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Trip report being re-wrote now and will be added today (Feb. 25th, 2009) as the report on my old website seems to have been lost in the transfer.....check back soon.

Vancouver Island Speed Record Circumnavigation 2007:

            I’m now sitting down comfortably at my desk, just back from a training run out in the snow. It’s been a little over a year and a half since I circumnavigated British Columbia’s rugged and exposed Vancouver Island back in the summer of 2007. A few months back I switched over to a new website and the old trip report from my previous website never made the “Changeover” so I’m now writing up a new report based on some of my notes and the memories of that, well, somewhat “Challenging” expedition.

            A little background on the expedition, it’s goals and the reason for doing it in the first place. A few years back I’d come upon a website by British kayaker Keirron Tastagh and his planned tandem expedition to try and sea kayak around Vancouver Island in a mere 14 days, half the time of the fastest solo circumnavigation around the island which was set back in the 1990’s by Leon Sommes paddling a Nigel Dennis Explorer sea kayak who had completed it in 28 days (done in 2 separate stages however and without actually paddling around Cape Scott, portaging over the sandspit instead). I’d found Keirron’s planned trip very interesting and had exchanged several emails with him a couple years beforehand.

            Well as it turns out, one cold winters night, living in the British Columbia interior and spending a quiet evening at home, sipping a glass (well several glasses) of red wine, I stumbled onto his site again and saw he was now ready to launch his expedition in just a few months time. Interesting I thought! Deep in thought, I pour myself another glass of merlot red wine and think about Leon’s solo mark of 28 days. The expedition itself would be roughly speaking, about 1200 kilometers. Doing the math, I figured it was not be too big a push to knock several days off the solo mark. Still thinking, I pour another glass of wine and they type out a quick email to Nigel Dennis of SeakayakingUK, Keirron’s sponsor for his tandem expedition. I mention to Nigel how’d I noticed that Keirron is about to launch his tandem expedition and that I was hoping they would be successful and get themselves a fast time ( he was teaming up with Oregon paddler Jeff Norville). Then out of the blue, I said to Nigel “Oh, and by the way, how would you like to ALSO get a new solo record for circumnavigating Vancouver Island?”

            I tell him some of my paddling background, mostly based on doing long distances and involving a touch of speed, and I pitch him on sponsoring me with a new sea kayak for the expedition.  I hit the send button as I tip the glass to my mouth, thinking what the heck! I go to bed shortly afterwards, not really expecting anything to come of this, probably not even a response really from Nigel, or at best a “Thanks but no thanks” of some sort.

            So the next morning, I get up at my usual time, put on a pot of coffee, turn on the computer and go hop into the shower. A few minutes later, after toweling off and pouring a hot, steaming cup of coffee, I sit down to my morning ritual of checking emails over a coffee before getting ready for work. As I open my emails, I see one there from Nigel Dennis! Wasn’t really expecting that I thought, especially not this fast! I open the email and read it through and all of a sudden it looks like Nigel is very interested and wants some more information. I write out another email and send it off and suddenly thinking that this might actually happen! The next morning, going through the same morning rituals, I again have an email waiting from Nigel. My mouth drops open as I read it through. He’s prepared to build me a sea kayak of my choice and send it over on the next container from England! Looks like I’ve suddenly got an expedition to put together. Not just any expedition either. Now I have to put together a plan to become the fastest solo paddler to ever circumnavigate Vancouver Island. Well, here we go again I think!

            So that is how the expedition came into being. Mostly as a result of a few glasses of wine one cold winters night and surfing a few kayaking sites on the internet. The next few months were spent planning the expedition, getting my kayak built and shipped to Canada, quiting my job and spending a month in isolation, building some new paddles and putting in time on the water getting myself in shape and ready for the Pacific coast and the challenging conditions that Vancouver Island was sure to offer up.

            Before long I also lined up some sponsorship help from Kokatat, John Kimantis of “The Wild Coast” series of guidebooks and Marine Atlases (now the new owner of Wavelength Magazine) and from Don at Comox Valley Kayaks on Vancouver Island.

            Ill get this posted now and will work on the actual trip report shortly and will attempt to have it within the next 24 to 48 hours.

Cheers…Joe