Water-ful long weekend
Originally published at jkparker.ca. Please leave any comments there.
Much of my Canada Day long weekend was spent competing in fun sporting activities that gave me the opportunity to enjoy some wonderful Vancouver area lakes.
I did a triathlon at Whonnock Lake on Sunday that included an 800m swim. I’d never been to the area before and was pleasantly surprised with the lovely lake and beach area. I was also pleasantly surprised by the water temperature: It was a balmy 18 degrees, so I opted not to wear my wetsuit. Transitioning from the swim to the bike was a breeze since I didn’t have to spend any time struggling to de-suit!
Then, on Canada Day I did an open water swim at Sasamat Lake. The extremely hot weather we’d had over the weekend made the water even warmer there (21 degrees!) and I again went sans-wetsuit. My time for the race was definitely a bit slower without the extra buoyancy - I’d never swum that far in open water without a wetsuit before and didn’t realize how much harder it would be - but the cool lake water felt great on such a hot day.
I took a quick nap at home after the swim, then Dan and I decided to take advantage of 2-for-1 Tuesday at Ecomarine Kayaks; On Tuesdays you can rent two single kayaks for $34 plus tax. They’ve got a rental place at English Bay, just steps from our apartment, but in our year of living in the neighbourhood we had yet to check it out.
The rental was for two hours, and we spent that time paddling out past Third Beach, then back to Granville Island, and finally returning to English Bay. Because it was a holiday there was a lot of boat traffic on the water and it was a bit choppy. One powerboat full of idiots decided it would be absolutely hilarious to zoom around us doing donuts! We still had a great time, though, and have made a reservation for next Tuesday evening when the water should be much calmer and relatively powerboat-free.