“What’s Wildside?” someone asked JD just after the race. “Well,” JD said, “The Columbia’s the state line. You got the Oregon side… and the Wildside!!!” And what a frothy, world-class playground of a state line that river is. Without a doubt, the Columbia is one of the most insanely energy-rich corridors on the planet.  On any summer day you’ve got a giant, corduroy-surfaced river gunning [...]

If this Tuesday’s Race is any indication of what a weekly SUP race and gathering will do for our little community – I would say we will all be 100% better paddlers, be totally dialed in on our gear, and be a tight knit, fun community. Our first Tuesday night had SUP’ers paddling in from [...]

One of the greatest pleasures for a racer is when THE race you train to peak for unfolds as an absolute PEAK EXPERIENCE!!! That’s exactly what happened for both Heather and I yesterday, and our respective Whatcom County teams in the 2010 Ski to Sea.   Heather’s team, Kulshan Cycles, won the Whatcom County Women’s Division for the [...]

A record breaking 465 teams (give or take a few)  will be racing the 7-leg, 90-mile Ski to Sea tomorrow! With 8 athletes per team… that is 3720 athletes racing in Bellingham tomorrow! Check out the Ski to Sea race website or Bellingham Herald website for good Ski to Sea Race news, view points and  finish line festivities! Brandon and [...]

Yesterday’s weekly Wednesday Night Race at Bloedel Donovan was nothing less than epic! Winds gusting to 45 MPH and solid sheets of rain coming down couldn’t keep the die hards away. And — to add to the fun, USA Today had chosen THIS day to come interview some of the paddlers about the upcoming Ski [...]

Every Wednesday night, from start to end of Daylight Saving’s Time, dozens of kayakers and canoers gather at Bloedel Donovan Park on Lake Whatcom to socialize and RACE! The race follows a 3.5-mile course around the edge of the lake in “Basin 1″ as it’s called. If you’re new, it’ll take you a time or [...]

We spent Sunday up at the Tour De Indian Arm in Deep Cove BC at the second and final race of the THINK International Surfski Challenge. The Challenge, created 3 years ago as an informal competition between neighboring British Columbia and Bellingham / Seattle surfski communities. In the competition, Canada and the US each have 10 surfskis per [...]

Heather and I train on Lake Whatcom about 80% of the time. It’s five minutes from our house and honestly: we just love paddling there. If Bellingham Bay is our front yard then Lake Whatcom is our living room. It’s sooo comfy and familiar. So when the 13-mile Lake Whatcom Classic rolls around each spring, [...]

With Bellingham and our Canadian friends across the border having some of the most AWESOME surfski race scenes in the world, someone decided a little friendly competition was in order. Thus, the THINK Kayak International Challenge was created. Two races: one in Bellingham, one in BC. We each bring as many racers as we can [...]

It was me and Larry B. Larry B and me. Gusty 30 MPH winds combined with sub 40 degree temps seemed to have scared away all but the hard core this mid-April Wednesday Nighter. Reivers? Paul? Where is our posse? Jeff H, Eric W and Joost represented the ‘A Team’ surfski posse. And Larry G [...]

Sleek surfski’s and light weight paddle blades slice through the water silently as the sounds labored breathing and the occasional bumping of paddle-on-paddle, boat-on-boat or paddle-on-boat fill the air. It is  Wednesday Night… and I am surrounded by my race posse having an awesome time! There are 7 of us, and we are in our [...]

Last night marked the return of the much-loved, heavily relied-upon, painful-for-most (this time of year, anyway), but truly THE staple of all Bellingham racers’ training diet: The Weekly Wednesday Night 3.5-mile Race on Lake Whatcom, out of Bloedel Donovan Park. The weather was invitingly warm, calm and clear for this time of year in the [...]