The last Canoe Race

It was windy and the brackish salt water slipped over the deck of my canoe. I paddled and paddled. Me against the torture and history of the jaws of the Columbia River. I beat back the sweat off my brow and held tight against the shifting tides. As I rounded the 5K mark I bared down and cruised into a first place finish amongst the single canoes. As I waited at the finish line for my fierce rivals to come in, the minutes ticked by, the pride swelled and somebody off handily remarked that it must be great to be the only boat in your division. STOP!! My heart sank, what I had no equals, no one to chastise for coming in behind me but myself. . . Well maybe next year. In fact the guys I feared, Mike Harrison & Jeff Lasley, most did tandem canoe and one a very competitive race against the always fast Scharffenberg Team. I retained my winning streak at the Bakerbay Race in Ilwaco and improved my time by 24 minutes this year and came in around 10th overall. It was a great end to a good seaseon. 3rd place -Willamette Challenge Tandem Canoe, 2nd place Yaquina run-in Single Canoe, 11th place MR340 single mens and 1st place at the Bakerbay Race single canoes. Now I can get fat until next year and dream of building more boats.

BIGWAVEDAVE TRIBUTE BLOG

I can not figure out why I have nothing better to do then throw up a blog about the BIG WAVE DAVE. The Wave as he is lovingly know started humbly on the plains of the great Rockies. Next to the thundering and deafening falls of the Missouri ( one that I have canoed hundreds of miles of) he learned the value of a nod when misunderstood. Laboring for hours under the bright lights of basement windows he finally got his big break with the West Coast Team Walk Alot. An original member he bit is teeth on the West coast Beach circuit and numerous weddings, baptism and reunion gigs. Currently venturing out on a solo gig. There is rumour they he may be back to do a reunion tour with Team Walk Alot next year. Maybe....

Big Birthday Bash

So here I am and there I went. We had a big birthday bash last week. The Hawthorne twins (max and zadie), The Division twins (castle and August) and the Belmont twins (Cedar and Eden). In addition we had the Burnside group (canyon and Glacier) and the LO group (jimmy). Oma and nonnie ran after all the kids and we showed off our half finished house. The pic is Oma's present to the twins. What can I say it is sweet.

I have a race next week. The last of the year and I haven't been paddling much. I hope my fatty boom boom doesn't sink the boat.

नमस्ते