Monday, February 8, 2010

Kayak Noise - Quadra Island

Alex and crew head to Quadra.....









Alex Matthews here, reporting in on the ‘Kayak Noise’ blog.

Last weekend I headed up-island from Victoria to Quadra Island. The crew consisted of the usual suspects: my beautiful wife Rochelle, my good buddy Dave Aharonian (see the article about him in a previous post), and the inimitable Nick Castro of Active Sea Kayaking (http://www.activeseakayaking.ca/).


We loaded up with a couple of Chatham 16s, Dave’s Nordkapp, and one of the highly coveted and all too rare Looksha Elites. Our plan was to stay at the Discovery Islands Lodge (http://www.discovery-islands-lodge.com/) for 3 nights and paddle daily at Surge Narrows – a local playspot of rare scenic beauty just 20 minutes paddling from the lodge. The constricted channels and bottom geography at Surge create a couple of good play waves on a flood tide.

An awesome time was had by all – we played hard, ate like kings thanks to Rochelle, and relaxed in total rustic luxury at the lodge. If you’ve never stayed there, then you should! The owners/operators Ralph and Lannie Keller are wonderful. Check out a slide show here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/45728820@N04/sets/72157623028104976/show/

Still not convinced? Then consider this: every day after paddling, we would stoke up the sauna on the dock in front of the lodge and bake our sore muscles until we were relaxed pools of goo. A quick hot rinse in the outdoor showers, and then we could head upstairs for a mellow evening in front of the wood stove - my idea of a perfect getaway!

P.S. We ran into local paddlers Brent, Paul, and John, who shared beta on the best spots and generally welcomed us to the area. Thanks guys!


All photos By Alex Matthews or Rochelle Relyea

3 comments:

  1. The photos look fantastic. Very jealous!

    David J.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I set the 5th photo as the background image of my netbook ;)

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  3. Hello,
    i discover your trips on ocean paddler magazine. I like a lot your pictures espeially the cover of OP issue #21
    Can you tell me if it is possible to find it anywhere.
    Best regards,
    David, Paris, France

    ReplyDelete