Archive for November, 2008

Ok, here’s a quiz. You’re going to do a paddling trip of about 700 miles (1127km)

1. How many paddling miles a day do you think is a good average?
2. How many hours a day should you paddle?
3. How many days off do you need?
4. How long will it take?

Yeah I know there are lots of factors involved but what I’m looking for is sort of an arbitrary “perfect weather, no currents, everything goes right” plan.  I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.

On June 18th, 1940 Prime Minister Winston Churchill made his famous quote, “”The Battle of France is over. I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin.” The German plan was simple. Since they felt there was no good way to perform an amphibious assault on Britain, they would use their superior air power to beat the Brits into submission. Of course by September of 1940 they realized they had more than met their match. After being beaten back by the RAF which had less than half the number of planes and even fewer good pilots, Hitler postponed the invasion of Britain indefinitely. It was over these few late summer months where the RAF and the Supermarine Spitfire became something of a legend.  Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s the new Eastern Horizons Trailer.  Preorder date is February 14th.
To keep up to date with all the Eastern Horizons news
head over to Bryan Smith’s EH blog at http://reelwaterproductions.com/eastern-horizons/

South Stack, Wales

Yeah, that title would catch my eye too. For a couple reasons. First, I’m always wondering if there is some little tip I can pull quickly from an article or because nobody in their right mind should think they’re a great photographer. In the end there are certainly a few things you can do to learn to get better pictures but as Tim Shuff at Adventure Kayak pointed out in his last article, most of all you just have to be there. Read the rest of this entry »

Well it’s been another one of those nights where I spend most of it sitting on the computer unable to sleep. I’ve had a blasted cold for 3 days now and being horizontal has me coughing away. Blah! But on the other hand it gave me a bit of time to browse around the web.  Sometime in the night I found myself at Rapid Media’s website and that gave me a chance to look at their new digital editions. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so what the heck were the Phoenicians doing in Southern England? Did the Celts descend from the Phoenicians? Who was that guy Himlico? Was England the legendary Atlantis? Hell if I know. But if you’re interested in the history of the Phoenicians you may want to check in occasionally over at Jeff Allen’s website. Jeff’s begun a new project called, “The Phoenician Trail” which we’ll be hearing a lot more about over the next year.

I stay up clean the house
At least I’m not drinking
Run around just so I don’t have to think about thinking
That silent sense of content
That everyone gets
Just disappears soon as the sun sets
- amy winehouse

It’s Saturday at 5 am and here’s the brick-a-brac of my morning. . .

I’m now a “friend” of SeaKayaker. Of course Chris’s popular bound protégé has a bit of an ego problem. 5 minutes after I was accepted as a “friend”, SeaKayaker wanted me to become a “Fan”. Gee, can’t we just be friends for awhile first? (the important bit of this is that Sea Kayaker Magazine is now on Facebook if you’d like to join them. .)

This morning I’ve got one light on, incense burning and I’m listening to a mix of Gnarls Barkley and Amy Winehouse. . . Suddenly I’m having an urge for red wine and chocolate. . . well, to start with. . .

Tonight is our little hometown’s Christmas Kick Off with a fun light parade around our historic square. We always go, freeze, grab candy, and go home. . . fun. Under the “if your care category” you can read more on that here.

So I found out Rowland Woollven had to get rid of that totally hot beard he’d been working on while paddling around Great Britain. It’s too bad too. I really thought he was well on his way to 2009’s UK Paddler Hunk of the Year.

Did you see the guys in Patagonia have posted a lot of new pics?  Here: http://picasaweb.google.com/royshatzki/SantiagoValParaiso and here: http://picasaweb.google.com/royshatzki/KayakValdivia Remember you can check on them when you come here just above the Kayak Headline on the left column.

Adam Blonsky posted a video of me yesterday. Which reminded me of two things; First BrightCove (who initially had asked for a couple videos when they were getting started) is now shutting down. And second I wanted to remind anyone who’s interested where all the Rolling Videos are hiding on this site. They’re here. . (simple enough!)

Oh, and then there is that bit about choosing a paddling destination. . . funny what goes into a choice like that. But I think that’s a post on it’s own.

Later Gator!