This wasn’t a big year for me for whitewater paddling.  Not a lot of new rivers, except for my fabulous Ecuador trip, and not a lot of paddling in total,  but I did get on some old favorites.   I didn’t do much in the way of photos though.  Here are a few…

Kim and I celebrated our anniversary this weekend (April 9) with a weekend trip to Monterrey Bay, CA. We went paddling Sat morning off a point near Pacific Grove. It was windy, and big, and stormy, so we didn’t get far, but it was a lot of fun.
After-wards, we hung out in the tide-pools, then checked out a street fair in PG. Checked into our hotel, then had a nice dinner.
Sunday we went kayaking again, with amazing wildlife. Otters, seals and sea lions EVERYWHERE. Really, …

Santa Cruz surf kayak contest is the biggest contest on the west coast.  Great waves this year, and fun people as always.  Every year I think I’m surfing much better than last year, and I probably am, but so is everyone else!  So i didn’t do as well as I’d have liked, but I had a blast and will be back in 2011.

A paddling trip by Geoff to Ecuador. Kayaking with the amazing Phil and Mary DeReimer of adventurekayaking.com

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

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!

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 …