Joe O'Blenis takes his first paddle stroke in his bid to set a new record for circumnavigating Vancouver Island.

Joe O'Blenis returns to take back Vancouver Island kayaking speed record

NANAIMO, BRITISH COLUMBIA, August 19, 2010 - Joe O'Blenis is underway in his bid to win back the speed record for circumnavigating Vancouver Island.

Joe, a resident of Thunder Bay, ON, left the Brechin boat ramp in downtown Nanaimo this morning with a SPOT GPS satellite message reading "I'm right here and all is GREAT." The official launch time: 8:15:16 a.m. PST. His target to complete the 1,150-km journey is 17 days, 4 hours and 49 minutes, which means he has to return to the same spot by rounding the island by Sept. 5 at 1:04 p.m.

Joe first completed the circumnavigation in 2007 in 23 days, setting the record for the fastest solo time around the island. That record was broken in 2008 by Sean Morley of California, who shaved six days of Joe's time not by encountering ideal conditions but rather by pushing through some of the worst with occasionally Herculean efforts. He completed the journey with several back-to-back 100-km days of kayaking.

Joe left from Nanaimo (home of the office of Coast&Kayak Magazine) as an ideal base camp for this bid, convenient to the ferry and his on-land support network, but strategic also for being able to time his passage of the first hurdle: Seymour Narrows, a difficult and potentially dangerous tidal passage north of Campbell River.

While conditions are currently looking favorable for the next hurdle after Seymour Narrows - Johnstone Strait, a passage notorious for its strong winds that normally funnel northwest, a direction that could significantly hinder his speed - Joe's fortunes soured from the outset as low winds forecast for the first day in the Strait of Georgia turned into a morning wind warning overnight, with winds as high as 25 knots scheduled to oppose him. Joe had planned an 88-km first day ending at a campsite north of Denman Island near Comox. The new wind conditions put that in doubt.

To break the record, Joe will have to average about 70 km a day of paddling. The average speed for a kayak is about 5-6 km per hour. His strategy for beating Sean: "Paddle faster."

"When I did it before the previous record had been 28 days, so I did it fast enough to knock a big chunk of time off of that. I did it basically as a tour as opposed to an actual race. This time it is a 16 to 18 stage race where the approach is simply to go hard, go long and fast, minimize the stops, no sleeping in this time, get up early, and one goal alone: go fast."

Major obstacles along the route include some tough stretches of open coast notorious for their storms, such as Cape Scott and Brooks Peninsula. For any, a prolonged stretch of unfavorable weather can mean becoming unable to make the crossing, and any delay for more than a few days will put a chance of setting the record out of sight.

"I'm hoping for good weather, but I'll take whatever I can get," Joe said minutes before his departure. " If I can get good weather I don't see a problem breaking the record again. If I get weather-bound somewhere for three or four days I'll be basically ---- It's all weather dependent."

To follow Joe's progress day by day through his SPOT messenger page or on Coast&Kayak Magazine's Great Island Race page. Coast&Kayak Magazine kayaked with Joe for the first portion after his launch.