Archive for March, 2008
Posted by Greg on
March 29, 2008
Greg Stamer and Freya Hoffmeister among Icebergs in Newfoundland, 2007. Photograph by Neil Burgess (click on image to view enlargement)
As a bit of a teaser for my upcoming Newfoundland trip I have created a photo album of my trip around the Avalon peninsula in 2007. This trip was undertaken after teaching Greenland-skills at the Kayak Newfoundland & Labrador (KNL) symposium. The trip served as a dry (wet?) run for Iceland, and to test and hone our gear choices.
Icebergs are a common sight from the east coast of Labrador to Newfoundland’s southern shore — “Iceberg Alley”. These are bergs from Greenland that have been transported south via the Labrador current. I should mention that paddling close to bergs, as in the image above is very risky business. Kayakers have died when the ice rolled suddenly, due to erosion of the immense ice mass underneath the surface. The ice is as beautiful as it is dangerous.
One local custom is to collect small “bergy bits” surrounding the iceberg and to cart it home via kayak. When added to scotch (or the drink of your choice) it fizzes loudly — literally a “Bergie Seltzer”. The effervescence comes from compressed air bubbles — Greenland air from centuries ago — trapped in the iceberg, that sizzle, fizzle and pop when thawed!
Posted by Greg on
March 23, 2008
Early Morning Fog on Lake Destiny. Photograph by Greg Stamer (click on image to view enlargement)
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time”. — T.S. Eliot.
I must admit that I generally don’t enjoy reading kayaking travelogues. You know, those blow-by-blow accounts where someone describes their trip — what they ate for breakfast, how many miles they paddled, what they ate for dinner, how they smelled on day fourteen, and so on. I have a hard time reading them. The reason being, for me, the trip is only the canvas on which a broader and more interesting story is told. For example, in the case of my Iceland circumnavigation with (ex) partner Freya Hoffmeister, I’m currently writing an article for Sea Kayaker Magazine. In it Iceland is just a fascinating backdrop to frame my struggle to create a new lifestyle for myself amid the pain of how the stresses of the trip accelerated the demise of the relationship that Freya and I shared. It’s a very difficult article to write well, and balance, but hopefully the result will be worth the effort — if I have the courage to be honest enough.
Following a trip blog is much more interesting than most published travelogues, precisely because the action is “live” and therefore, as in life, unpredictable. But even so, for me the interest is not so much the trip itself, but the circumstances behind the trip. Any sea kayaker of modest ability has the physical strength and probably the camping/weather/sea knowledge to complete an “expedition”. After all, an expedition is but only a series of daytrips (although in remote areas the price of failure can be a steep one).
What I find most interesting is not the trip around something but the much more difficult and challenging trip within. Why is that person doing the trip? How are they coping with leaving lovers, friends and family for so long? What kind of lifestyle do they have where they can go off for months at a time? Why are they choosing solitude? Why are they choosing to put themselves in harm’s way? What are they searching for? What are they running from? What are they running toward?
Heraclitus) of Ephesus (c.535 BC – 475 BC) Greek philosopher wrote: No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
I cannot answer for anyone else. I’m sure that some “expedition” kayakers are looking to “make their mark” or be “the first”. I think that pushing yourself and achieving a record is an interesting goal, but the ego-boost, if any, is fleeting. Personally, I feel that any trip that I have ever taken, whether it’s a lazy day on a local lake or battling a fast tidal race in Iceland, is a first. A first for me, anyway. But we are all driven by vastly different winds….
Long trips in the wild, whether they be kayaking, backpacking or other pursuits, reduce life to simple terms. While doing them, I feel a razor-sharp sense of purpose, and the joy and exhilaration that arises from living fully — truly living every second of every day — rather than just trying to “get through the week” (the feeling that I often felt during my corporate life). Each day seems packed with more life than weeks of “ordinary living”. Perhaps this simply reveals a character flaw. For example most people apparently get this same sense of purpose from being husbands, mothers, fathers, providers and such. Other people feel trapped inside the very same roles. Are these people satisfied or are they leading lives of quiet desperation? Are expedition paddlers, as a group, taking long trips around the globe in search of something that is right in front of their noses, or to complete something from their past?
I imagine the answer is as varied and as individual as each of us who explores both distant (and local) shores and the depths of our own soul, from the seat of our kayak.
Posted by Greg on
March 18, 2008
Greg Stamer off “The Rock” (Newfoundland) 2007. Photo by Freya Hoffmeister. (click on image to see enlargement)
Hello and Welcome to my new blog and website!
For a few weeks this site will be under heavy construction but please stop by and view the changes. In addition to sharing my thoughts on life and kayaking in this blog, this site will allow you to follow my progress on kayaking trips.
I must admit that I’m not completely comfortable with the humility aspect of having a domain name in my own name, and having my face sprawled across a website. If you are put off by this, then I hope that you find the content to be down-to-earth and interesting.
My next long adventure is a solo circumnavigation of Newfoundland, planned to start June 2008. I hope that you will follow me virtually around Newfoundland and freely share your comments. I will be using an NDK Greenlander Pro and Superior Kayaks carbon Greenland paddles. Many thanks to Sea Kayaking UK and also my friend Tom Bergh of Maine Island Kayak company for help with the logistics of obtaining a kayak for the trip. Please see my complete sponsor list for the people and companies that make my trips possible.
Karel Vissel, who provided weather reports for my trip around Iceland will be providing weather assistance on this trip as well. Thanks Karel!
Derrick Mayoleth will be updating my blog entries from satellite phone text messages that I send nightly. Thanks Derrick! I will be adding my own blog entries and uploading images as I find internet access during my journey.
Press Release:
Greg Stamer will be undertaking an unsupported, solo, sea kayak circumnavigation of Newfoundland, “the Rock”, Canada’s easternmost province, starting from St. John’s in June, 2008. This adventure is more than 1,700 miles around one of the most windswept locations in North America. Newfoundland is also one of the world’s most beautiful kayaking destinations with Icebergs, seals, puffins, breaching humpback whales, sea caves and a formidable rocky coastline. Abandoned fishing villages dot the coast.
Greg fell in love with Newfoundland and its people while teaching kayaking at a symposium there in 2007. “The country has a raw, primal beauty. Never before had I seen so many sea caves to play in, or so many thousands of birds, such as what I witnessed at Cape St. Mary’s in the Avalon Peninsula. Likewise the people are among the friendliest that I have ever met and would literally give you the shirt off their back if you were in true need. During my stay there I was offered berth in houses, inside cabins of ships and inside trailers. While I plan to stay in the wilds as much as possible, I know that interacting with the people of Newfoundland will be one of the greatest highlights of my journey. Winds will be a challenge as will the toll of long, high-mileage days”.
During his Iceland circumnavigation with trip partner Freya Hoffmeister last year, Greg completed two crossings of 90km, and 100km, the latter requiring more than 22 hours to complete. Neither of these crossings had been completed by kayak before. For the Newfoundland expedition Greg will be again be kayaking headland to headland, and making a number of challenging crossings, but he will also allow himself to be seduced into visiting the country’s beautiful bays and historic sites, including the ancient Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows. Greg is president of Qajaq USA (http://www.qajaqusa.org), an organization devoted to promoting Greenland-style paddling. As he did while circumnavigating Iceland, Greg will use Greenland-style paddles for his Newfoundland expedition.
