SUP Buffalo River

BFLO Harbor Kayak has made Stand Up Paddle Boards available in Buffalo's Inner Harbor. This means that without dragging my board across the country I was able to get some SUP in Buffalo over the summer.

The day I rented my SUP their was some crazy wind about 12mph, so the lake was not looking very inviting. This was fine with me because I was more interested in the river. The river had little wind and has little current so it made for easy paddling. From the rental dock under the skyway, I made my way about a mile and a half upstream just past Ohio St.

Setting off from BFLO Harbor Kayak with the Little Rock in the background

 Buffalo Skyline from the river

Turn around point

On the way back down stream I was facing the wind. Hugging the shore helped avoid the worst of it in my face but standing on the board was making a sail out of my body. Near the Naval Park the wind was strong enough to make some good size rolling waves, maybe a one to two feet. The was were just a little two small and not breaking for me to surf them upstream to the dock.

I'm not sure if it is legal but I think it would be fun to ride a SUP down the Niagara river. There is a whole lot of current and no shortage of place to get out. Maybe next time.

-James

Lele Kawa

Up to "Shit" creek with a Paddle board

I finally did it. I paddled a SUP board from Gateway Park in Yuma, up river to the confluence of the Colorado and Gila rivers, here often referred to as shit creek.

Board in front of the Ocean to Ocean bridge

It happened to be a little cooler this time, but I still set out around 1:30 in the afternoon sun. The cool weather must have scared away most of the floaters, because there were only 3 groups that I saw.

Going upstream was burning my arms out. It started to seem like I would never make it. There were a few times I though about turning back to attempt another day, but I pressed on. Eventually I made it to "shit creek". It wasn't very crowded, just a few people camping out and some trucks tooling around.

I decided to head up the Gila for a just a little bit. It proved to be too shallow after not very long, so I turned around and went up the Colorado for a little distance. Once I found a little beach to myself, I stopped for my break.

View during my break

After my break was the easy part, downstream. I kept a pretty good pace on the downstream, paddling the whole way rather than just floating. The worst part was the sun had gotten low and was in my eyes the whole way. I arrived back at Gateway Park just as the sun was setting.

-James

Lele Kawa

Stand Up Paddle boarding the Colorado River.

I finally got around to stand up paddle boarding on the Colorado River. In my typical fashion I went in the hottest part of the day starting around 1:30. I took off from West Wetland Park and headed up stream. I didn't have any plan on how far I would go, but I knew I wanted to go at least as far as Gateway Park, about one mile up stream.

There was no shortage of people doing float downs on the river. Almost every one of them asked me what I was doing and told me that I was going in the wrong direction.

The river in the area I paddled varies from about 1 foot to 5 feet in depth with a bottom of sand and the occasional beer can from lost form one of the many people floating down. The river really is the only oasis here in the desert of Yuma.

The first mile was peaceful, I only encountered one family flowing down. I let them try my board for a little while.

At Gateway Park the river was full of people and I threaded my way through. I continued to get a lot of attention as I paddled by. Upstream of Gateway Park was when I started passing the giant flotillas of rubber rafts and some jet skis. I also passed by the sherif in their air boat, that you could hear long before you saw, as its made its way down stream.

I am happy with this trip as a whole. The only bad part was the heat. Next time I will start earlier in the morning and try to make it all the way to "Shit Creek" as the convergence of the Colorado and Gila rivers is known. I will also try to get video of next time. I thought I had things set up this time but when I got home my camera hadn't recorded anything.

If you zoom in, you can see on the map below the upstream route wasn't nearly as strait as the down stream.

-James

Lele Kawa

Kayaking Luxembourg/German border

I'm gearing up to paddle in the Great Valley regatta for the second time next month and I realized I never wrote anything on either of my two kayaking trips down the Sure river in Luxembourg.

This was one of the more fun things I did while in Luxembourg. It was my first trip out of the Capital, and I repeated it again in May just before I left. In Dillingen we rented kayaks from "Outdoor freizeit"  and paddled down the Sure River to the town of Echternach, Luxembourg's oldest city.

There aren't any rapids so it is just a leisurely paddle down the river.

August trip

Launching point

Everyone else getting into the water

May trip

Will and Zak's Colorado source to sea

Over the weekend, I was provided the opportunity to play a small part in Will and Zak's journey down the Colorado river that they started in October. They contacted me via Couchsurfing.org. They were scheduled to pass through Yuma on MLK Jr. day, which I had off. I let them know I was happy to help out which what I could.

 Floating into Yuma

 Wondering who this guy taking pictures is

I saw from their spot that they would reach Yuma around around 10. I headed down to the river at East Wetland park to say hello as they came by. They were pretty easy to spot. I have never seen anyone else paddling the river, especially not in pack rafts. After spotting them, I meet up with them on the beach under the Ocean to Ocean Highway in Gateway park. They hadn't found a good camping spot the night before and so had skipped breakfast. I told them there was a good diner across the street. We stowed some of the gear in my truck and went over for breakfast. We discussed their plan for the day. They wanted to reach Morelos Dam, which was right at the boarder of Mexico 11 miles down stream, before the end of the day. They invited me to join them if I could get a boat. Unfortunately due to the holiday the kayak rental place was closed. I told them I could hold on to their packs and meet them at the dam later in the day.

Picking up two guys on the Colorado river where it boarders Mexico is a little sketchy. I timed their journey well, and arrived at about the same time they did. There were Boarder Patrol in the area, and they became pretty interested when I meet up with two guys coming out of the river. Luckily I had their packs so the BP didn't have much gear of theirs to search, and after checking our shoe tread, we were free to hang out around the dam.

Morelos Dam where the Colorado ends

Little blue boat next to the Dam

This was the end of the easy part of the trip. The logistics of getting into Mexico and down to the Sea of Cortez would be hard, because there is no water in the river bed after Morelos Dam. The Colorado is a dry river bed from the dam for about 75 miles down to the Sea of Cortez. That means it is either hike or try and navigate the maze of dangerous irrigation canals. The canals can't be counted on to have water flowing in them, so at any time you can run out of water. When I wasn't at work I tried to help them figure out some of their logistics, before sending them on their way.

Here is the first video of their trip.