Lake Erie SUP Crossing - Possibly A World's First!

The other day I had an awesome adventure with my good friend Jonah Logan. The two of us crossed Lake Erie on stand up paddle boards (SUP Boards). It was Jonah’s crackerjack idea but I usually go along with such things. He was the one who recently got me into SUPing and many other things now that I think back on it. He has a truly adventurous spirit and values adventure and a life well lived above most other things. A spectacular guy and a great friend for around 12 years now. Wow, how time flies!

Ever since Jonah and I first met we could smell this spirit of adventure on each other and we got along straight away. Over the years we have done everything from live performance stunt shows to adventure off road motorcycling, ice climbing to slack lining and pyrotechnics and most things in between (somehow we haven’t scrapped together the money for base jumping yet). He dabbled in kite boarding and I have been doing a lot of technical scuba diving lately but out of all of the adventurous pursuits those are the only two things we have not got into together. Yes, it would be safe to say that my life is better and full of much more adventure thanks to Jonah Logan.

The funny thing about this particular adventure isI really haven’t been SUPing for very long. I have, however, gotten REALLY into the sport in a relatively short period of time. Like most things in my life I either do them A LOT or don’t do them at all. It’s just the way I roll.

I have to admit that even my seasoned sense of adventure was a tad trepidacious when Jonah brought this plan to my attention. Isn’t Lake Erie one of the “Great Lakes?” The one with the reputation for going from calm, quiet seas to overpowering storms capable of sinking the most seaworthy vessels and striking icy fear into sailors hearts? And Long Point, our planned start point, isn’t that considered the Bermuda Triangle of the north as there are so many ship wrecks there from all the wicked storms? Hum…

As my friend Ben would say “what’s the second worst thing that could happen..?”

We are both in good shape but Jonah has a lot more paddling experience than I do as he works for an outfitters in Paris, Ontario on the weekends. He has spent a lot of time on the water and has been paddle boarding for a couple of years now. Most of my time on the water has, in fact, been under the water breathing through a regulator which is not particularly conducive to marathon physical feats such as this one. My job is sometimes physical but then I have long tracts of time where I am stuck behind a computer too. Luckily I know how to work out and I have a terrific coach/girlfriend who knows how to push me.

Another factor that may play into this story may be that I turned 40 this past year and I know Jonah turns the big 4-0 in a month or so. Personally I know that I often have these “I better start to do this kind of stuff nowish if I am going to do it at all” thoughts. You can say this is a negative thought but it is also positive in the sense that it is a motivator in getting me out there and actually doing stuff. I know I have LOTS of time left but that just means more time for more adventures. The great thing about SUP is that compared with many other sports, age doesn’t seem to be much of a factor. The top SUP racer in Canada right now is Larry Cain. He is almost 50 and no one seems to be able to keep up with him!

Back to Erie: We decided to try for the crossing this year before the weather window closed for the season. We figured that if we could pull it off then it may possibly even be a world’s first. We were both feeling strong having paddled a whole lot lately and we had the time. Now we just needed to pick the day. We wanted a day with a decent tail wind but something not too powerful either. We saw on intellicast that Monday Sept 10th was supposed to have a nice steady 4-6km/h northerly wind and the thinking was that would blow us nicely from our start in Long Point , Ontario towards our destination in Erie, PA.

We made our pack list (see below) and tried to think of everything we would need for all that could come up on a water borne expedition such as this. I madly raced around and sourced GPSs, VHF marine radios, deck compasses, flashing LED lights and dry bags. There is nothing like an expedition for a good excuse to gear up! We stocked up on Cliff bars, gels, shot blocks, jerky and any other high calorie food items that we figured might give us the fuel we would need for the crossing. We practiced navigating blind with the GPS and did lots of longer paddles as warm ups.

Sunday September 9th we drove to Jonah’s family cottage on Long Point with his wife and child. We had a sunset paddle and went to bed early. Unfortunately Jonah’s daughter Rosie didn’t think we should sleep much that night but that’s OK as we planned for an early start anyway. Up at 5am - scarf down some oatmeal then we got the boards loaded up on the beach. We double checked that we had everything and before we could really think much about it we were off paddling southeast at 6:20am with headlamps on in the pre dawn light. Beautiful!

Things went really well that morning. Warm breeze at our backs and just the quiet splish, splash of our paddles breaking the water. It was dark enough that we could make out the lights of Erie, PA. We had a good, solid compass bearing and the two GPSs all pointed the same direction (not always the case). Sunrise was spectacular and the water felt warm on our feet when it occasionally splashed up on the deck. A perfect moment in time!

Not long into the journey we realized that it was going to be a oneway trip. Even by the 10k mark with the tailwind it would have probably been a longer, harder paddle back to Canada then to our planned destination in the US. We were well and truly “all in!” The first few ships we saw were large fishing boats capitalizing on an early morning catch. These circled around in seemingly random directions and were a little confusing.

We knew in advance where the main shipping lanes were in the lake and had plotted them onto our route in the Navionics iPhone app. The East to West shipping lane was around 18kms out from Longpoint so we started keeping a super keen lookout for lakers starting at 15k. Don’t get me wrong, we were looking for ships and other watercraft obstacles the whole time. However, it was easy to get zenned out with the steady meditative paddling and I am sure many five minute blocks of time flew past where I forgot to scan the horizon. A lot can happen on the water in five minutes!

Sure enough, before long a giant laker appeared on the horizon. Do we try to cross in front? Behind? Just how fast is that thing going anyway? They are so big that it is hard to really grasp how fast they move. Believe me, they go a lot faster than you think! We ended up seeing six lakers that day, four of which crossed our paths in front of us. We didn’t pass in front of any of them as the other two were well behind us before we even spotted them. A good note here is to occasionally look directly behind you on the water as ships and other potential threats can appear from any direction! Depending on the wind you often don’t hear them. Did any of these lakers see us? Who knows! No comment on VHF channel 16, that’s for sure. Unfortunately I have no photos of these great ships as we were too busy dodging them. Most photos were taken on breaks and for some reason we didn’t feel like taking a break with these giant pieces of metal bearing down on us…

It was around 20k out from Long Point that the waves picked up in scale noticeably. The 1.5-2’ swells increased slightly to 3 - 4’ I’d say though I don’t feel that I am a very good judge of such things. What I do know is this small increase in size was enough to make the “stand up” part of stand up paddle boarding a lot more work. I remember hearing Jonah fall in the water for the first time. Falling in is no big deal and happens all the time and this day the water was nice and warm still. “Whoops” I said as we continued on. Sploosh - he fell in again and I began to notice how tired my legs and feet were feeling. Every couple of paddle strokes I was forced to use a “bracing” stroke with the paddle on the water surface to avoid falling myself. This was coupled with my right side starting to get tired as the releantless NNE wind forced us to paddle almost exclusively on that side. Ten paddle strokes on the right, then maybe two on the left, then back to the right. Sploosh - Jonah is in again and then I go in too. Hum… We paddled on our knees for a while to give our internal “gyroscopes” and small balance leg muscles a break. Stop for a rest, bob around, try to eat something and then back at it. We then paddled from a sitting position for a while - ouch, that is hard on the back! Maybe kayaks aren’t such a bad idea after all.

Hum… are we in trouble? Up until this point I was confident in my ability to cross this great lake and, worst case scenario I always figured Jonah could save me. Am I strong enough to get the two of us out of here if he falls and cracks his head or ribs on his board? To tell the truth - I’m not so sure. Just keep paddling, don’t think too much and try not to fall.

Out of the blue I feel that sickly saliva taste in my mouth and a second later I am puking off the side of my board. Wow, that was a first! Sure, I have been sea sick before but I have never puked out of the blue like that. Usually it follows a long period of feeling not well, then worse, then downright horrible. This was just a quick puke and then I felt almost immediately OK again. Weird. Awesome, something else to worry about. Keeping the fluids and calories up on a trip like this is vital and if I couldn’t keep them in my stomach I would be finished for sure. I had thought of seasickness as a potential threat prior to leaving and tried to find some pills for it but had no luck. Mental note to self - pack sea sickness pills next time.

That middle section of the journey is a blur in my memory. A couple more lakers passed. I was seasick one more time. I experienced my first “sea dump” but I won’t go into detail on this other than to say I feel that I have a much better understanding of the benefits of water child birthing now. I am a big fan!

Finally after many hours we made it to the halfway point (or what we thought was the halfway point) and we celebrated. It still felt like we had an infinite amount of water to cross between us and out destination but it also felt like a good milestone to cross. Long Point was no longer visible at all and the Erie side still appeared like a distant line of clouds on the far horizon that didn’t seem to be getting gang closer. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and there was just water everywhere. Kind of spooky and peaceful all at the same time.

By now my body was starting to really get tired. I felt strained both mentally and physically and Jonah and I were not even talking much anymore. Thankfully the waves subsided just a tiny little bit and it made it possible to paddle efficiently without falling constantly. At the start of the trip we agreed to take little breaks every hour. Maybe five or seven minutes out of each hour and that was what we did. At the half way point we started working more toward milestones. If we had rested when we felt like it we probably would have rested too much. We wanted to arrive well before the cold, dangerous dark after all.

20k to Erie was our next big milestone and here we took a longer break. We both lay back on our boards and relaxed. When I closed my eyes I could imagine that I was on the warm water somewhere and that was really enjoyable. I opened my eyes and it WAS a warm day, I WAS on the water and I WAS in fact ENJOYING MYSELF! I was with my good friend Jonah and we were having a grand adventure together. I took a bunch of pictures and ate more than I had all day. It was around here that we saw our first butterfly floating on the breeze just off the water. We knew that we were getting closer! Buildings started to take shape on the far shore.

After that break at 20k to Erie we both got our second wind. The easterly wind settled and, for the first time all day, we could finally paddle a little on the left side. This made it feel like I had a brand new body, on that one side at least, and we made better time. We rested briefly at 15k and then shot through to 10k.

Now Erie was very easy to see and we had to start figuring out this last portion of the journey. “Hey, we might just make it through this… We should tell the newspapers,” I told Jonah. I put in a quick call to Taryn, my assistant at my office in Canada and told her to put together a press release. “How do I do that,” she said. “I don’t know… google it…” Before long a reporter from the Erie Times was calling asking me where we were going to land as he wanted to cover our story. We replotted our course for the marina as we were told there was some new fangled video phone there where we could clear customs by remote. Boats started appearing all over the place. Time to pay attention again. Yes, we were headed to the Lampe Bay Marina. We had our definite ending waypoint plotted. We envisioned a waterside patio, pitchers of beer and juicy cheeseburgers.

As we pulled in to that last opening it was obvious that Lampe Bay wasn’t much of a marina. No restaurant and just a few boats, but it was the long awaited end of our paddling journey so it was just fine. We pulled in just as the guy from the Erie Times arrived in his car. When I stepped onto the dock I had a hard time standing properly and my feet hurt like crazy. I felt like I just wanted to crawl into a corner and sleep or cry or something but I felt joyful too. Probably because I didn’t have to paddle anymore.

We gave a pretty bad interview and then Jonah’s Mom was there with Charlotte to pick us up. It took a while but we finally found and figured out how to use the customs video phone just before the storm trooper from Homeland Security showed up. I think he probably would have dragged us straight off to Guantanamo Bay if we hadn’t been well into our clearing customs via the video phone when he arrived. Phew! All of a sudden the journey was over and it was really busy and it was hard to stand up as we were still on auto wobble to compensate for the waves. I imagined what it must be like for someone lost at sea for weeks who is finally rescued and how incredibly un-relatable the world would seem to them. A part of me just wanted to get back out on the water just as fast as I could. Instead we drove home and slept like the dead that night. What an awesome journey it was.

Links to News Coverage:

http://www.goerie.com/article/20120911/NEWS02/309119956/Two-Canadian-men-paddle-across-Lake-Erie

http://www.simcoereformer.ca/2012/09/13/paddle-boarders-cross-lake-erie

Our Pack List:

Unless noted one of each item per board.

Board Stuff

Boards – Boardworks Raven 12’ 6”
Paddle – Quickblade Magic 100 – nice and light!
Spare 2pc kayak paddle (1)
Leash
Static deck strapping (4mm)
Large dry bag

Food and Hydration

1L Camel Back
Water filter system
4L water
Shot Blocks X 12
Cliff bars X 10
Salmon Jerky

Navigation

GPS – Garmin 60CSX
Spare batteries
Route programmed
GPS Wristwatch - Suunto Ambit
Route programmed
Tracking ON
Deck Compass

Survival

Headlamp with strobe feature
Small backup HL
Deck mount strobe light
Hand held flare unit with 10 flares
VHF radio
Spare batteries
iPhone in Lifeproof case (waterproof)
Intellicast & Navionnics Apps
First Aid Kit (1)
Aspirin
Sun Screen
Zinc
SPF lip balm
Hat
Small belt style PFD (worn at all times)
Vest PFD strapped to deck
Buoyant heaving line
Knife X 2
Multitool – Mini Leatherman
Tools & Repair Stuff
Tie wraps
E-tape
Duct tape
Shorty multi screw driver
Wire
Nuts, bolts, screws, pipe clamps, L-brackets…
Parachute cord
Whistle
Wind/waterproof lighter
Waterproof matches & fire starter material
Survival blanket
Strobe on PFD
Toilet Paper
Alcohol Wipes
Raft materials (to raft boards together)
Straps X 2
Foam X 2

Clothing

Long sleeved white shirt
Long shorts
Sun glasses
Floating sports hat
Gloves
Long Merino underwear top and bottom
Water shoes

Other

Passport
Customs info sheet – Detailed directions as to where the video phone kiosks are in Erie PA
Customs phone number
Go Pro
Spare battery
Deck, paddle & head mounts
lanyard

Things We Should Have Brought But Didn’t

Sea sick pills
3mm wet suits
Spare sunglasses
Shell jacket?
Tech material beanie hat – warm
Bandana
Spare hat
2nd and possibly 3rd GoPro
GoPro wrist remote??

Stand Up Paddle Board

Jonah had been trying to get me to try SUP for over a year. I am a busy guy, run a company and only have so much time that I can budget for adventure (or so I tell myself). Diving had been taking up all my spare time for the past three years but to be honest, this year I felt myself start to pull away from the diving a little. The time vs what I get out of it equation was swinging into the red a little and diving had been sitting on the back burner a bit this past season. The other thing that has always bothered me a little about diving was the lack of massive physicality. Don’t get me wrong, diving is very physical, just not the high-output cardio vascular workout that I often crave. I will always dive, just not to the level that I have in recent years perhaps.

This left a void which was quickly filled with SUP. I tried Bryce’s inflatable SUP on a dive weekend up in Tobermory and just loved it. I immediately bought a big multi purpose touring board called the Boardworks Raven. Jonah helped me pick it out and at 12’6” long this board was up to a bigger guy like myself and big water. It is large enough to tour yet well rounded enough to do pretty much anything around here. Perhaps not so great for surfing but let’s be honest, I live in Ontario dude. Oh yeah, now that I SUP I say things like “dude” and “stoked” a lot more.

Since getting the board I have been out on it 4-5 times a week. I have lost over ten pounds and my body feels fantastic. I have noticeable abs for the first time in a long time andI feel great! Jonah mentioned that a big Canadian SUPer Norm Hann was coming to Toronto to do a workshop and that he could be a great mentor for us. His workshop was a two day instructor training course which was not necessarily something I had been thinking of but I was itching to learn as much as I could as quickly as possible so I hopped on board (on board - get it). I find that with anything I do the very best way to learn the most as quickly as possible is to jump in and mentor with the best of them. We are really lucky with SUP as it is such a new sport that it is still possible to access the very top people even as someone who is just starting out. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that SUP comes from surf roots and there is a history of the easy going vibe there. Everyone just seems so friendly and helpful and I really appreciate that about it.

Norm Hann was awesome and his course invaluable. The guy paddled over 400km along the proposed Enbridge tanker route in BC to raise awareness for what is going on out there. This adventure can be witnessed in his documentary Stand Up For Great Bear. Norm is one of our countries top SUP athletes for sure. SInce the course with Norm I have taught a number of people to SUP and this has helped me think more about how I operate on the board and interact with others in SUP and in the rest of my life.

Right after the course week there was the Canada Cup SUP race in Pickering where the famous Danny Ching was to be in attendance. I was going to “just go watch” but Norm and Jonah quickly talked me into racing in the intro category. It was a lot of fun to really push hard out on the water, come into a buoy turn with a group fast and have to pivot turn and power out. I hadn’t felt that surge of competitiveness for a long time and I felt alive! I chased the lead guy the whole race and finished about 15 seconds behind him. He shook my hand on the beach and told me that I had won as he was just racing for fun as he was registered in the elite race. I have to admit that it felt good to compete and to win.

Then on August 25th it was the Aloha Toronto SUP race at Ashbridges Bay in Toronto. This was a Hawaii themed event and a lot of fun too. Again I raced in the beginner category and again I finished second behind one super fast guy who was actually from Hawaii. I am not sure what happened though as when I look at the “official results” on the aloha web site I am listed as coming in first in this one as well. So it was two for two in my SUP race career up to date. I guess next year I will have to buy a race board and enter the elite category and really get my ass kicked. I can’t wait!

Ice Diving is Cool!

I just got back from my newest Canadian outdoor winter experience - ice diving! If you know me you already know that I don’t go for the more ordinary Canadian winter pursuits like hockey but tent more towards the extreme. I have been a SCUBA diver for a few years now and I just love it. I have come to terms with the fact that I live in Canada and, unfortunately, I don’t have the disposable income to support multiple expeditions to the tropics just for the sake of a few dozen degrees difference in water temperature. I am the kind of diver who relishes going underwater year around right here in Canada. For me it is all about experiencing alternative realities and diverse (and sometimes extreme) situations. Whether that means hanging off the side of a frozen waterfall, juggling three chain saws or fabricating massive gas bombs for a special effects blow up on some movie shoot. For some reason I tend to gravitate towards these extremes. Nothing I do is “normal” and that is just fine with me.

When it comes to diving I am probably more happy exploring some old, mangled shipwreck down on the cold, dark bottom of the great lakes than I am drift diving along a bright coral reef in the Caribbean. Some folks can’t understand that but if there are any hard core cold water divers reading this they will know exactly what I am talking about.

These are some of the factors that caused me to jump at the chance when an instructor friend of mine asked me if I wanted to come along for some ice dive training last weekend. What could be better than chopping a big hole in 15“ of solid ice and diving underneath it where it would be cold, dark? An environment where humans don’t survive naturally and where we would be completely at the mercy of our equipment, our wits and some very recently acquired skills. Awesome!

So there we were standing on the beach in Barrie Ontario at 8:30am last Sunday. It was about -5C and there was ice on Lake Simcoe as far as the eye could see. Our small group of like minded lunatics carefully planned the team’s objective under the guidance of our Yoda-esque instructor - Dale. Did mention that Dale’s day job is leading a tactical gun team who patrol the Bruce Nuclear Power site keeping it (and us) safe from terrorists? Yup, this is the kind of dude who teaches folks like me how to dive under the ice!

First we had to get all our gear out onto the ice. That proved to be a little harder than expected as the only part of the lake not frozen 15” thick was the last 5’ around the shore. A few of us got wet feet because at this point we didn’t have our dry suits on yet. We set up camp a few hundred feet from shore and cut the hole. What do you cut a big triangular hole in the ice with? A chain saw of course! Don’t worry Mom, we substituted vegetable oil for chain oil to spare another small scale Gulf oil spill disaster. We cut a big triangular hole as it is much easier to claw your way back up out of the water at the tight angled corners. Details like this are important later in the process when your body is shunting all the blood from limbs to stave off hypothermia and you are trying to get out of the 32.0001F water (water freezes at 32F) with 100lbs of dive gear on.

Next we set up the gas cooker and the big lobster pot of water. The hot water was to pour on masks, gloves, frozen dry suit zippers and non-functioning regulators. We also set up a little “hide” so the designated rescue diver and others standing by but not directly involved in surface duties didn’t freeze to death.

After that we had to go over all the protocol. I had met with Dale earlier in the week and we went over everything in the classroom but somehow it all seemed much more important once we were out on the ice. With each new level of diving there are new skills, drills and protocols to learn. With ice diving it is all about staying connected to your exit point (triangular hole) and the surface (air). This is accomplished by way of a length of old school yellow polypropylene rope. We use this stuff as it is tough and it floats. The rope is always connects the diver(s) to the “tender” (rope manager) on the surface. This rope umbilical cord is our lifeline but it is even more than that as we use it as “coms” (communications) as well. Coms can go either way, from surface “tender” to diver or vice versa. One tug is “are you OK”. One tug back is an acknowledgement “yes, I am OK”. Two tugs is take or give slack. Three tugs is “come back” or “I’m coming back”. Four tugs is “emergency” in which case the surface team hauls the connected divers in pretty much as quick as they can.

We dove in teams of two with our instructor Dale on a rope by himself. The rescue diver was standing by on the surface tied to another rope ready to spring into action should the need arise. All the ropes were 100’ long with markings at 10’ increments. The end of each rope was firmly anchored to the ice on the surface with an extra long ice screw so that there was no way for a rope (and diver) to be lost in the hole.

As you can see we had all the bases pretty much covered. That still didn’t make going into the water and under the ice into the murk much easier. Everyone asks if it is cold but it is not really. With the dry suits, fancy wicking underwear and dry glove technology the only part actually in contact with the water was my cheeks. No, cold is not really the issue and I have been diving right through the winter anyway. Once under the ice my perception became much different and almost slowed down. More a sense of “holly S$#T, this is really pretty nuts” kind of full body sensation. As my tanks, precious life giving regulators and head banged on the ceiling of impenetrable ice I remember thinking “if I were to panic here that would really be pretty bad”. It was then that I realized exactly why we practice all those drills over and over again both in the pool. Why I pay hundreds of dollars every year to have my regulators serviced and kept up. And why I probably spend as much time training, reading and mentally preparing for diving as I do just diving for fun.

The ice dive was an amazing experience and we are actually doing it again this coming weekend. We have to get back under the there before our precious ice melts away. That will be the the last day of our course and I will become a certified ice diver. Me, I don’t do it for the certifications as much as for the experience of it. I embrace the adventure and look forward to many more of them under the ice and in whatever other “difficult” situations I can get myself into. I’ll keep you posted.

Soaring

So my partner Rebecca has a nice little habit of buying be life threatening presents for my birthday. These presents are usually in direct alignment with some of my major life goals and this is a very good thing! Past incarnations of this gift include paragliding from the top of Grouse Mountain in BC to bungee jumping from a tower crane over the Ottawa River. This year she bought me an introductory glider flight at SOSA, the local gliding club that happens to be 12 minutes down the road from our awesome new house.

Becoming a pilot has ALWAYS been on my life list but it wasn’t until today that I realized how close that goal actually could be. My Grandfather was a pilot in the war and eventually a glider pilot but I have to admit, like most of “those things”, I had no idea really what that meant (until today). Sure, I have seen gliders soaring up there on thermals and it looked interesting but that was pretty much that. I was too “busy” caught up in the day to day of life down here on terra firma. One day I would become a pilot and somehow I was happy with that reality.

Well, “one day” turned out to be today as we pulled up to the field in Rockton ON on a BEAUTIFUL Thanksgiving weekend fall day. There were people and dogs and gliders and tow planes everywhere. Not at all like a normal airport where humans are securely insulated from any and all forms of danger. Here, if you weren’t on constant lookout I am pretty sure that you would be mowed down in a heart beat. Me, I like scenes like that. I am a firm believer in natural selection and felt immediately at home.

Right away I knew I was in the right place as the field “field manager” turned out to be my original open water scuba diving instructor. He was one of the best instructors I had and I really liked him. Bit of a coincidence there but then I thought about it and realized, not really, as adventurous spirits tend to gravitate towards adventurous things (like gliding and scuba). Paul sorted me out and before I knew it I had upgraded my “tourist” single sight seeing flight to a more realistic 5 flight package leading directly into flight school and solo pilots license. Makes sense to me!

The first flight was amazing. Once we cut loose from the tow plane and the soaring world became quiet and all I had to do was point the stick in the direction that I wanted to travel. Magic! Not many thermals today but I got hooked on just what I had for that brief time up there. Man and machine become one and get to soar like a bird. Awesome!

By the end of the day I had three flights under my belt and I felt like I started to understand some of the stuff the instructor was saying. Things like:
-relax - let the plane fly itself.
-2 fingers! It only takes two fingers (and a thumb) on the stick to fly.
-Stop yelling so much, you’re hurting my ears!

Yes, it was awesome. I am hooked and I can safely say that I have another expensive hobby to contend with. I am on the path towards becoming one with the skys. I’ll add that to fire and water. What a terrific Thanksgiving and a wonderful birthday present. Thank you Rebecca and thank you life for providing oh so much fun!

Scuba - Why?

What is it about scuba diving that gets me so excited? Yes, there are periods of time where I put it away on the shelf and don’t do it for a while but then I always come back to it. And it seems with more vigour and passion than before. This summer for instance I was forced to abandon my relatively new hobby (no, wrong word - lifestyle...no, headspace...no, REALITY - perhaps that’s it). I was so busy with this schoolhouse project and my work with Circus Orange that I was starting to crack. Something had go go for a while and scuba drew the short straw. Unfortunately until scuba pays the bills for scuba (and everything else) then it won’t be top of the food chain time commitment wise. That is fine. It is nice to go away and then come back again. I can look at it with new eyes. Like now. I am looking at them through the eyes of a homeowner who doesn’t live in Toronto, a ten minute drive to Humber Bay on Lake Ontario. I still dive Humber but it is an hour drive and that is just fine. I spend an hour thinking about the dive before hand and then digesting it afterwards in the truck. I will also seek out other sites both near and far to satisfy by dive bug. I won’t take what is close and handy but rather what I want to do. Tobermory, for instance, has been on my radar huge with two weekend visits over the past month.

I look up at my goals wall and there is a 14’ Zodiac and an Aquatica housing for my 5D. Now that I feel I have transitioned from the beginner diver level it is time to start adding layers. I will start to fold in some of my other passions, like photography, into the mix. A boat seems a natural progression so I can dive where and when I want.

Yes, scuba is here to stay. I look forward to seeing where it takes me over this next year. And the year after that and...

Real Estate Investing - Talk About Scary!!!

I think that one of the scariest things a person can do is attempt real change in their life. Well, this is the path that I am presently embarking on. Oh don’t worry, I’ll still blow stuff up, climb up scary mountains and get my cave diving certification (this year!!!). However, another thing that I am going to accomplish is to become a professional real estate investor. I guess I am at that point in my life where I am starting to think about the rest of my life and the idea of some security and cash flow seems like a sensible idea. Boy, didn’t that sound all growed up. After all, how else am I ever going to afford the luxury or some of those real hardcore adventures that I have planned without some serious cash behind it to make them a reality? I mean, come on, a scuba diving rebreather setup is $15,000 just for a start!

How does one become a professional real estate investor? Well, I started out with a boat load of books (and I read them too!). Stuff like Rich Dad, Poor Dad and other general financial planning, investing books. I then transitioned to more specific stuff like David Lindahl’s Multi Family Millions that told me how to buy whole apartment buildings and transition them from money loosers (or break eveners) to cash generating machines. All purely hypothetical at the moment but exciting to read about and imagine.

I am the kind of guy that when I get into something I send out as many feelers in as many directions as I can. I asked everyone I knew who I thought knew a thing or two about real estate and I got some great leads and information there too. The internet is a great place to search for this stuff so I did a bunch of looking there as well. It wasn’t long before I came across this group based in Edmonton called Fast Track To Cash Flow. They provide real estate investing seminars and training among other things. Next thing I know I am here in Edmonton trying to pull myself together after sitting all day in a conference room in a hotel. A group of 125 of us spent the day listening to a whole bunch of diverse speakers who filled our heads with strategies, advice, and experience. I feel like a balloon about to burst and there is still one more day of it. Sitting on my butt in a conference centre all day is not my first idea of fun but believe it or not I am very excited. Really looking forward to getting back home to start to put it into practice. First step, start finding real estate deals. Second step, find a group of investors who want in on these deals and start buying property. Very crazy and scary and I can’t wait!

I set up a web site for this new endeavor (of course). No, not much there yet but it will be the place to go to find out what Big-Wheel Investments is up to. I’ll keep you posted on this and all the future adventures that this new career path sponsors. And hey, if you have a real estate deal or want in on an investment let me know!

Ice Flow Racing - Another Strange Thing to Do in Canada

Yesterday I participated in the Peterborough Ice Flow Race sponsored by the Ontario Underwater Council. This is one of those strange side line kind of things that scuba divers from Canada do to while away their winters and make things more exciting. Basically you get a team together and push giant-ass ice flows down the river wearing wet or dry suits, fins and scuba BCDs. It is not diving at all but you are in the water and kicking like mad.

To be honest that only real reason I took part was because this event sounded totally ridiculous and I just love that. There is nothing I enjoy more than seeing the blank looks on people’s faces when it comes up in conversation that I did ____ (enter ridiculous hobby or event here) on the weekend. The idea of pushing huge chunks of ice down a half frozen river fit this category nicely.

The teams could be anywhere from 8-16 members. Our team, The Frozen Frogs, had just 8 as that was as many folks as we could talk into the madness. The ice flows were twenty feet square and twelve to sixteen inches thick. This maybe doesn’t sound like much but if you consider the weight of a piece of ice this size you get some pretty impressive numbers. Ice weighs 92% of what water would weigh. If the ice flow was made of water and was 20’ X 20’ X 12“ it would weigh 24,971 pounds. As ice it would weigh 92% of that coming in at 22,973 pounds or just over 10 tons. Pretty impressive! It was stressed to us by the organizers that we really didn’t want to get caught between the ice flow and anything in its path. Good call!


The race was a staggered start with the seven teams leaving at five minute intervals with best overall time winning the prize. It was our first year so we really didn’t know what we were doing but we were told that the more you keep your ice flow in the current the better. Makes sense - let the river do the work. The starting position was sheltered just below a lock north of Peterborough Ontario and when we started it was all human power to get out in the river and catch the current. There was a bit of stress at the start as we were not sure if we would get out past the marker buoy in the river and if we hit that we would have been disqualified. We just squeaked by and were off. Once we were in the current and underway things steeled down a bit. We kicked pretty much the whole way through to the finish but also spent a lot of time moving around the ice flow to change our direction and steer. It was pretty hard work and by the time we crossed the finish line 59 minutes later I was definitely ready to stop kicking.

The winning team came in at just over 42 minutes and we were 5th overall which we felt pretty good about as it was our first year. Thanks to everyone involved particularly the OUC, my team led by the mighty Davis, Helen and Neil for putting us up and cheering so loud and to my darling Rebecca who gracefully volunteered to cook hot dogs that she can’t even eat for a bunch of ornery divers.

All the photos in this post are by Neil Muscott. Thanks Neil!