A few months back, my friend from b-school (Alex M.) emailed me and let me know that he had a camping site reserved at Joshua Tree for thanksgiving weekend. Although I rarely climb anymore, Joshua Tree still ranks as one of my favorite places in the universe. Love it. Kim and I spent the weekend of Thanksgiving out there.

The Black Canyon is the section of the Colorado river below Hoover Dam. Scenic paddling, with hot springs and gorgeous scenery.

I (Geoff) love taking pictures, and really enjoy taking pictures of animals.   Kim surprised me this year for my birthday with a membership to the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Zoo.  Incredible place.  Truly the finest zoos I’ve ever seen.  Really nice.  Educational and well done. In many places, you have to look closely to even figure out where the barriers are, and you can get really close to many animals.  I really enjoyed it, and look forward to going back. I wish Katy’s kids (my nieces and nephews) …

We’re lucky to live in an incredible part of the country.  Within a few hours drive of house, we got the ocean, mountains, lakes, forests, deserts and a big city.   We try and keep pretty busy, and have some great adventures around here.   In the pictures, you’ll see sea kayaking, a Toad the Wet Sprocket concert, riding our tandem bike, etc.   Everything in this album is within 2 hours of house.

We got a super late start Friday night, and it was an all night slog to Davenport, with just a few hours of fitful dozing alongside the highway.   But I made it to the contest, and had a great time.  Didn’t surf as well as I would have liked too, and was eliminated before the finals.  Disapointing, but oh well.   Next time.  Thanks again to Kim for taking so many awesome photos.
Awesome food and party Sat afternoon too. 
Many thanks to Marc and Buck and everyone else who helped put …

Thanks to Dave for setting up the Pismo Beach Surf Kayak contest. Due to permit issues, low turnout, and predictions of small waves sunday, the contest was condensed to one day. That mean I was surfing 9 heats in a day. (High Performance, International Class, and Waveski, 3 heats each. ) Wow!
I swam in my HP heat when my skirt imploded, and didn’t make it through, but did pretty well in IC and waveski, getting a Third (IC) and a Second (Waveski). Pretty cool. …

Last weekend, we went with a group of friends out to Santa Cruz Island, just off the coast of Ventura, in the Channel Islands National Park. It was a great time. We camped on the island, explored the sea caves via kayak, and snorkeled. Such an amazing place, and one of america’s least visited National Parks.  Gorgeous and fun.

Can’t wait to go back!

I (Geoff) went to Germany recently for a work trip, but managed to do a little exploring while there. Flew over a few days early, and came back via England to see my Grandma.

Good trip.

Some of you that have known me for awhile may remember that before I got obsessed with kayaking, I used to be an avid rock climber. I’d climb all the time. Kim and I met at an indoor climbing gym, and were climbing partners before we dated.
But we only rarely climb anymore. I mostly kayak, and we’ve been busy with school, start-ups, work, family, etc.etc.
But we made a few trips to Joshua Tree this spring, and as I’ve lost a little weight I’m feeling a little more comfortable on …

Friday night we had Kim’s mom, aunt and Grandma over for dinner, which meant another insanely late night drive…leaving our our house around 11:30 and with some mandatory roadside naps, we pulled into Jil and Jeff’s sweet mountain cabin right around 8:45 a.m. loaded Jeff’s truck, headed to the river and put in.
The MF American has miles of class II-III, a couple of class IVs, one Class V, and a class VI. kim rode the raft with Jeff, Jil, and Taylor, I paddled my kayak. It was fun paddling, pretty …