Alot has happened since august

I kept meaning to update my blog but I was too busy paddling.

Here is the Cole's Note's version.

I managed to get a couple more paddling trips down into the USA.

I had to send my camera back in Pentax for repair. I managed to get it back just before heading down for my next USA trip.

One trip was on the 22-Aug-2009 where I headed back down to Ohiopyle, PA for the over the falls race. Basicaly it boils down to a bunch of boaters being able to run this 18 foot water fall. It is only legal to run it one day a year and that was it. I spent some time shooting pics of some of my open boat and kayak friends. The motly crew managed to get a Lower Yough Loop run in before heading off to the BBQ place for dinner.



The rest of the the pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622038649605/

Most of met up on the sunday morning for breakfast at some restaurant in WV. We were going to run the Cheat River. It was kind of on the low side which made it fun and technical. I had a total blast paddling a new river for the first time.

The pics from the Cheat River are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622175502640/

Labour Day weekend was spent paddling up on the Ottawa River. I managed to get a run in on the thursday afternoon after work. I paddled with some of the KWP Crew on the Main Channel. I managed to have a very scary ride in Kahuna at Coliseum. My boat kept disappearing as the water line was up to my arm pits. I ended up hurting my shoulder and could not paddle for the rest of the weekend.

We ended up having our King of Clubs competition.

It was a series of on river and off river antics inlcuding:

relay race
cardboard boat race
boater cross
boat toss for distance
Z-drag tow a truck up a slight hill
how many boats and people you could get on/in a car (had to be the same amount of people/boats)

I could only take photos of part of the crap show as I could not paddle that day.

They had a how many boats / people can you get into / onto a regular car ... no trucks.

21 boats and 21 people (5 in the trunk) was the winner and you had to drive it at few feet with all the stuff in / on it.



We also had a cardboard boat race through the Lorne Rapids.



The rest of the pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622276981876/

My next adventure was our annual Gull River Open Canoe Slalom Race. The attendance was lower then previous years but that did not matter as it was great to see old friends. Some of these friends you only see once a year at the race.

Here is what your typical spectators look like



My pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622311345539/

My sisters pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622449199780/

My last paddling trip to the USA for this year was for Gauley Fest in Summersville, WV.

I spent the saturday paddling the Lower Gauley with Don and Jeff Beyer. I had a couple of out of boat experiences but nothing to worry about.



Pics from that day are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622431348594/

I spent the sunday paddling the Lower Yough with Don, Jo, and jeff Beyer plus the rest of the normal motly crew of US boater I have been with like Tony, Joe, Mick, Paul, and gang. It was another beautiful day on the river. I managed to take a few sketchy runs in order to bump up my paddling skills, had a few swims, great times.



Pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157622307995367/

Phil's Hole Rodeo

Well last weekend was definitely interesting.

I ran the Middle Channel of the Ottawa River with some of the Petawawa River Rats in the morning. It was a great weather day. Lots of fun was had all around.

I spent the afternoon relaxing with Cheryl and Martin from the CReW before we all headed over to McKoy's for the rodeo.

I knew it was going to be an interesting event when I was paddling the flat water section over to the island. There we lots of different types of floating vessels as the rules for the comp where straight forward. Anything that floated could enter.

I myself had Devyn squeezed into my boat behind my saddle and a floating turtle and kiddie pool on top of the front part of my boat.

Everyone started showing up and the spectactor crowd was pretty big. I watched for about a half hour before I had enough guts to get into my boat and jump into the hole on purpose.

Normally I avoid Phil's like it was the plague. I dropped into rightside sideways. It was pretty bumpy and munchy to say the least. I as more scared surfing in there then my two runs going thru Buseater last summer.





Rest of the pics are here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmnypny/sets/72157621880872791/

I drop in two more times but was window shaded pretty fast.

I can't believe I actually did it but I am glad I managed to survive.

The after party was pretty good. I managed to see a video of my first ride which made me happy to see it from a different angle.

Another birthday come and gone

Well I had to spend last friday actually working on my 44th birthday due to a bunch of people being out of the office. It wasn't that bad and went by pretty quick.

I was treated to a steak dinner at Jack Astor's by my friend Mark and the Deacon's. It was a great night out with friends. After all it was the friday night of a long holiday weekend.

What more could you ask for ... paddling of course. My gear was already pre-packed. I loaded up the car first thing saturday morning and headed off to spend the day paddling the Gull River in Minden with friends.

The weather was fantastic. I was able to play around in some other peoples open boats. I had a really great time in a Bell Nexus ... definitely on my list of a possible future boat. It was alot lighter than mine, quick, and responsive.

Soon it was almost time for Ribfest. One of my buddies TJ had organized a kick in 20 bucks and have a pig out dinner of ribs and all the fixings. It was great to see old friends plus meet new ones. After dinnier Monekah and I shared a surprise brithday cake as her BD was earlier in the week.

The drinking had started but there were a few people holding back for a night session paddling in Earl's under generator spot lights. It was pretty cool to watch. I only wish I had my camera as the shots would have been amazing. Too bad it was in the shop being fixed.

The partying continued around the fire until the wee hours of the morning. I wolk up early sunday morning happily without a hang over. I packed up my gear and headed back to Mark's place in Barrie to help him replace some elctrical fixtures and switches before heading home to catchup on my own neglected house work.

Houston ... I have a problem ... my camera is NFG

I have been noticing over the last few months that my outdoor pics have seemed very washed out or over exposed. It was getting to the point where I thought I was losing my touch.

My paddling pics no longer had crisp water droplets in them. My skyline pics seems very bland and so on.

Normally I could just wlk up to a river or water falls and set my camera to 1/10th of a second shutter speed and voila .... an excellent pic with sliky smooth water. But that is no longer the case.

Luckily my sister (yes I have a sister and yes she hates me most of the time like sisters do) has the Pentax K100D which is one model below what I have. She was gracious enough to lend it to me last weekend so I could do some comparison tests between my camera and hers.

I was paddling at the Gull River on saturday and took some test shots with my lense on both cameras set to the normal 1/10th of a second and voila .... her camera pics look like this

My camera pics look like this using the same settings

My camera is now on it's way to the surgeon to get fixed.

Me being cameraless is going to be really strange as all of my friends know where I go my camera goes.

This will be the second time my camera has gone to get fixed. The first time it was a circuit board that need replacing as it was taking random purple pics like this