Hand Planes for sale!

 Some may have seen in recent posts, I've been hard at work making a fresh batch of hand planes. Each one is hand shaped and hand painted by me. Start to finish. Made from poplar wood, and completed with a strong  polycrylic finish. They're available for sale through my gracious friends at Stoke Harvester on their site. If you like what you've seen, head over there and pick one up!(Heck even if you don't body surf these would look great on the wall and I hate saying that but it's true) Thanks in advance for the support if you choose to grab one, and also thanks for all the words of kindness and support. I hope you're as stoked on them as I am!

Playing with light

Sometimes when there's no sun you have to look for light other places.

A swirling vortex.

Speeding lines. 

Calm neons.

The real locals.

 I was sitting around one day thinking about grumpy locals you see near the ocean. Every surf spot has at least one. The guy who just can't be happy even though they live near the ocean and surf all the time. They always seem to be swearing and wearing a frown. Hating on anyone that would dare smile and have fun with the same thing they do. It got me thinking...do the animals of the ocean act this way too? I doubt it, but wouldn't it be funny. So I thought of the loudest most obnoxious sea creatures I could in the local waters here. The kind that are always making some kinda fuss. And that's what follows...The real locals. Prints will be coming up if anyone is interested.

The stinging jelly.

The squawking gull.

The barking sea lion. 

Alki Races

Been a little while since I've posted lately. Busy summer. Lots of racing, lots of training. Put together this quick vid of the race at Alki. Great weather, glassy fast conditions. More posts will be on the way when things slow down a bit.  

Paddle to Port Orchard

One of the reasons I haven't been updating this as much is the warmer weather. I won't go as far to say it's been great but it's improving. Hopefully if it keeps up we should see summer by August. Last year I had been eyeing a route that I wanted to paddle. Shilshole to Port Orchard. Seemed easy enough, just long. My first attempt at this went not as planned at all. Winds that day didn't want to cooperate in any way, blowing from the south. I was basically paddling into a 15-20 knt head wind the whole time, and fighting a little current. I made it about half way and couldn't continue. Exhausted and frustrated I had to stop. This year I wanted to try it again. So I got my  friend Sam to pilot a boat, grabbed everyone that wanted to go on the boat, and tried it once more. This time things went as planned with no winds on the way there and sunny skies. Dolphins swam by in the shipping lane, seals everywhere, friends and my wife encouraging me to hold pace, it was great. Held a 4.5 average pace. Hit around 5.5 in some spots. Got to PO in about 3hrs 15 min(give or take a few). On the way back the winds picked up and we were able to drop sails and cut the engine. Couldn't have asked for a better day. Thanks to everyone who came along! I hope you all had as much fun as I did. Big thanks to Sam for getting the boat. Thanks to Taryn for taking the pics. And special thanks to my wife for all the support and belief in all of my paddling adventures.

Flying along with Seattle in the background. 

Sweeping glass

Finish and done. 

Aliens like the water.  

Happy crew! 

Smiles and the finish. Love you wife! 

My route. 

Downwinder

  For a little while now I had been looking at an Edmonds to Shilshole down wind run. Looked like a lot of fun on the map, I had no idea how much fun it would be. I waited for some sun to show, and got Shawn Jennings to go with me(after some harassing). We launched under crystal clear blue skies and mountains in the backdrop. As we launched a bald eagle flew bye just above eye level, around 25 yards away(give or take). Amazing. I've often seen these while on the water but never this close. We both headed for open water and the wind picked up at our backs. Next thing you know we were connecting bumps to the end of our route. We actually put together a few rides that were probably around 10 secs. Just flying along the top of the water. One of the best runs I've done. Can't wait for the next one! Hopefully get some more people on it! When all was said and done I saw one of the biggest sea lions I've ever seen, schools of fish, and got yelled at by a grumpy fisherman! Couldn't have been better.

This is how we roll.  

Shawn around mid paddle. 

Shawn again.

Picture in the news

Got my first picture in the news today. Thanks to Travis Mayfield and Stoke Harvester for making this happen!

http://ballard.komonews.com/news/business/new-business-gets-ballardites-water-keeps-owner-flip-flops/644606

Sunsets

Just a few images from some of the sunsets going by here in the Northwest.

Loving the colors of spring!