicated theory with all this, but that’s the way it works out for us. BTW, sprint speeds are right in that 10-11 knot range. And people have played with planing type hulls for the 500m and 1000m races sprinter run. But its VERY marginal to plane. There was a French windsurfer that built a special low-speed planing board some years ago. In the 7-10 knot range his board was unbeatable. Below that, the old style long boards crushed him. And above that speed, the shortboards annihilated him. It always works out this way.

I hope this helps. If you’ve got further questions, drop me a line.

Best regards,

Al Bowers

So OK. Now I know. On to the next question

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Prepping a Paddle

Few things in SUP cause more controversy than paddle prep. Some folks like their shaft bare, some like padded shafts, some like wax, some like mastic tape. I’ve played with about every combination and I’ve hit on the perfect preparation for me. I suspect you’ll like it too, even if you’re a bare shaft fan.

I say that because I’m a bare shaft guy. I don’t mind a little wax, but I don’t like the shaft to be too sticky, and I don’t like it being larger, or having a soft grip. Nothing saps my hand strength faster than a soft grip.

But I also don’t like my hands to slip, and the least bit of sunblock or oil on my hands or the shaft and my paddling is compromised. Yes, I clean my hands with sand and give the shaft a scrub, but you can transfer goop from other places easily. This approach solves the problem, giving positive traction without softening or thickening the grip. Once it’s done it lasts for many months–you never have to rewax.

Here’s the recipe:
The Grip: Locate your grip area and mark the shaft with pencil about ten inches above and below the grip point. If you’re not sure of your grip point, hold your paddle on your head, place on hand on the handle, the other on the shaft and bend your elbows at right angles so your forearms point straight up–the hand on the shaft will be in a nearly perfect grip position.

Start at the upper mark and wrap hockey tape around the shaft, starting with one full wrap and then overlapping the successive wraps for half the width of the tape. End with one full wrap.

Now wax the tape with warm water surf wax lightly over the full length and heavily in the grip area. You’ll be able to both see and feel the proper grip point. The wax embeds into the tape and doesn’t come off, even after months of use. The wax also cushions and strengthens the tape, making it last much longer. and finally the wax prevents the tape from being too sticky, as friction tapes sometimes get when the adhesive bleeds through the cloth.

The Blade: There are three good reasons for guarding the blade. First, people have been badly cut with unguarded blades. Second, the blade can chip up your board. And third, the blade can be damaged by hitting it’s edge on hard stuff.

Door edging or commercial blade guard works nicely, but it’s a bit thick for my taste. Mastic tape is good, but it’s fragile, especially if you stretch it thin. What I do is put on a layer of mastic, stretched very tight to make it thin, and then cover it with hockey tape. Finally I add a layer of wax to protect the tape and rub it with a cloth to smooth it. You’d be surprised at the difference in abrasion resistance between waxed and unwaxed fabric tape. The end result is a thin protective edging that won’t mark your board, lasts a very long time, and looks great.

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Jimmy Lewis Paddles–Very Different

Leave it to Jimmy to do it his own way. While everyone else is making very stiff carbon fibre shafts, Jimmy decided to add flex. Jimmy went through a lot of prototypes and a couple of different manufacturers to get a shaft with smooth flex along its length that is also extremely strong. The result is something you’ll have to try. Especially if you have beaten-up shoulders like mine or you’d like a little help catching waves.

The idea is this, to not only add some compliance to reduce the shock of paddling to your shoulders, back and arms, but also to extend the pull time when you’re pushing for a wave. The effect is most noticeable with a big blade, so Jimmy worked with Jimmy Terrell to use his molds for the Peahi and the Kanaha. I’ve tried both Quickblade versions in their carbon fiber standard form. I love the Kanaha Quickblade, the Peahi was too much for my shoulders.

In the Jimmy Lewis version I chose the Peahi so I could best appreciate the idea behind this paddle. To start with it’s a great looking paddle. The blade is clear fiberglass, tinted various colors. Mine is a bright, translucent orange. I cut the paddle to my standard surfing length–with the joint between the paddle and blade at eye level.

I took it out surfing on a pretty big day at Kanaha–overhead sets with the occasional bigger wave. On the paddle out to the reef i started having my doubts. The extreme flex of the shaft made the paddle seem weak, though I eventually realized that my board speed seemed to be the same as always. Once I reached the whitewater i found I was powering through just as I do with my other paddles. I realized that i wasn’t feeling the catch of the blade, just the steady pull, and that made it feel funny.

Shaft and blade in an un-flexed condition

Applying pressure creates a smooth curve, with the paddle still digging

The lineup was pretty crowded, so I moved to the far left to catch some waves backside, towards the channel. In the main lineup at Kanaha most folks prefer to go right. When I started paddling into the waves the paddle felt very odd. I’d plant the blade and give hard pull and the handle would flex a great deal. I made a few waves, and once in the wave the paddle and blade felt perfectly normal, but the launch felt very strange.

After about an hour I started to get it. You plant the blade well forward, pull like hell and don’t yank the blade out of the water to stroke again, just let it do it’s thing. The board accelerates a little slower at first, but the push is longer, so the board seems to get more acceleration at the end of the stroke, when a normal paddle would be not pushing at all. If you need a second stroke it works the same way, near the end of the stoke it feels like you’re being launched by a rubber band.

I thought at first that the idea was to give you sort of a flick forward as the paddle unbends, but that’s not it. The paddle feels like it extends the amount of time that power is being applied.

It’s really easy to catch waves once you get the way the paddle works. It’s particularly good when you’re feeling rushed, the big launch you get from the end of a single stroke will get you to the happy place. And at the end of a very, very long session–no shoulder pain.

Like anything different, this paddle takes some getting used to. It’s a new idea about how stand up paddles should work, and a good one. I’m looking forward to trying the Kanaha version as well. But in this form, the Peahi is winner for me and my dodgy shoulders.

The JL Peahi reminds me of the Superfreak sails I like so well. Yes, the all Mylar sails hold a more precise shape and give greater initial power. The Superfreak sails gather speed like a heavy car with a big motor–smooth and steady. There’s something very reassuring about this kind of power modulation. Not only is it easy to manage, but it also provides an extra bit of oomph when you expect a lull. The big blade also makes it very easy to turn the board with quick sweeping strokes, because you don’t flex the shaft much when you’re making those turning strokes.

All in all I’d say that anyone looking for an extremely effective surfing paddle should give one of these a try.

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SUP Fishing

Fishing from a stand up paddle board is a natural–you can get it into the water easier than even a kayak. You can see down onto reefs better than you can on any other craft I’ve experienced, and you can fish comfortably in places any boat would fear to tread–kelp beds, shallow water with waves, tricky leeward shores. You can cast from a standing position, and fight your fish either standing or sitting.

You don’t need much gear–a plastic “milk crate” from Office Max holds all my stuff–I think it cost about ten bucks. My big Starboard 12′6″ X 30 already had inserts in the front deck, so I made a frame out of PVC pipe and screwed it to the deck. the fishing crate then bungees to the frame. The frame is good for a lot of things–carrying kids or the dog, stowing a pack with water and lunch, tossing any plastic trash I find while I’m doing a downwinder.  I leave it on the 12′6″ all the time, even when I’m surfing on it.

A piece of PVC pipe zip tied to the crate serves as a fine rodholder. I have a Dakine fishing roll that holds my lures, hooks, weights, tools, etc. And I generally drag along a double sided tackle box though I have yet to open it. The Dakine roll really holds all I need. A good saltwater baitcaster rod and rell setup, some extra sunscreen and goofy hat rounds out the gear.

I generally use a floating lure that pulls down a foot or so at paddling speed. I copied what the kayak fishermen were using on the south and west side. So far it’s been very productive, though I’ve been releasing all the fish. I always figure I’ll catch something to keep just before I paddle in–but so far that hasn’t happened. I’ve recently added a net bag to keep fish fresh in, we’ll se how that works out.

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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.

A few more changes, and then back to it

For those of you that have been following along, the migration to Dreamhost is complete, and I’m working on the new look and feel. I think people will like the new navigation–there will be several feature stories, selectable by tabs according to the topic. Below that will be picture-oriented articles, with lead pictures that you can scroll through or jump right into the article. And finally there will be how-to and tip articles.

I’ve been doing a fair amount of paddling and some surfing. The oregon coast is not as friendly as Maui–even with a drysuit. But I’m having fun. Went to Manzanita for about a week to do some work on my old beach house there, and get in a little surfing. I’m planning to sell the house. It’s a very cool little thing, designed for low upkeep, low costs, and nearly zero maintenance, but I’m not using it, and that’s just a shame. Next time I go I’ll shoot some pictures–you never know, someone reading this might be interested.

My friend Paul Montgomery came down for a couple of days of SUP surfing. He’s an old Seaside surfer, but I turned him to the dark side last year in Maui. We hit Pacific City on Saturday and ran into Randall Barna. Randy has a popular blog on SUP and runs around with a bunch of loonies in Bend that are paddling in the deschutes and the lakes of Central Oregon, as well as doing the 170 mile “commute” to Pacific Beach every so often for some waves. Quite a coincidence bumping into him and his nice family. A real pleasure.

The waves were dinky, the water was 43 degrees, it was windy and choppy–in other words, we had a great time. Surfed until we couldn’t paddle any more, went back to Manzanita and collapsed, then did it again the next morning. No wind, but even smaller waves because the tide was out. Once it came in the wind came up, but we had a fine morning session, then back to Portland.

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]

Waterproof Artwork: Malama Paddles

A custom wood paddle is a special thing. It’s Paul Newman showing up in the bar with a Balabushka. It sets a certain expectation, creates a certain frisson. Of course on the downside, you’d better be able to play a little fricken pool.

Whether it’s a Gillespie, an Ernie Johnson Big Stick, a Kinimaka, or a Malama, a paddle made by one of these masters will make you smile every time you pull it from it’s bag. Even more important is the special qualities of wood construction. They aren’t as light, but they are easier on your shoulders and arms. My guess is it’s the damping of the wood. All I know is that as much as I love my Quickblade, and as impressed as i was with the Warner’s tough lightness, my Malama is good to my torn up shoulders. I use carbon fiber paddles, but if I’m going long, it’s all wood. [Read more]