What a great way to wrap the summer being able to paddle on a river, choppy lake, and attempted downwind turned crosswind. 3 different boards and very different conditions.
I had actually started the challenge a few times paddling 170k+ over the past 10d. I finally buckled down and put things together to finish the event in some very interesting conditions..
Day 1 was a gorgeous river paddle during on a quiet morning with a second 15k paddle at night on my Infinity Whiplash. I haven’t really done much river paddling but loved how you can just shut off and enjoy the glide. I decided rather late to do MuskokaRiverX race in September so figured a bit of nighttime paddling would be good.
Day 2 was a choppy out and back on a Starboard Allstar on Kempenfelt Bay again finishing well after dark. Definitely understand how balance gets quite difficult in the chop once the sun goes down.
Day 3 – Not remembering anything I’d learned from the night before before, I set out for what was supposed to be a 15k downwind paddle hopefully ending before dark. The wind shifted and became a heavy crosswind with waves 3-4’ blowing me into shore. I was on an Infinity Downtowner 27 and needed every bit of that stability having to paddle 90 deg to the wake then surfing toward shore(repeat). The finish was not pretty getting tossed off the board several times while it was pitch black. Many lessons learned…
Thanks again CDN Paddle League for motivating me to get out in all types of conditions and help me toward become a more well rounded paddler! Really enjoying the process!!💦💦😀👍👍
Blakeinbarrie