Archive for May, 2009

On April 21, Tyler Bradt kayaked over 186-foot-high Palouse Falls, breaking the waterfall world record of 127 feet. Produced by Aurora Photos.

Don’t ask me why but my website has been randomly deciding to require registration to comment on the blogs.  I keep going back and un-checking the little box and then in a week or so it suddenly checks itself again… Ghost in the Machine.  Well, I’ve un-checked the bloody thing again.  Let’s see what happens.  Sorry if it made you register.  I certainly have no reason to request registrations!  By the way Mr. Scary comes from 3D World’s series of horror-themed tutorials here.

Hello, I must be going,
I cannot stay, I came to say, I must be going.
I’m glad I came, but just the same I must be going.
La La.
– groucho marx

Well, you’ve got to laugh, don’t you!?  This year General Motors here in the states has been trying to remain viable. So they started cutting brands. First on the block was Pontiac. Pontiac was meant to be the more sporty, muscle bound GM.  Pontiac was for adults who had to take kids to ballet but didn’t want to totally go “middle age”. I loved Pontiac myself. In fact and still own a Grand Prix.  GM is also talking about chopping or selling off Saturn and Hummer as well. So that got me thinking. In these tough times what if our favorite kayak companies had to cut back? Read the rest of this entry »

• What is the spring scent that smells exactly like public restroom deodorants?? 07:14:52
• Campster.com says my website is the Kewaunee Marina Campground website… Really? I should go there sometime. http://twurl.nl/dk4bfh 07:34:19
• Quix Blog – The head down, zoned out, mindless, meditative sort. . . http://twurl.nl/wrflyc 09:24:36
• Traditional Paddling Coach Greg Stamer heading to Israel in October! – http://twurl.nl/h4g62j 09:29:07
• Meanwhile totally at random – South African Skirt Problems – http://www.n-s-e-p.co.za/ 09:35:00
• RT @RNLIrescues: Rescue:Motor cruiser in Loch Ness: http://tinyurl.com/oaex5j – Hopefully the were not running from Nessie at the time! 09:39:44
• Silbs makes a good point – How many times does a company lose a person and never grasp the actual loss? – http://silbs.blogspot.com/ 09:45:31
• RT @bryanhansel: Trying to decide what to do with the seat inn the kayak. Repair will take about a day. It’s in sideways. (Good work NDK) 09:51:01
• Dylan talked copiously, then stopped. ‘Somebody’s boring me,’ he said, ‘I think it’s me.’ – Twitter Wisdom of Dylan Thomas.. 10:01:18
• Menu Calorie Counts are a no-brainer – http://twurl.nl/1gyuh3 10:53:27

You can see their shadows / Wandering off somewhere
They won’t make it home / But they really don’t care
They wanted the highway / They’re happy there today
- fastball

Roaming around the Madison lakes in the Cetus on Saturday reminded me how much I like to just paddle. I don’t mean the exploration, see new lands or hang with friends sort of paddling, but the head down, zoned out, mindless, meditative sort. Sometimes it doesn’t matter where you are going only that you are on your way to somewhere else. It doesn’t matter where somewhere else is or what you left or even if you are on course. That’s not really important. It’s simply that you are in motion.  Often I find peace is resides in the places in between.

Insert the P&H Team Male Chorus Singing a Sir Mix-A-Lot Medley here.

First let’s get this out of the way… I know a few of the guys on the P&H team so I’m certainly open to bias. On the other hand keep in mind that we are often most judgmental with our own families. I’ve spent close to 3 years telling P&H Rep., Kelly Blades I didn’t like P&H boats,  (By the way, remember this??)  basically due to an old style Capella we once had (for less than a month) that was like riding a fishing bobber. Yeah, they told me that the new Capella  is nothing like those ones from back in the day. But honestly I never had a reason to re-examine my thoughts on the matter. So when my wonderful Alaw Bach gave up the ghost, I came to the conclusion that I should let go of past bias and give the new P&H kayaks a fair go. I started out with the Bahiya and now had my chance to try the Cetus.

Read the rest of this entry »

i can hear the same voice calling
crying out, from my heart
and that cry, what a cry
what a cry, it’s going to be
if i can stop to let it out, oh
- p gabriel

These days I’m off biking, hiking or running for about 2 hours every day. These little windows of time allow me to come down a bit from the somewhat bent world that I live in. Trees are no problem after all, they just stand there and don’t say a thing. The picture above I took last Tuesday when I walked the railroad tracks through a local park. Lots of people do walk the tracks at the park, to (you guessed it) get to the other side. Then once around, the crowd turns west to the beach and picnic area. No one ever goes on. Why would you? The tracks simply lead off into the hills. Nowhere. That’s where I took this picture. Absofrigginglutly.. nowhere.

Read the rest of this entry »