Sunset over the Ottawa river

Well I am finally winding up another epic spell in Canada.  On Tuesday evening I start travelling toward my next destination of Ecuador.  Right now I am hanging out and kayaking on the Ottawa river and getting pretty stoked on heading somewhere warmer soon.

This weekend just past I had a great time participating the in 4th annual 'Movember kayak race' down the Ottawa.  This is the brain child of local paddler Matt Hamilton as a way of the paddling community to contribute to a mens health charity in a way which is for fun but also a little competitive.  The race is a team race, so if i wanted to race (and have a chance of doing well) I would need a solid partner.  This was a no brainer for me, I just thought to myself, who has beaten me in every race I have done this season? The answer; Team Kokatat teammate Kalob Grady. So I had my partner all set.  The race was from the public put in to take out, given the water level we would be racing down the middle channel with a mandatory portage of the most challenging rapid Garvin's chute.  Since this would mean a lot of flatwater I was stoked to be borrowing Joel Kowalski's Karma Unlimted.  A race boat designed for the Green river race in North Carolina, USA.  The race was a running start (easily more dangerous than any of the rapids).  Kalob and I got ahead early along with one other team (Zach Zwanenburg and Louis-Philipe).  We pushed hard through the first long flat section but didn't seem to be able to shake the other team.  Luckily for us at the second rapid, our local knowledge led us down iron ring which, we knew to be faster.  The visiting team in second decided that little trickle was there best bet, and after that we didn't really see them again until the take out.  We caught glimpses of them all the way but just kept our heads down and pushed on to the takeout for hot chocolates and baileys.  We took the win by almost 3 minutes, the winning prize; Half of the entry fees were donated to our November pages (Which I had to promptly setup).  Felt pretty awesome to donate something to charity, I usually don't, not because I disagree with it or anything, but because I usually don't have much, if any spare money.  STOKED!

This weekend, as with most I woke up to find some emails from my mum.  This is pretty normal as she works super hard, so usually her free time on saurday mornings I will get an email to check in.  Sometimes these have links to interesting or erroneous newspaper articles which my mum thinks I should read.  So I wasn't all that surprised to see one of here emails (there is never just one!) included a link to a abc news article.  When I clicked on the link it went through to an article entitled "What should you do in an attack"  (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34844518) and it gave a useful guide to what to do if you find yourself caught up in a terrorist attack, which sadly seem to be becoming more frequent.  Although this was a useful thing to read, at the same time I felt pretty saddened that we live in this type of world now.   Perhaps if everyone tried kayaking they would just al be happier and get along better but I know there is more to it than that!   But anyway growing up in scouts I was taught to always be prepared, so it is worth giving that article a quick read so you can be prepared if it happens to you. 

Thats pretty much all of now.  IF you aren't already check out my Instagram @seth_ashworth its where it at right now.  

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