Getting back to winter life and Quebec was rough. Post traumatic syndrome or such. Day dreaming about the good and exciting times in Chile; mostly paddling and such, but the countryside, strange vegetation, bugging Billy-Bob. But we're back in Canada and we'll make the best of it...
My wife is hoping to do sea kayaking; good way to spend more time together. Our first major outing was in Grandes Bergeronnes for a weekend of whale watching and sea kayaking in mid July last year. Our youngest daughter, who was grounded for prior instance of poor judgment and behavior, was forced to come with us. With oceanic conditions and saline water temperature around 4degC, my wife limited paddling abilities were restricting her paddling to say the least. We managed to see small and common humpback whales, marsouins and white belugas and a seal or two. At one point, a couple of belugas circled my daughter's kayak; for some unknown reason, this daughter tremendously enjoyed being grounded for the weekend.
Anyway, toward improving my wife's paddling skills, we attended a few of the CCKEVM pool sessions over the winter months and we worked on improving her kayaking skills. Transitions from terror to amusement and her first rolls.
With a better snow base built of the winter we ought to have a decent creeking season, but everything is still pretty much frozen as I write these lines. Spring surfing is on though and I had a couple of sessions at Habitat 67, also had my first 2 visits to Chambly. Not overly impressed on my first visit; the main wave surfer right is not very interesting; once on the right side of the pit you can hardly come back with the foam pile angling significantly downstream. On my second visit, the balmy 9degCand big sunshine turned into windy wet snow falling at sharp angle with the temperature quickly dropping to a mere 1degC. Clack, clack, clack was the sounds from my unprotected ankles. This time the level was around 720m2/sec and the surfer left side was beautiful with a tall green shoulder. I also dropped into the secondary near-shore mostly-green wave once or twice. This mostly-green wave was deserved by a shore eddy. One of the unknown paddlers on the site was bravely only wearing shorts; no dry pants nor neoprene legging or any sort. Brrrrr. After 1.5hr, my feet and ankles were frozen overwhelming the surfing smile out of my face.
That weekend I participated in a Masters age segment volleyball tournament in Ottawa (that's 50 and over) and afterward, went for a surf session at Bates Island in beautiful sunshine and around 12degC. The Champlain waves looked so small!!! The chat with the familiar faces largely compensated. The short wearing dude was there again and we had a long chat in the warm sun about Chile where he (Marcos) comes from. Clearly, Chile is sticking to my skin...Not a bad feeling at all...
On to spring now...
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