Urban Kayaking

(The funny look and pose is because I'm taking my own picture)

Annually I participate in the Pole Peddle Paddle race in Bend, OR. The PPP as everyone calls it is a six stage race which starts at Mt. Bachelor Ski resort and ends at the Les Schwab Amphitheater in Bends West side. The PPP is a six stage race starting with a downhill ski run followed by lengthy cross country skiing leg, a 20+ mile bike ride down to town, a hilly ten kilometer run, a 2.3 mile kayaking leg which starts out going up river, returns down river and end on a grueling up river stretch, then finishes with a quarter mile sprint into the amphitheater.

While many people do the event solo, we tackle it as family along with the Alexander’s. The task of kayaking falls to me. Normally I barrow a kayak from my old High School buddy, Dave Nissen, founder and owner of Wanderlust Tours in Bend ( www.wanderlusttours.com ). He set s me up with a two man kayak with an adjustable seat. The extra buoyancy makes the kayak fast once the rear seat is brought all the way forward for balance.

This year for my birthday, and to improve my time in the PPP, my wife bought me a kayak of my own, a little solo job from Costco. Like always Costco stocks some quality items and once I’ve shopped around I usually return there to get some all-around versatile piece of equipment. Of course there’s better stuff out there if you want to pay for it or specialize, but for me, a generalist, it’s just fine.

To this point my PPP training has been simulated kayaking with a pair of dumbbells and some cable rows. This year it’s going to be different. I’ve taken the kayak out a couple times on the river that runs by our house, enjoying the solitude of the river and isolation that a river can afford, but last week I discovered something new. Urban Kayaking!

Many major metropolitan areas have water ways running through them and do a nice job of building up the nicest parts of town around them. Last week my boys and I took the kayaks to the Stockton Asparagus Festival in the heart of Stockton, CA. Loverboy was playing at the water front amphitheater. Remember him? I was surprised how many good songs he they had done. While I couldn’t see the stage, which is probably ok, because he’s probably a sixty year old great grandfather in tight pants.

The view from the water of all the people having a nice time, the sun warming the winter bones, the tossing of my boys into the water from the dock (You bet I can still do it). The workout in prep for the PPP. It was all good.

I highly recommend, if you have any water within a short drive, that you get yourself a kayak and do the rural thing, but also try out the Urban exploration via water way.