F & NEWS FROM THE PADDLING WORLD PEOPLE BY ALEX MATTHEWS Faster, Faster FOOLISH TO SOME, INSPIRING TO OTHERS: SEAN MORLEY CRUSHES VANCOUVER ISLAND RECORD
Last fall Sean Morley, paddling solo, shat- tered all previous records for the fastest kayak circumnavigation of Vancouver Island, com- pleting the 1,200-kilometre (746-mile) journey in 17 days, 4 hours and 49 minutes. Starting in Port Hardy on September 24
and travelling counterclockwise, Morley set a blistering pace, finishing on October 11. Vancouver Island has become a speed-
kayaking proving ground. Joe O’Blenis set the previous solo record—23 days, 10 hours—in 2007. Also in 2007, Keirron Tastagh and Jeff Norville set the record for a tandem kayak— 20 days. Morley is no stranger to big-distance expe-
dition paddling. In 2004 the English kayaker completed the first solo circumnavigation of the U.K. and Ireland and all the inhabited islands—at six months and 7,200 kilometres (4,500 miles), the longest journey ever under- taken by kayak in British waters. Vancouver Island required a different men-
tal focus, however. Said Morley: “For my other trips I’ve been the first to do something. Tis was a speed record, so quite different. To be
14 ADVENTURE KAYAK | SPRING 2009
honest, I didn’t like it in some ways. Obviously I enjoyed the challenge, but I think for my next expedition I’d like to do another first.” Morley set the record under far from favour-
able conditions. Hoping to take advantage of the northwest winds that typically blow down the exposed west coast of Vancouver Island in summer, he was instead confronted by relent- less headwinds from the south. “I did have about three days of no wind, so
I suppose I was lucky, really,” he added with equal parts humility and optimism. Morley paddled a Valley Nordkapp. He
originally considered a Valley Rapier (a very fast, race-oriented kayak) but conditions prompted a more traditional choice. “I tried the Rapier fully loaded in three- to
four-foot waves and 20 knots of wind and it was okay, but it would have been a handful in bigger conditions. I took my Nordkapp instead and I was really happy with the choice. Te Nord- kapp is quite a quick boat on the flat anyway so I don’t feel that I gave much up there,” Morley said. He used a Lettmann Nordic wing paddle. After a 14-year career as a police officer in
the U.K., Morley now makes his home in Cali- fornia where he runs River and Ocean, a sales agency for various watersports companies including Valley Kayaks and Kokatat Wa- tersports Wear. He’s also the current World Masters Surf Kayak Champion in the high performance category. In many ways Morley’s greatest challenge
was missing his 18-month-old daughter: “Be- ing away from home for a whole month is ac- tually quite a long time. I was very keen to be back home with my family.” To critics of his obsession with speed, Mor-
ley responded philosophically. “I guess one has to be of a competitive nature to understand,” he wrote on his blog before setting out. “I ab- solutely respect those that would rather take three weeks to explore just one inlet or island group in detail and get to know every facet of its natural environment. Maybe one day I will let myself slow down enough to do just that. In the meantime, whilst my body will let me, I will continue to push my boundaries and set goals that to some may seem foolhardy but to others are inspiring.”
P EOP L E | P L ACE S | SAF E T Y | VH F lotsam Jetsam
PHOTO: FRANK GAGLIONE PHOTOGRAPHY
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48