Innova Swing

Earlier this year I had to take the Seaker down to Washington for a repair job and while I was down there the good people at Innova offered to loan me a couple of prototypes of their new Swing kayak, just released this year.

The Swing comes in both a single, and a double version, and appears, to my eyes anyway, to be Innova's attempt to compete with the Advanced Elements kayaks, which have covered decks and present a more "kayak-like" appearance. At least from the side. View any of these boats from the back or overhead and you can see how fat they are. No matter really, as long as the boat performs and is safe and comfortable, that's the most important thing.

What makes the Swing unique in my opinion is the sharp, inflated bow and stern, and the fact that the zippered deck is held up by two aluminum crossbars, forgoing the traditional Innova inflated thwarts. The Swings are made on "lite-pack" material, which is basically nitrylon without the exterior rubber coating. While not as tough or water resistant as fully Nitrylon it makes for a very light boat. The single especially was shockingly lightweight.

Unfortunately it took a while before I was able to get on the water in a Swing. Vancouver's weather was awful, and then I split to Mexico. But I was determined to get out there, so on the last day of the year I organized a paddle with my kayaking group, both to try out the Swing and cap off a great year of adventures.

The Swing 2 rolled up. All of us on the outing were a bit shocked at the weight. Light, compact and easy to move around.

Both models use the new skeg design which I think was introduced with the later Sunny models. No metal pieces or tiny nuts and bolts to lose, I really like this design and it's much quicker to assemble than the old skeg.

From rolled up to ready to paddle in about ten minutes.

The swing uses a new valve type, which I believe is a Leafield valve instead of the old military valves. While I still put a lot of confidence in the military valves, the valve caps were and are a serious pain to squeeze on. These new valves are much much easier to deal with. The caps screw on with ease and you don't need a special adapter to fit.

Ready to launch. The plan for the day was to explore around False Creek and check out the Olympic Village, and the new community center and dock. It could be a good option for paddling False Creek and avoiding the traffic. Unfortunately the sunny sky in the forecast was nowhere to be seen.

When paddling the Swing 2 as a single you really need some ballast in the front to help keep the nose down and improve tracking. But even without it I didn't have any problems keeping her in a straight line.

Jim and Andrea taking a quick break to shed a few layers. Andrea had his Safari out for the trip.

I just love these floating houses along Granville Island.

I was pretty impressed at the comfort and roominess of the Swing cockpit. The aluminum thwarts made for a very comfortable back rest, and even being a bigger guy, I was not squeezed in and had plenty of room to move around.

We stopped for a break at a new feature in False Creek. Around the new community center they've put a small island, with a walkway out to it and a couple of gravel beaches. Very nice. For people who don't have the means to get out there and enjoy our islands, this is a pretty good representation of what a BC island is like.

And here's a short video of yours truly paddling around in the lagoon. Unfortunately, the battery on my camera conked out right around here. But it did hold out for just a couple more shots.

By this time I was pretty freezing. I was trying out a new pair of neoprene boots, called Warmers. "Warmers, more like Colders!" if you ask me. By this point my feet were freezing so I headed back to the put in ahead of the rest. We all met up there and most of us headed off for a beer and a hot meal. As far as the paddle went, it was great fun, great people and a fun cap off to a great paddling year.

And as far as the Swing goes, well I like it. But it's not a boat for me. Although you could easily pack enough gear for a weekend or even week long trip in the double it's not a touring boat, it's much more a rec boat, and that's not for me. But for many others, especially rv'ers, car campers and families, it has a lot of potential. While I don't prefer the lite pack skin material it is far lighter, greener and in opinion more rugged than a similarly priced pvc boat. I think that to get the most out of an inflatable kayak you have to also take into consideration how it performs on land; how well it dries, how well it stores. And the Swing has it's competitors beat hands down in this area. No nooks and crannies for water to pool in and start new civilizations of mold either. And on the water, it's a fun, responsive and very comfortable kayak. Careful of the zippers though, they seem to be a potential weak spot.

For what it is, it's a good kayak. I do like those aluminum thwarts. Would love to see a version of the Helios 2 that used them, and allowed a center seated position. A few of out here are still looking for the ideal, lightweight touring kayak to hit the market. There's a few interesting ones out there, unfortunately, the Swing doesn't fit the bill there. I may need to build my own!

Isla Espiritu Santo - Baja California Sur, Mexico

November brought about a few changes for me. I decided to say "peace, out" to my long term job and search for something new. But before I did that I wanted a few weeks to relax and unwind. Lots of people were recommending that I go somewhere sunny, like Cuba or Mexico. And the Cuba billboard right outside my window was very beckoning. I researched around some resorts but did not get a great vibe from any of them. Then I came across a blog entry about a trip around Isla Espiritu Santo in Baja, just off La Paz. For years now I've dreamed for kayaking in Baja, on on the Sea of Cortez. So since I had the time, why not? A few hours after reading about the place I had booked a plane ticket to leave in two weeks. And surprise surprise, my friend Chris was due to finish his contract in two weeks, and was game to join me.

I researched a few places online trying to decide where to stay, and which outfitter to book a water taxi (or panaga) with. The big issue for me was, do I rent a kayak? Or do I take one of my inflatables. In retrospect I can't believe it was even really an option. What's the point of having these inflatable kayaks if I'm not going to take them on airplanes? And I've been on so many trips with the sunny. I knew what she could haul, how she would handle and I trusted the boat to keep me safe. And this is an inflatable kayaking blog, not a piece of junk rental sit on top blog, so that decided that.

I flew down to La Paz on Alaska Airlines, via Los Angeles. They charge $20 per bag and didn't check or charge me for overweight going down. I tried distributing my gear enough so that no bag was over 50lbs, but   I've no scale at home so no way of knowing. I don't even have 50lb sacks of potatoes to compare it against so I was guessing. The flight down was just fine (coming home, different story but more later) and here I was in Mexico!

My only experience in Mexico was a day trip to Tijuana when I was 13. But having travelled to several out of the way places I figured I knew what to expect and I was not wrong. La Paz is a beautiful, quiet city on the Sea of Cortez, far from the Cabo party scene. I elected to stay at the Posada Luna Sol, which is affiliated with Mar Y Aventuras , kayaking and adventure company in La Paz. There are a couple of outfitters in La Paz but when I learned the Posa Luna Sol translates to "The Moon and Sun Inn" I was hooked.

A few words about the hotel and the outfitters. I absolutely loved the hotel and can't wait to return. And the people, the Mar Y Aventuras crew was helpful and friendly, as was the water taxi driver. Thanks Hugo and Benjamin.

Next morning I set out in the sunshine with two goals in mind. Buy food and supplies and find alcohol for my stove. I had brought my trangia stove down with me after reading that isobutane cannisters were impossible to find. White gas and those ubiquitous coleman green propane cans are easy to find but I didn't have any stoves that used them. So after doing the research on the internet and coming across this page I decided to stick with the trangia.

La Paz is a modern city with a Walmart so that's where I headed to stock up (boo hiss!) on supplies. In the future I'd just hit the Mega Store, which is a Mexican version of a Superstore. Finding food suitable for a kayak trip was easy. Lots of dried pasta, tortillas, small cartons of salsa, and lots of retort pouch tuna, chicken and pork and beef. Really fantastic stuff that I wish we could get up here. Two weeks of food and water, plus two cases of beer and a bottle of tequila rang up at just under $100. Already by this point I am falling in love with Mexico.

After dropping off all my stuff in my room I set out on task number two, find Industrial Alcohol. Armed with a few possible locations marked on my map I set out, but first, lunch.

At a nice little cafe along the seafront I had the best fajitas I've ever had. Every meal I had in town here, without exception, was fantastic. Typically a full meal with a couple of beers would be 10-11 dollars.

Organic garbage in the turtle, inorganic in the seal.

I wasn't having much luck finding fuel. As a backup I had purchased three cans of sterno jelly at wal mart, the alcohol gel stuff used in chafing dishes. Then, in the last store I tried, just after deciding to try one last shop, I found it!

30 pesos a bottle, just over two bucks, it comes in a glass bottle. I rebottled mine into empty diet coke bottles to avoid bringing glass on the trip. I got two litres, one for Chris and one for me, figuring a litre would last me ten days. Not really. Next time I'm bringing two litres.

I spent the rest of the afternoon lying in a hammock, drinking ice cold beers and reading a book on my ereader. It was pure bliss and a good sign of things to come. Next morning at 10:00 I was on the shuttle waiting to be ferried to the island. Chris did not get his passport in time so he was due to come down Friiday (the day I headed to the island) and we would meet up on Sunday. I had mapped out my possible camping locations to him and we both had our vhf radios so we weren't too concerned about not finding each other. It's a big island, but no trees to hide behind.

At this time of year, December, the Sea of Cortez is prone to powerful northerly winds sweeping down. As we were leaving Benjamin, the guide at Mar Y Aventuras warned me that one was forecast to blow in on Sunday, and the harbour might be closed. Bad luck for Chris.

Approaching Espiritu Santos. The entire island is a national park, and the only inhabitants are local fishermen who have several camps on the island. Otherwise, it's deserted. During the high season this is a very popular place. But I was here in the low season and there was barely anybody around.

Getting dropped off at the beach.

My pile of stuff for the next ten days. I must admit that at this point, alone on a desert island in a foreign country where I don't speak the language, if I hadn't gotten myself a bit over my head.

I had two main concerns about this trip. Water and number 2. For water I arranged with the outfitters for a resupply shuttle halfway through the trip. I left them a bag full of water, food, and a case of beer and for $150 they agreed to drop it off to me. Unfortunately one of my water bags split, so I was short water for the first five days. I had planned for 15 litres, I wound up with ten. Whoops. But I had tequila and beer to make up for it!

The second issue is that on this island you are required to pack out all human waste. So a few nights before the trip Chris whipped us up a couple of "torpedoes". The link below explains it all so I don't have to.

Kayakers Portable Toilet

I was packing a lot of gear on this trip, including a telescope, tent, tarp, tarp poles...lots of stuff. I did have some concerns about fitting in everything.

See, there's a good reason I decided to take the Sunny!

Just off the beach where I was dropped is a mangrove estuary that I decided to check out.

Very peaceful and beautiful. I was able to paddle up a ways into a large pond, full of birds.

An intro to some of the typical scenery around the island.

Heading in to my first camping site.

The entire bay is open for camping but I chose the beach backed by sand dunes instead of mangroves.

Aside from a brief visit from a couple of jet skiers and a music blaring yacht on the first night, I was pretty much alone out here for three days.

Gorgeous crystal clear water.

This wound up only lasting a couple of days. Should have brought 2.

I had plenty of limes left over though.

Day two on the island and I spent it simply chilling out, exploring the beaches, drinking tequila, and reading my book.

I was pretty confident I made the right choice to bring a tent instead of the hammock.

Back at the camp we were just beginning to see some of the wind I had been warned of. The next day, Sunday, the wind was blowing and I could see some pretty fierce whitecaps out there. I waited for Chris all day, as this was our scheduled meetup day, but he was a no show. Little did I know he'd been bumped from his flight and hadn't even left Vancouver!

The following day, Monday, I decided that I would move on. This was a nice spot but I was getting sandblasted by the wind. I'd been here three days and wanted to see some more of the island, so I somewhat reluctantly packed up.

Conditions this morning were not too bad, with no real wind.

This is a large coral beach with a huge mangrove estuary behind. On a high tide you could paddle in, but no chance of that this morning.

I had to make a stop here to fill up the kayak, the sides felt a little soft to me. Aside from this I never needed to re inflate the boat for the whole ten days.

It was right around here that I saw a massive sea turtle. At first I thought he was a green seal, but then I realized what he was. As I fumbled to get my camera out he lifted his head out of the water and looked me straight in the eye, then swam off. No photos, darn.

I stopped at a gorgeous white sandy beach for a break. I strongly considered staying here and in retrospect maybe I should have, but I wanted to make some distance. I needed to be up on the north island, La Partida, for my supply pickup by Wednesday, and the forecasts of wind were concerning me.

Out past this point, this is where things started to get nasty. Around that point is a clear opening to the north and I felt the brunt of those winds, with steep 4-5 foot swells.

After a seriously tough paddle I pulled in here to bail my kayak out. If camping were allowed on this beach I would have stayed here. But this is a protected archaeological area with no camping allowed. It was here that I noticed I was missing my bailer. Sometime between my last landing and now it got loose. So I wound up cutting an empty water bottle in two and using that to bail.

Just around this point was a sheltered bay with a camping area. I got up my nerve, and headed back into the waves.

After a short but vigorous paddle, I made it into the safety of a small cove where I would spend the night.

Although I made it safely here not all of my gear did. In addition to losing my bailer I discovered that I had not fully zipped up my waterproof backback and the contents were soaked. My telescope was full of sea water (it survived though), a whole bunch of paper things got soaked, my headlamp and several batteries bought it, and worst of all, me Sony e-reader was DOA. I was quite upset about this one, as sitting around and catching up on my reading was one of the main goals of the trip!

I had a light dinner and turned in early that night, fretting over the soaking of my stuff. I set up my tent in between a few rocks on a flat sandy spot, put my gear and some rocks and fell asleep shortly after sundown. I woke up at 4 in the morning to the sound of waves breaking against my tent! I had camped below the high tide line!

I grabbed my working headlamp and sprung into action. Thankfully I'd tied off the kayak, so it was fine. I had left several drybags down below the tide line though and I raced to retrieve those. My shoes were soaked and I threw those in the boat (for a few frantic minutes I thought they'd floated away). I noticed my kettle floating so I grabbed that. In a couple of quick trips I got the tent up to safe higher ground. The only damage there was a wet floor and side. A tide channel had formed in the sand beside the tent so I didn't get fully soaked. In the running around in the dark I managed to take a few good gashes out of my foot so I tended to those, and went back to bed. I had heard all sorts of stories of this kind of thing happening to other people, and now it had happened to me.

The next morning I slept in then set out to dry out my stuff and take stock of what was missing. I found my coffee cups half buried in sand, and my silicon pot holders, some d-rings, and a few other things on the beach. But worst of all I was missing my frying pan, and inside it, my titanium wood stove that was also serving as my stove stand for the trip! Also stored in the pan, which must have just floated off, was a set of aluminum utensils I got as a Christmas gift a few years back. That hurt. I really liked those.

I did some snorkeling off the beach to try and recover more stuff and wound up retrieving a bottle of Industrial Alcohol (the one I had brought for Chris) that was floating around. Losing that would have been a disaster! The swim brighted up my spirits and I decided to pack up and move on. The wind was still up but I felt some bad vibes here and didn't want to spend another night.

It is a nice spot though. Someday I'll come back here and have a better time of it.

Losing the stove stand was a problem, but I had extra tent pegs and had read on the ultra-lightweight hiking forums that some people use them as stoves stands. Well what do you know, it works!

The wind was still blowing hard but I didn't have far to go. This time I made sure that all my drybags were properly sealed up.

Calm before the storm.

My destination was only two miles away, but it took over two hours to get there and I was completely swamped by the time I made it. I noticed some commercial outfitter tents on the beach so I headed in that direction. No sign of Chris yet and with the wind going I was feeling that some company might make me feel safer. These guys were super friendly and nice, and happily gave me four liters of water, solving my water shortage. It was a good thing too as my supply boat wound up being a day late because of the wind.

This beach is called El Candelero and is one of the most popular beaches on the island. Normally very busy but for now, just me and the two guides. It's easy to see why it's so popular. Absolutely gorgeous with some fantastic snorkeling too.

I found an ideal little alcove to hide my tent in, away from the wind.

The next morning was bright and sunny but still very windy. It was Wednesday, the day I had arranged for my resupply shuttle but there was no sign of it. Listening to the radio I could hear sailors speaking of how terrible the conditions were,  so I resolved to just hunker down and wait. This was a very nice spot, perfect place to get windbound. So I took a little hike to explore around.

 There's a freshwater well at El Candelero, but I don't think it's suitable to drink from. Unless you were really thirsty.

No sign of Chris today, not that I was expecting to see him, what with the wind. On the bright side I realized that I had loaded a few dozen books onto my ipod touch some time ago that I had forgotten about. So I had something to read! Now all I needed was a cold beer and I was pretty sure that was on it's way.

After the accident this was all I was left to cook with. And to be honest it turned out to be really all I needed. A stove stand would have been nice though.

Closeup of the Trangia tentpeg stand.

The next morning, Thursday the wind had died down considerably. Sitting on the beach with my coffee I noticed a number panagas (the water taxi boats the locals use) zipping by. I thought that since my re-supply had not shown up the previous day, maybe they were heading out early to meet me?

I decided to hop in the Sunny and check out the waters. I packed lightly and hit the water. After being cooped up for a few days I was anxious to get back out there and paddle.

Once I made it out of the bay I saw that the conditions were nice and it wasn't all that far away to my designated meeting point. So I decided to head on over there and see if they had come to drop my stuff off.

Just past the ridge here is a huge, deeply set bay on Isla Partida. It was not marked as a camping site on my map but it was pretty cool, and worthy of a return trip another time.

I landed on what looked like the nicest beach and looked around. Pretty deserted. After exploring around and enjoying myself I hopped in the kayak for the paddle back. I was a bit disappointed at no supplies...was  really looking forward to a beer! But not a few minutes after getting back on the water my radio crackled to life. It was Chris! He was hitching a lift on my resupply shuttle!

After figuring out exactly where on the islands I was a short time later Chris and the supplies showed up. Only five days late but it was still great to see him.

And not only had Chris kept my case of beer cold for me, he brought me a cold diet coke too! What a treat.
We hung out on the beach for a while as he loaded up his boat and enjoyed a couple of cold beers as well.

Then we headed back to the campsite at El Candelero.

Back at the camp we discovered we had more company. Earlier the guys had told me their clients couldn't get out because of the wind. Well now that the harbour was open again a group of schoolkids had shown up.

Another beautiful sunset.

Chris found a pretty cool spot for his tent too.

The rocky islands in the middle of the bay made for some great snorkeling.

There are rattlesnakes and scorpions on the island but we didn't see any. Just friendly creatures like this guy.

Next day we took a hike down the canyon to see if we could climb to the top of the hills behind us.

Chris made it up a bit further than me. After that adventure I was baking. So we took to the water again to cool off.

Later that night we had a visit from some of the local land creatures. I don't know the names of these things but they are cute ring tailed cats...like cats with raccoon tails. This one was going after our garbage very persistently.

Then, later on at the shoreline, a big green moray eel came out, I guess he was attracted to our flashlights.

Our no-wind streak continued the next day. The outfitters packed up their tent and moved on but we elected to stay on camping here, and do a day trip.

Between the two islands are sand spits. From a distance you can't even tell there's a seperation, but at low tide you can just wade from island to island.

Both of the sand spits on each island are occupied by fisherman's camps. The one on Espiritu Santos seemed deserted, but the one one Isla Partida seemed almost new. They even had satellite dishes.

If we keep going, we'll hit Mazatlan.

Some colourful crabs.

Heading back into the campsite the water was just beautiful. I decided to take advantage and hop out of the kayak for a little swim. I was halfway out of the kayak when the big rock below me sprouted heads and flippers. It was a big sea turtle! Neat. I skipped the swim and paddled around looking for more turtles but alas, just the one.

This was our last night on Espiritu. After returning to the beach we packed up the rest of our stuff and made for a campsite closer to the pickup point.

Waiting for Chris to launch I got my last swim in, just off Candelero, the third island otu in the bay.

El Diablo!

The sunset casts a warm glow over the island's red sandstone. We wound up making camp at the beach I had stopped for lunch on several days ago. Very nice, sandy beach. And some totally cool creatures sharing the beach with us!

What I first thought was a white tarantuala turned out to be a friendly hermit crab.

And that was the end of my camera batteries. I picked up a new camera for the trip, an Olympus waterproof that so far is turning out awesome, except for the crummy battery life.

During the trip the previous day Chris and I had discussed paddling all the way back to La Paz. The next morning neither of us mentioned it. As it turned out it would have been a very long paddle back. And we were looking forward to getting back into La Paz.

The next morning we headed out at 10 am. I wasn't sure what time we would get picked up but I thought that we should be there by noon. And once we got there the panaga was waiting for us, he had only been there about ten minutes. We packed up quickly and bid a sad farewell to the island. I felt bad that because of the mixups that Chris only got five days out there, but we both resolved that we would return.

On the ride back in to La Paz we had one eyebrow raising moment. A small speedboat pulled up us filled with soldiers in camouflage and machine guns. They checked out the paperwork of the boat and chatted in spanish with the driver. Just a little unnerving. We found out later this is a new program of the Mexican government. Random checks of the boats going in and out of the harbour, just to keep an eye on what's going on. Can't blame them really, with what's going on down there.

Back at the hotel the first thing I did was hit the shower and wash off what felt like ten pounds of dirt and sand. I had sprung the extra ten bucks a night for a room with a private balcony and it was wonderful. One of  my favorite hotel rooms I've ever stayed in. We got back in on a monday and didn't leave until Wednesday so we had a bit of time in the town. We hit the bit Mega market to stock up on stuff to bring home and hit the cold beer store. Had a really great day and a half just hanging around, enjoying the balcony and the weather and the cold Modella Negras. And the tacos...oh the tacos...

The return flight was a bit of a hassle. This time they did charge me overweight baggage, so I had to pay a total of $70 for the two bags. Then we had to land in LA and clear customs, which took over two hours and we wound up running for our plane. Luggage didn't make it until the next day, and the yummy pulled pork and beef retort pouches I was bringing back got confiscated by customs. Next time I will plan a bit better and if I have to spend a night in LA on the airline, so be it. Not worth the stress of running for your flight and worrying that you'll miss it.

I really came away from this trip feeling happy, refreshed, renewed and with a new love of Mexico. I plan to return to La Paz as soon as I can, and I've already started researching new kayak trips. Perhaps in the future the BC in the title will also mean Baja Calfifornia.

It was pretty hard to tear myself away but responsibility calls. Now it's time to find a new job. If anyone out there needs a top notch PeopleSoft HCM functional business analyst, let me know! Especially if you're in Baja!