The Gorge

One of the nicest aspects of living in Victoria is the waterway known as The Gorge. Thanks to the Gorge, Victoria is not only surrounded by water but is penetrated by it so that no matter where you live in the city you are never more than a few minutes away from the sea. As you can judge by the photo above, many people take advantage of the sheltered waters of The Gorge to paddle around in a wide variety of boats. Many prefer to go it alone or in pairs in kayaks but there are many other who prefer to do it in groups, as in the photo below. Big canoe groups like this are probably practicing for the Dragon Boat Races, coming up in early August.

Canoes and Kayaks and....

It seems to me that in the last few decades there has been a real upsurge in the kinds of boats that people use. It used to be you either had a canoe or a rowboat or maybe a small sailboat. Then kayaks started to become more common. Stand-up Paddle-boards are another new entry. Recently I am seeing these large team-paddled canoes, often with outriggers. Perhaps the Dragon Boat races have made this kind of activity more popular. I like to see that many of the new canoes and kayaks have outriggers. I have always been a bit wary of the kayak lesson on how to get your kayak upright when it has turned over. Turning over is a bad characteristic for a boat and I am never going to get into a boat that offers that opportunity. I suspect outriggers make this much less likely, sort of like training wheels on a bicycle.

Paddle Fest

Yesterday on Willows Beach, Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) hosted this event down on Willows Beach and what a glorious day! It was an opportunity for people try out everything from canoes, kayaks and stand-up paddleboards. There were races and even floating yoga. I took an introductory course on how to stand-up paddle board and felt quite proud of myself for standing up without falling in. No mean feat for someone who has two left feet on land! - Fern

The Inner Harbour

These two look like they have found a very nice way to enjoy the harbour haven't they? - Fern