Biking

Pictures from the downhill mountain biking weekend at Boyne Highlands. There were lots of tumbles, but no major injuries. Jon F. hit a tree while airborn, and needed to get a bag of ice from the bar for his shoulder. However, I think Mike got the award for going over the handle bars the most times. Must be the bike ;-)

Tara's Graduation

Tara graduated from Delta College on Friday May 1.  To celebrate we had a graduation party for her on May 2, and also celebrated Chad's 30th Birthday.  Mike, Brooke, Paul, Erin, Nick, and Julie were all able to make it to the party, and were very helpful making party preparations. Picture album.

FEOR O2 Rebreather

I was playing with the small oxygen rebreather I built, last night in
the pool. Filmed using the underwater camera housing that I built.

I spent about 50 minutes breathing on the unit, using three pounds of soda-lime CO2 absorbent and less then half of the small O2 tank on my chest in the video. I'm sure I could have easily gone for another hour without surfacing. 20 feet is the maximum depth for this purely oxygen rebreather. The limiting factor is the exposure to pressurized oxygen (1.6 BAR) on the nervous system. Exposure to 1.6 BAR Oxygen (1.6 PPO2) should be limited to 45 minutes, that's why I only stayed down for 50 minutes (wasn't at 1.6 PPO2 the entire time).

Second Kayak

I've started building a second kayak.  I'm planning to laminate birch plywood for the cockpit coaming on this one.  In addition I found a local mill that will sell white oak to me for cheap.

First Paddle

This post is a little late, but I wanted to get the pictures on here anyway. Tara and I took the kayak over Caro to do a test paddle. The kayak rode very well on the roof of the Durango, and it should not be much of a problem to transport it for longer durations. The scaling worked well as there was plenty of freeboard, and no leaks to be found. I plan still to add a lip to the coaming so that I can use a spray skirt with the boat. I have waterproof fabric and bungee cord to make the skirt, so that will be one of my next projects. I'm also working on building hardboard templates so that I can build another identical kayak using the router to cut out the bulkheads. I'm excited for spring so that we can take the kayak out again.

Colorado

The first week in September I visited my sister in Colorado.  We did a lot of mountain biking, hiking, and brewery tours.  I had the oppurtunity to sample 40 different local beers over the week, with my favorite being a seasonal "Agave Wheat" from the Breckenridge Brewery.  We also were able to kayak a white-water portion of the upper Colorado River in an inflatable "Ducky" kayak.  Click the image below to see the full gallery.

Kayak

I've completed and varnished the frame of the kayak. Pictures have been added to the photo album of the completed frame. I've also pre-drilled holes into the frame for mounting tie-down gear straps for stowing equipment on the decks. Currently, I'm in the process of sewing the skin onto the frame. Progress is slow, and my fingers are blistered, but the results so far look very acceptable in regards to skin tightness. Once finished with the sewing I will heatshrink the polyester for an even tighter fit before sealing the fabric. I've also included pictured of the coaming that I've been working on. I drew up the pattern for the coaming with CAD software and printed it full-size for a template. Bending the strips around the coaming template went easily with just the use of hot water. However, getting a tight fit between the laminations with the few clamps that I have proved challenging. I will need to do considerable touch-ups to fill in the gaps, and then sand them smooth before sewing the coaming into the skin.