February Paddling

I got out for a paddle this morning since it was quite warm and I didn't need to be at work. It ended up being a short paddle (~45 minutes) since the wind came up pretty strong, but it was good to be out on the water. It was a really nice start with no wind at all. Later when the wind came up I was enjoying the challenge and the waves, but being out on the water alone in 0°C weather with strong gusting winds removed the margin of safety that I want to keep at all times when I paddle.

PalYbro, an acquaintance on Twitter, spotted me while he was biking down the Broadway bridge and posted this short video clip: (Follow the link to see the tweet & the video since embedding here doesn't seem to be working.)

Life is but a dream, eh @BryanSarauer?

Extreme low-fi warning but just wanted to celebrate someone embracing all #yxe winter has to offer. pic.twitter.com/IMjb1hVeZD

— palYbro (@palYbro) February 14, 2018

Here are a few photos and a short video from my outing.

Dead calm on the water before I set off. (Glad to see the newly applied Princess Auto reflective decal is doing such a good job of reflecting the camera flash. The decals are applied to both sides of both blades, vertical on the power face, horizontal on the backside.)

Ready to seal launch. Unfortunately, someone's been doing too good of a job of clearing the snow and sanding the boat launch. That made for a less than smooth slide down onto the water. 

Getting closer to the point where I turned around. The wind is coming up a bit, but is still fairly mild. Plus, it was a tail wind. 

On my way back to the start. Snow pelting me giving a nice snowy look to the event. 

Things were starting to get pretty fun. The wind came up quite a bit more than you can see from the photo, but I was busy paddling, not taking pictures with my phone. :)

Now I'm off to Victoria in a few days for a family vacation and I intend to do some paddling while there. I'll be packing my drysuit for sure! 

By the way, this paddle amounts to at least 16 months of paddling at least once a month, all in Saskatchewan. Assuming that I get out again in March, this will be the 2nd winter in a row where I paddled outdoors at least once a month all winter.