What a year it has been. The theme of the year was “A Tale of Two Cities”.  For the sake of this post, I am only going to focus on the positive. The season started off with my first taste of winter paddling. It has been a long time coming, but I finally felt like I was at a place where I could push the boundaries into this new world of off season paddling.

I met up with some local paddlers, who have been doing this for quite some time and kayaked up and down the Niagara River. (Yes the same one as the waterfall).

The results were spectacular! The first picture is from Lake Erie at the mouth of the Upper Niagara. An “ice boom” is placed in the water prior to the lake freezing to prevent jamming and the subsequent floods that would occur otherwise.

So you may be thinking: “Wow, how do you top that?” Well, let me tell you. That was just the tip of the iceberg (see what I did there?).

Fast forward to April, I receive a call from Connecticut. “Hello Aaron?” Yes, this is Aaron…is it… “Yes, it is here! When can you come?” I will be there this weekend!!

I packed up the truck and made a beeline to visit Greg Paquin at Kayak Waveology. We had spent a lot of time over the phone and email hammering out the details of this order. I have to be honest, it turned out exactly how I wanted it, in fact, even better. A friend of mine had heard that I was going to be in the area and invited me to come and take the maiden voyage with him and his friends in Long Island. I accepted this most generous offer and headed from CT to LI.

We went to get some food and unpack our gear and I made a realization. This would be my first paddle in salt water. Growing up in the Great Lakes Basin, it had never even occurred to me that I had managed to avoid the sea for this long.  I couldn’t have picked a better group to make the first plunge with.

Luke was a gracious host. His group and him made me feel welcome for the entire trip and even showed me how expensive sushi can be in New York :). You can keep up with him at kayakhipster.com

Back in ontario, I had some work to do. I had planned a trip to the Bay of Fundy in June and had to get used to the new kayak. What did that mean? I needed to get comfortable with my roll and learn how to edge and turn a kayak that is so much bigger than the previous one. What a challenge. After tons of hard work, freezing water and water in my sinuses, it finally happened. I could layback on both sides. To many of the pro coaches I have met, they take this for granted. To me, this was a major breakthrough and a life achievement.

What was next? It was time to try to surf the new kayak. I had got pretty ok at surfing in my last kayak, the Explorer is much narrower and much longer. For anyone who has ever surfed in the Great Lakes, you know the conditions can be a challenge. The first chance we got, we assembled a crack squad of wave monkeys and hit the beach.

Talk about a beat down. We had a really good time but let’s just say, next time we will wait for the day after the storm. The waves I did catch were a dream, the Explorer is much faster than my old kayak and I could really start to see just what all the fuss was about.

The next season highlight was the first long distance trip in my new Explorer. For the fine details I have already posted about this trip at https://kayak-ontario.com/scarborough-bluffs-toronto/

The trip covered the shoreline of the Scarborough Bluffs just outside of Toronto and it was my first taste of paddling the new kayak in a following wind. Man can she ever fly.

One of the great things about kayaking is, just how enthusiastic other kayakers are to show you their home water. My family had planned our vacation to New Brunswick to camp in Fundy National Park. I did some research on some possible places to kayak and quickly realized that the BoF is a unique place, but potentially very dangerous for people unfamiliar to the area. Luckily, I have created a successful presence on social media and decided to leverage it once again to meet some local paddlers. Enter Riverbay Adventures. Adam and Pete offered to show me around and do some of the local hotspots. As an added bonus, one of the members of the group from Long Island got wind of this gathering and decided to make the trek to join us. We had a fantastic week of paddling. Great people, great East Coast food and holy guacamole are they ever spoiled with paddling features and beautiful scenery.

From New Brunswick it was off to Nova Scotia. The next adventure consisted of 2 day in the 100 Wild Islands off the coast of Nova Scotia in the Atlantic Ocean and then 3 days of running the Shubenacadie River.

You might think that was a great year of kayaking, but it is only June! This trip marked the halfway point of the season. Let’s keep going.

The East Coast really showed me how much fun it is paddling in conditions. It became a goal of mine to try to seek out new spots to improve my skills.

My next stop was to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium. I highly recommend this event to anyone. It was a great mix of experienced with new paddlers. The after paddling sessions were fantastic and I made a lot of great friends.

With all of these skills that I have worked on this season, I decided, it is time to take my new Explorer on her first expedition. We decided to pack up and hit the Franklin, Mink and McCoy Island group on georgian Bay.

The kayak was a dream, it held all my gear with room to spare and it handles even better with all of the weight in the hatches. I was honestly blown away at the performance.

Finally, the most exciting trip for me this year was going to Montreal to surf on Vague a Guy. After looking for a coach in the area I happened to stumble upon a clip on the Cackle Productions FB account. I contacted Kayak Latin du Nord and set up a custom surf weekend. What a blast!!

So what was my takeaway from this season?

1. Including your family is more important than Instagram glory.
2. This sport is full of ups and downs. The challenge is to find the people who bring you up, and keep them close to you. It is ok to let the downs go.
3. There is just as much fun and fulfilment in floating kayaks down the Grand River with your family as there is in surfing the tidal bores of Nova Scotia. Balance is the key.

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