Letters to the External

A Verse for the Mystery Between

2012-02-01T05:32:00.001-08:00

A Verse for the Mystery Between:
"It's not a competition, the mystery between. Nor a struggle between who has more and who has less. It ebbs and flows like the ocean. Surging and yielding. Bringing greater tides at times and lesser flows at others. Yet like the mystery between, its power is felt constant and thru out. It matters not who win or who lose. Nor has more or less. In the end thru work, commitment, and a bit of faith, a balance is achieved. All things returning to a homeostatic place where the mystery between, that is, the love shared between two people can continue its natural tiding and prosper thru values not of competition but of balance." -Me

Cheers,
Clive Handlebar

A Shift in Perspective...and this Blog

2011-05-27T04:36:00.000-07:00

Recently I managed to ALMOST finish my graduate schooling (I will be officially done in August 2011), I mention this merely because it has been the sole bane of my lack of kayaking anywhere, which is unfortunate. However, somewhere in the midst of research, lectures, and long hours transcribing I found new loves, new challenges, new friends, and experienced many losses along the way. They mention that graduate work requires sacrifices, and correct they are. Throughout the process I lost sight of this Blog, and when a friend recently started her own I decided that the entire blog needed a new direction. My interests in life have turned eclectic and therefore I decided that the nature of this blog can no long be about kayaking solely but about life in general. Many blogs happen to talk about this but hey its just an avenue for expression and sharing about life. Kayaking is still a part of my life, although not as much as I would prefer, but others things have taken precedent and are well worth writing about. Letters to the External is my way of expressing myself to the rest of the world. Will see how this goes.

Clive Handlebar

Lachine Rapids "Vintage" Video

2009-10-22T09:20:00.000-07:00

So I was clearing off my hard drive the other day and came across my first kayak video ever filmed. Alex, Justin and I were paddling Lachine Rapids in Montreal and YGP showed up (and showed us up, naturally). This was six years ago Freshman Year in college. I am still wondering what I was thinking with those titles in there...

Song: Deep End by Swollen Members

Cheers,

~Jason

Smoothy in the North Country

2009-05-13T14:38:00.001-07:00

Broad Street Bridge Wave was at a good level so Alex and I decided to test drive two new toys.

Well its official, I have a new favorite playboat. I was nervous it would not fit my size (6ft, 34" inseam and size 12's) but it is comfortable. Alex even felt the same and he is much small than me. The boat comes up to speed fast and rides high on a wave. Taking the six inches off the boat (from the RAD195) has opened up a new world of maneuverability and play. The color scheme looks great. Anyone interested in one of these boats email me to check it out.

Also, I am now representing Nookie Kayak Equipment and have their kicka$$ RiverMonster Rescue PFD. This thing is built to last and comes with all the necessary features and even some creature comforts like a waterproof drybag for you stuff that fits perfectly in the front pocket. Again any interest in checking either the Smoothy or RiverMonster out shoot me an email.

Dont Know What Happened Here...Neither Does Alex

Sporting a New Ride and PFD, I am actually not mad

Drysuit and PFD Testing

Missed the hole I was aiming for, but both worked Great

He is Angry

Cheers,
~Jason

Working out the Kinks..

2009-04-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

Early season ice still above the eddy

More ice above the eddy, this was gone the very next day

First two days on the river since the winter. The wave underneath the bridge here on the local Saranac River was up due to the series of warm days we had so Alex and I decided to work out the kinks blow off some work and school and get our season started. Alex jumped right in as if he had never left a boat, me on the other hand had some warming up to do.

Alex plugging deep for a loop, hit bottom though

Take Me Down To Cartwheel City, Where the Water is Cold, and The Ice is Pretty

Working out some serious kinks, felt like my first time in a boat....Ever (Guess we all have those days)

Alex showing me up in my own boat, Thanks Man

Day three was too damn cold to take pictures, it was raining and about forty degrees. With the water temperature only mid to high thirties we were only on the river for an hour, of course that was my best day on the river so far this season. Hopes are high to get back in boating shape. More to come.
Cheers,
~Jason

They called it...Margaritaville

2008-11-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

Proud sponors: Lowe Alpine....just kidding

The Triple Drop from downstream

Don't really know what Alex was doing there

So Alex and I took a drive up to a new section of the Saranac River that a kayaking friend of ours who ran it last year for what we all believe is that first time calls Margaritaville (not that Margaritaville). Now we were unable to determine how he arrived at this name, but at least for lower water the paddling was good. Basically, you put in at the foot of Kent Falls dam and bump and grind your kayak all the way down to the first significant drop. The water just pours over a triple set of shelfs and funnels straight into a rock slab shoot and out into a pool. At higher flows this triple drop has a nasty hole at the bottom of it, but it was fine to play in today. From the pool you cruise up to a 30foot slide bounce down that and you are home free. At higher flows this section though short has some nasty spots that you can get caught up in, but today it was just a sweet little ride.

The First part of the Triple Drop (The landing was softer than expected)

About to go over the third and final drop sideways and land on my head
(saved it though)

Alex moving down smoothly

Alex finishing up on the final drop (just going over the ledge here)

Really must have been Margaritaville, we found these crazy boats in hiding from us in the woods

Cheers,
~Jason

Discouraging Day on a Low River

2008-09-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

Finally caught a break from my Grad school work and was able to get into a boat today, unfortunately everything in my area was running to low so I decided to float the (not so mighty) Saranac River behind our campus. Low water or not paddling is paddling, I was hoping with the day of rain we had yesterday it would have risen a bit so I put on behind my dorm and just went with the flow so to speak. Quickly, I became discouraged at the level of carelessness that this river was being treated with. The amount of trash I found (and what it was) was appalling.

The Saranac is a huge way point for those traveling the Northern Forest Canoe Trail and its disheartening that this river seems to continually be a dumping ground for anything from old bikes to daily trash. My plan is to grab my creeker and some rope with some buddies and collect some of this trash hopefully before the winter hits, which in Plattsburgh its already coming.

SIDE NOTE: Bliss-Stick-USA.com is officially launched, check it out.

Cheers,
~Jason

Updated Fleet...mmmm more toys!!

2008-07-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

I just received my brand spanking new Mystic from Tobin and Norm and the crew at Bliss-stick, they have whipped up a Hot new Red color for their already smoking Creeker.

I also just received my new Wavedog Golden paddle, spareing you all the technical stuff you can get off the website, try one of these out, they are feel incredibly smooth in and through the water.

Anyways I now have a RAD 195 and a Mystic and the Wavedog Golden in upstate New York if anyone is interested in a Demo, or has questions.

Cheers,

~Jason

BCU Coach Level 1--You gotta try this!

2008-07-27T16:21:00.001-07:00

Now, I know most of you who have become involved in the BCU scheme often turn up your heads at the Level 1 Coach award, frankly so did I. Once I received my Four Star Sea award I was told by my instructor Steve Maynard to move towards Level 2 Coach. Under the old system this was what everyone was told. There was very little point in the Level 1 award under the old scheme. Suddenly in the whirl of BCU smoke and mirrors (anyone involved knows what I am talking about) a new approach to coaching has emerged and under this new scheme a strong reason to re-look at and re-think that Level 1 Coach thing.

The new Level 1 award is a paddlesport award meaning I just spent the last four days in a sea kayak for only about 1 hour, needless to say I had a blast. We worked diligently with Steve and Phil Hadley in anything from Open Canoes to Sit-on-Tops and yes we even played in those Recreational boats that we sea kayakers love to hate. In my four years of being involved in kayaking I had never once paddled anything other than a performance sea kayak and whitewater boats, but the new thinking is, is that there is no reason that just because someone paddles a Sit-on-top that they cant benefit from good instruction and proper technique. Add to this a strong focus on the coaching process itself, something that until now was often left out of the lower level coaching schemes. Each day we wrote, coached, and reviewed our coaching sessions amongst our peers with Steve and Phil constantly challenging us to try something new and experiment. Overall the greatest benefit to this new system is the strong focus on just having fun, gone it seems are the days of I am the coach this is how the stroke is done, you repeat the stroke back to me and lets move on. In with the days of hey go and play with this and while your at it see if you can feel this, this new process is referred to as Guided Discovery and in coaching in this manner a world of fun is opened up to not only the coach but the students as well.

If you haven't considered a coaching course of maybe just overlooked the old Level 1 award I would strongly suggest you take a look back over the New Scheme, you may find that even if you have taken the old Level 2 Training you will learn alot more in this so called lower level course. Some BCU speak but according to Phil and Steve, in completing this new Level 1 award the new Level 1 Coaches stand in a much better place to succeed and surpass the expectations of the new Level 2 award compared to the older scheme. So for those of you that have looked at the new scheme and seen that you can transfer in a one day course I strongly suggest you reconsider and look into taking the entire four day course. Anyways I have to go practice my Open Canoe skills..or lack there of...
Cheers,
~Jason

Tentative schedule....and portable power

2008-03-02T16:36:00.000-08:00

In case anyone was planning or thinking about a trip around Lake Champlain here is a tentative schedule for us "human" kayakers. It roughly covers 30 miles a day, putting in a 10 hour paddling day starting from the southern most point of the lake.

Day 1: Eagle Creek Bay---Port Henry--27 Miles
Day 2: Port Henry---Schyler Island--32 Miles
Day 3: Schyler Island---Point Au Roche--22 Miles
Day 4: Point Au Roche---North Hero--31 Miles
Day 5: North Hero---Knight Island--30 Miles
Day 6: Knight Island---Law Island--23 Miles
Day 7: Law Island---Westport--28 Miles
Day 8: Westport---Eagle Creek--39 Miles

This is by no means finalized, as we have yet to add in emergency plans, but is one of our travel plans for this trip. We plan to allow about two weeks to complete this trip but ideally would like to push it and get it completed in around 8-10 days. If anyone has an suggestions or stops to add please leave us a comment.

One a side note, I just received my new solar charge last week from Better Energy Systems and Solio. This thing is sweet! It is compact enough to be brought anywhere and it is extremely simple to use. You simply open the three "solar petals" and point them at the sun to charge.

Then when you need to charge your handheld say...cellphone for that emergency call, you simply plug in you phone and hit the small button on the back. Even better is that small button will glow red when it is charging from the sun to show you it is, and then when you hit it will blink up to four times alerting you to the charge of the battery.

Upsides:
1) Compact... would disappear in a dry bag
2) Easy to use
3) Power anywhere
4) Totally Green...the construction emissions are offset by planting trees for each unit built
5) Has been used in extreme range of conditions
6) Adaptable to almost all handheld electronics

Downsides:
1) Needs Direct Sunlight to charge the best
2) Need to monitor the unit and adjust the angle to the sun throughout the day
3) Not waterproof
4) Took me almost 4 days to charge initially (I don't get direct sun)
5) May have to buy additional plug tips to fit your handhelds ($10 bucks +shipping)

Cheers,
~Jason

WATER....MORE WATER.....

2008-01-18T11:26:00.000-08:00

I saw this idea in Adventure Kayak Magazine about carrying water on trips in wine bags. First of all who doesnt like recycling, we have enough plastic in the world why not reuse some of it, also if you are on a tight college budget a box of wine cost around $10 (poor college kid syndrome limits our selections though if anyone has any suggestions leave a comment and let us know) and you get a good night and a pretty durable water container out of it. Adventure Kayak Magazine even claims that the metallic bags show up on RADAR if they are placed on top of your boat (not a bad safety idea, I am curious to see this tested). Overall, the best part of this idea is the faint taste of wine that you get when you drink water from one of these. Compared to manufactured water bags, duribility is an issue (MSR Dromedary bags hold up extremely well) but I was pleased to find when stood upon while full they hold up pretty well (I weigh about 200lbs). For the whitewater expeditioners couple your wine bag (which can squish into tight spaces) with a tiny water filter like MSR's MIOX Purifier (below) which is as compact as it gets, and you can easily purifiy your water as you continue downriver (the MIOX uses a brine solution to purifiy drinking water and it takes certain amounts of time to eliminate various viruses).

Off to the rock gym, still waiting for pool sessions to start, as it is definitely winter up north.

See you out there,

~Jason and Alex

Winter Weather and Frozen Boats

2007-12-30T08:12:00.000-08:00

Well, now that the Lake is starting to freeze and pool sessions at school havent started up its been time to find a safe spot to winter our boats. More importantly it has been a great time to start doing alot of planning for our up and coming Lake Champlain circumnavigation in May. One great resource for anyone interested in paddling around Lake Champlain is the The Lake Champlain Paddlers' Trail guidebook published by The Lake Champlain Committee. The books is a great resource covering everything for a trip around or simply on Lake Champlain. Most importantly it details many available campsites. We have slowly began to page through this book and start to peice together our day by day itinerary for our trip. Stay tuned for this we are almost finalizing it and will post to everyone in full detail so they can easily plan a similar trip. Off to scrape (literally) the snow and ice off our boats.

Cheers,
Jason

The Ultimate Kayakers Crash Pad

2007-11-30T08:09:00.000-08:00

Its a really tough dilemma being a kayaker and finding places to live throughout our travels. We could easily just hole up in our vehicles or set up a tent on the side of the road set back in the woods and for most that would be just fine. If we even wanted to splurge we could rent a motel/hotel room for a night and even take a shower, though I like many are just fine putting my kayak on rinse cycle and rolling around for a bit (hey it works that way in washers). Of course if we want to splurge there are those gigantic RV's that get 2 MPG but hey it has great creature comforts. Me personally I have found a better and potentially more permanent solution, they are called Tiny Houses. Basically they are 100sq foot homes that include all of the furnishings of large homes just in a very compact manner. The best part is you can get them made on a trailer, so you can hook it up and go. I knew nothing of these homes until recently I had a chance to check one out and for the travelling adventurer or hard working professional guide they are pretty nice (and relatively cheap too). Check it out:

There is a Working Toilet in there once you hook it up to the water lines

Sleeping is done above everything in the loft, its a pretty good size with ample head room

Alex agrees its a pretty sweet place to crash

Unfortunately we cant tow one of these around on our H.O.M.E.S. expedition, which could be a good thing because then we don't have to miss out on the tree's almost falling on our tents, blowing winds, and drenching rains.

Time to go paddle, (and test out the new KayakPro Vampire)

Cya,

~Jason

Black Friday Paddling

2007-11-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

Decided that my brand new Kokatat Meridian Drysuit (only used once) needed to stretch its legs over the Thanksgiving break. Unfortunatly my location in the New Paltz region Southern New York kept me away from any large bodies of water. This however meant it was a good opportunity to do my other favorite type of paddling, Whitewater. Unfortunatly nature wasnt on my side and all of the local river levels had dropped and all of the river levels up at Plattsburgh in the Adirondacks were peaking (just my luck). Anyways I kitted up and headed out to Little Falls on the Rondout Creek which runs through the town of High Falls (this river could have possibilities). The river was low which resulted in a nice piton (translated: OUCH) off of Little Falls but the sun was out and any paddling is better than no paddling.

Aptly named: High (unrunnable) Falls

Little Falls

Lining up with Little Falls

Middle of the Drop on Little Falls

Unknown to myself there was a small rock shelf hidden by the aerated (white) water after the drop and I pitoned off of this. For a while I felt as if I had broken even bone in my foot there was. Luckily nothing was broken, and I ran the drop a second time this time a little further left making a much softer landing. Best part, my drysuit works like a miracle. Cheers to Norm and they guys at Bliss-Stick Kayaks for the high quality plastic they use in their whitewater boats, a hard piton and hardly a dent in the boat. Breaks over, back to Plattsburgh, hopefully the water levels hold up there.

Later,

~Jason

Gear....Gear....More Gear...

2007-11-14T16:02:00.000-08:00

So a breif convo about well, Gear. The method that Alex and I use to organize our gear is based on the model we learned from our instructor Steve Maynard (BCU 5*, C5, A5). He and many others especially in the BCU (not exclusively) break down what needs to be taken on a trip into four catagories, Stuff to fix people, Stuff to fix gear, Communication, and Navigation. As you can see these are very broad catagories and for good reason, depending on the trip and the situations systems need to be able to be adjusted accordingly. If this system seems way to broad to be adopted check out Sea Kayak Magazine's .PDF file about gear it is a pretty comprehensive list of what should be brought along on trips. If you subscribe to the four catagories you will soon realize that there are alot of things that can double dip and those items are the best. Stay tuned, or email as Alex and I are still compiling our gear lists and will definitly keep you tuned into what we are bringing.

Cheers,

~Jason

(REALLY) Rough Calculations

2007-11-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Great_Lakes_from_space.jpg

I added up some total milage for the circumnavigations of each lake taking some awesome information from: http://www.great-lakes.net/lakes/ref/lakefact.html. Total Shoreline including all of the islands within each of the great lakes is 10,900 miles (WHOA). I did some rough calculations from the information on great-lakes.net adding in milage for Lake Champlain this May, and came up with a (very) rough number of about 4,600 total miles to be paddled. Once we start looking at charts and such I will get a more definite number. 4,600 miles for those that are curious is roughly the distance from England to Venezuela:

Check out: http://www.paddlermagazine.com/issues/2003_4/article_221.shtml if you want to see some truly legendary trips, two of which crossed the entire Atlantic, Hannes Linndemann, and Peter Bray.

Cheers

~Jason

H.O.M.E.S. Expedition

2007-11-06T11:08:00.000-08:00

So it is decided, within the next 5-7 years our goal is to Circumnavigate each of the Great Lakes (Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, Ontario, and Champlain) by Kayak from smallest to largest (something that as far as my research shows has not been done before). This May after graduation Alex (my teammate) and I will commence on our first circumnavigation of Lake Champlain. We plan to complete this first leg of our expedition ,within a two week time frame. With this expedition we plan to help promote the Expeditionary Studies Program at Plattsburgh State University, here in upstate NY, that he and I both graduated from. We will also be working to promote the sport of kayaking to many of those that live around these lakes as well as push ourselves further than either of us have been to date in our kayaking careers. We hope to show that while circumnavigating South Georgia and completing the Northern Forest Canoe trail are truly remarkable accomplishments (both that are we are very interested in), there are still plenty of challenging and exciting expeditions that can be had even more locally, for some right out their back doors. Once we complete Lake Champlain this May we plan to complete one Great Lake per year and hopefully complete this expedition within the next 6 years. Stay tuned, as we plan to post everything in a hopes that many more paddlers will plan a trip and get out and go.

If anyone would care to help support our odyssey, please feel free to contact myself (Jason), at J72186@gmail.com.

Letters to the External

A Verse for the Mystery Between

A Shift in Perspective...and this Blog

Lachine Rapids "Vintage" Video

Smoothy in the North Country

Working out the Kinks..

They called it...Margaritaville

Discouraging Day on a Low River

Updated Fleet...mmmm more toys!!

BCU Coach Level 1--You gotta try this!

Tentative schedule....and portable power

WATER....MORE WATER.....

Winter Weather and Frozen Boats

The Ultimate Kayakers Crash Pad

Black Friday Paddling

Gear....Gear....More Gear...

Sponsors

(REALLY) Rough Calculations

H.O.M.E.S. Expedition