Canada SUP: The SUP blog for Easy Rider Stand Up Paddling

On Sunday July 18 – Easy Rider held the first ever SUP Trek down the North Saskatchewan River.
We all met at the Muttart Conservatory at 8:00 AM and loaded up the Sprinter van and shuttled out to Shalom Park, which is right beside Rabbit Hill.
From there it was four hours and  twenty minutes of casual paddling to go 35 km to Rafters Landing in downtown Edmonton.
We did make a couple of pit stops along the way, first on a sand bar about 10 km into the paddle and then right at the outflow of Black Mud Creek at approximately 25 km into the paddle.
It was a great time and an awesome way to spend a nice day out on the water.
Thanks to everyone that  came along and to Beckolay’s, Mah’s  and Jonathan for your shuttle services.

SUP – where ever there is water!

I am now back, and partially recovered from competing in the 5th Annual Naish Paddle Championship in Maui, HI.
The race took place on  Sunday, July 18 and ran approximately 10 miles from Maliko Gulch to Kahului Harbor.

I arrived on Wednesday night and tried to get as much sleep as possible.
Thursday morning I went to the Naish Hawaii offices and picked up the loaner Naish Glide 14′ board I would be using.
I then drove up to Maliko Gulch to check out the start area.
Since I didn’t have a ride set up that day, I went for an 8 km training paddle – half up wind and half back down.
While it was a hard paddle into the wind – the swells were only 2 to 3 feet and i was either hitting them straight on, or riding them back, so it was quite manageable.
I then drove back down to the finish area where I met up with Kelly who runs a shuttle service and I set up a time for a ride from the finish area up to the start for Friday so I could practice the course.

The wind on Friday was side / on shore – so that meant that 99.99% of my 2:16 paddle was done on the left side of the board.
The swells were in the 4 to 8 foot size from top to bottom.
I fell in 40 to 50 times and at times was wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into.

I few locals would come past me during the run and ask if I was okay. I nodded I was fine, tried to look like I had a clue, and  in a flash they would catch a swell and disappear.

I took Saturday “off” and tried to relax and hydrate as much as possible.

Sunday came early as I had to be at the finish area for my shuttle ride by 9:00 AM.
Upon entering the Maliko Gulch area it became evident that this was a big time event.
Within an hour of my arrival over 200 paddlers had gathered.

After a traditional Hawaiian prayer ceremony – the race was underway at 1:00 PM.
The first to leave the protected waters of the gulch were the prone paddlers, followed by the Unlimited SUP class, then the 14′ fixed rudder SUP class (Me) and finally the 12′6″ stock SUP class.

While the wind was similar to Friday, being cross and slightly from behind – the swells were much larger  - reaching up to 10 feet and above much of the time.
I tried to head out to sea a little farther (following everyone else) this time and once past the first few miles of  head wind and side swell the run became “slightly” easier.  I did managed to catch several “glides” where you would accelerate from 7 kmh to 15 kmh in a second – all while trying to then get to the back of the board so the nose would not spear into the swell in front.
Again, the locals made it look easy and I was passed and left to fend for myself near the back of the pack.
After falling many times, getting very frustrated with myself, wanting to quit, running out of water and basically wondering why I just paid a lot of money to fly all the way to Hawaii and do this to myself – - I was about 2 miles from the finish when a sea turtle the size of a VW Bug hood popped up 5 feet in front of me.  I had to stop paddling or I would have hit it with my paddle as we passed each other.  Seeing the turtle snapped me back into the present I regained my composure and paddled for the finish.
As soon as I reached the flat water of the harbor – my mind relaxed, my body gave out and I “chummed” the water several times with what ever was left in my stomach.
Seeing the finish I then put my head down and paddled with all my might – finishing with a time of 2:05:56 – in 185th place out of 230 entries.

While it was the hardest physical thing I have ever done, it was a fantastic experience and I am glad I went.
Plus I got a really cool T-Shirt for finishing, and I can proudly state that I was the 1st place Canadian!

Thanks to all the people from Naish for helping me and to all the locals who made it look so easy – now I know what I need to work on for next year.

In preparation for my trip to the Naish Paddle Championships in Maui in a week and a half,  I decided it would be good training to paddle 17 km across Lac La Biche.
I had my brother drive me to Plamondon – found a place to put in – and started paddling.
The wind was a cross wind and slightly at my back.  At about 4 km into the paddle the rollers started getting fun.
I was on a Naish Glide 14 (the same board I will be using in Maui) and was amazed at how well it caught small bumps.
One second I would be paddling my lungs out – going about 7.5 kmh, then I would catch a bump and accelerate to over 12 kmh – riding the swell and giggling like a little kid at Christmas.
Many of the rides had me standing almost all the way to the back of the board – in order to keep the nose from spearing into the back of the next wave.
Even though it was a tough grind it was a great experience and a lot of fun.
I can only imagine how good the bumps in Maui are going to be.

Last summer my son and I went on a sup camping trip.   click here for story
We strapped our gear to our boards and paddled to an island in Lac La Biche.
My sons birthday is today and I had a friend make this cake for him.
(contact me if you need a cake made)

I hope you all enjoyed Fathers Day in one way or another.
My awesome wife gave me a shuttle ride out to Shalom Park (right by Rabbit Hill) outside of Edmonton, AB.
I then paddled my butt off for 2:54.21 and covered 33.5 km all the way to Rafters Landing (the Edmonton River boat).
Here is a video made up of still photos from my Go Pro camera – one photo every 60 seconds.
It was a great paddle and Easy Rider will be doing a shuttle run of the same distance later this summer.
Stay tuned here for the date and time.

Summer is finally here (well except for the rain / wind and snow).

SUP’s are starting to sell like Hot Cakes!

Selection is HUGE right now – but like a good breakfast – will be gone in no time.
Get yours before they are all gone.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to Kaua’i, HI for Starboard Dealer Meetings from April 5 to 10, 2010.
Our crew consisted of Svein (the Owner of Starboard) – Gaute (the Product manager and surf marathoner) – Magareta (the Marketing manager / photographer and shark bait) – Scott M. (SB Designer and wave sailing king) – Scott C. (the N. American SUP Sales manager and my bro) – Warren and Deb (from Surfing Sports in Santa Barbara) and myself (the “other” Warren).

Starboard brought us all together for a few days of stand up surfing and to talk about the present and future of sup and Starboard sup.

We managed to score a great house a block or so from the water in Hanalei Bay, Kaua’i.
It was a typical Hawaiian plantation style house with lots of fine wood work and 5 bedrooms so we could all crash on our own.
Gaute had a few minor glitches getting the 7 or 8 prototype boards he hand carried over from Thailand through customs (something about him being a “punk surfer” and all that). While we waited for the wonderful people at customs to do their “thing” we surfed on the Starboard boards that I have on Kaua’i with our Easy Rider team ripper Jeff Maddox. Good thing they were there or it would have been 5 year old “soft top” rental boards for us.
When the new boards finally made it to us (3 days later) the marathon man Gaute didn’t leave the water for 6 to 7 hours per day.
The surf was anywhere from knee high to over head – which was great to test all the new boards.

We would basically wake up – eat breakfast – answer some emails – go surf – eat at Pat’s Taqueria – surf some more – eat at Pat’s again – surf more – go have dinner – talk about SUP – go to sleep – and repeat.
I managed a bunch of GoPro shots and footage from my paddle mount – I really liked next years 10′5″ – it was an awesome board for me.

The best meal of the trip was when we had Pat come and cater an awesome dinner at the house for us one night.

All in all it was a fantastic trip and I am super stoked to have been a part of it all.
Thanks to everyone at Starboard for the trip, to Pat for keeping us all fed, to Jeff for looking out for us all week and to my bro for getting me into this fantastic sport!

Wow – What a trip.
The First annual Easy Rider SUP Safari to Southern California was a great time.
Here are a few highlights and some photos from the trip.
First two days were spent at the Action Sport Retailer trade show in San Diego.
Although I have been to this show many, many times it was great to see the show through the eyes of someone new to that world.

Starboard had a great booth with a whole bunch of the brand new boards for 2010.
Gaute from Starboard hand carried over many of the new boards that are still in the prototype stage.
The new Short board is a surf machine – made of a super secret carbon lay up – it weighed in at just over 10 pounds – insane.
The Surf Race was there in the new Brushed Carbon construction – it is a 12′ board that is well under 20 pounds – equally insane.
Also there was the AST construction of The NEW race board – - it’s design is taking SUP race boards to a whole  new level.

After the Trade show we toured some surf shops, as the weather in “Sunny San Diego” was anything but.
We did manage a good couple of hours out flat water paddling on Mission Bay – where we all switched boards many times.

Then is was up the coast to do some surfing.
We got one good day in at Santa Monica and one awesome day just south of Santa Barbara.

Many great meals, a bunch of drinks and a ton of great conversation made it a fantastic trip.

Thanks to Scott for Trident for setting up the boards, to Gaute from Starboard for a ton of great information, to Wardog from Surfing Sports in Santa Barbara for guiding us, to Delmer for having someone other than my brother to talk to and to Declan from Trident for his visa card!

Start planning for next year – I have a ton of great ideas!

Warren

(Click on the photos to see full size)

Went for a paddle on the North Saskatchewan river last night – what a blast!
The air temp was a balmy +1 C  and the water was some where around zero.
I learned a few things about paddling with ice flows – and in case any of you decide to try it out, here they are:

1) You spend a lot of time an energy dodging the big ones.  The paddle was a slalom race around moving ice.
2) When going up stream into the ice flows – the current can “close a gap” that you are aiming for very quickly.
3) If you stand really far forward on a Starboard Pin the bow acts as an ice breaker and can split the flow in half.
3 a) If the nose doesn’t split the ice – the board will push the ice down and then it hits the fin and stops you dead – especially going up stream.
3 b) To break the ice once it has gone under the board – rock back and forth with your feet right as the ice gets under your feet.
4) The water splash on the board freezes in to a nice, slick layer of ice – so get comfortable with your stance because you aren’t going to be able to move around much.
5) Do not ever get hit broad side by a flow as you are turning around to go back down stream – they can take the board out from under your feet.
6) Your paddle will collect a nice coating of ice making it several times heavier than it should be.
7) Try it – it was one of the neatest experiences I have had on a Stand Up Board!

p.s. Thanks to Quiksilver for making kick butt wetsuits, booties and gloves!

(click on the photos to view full size)

It’s October, and in Edmonton that means the weather can be +30 one week and -6 and snowing the next.
This is exactly what happened this week.
Our “Thursday Night River Paddle”  turned out to be a bit chilly this week.  Myself and John were the only two brave (silly) souls to show up.
We still made it from Emily Murphy Park to the walking bridge and back, going through a whole range of conditions.
Thank you Quiksilver for making good wetsuits.

Thankfully it is supposed to warm up a bit next week – all the way back to +12!

(click on the pictures for full size)