Johnny Misadventures

Friday, September 11, 2009

Big News

Hey Everyone,

I have some big news to share with everyone. This road trip that started in May in Ottawa and has led me as far north as the Northwest Territories and as far west as Tofino BC with many epic adventures is going to have to come to an end. The original plan was to spend the fall working my way to California and winter working across to the east coast and then back north in the spring.

Photo by Grahame Hamilton WhistlerWithGrahameH

I would like to thank all my friends and family back in Ontario who made this trip happen. If it was not for you guys I would have never have got started!

From LakeWithSam

Also a big thanks goes out to all the friends I have met along the way. You guys made the trip so amazing and memorable. And always helped me out when needed. It meant a lot to me when somebody would help out a complete stranger. It was greatly appreciated!

From WhistlerWithGrahameH

And finely a thank you goes out to all the readers reading this! I have had over 2000 different readers from over 40 different countries! I hope at the very least it gave some people some inspiration to travel and have an adventure of their own.

I got the call for shoulder surgery in October the other day so I am coming home to Ottawa for it! I am leaving from Vancouver to come home today. This does not mean the blog is dead though guys! Keep checking, I still have the likely misadventure home and I will continue to post paddling and other small road trip stories!

Thank you so much guys!

Johnny

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Dinner in Naniomo FirstDay

Well I headed to the ferry again to head to Vancouver Island.

From Ferry

I stopped in Naniomo for dinner. I had Naniomo bars for dinner. They were not as good as I was hoping for. But I sat in the harbor and ate them.

After that I continued to Tofino only getting lost once (there is only one road to Tofino...I missed it).

I spent the day in the surf on the ocean in my kayak. Waves where small and mellow. Rain loved the beach and all the other dogs. The atmosphere on the ocean here is pretty sweet. Everyone is mellow and friendly.

Here are some pictures of the day. Hopefully some bigger surf will come in soon!

Johnny

High Five! SkooksWithJacque

The Island FirstDay

Chesterman Beach Tofino FirstDay

From FirstDay

From Little Tofino Surf

Random Surfer Chick FirstDay

From FirstDay

GO RAIN! FirstDay

Playing in the surf FirstDay

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Stanely Park

From StanleyPark

I spent a day at Stanely Park in Vancouver. It was pretty nice with a huge ocean walk way and things to see. Not really much to say. But here are the pics!

Johnny

From StanleyPark

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Vancouver Tourist

From DogBeach

So I have spend the last couple days being a Vancouver tourist. It is a pretty nice city but it seems to rain a lot lately. I though I had a pretty rough old ride for my travels but check out this guys. Makes mine look like I live in a modern high end house!

From DogBeach

Rain and I went to Dog Beach today for a little run. It was pretty nice. Lots of dogs to play with and a nice ocean front beach right near downtown. Rain had a great play and is all tired out now!

From DogBeach

I also went to a CouchSurfing.org party. It was a great time with food and people from all over! I met some really awesome people from everywhere in the world there and thanks to the host for putting it on! It was a great time!

Johnny

From CouchSurferParty

From LynnCanyonWithJacqui

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Return to the Skookumchuck!

Donkey Flipping! (photo by Jacqui Whitehead) SkooksWithJacque

Last week Jacqui (from Aussie Land) and I headed back to Skookumchuck wave for another session of surfing. The tides were not as this time as last time but still there are some epic misadventures of this trip right from the start.

It all started when we got to the ferry terminal and the lady asked for $90! I was like what that is crazy. It was only $60 last time! She told me it was because I was 4cm over height! And I know that my creekboat is 4cm wider than my playboat (which I had with my this time but not last time). So we pulled over and put the creekboat inside the Jeep. It took up the entire Jeep from front windshield to back window. But we got in got $60 as Jacqui says "watch us crack the windshield and not save any money". Yeah....no need to explain what happened next. The picture will tell the story from here.

Yup, it happened just like Jacqui saidSkooksWithJacque

We finely got to Egmont and got our campsite. The wave was in late in the day again so it meant we had to find ways to kill time in a small down with nothing to do all morning. So we went to the thrift shop. We got a french card game with no instructions. So we couldn't play it.

The week of surfing was awesome though. I had been working on a new trick for my self for the past little while. An offside donkey flip. I had been coming so close. On the last day I kept landing it right on the top of the foam pile and flushing off but I knew if I just had one more try I could do it. So I kept saying "just one more Jacqui" and she said "ok". On my real last one (which was not ok with her...I ran by her fast and just went into the wave before she could say anything) I had my best feeling flip yet. I came around, got my recovery stroke in and was right there. Then my boat sunk. Yup, skirt imploded on my boat so I was going for a long big water/whirlpool/boil swim in the ocean. It was kind of scary swimming right through the whirlpools. But I made it out and a dude got my boat for me.

Skirt imploding (Photo by Jacqui Whitehead) SkooksWithJacque

It was a pretty memorable week at Skooks. And for those board of all the kayaking stories, no fears...water has ran out on the west coast. So back to being a tourist for a bit with trips to Vancouver Island, Seattle, Portland and Yellow Stone National Park on the horizon.

Johnny Misadventures