::WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS::

It never drizzles in Maui, if there's a drizzle it's because there just was, or soon will be, a torrential downpour of tropical proportions. But, I had a lazy morning taking care of a sore elbow, so the rain wasn't going to keep me from training with the boys this afternoon. We did laps of the airport, 4 of 'em, with a nice cooldown up Baldwin and back. 50km in total, pretty weird how a 50km ride feels kind of "short" for me now... the crazy is contagious!! Thanks to Andrew "I can't believe I wore white today" McCartney and Simon "the meteorologist" Whitfield for a really fun ride, and a wicked training session. After that I headed to the gym, and hammered out some weights; happy to say that the "trim and lean" (didn't say skinny) triathlete look isn't as contagious, as the team's uplifting and welcoming vibes. Hugs all around. Especially for Rapp, two hugs for Rapp... sorry I touched your onions.

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So I will admit to not taking this photo, of a baby humpback whale breaching. BUT, I will add that that Maui Queen Lauren "OC-Wonder" Spalding-Bartlett and I saw exactly that yesterday while we were on the water, just outside Kahalui Harbor yesterday afternoon. It was rainy and overcast, but the baby whale was spectacular. We were clearly interupting baby-whale's breach lesson, cause I heard mom-whale's growl reverberate through my surfski and penetrate my very being with what could have only been mother-whale for "get lost little boats, we're having a special moment". Thanks for an amazing (mental)picture, and have a great swim to Alaska, whales. Speaking of whale babies, I have a big day tomorrow, a big day of training, and it's also the day my lovely mom, Beata birthed me... she never did teach me to breach, and we never swam to Alaska together, but her plankton-stew recipe rivals the best any humpback mom can boast. Thanks ma.

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::100KM BICYCLE RIDE::

Camp Maui Multisport 2009 continues to go incredibly well. Training today was pretty wicked... I had a good swim this morning

(early! check the dark pool! triguys n gals are morning folk), about 2700yds of mostly 50yd sprints, then we did a 3hour bike ride which took 4hours. Check the map for all the places we visited, according to SQW's bicycle tricorder we climbed 3000m throughout the ride, and covered a total of 100km, on the money. That's a very far bicycle ride for me, 1km for every second that my 500m race takes, in a slight headwind. So, my legs are tired. We stopped at a banana bread stand which boasted the "best banana bread on the planet", so we devoured 2 loaves. Given our state of hunger, I don't think anyone was in a position to judge with a particularly worldly bananaloaf standard, so let's just leave it at, "certainly worth the trip to Kahakuloa, banana bread". The views were totally nuts; cliff top ocean vistas, switchback mountain tops, and eerily skinny roads made for a pretty spectacular ride. The top of Haleakala crater is at 10 000ft, about the same amount of climbing we did today, and it's a 100km round trip too... the most glaring and obvious difference between the two rides that ALL of the climbing is done at once, and it's much, much steeper up to the top of this volcano. Outside magazine ranks this climb as the world's best (didn't mention banana bread), and one of the hardest. The great Canadian tour rider (currently at the Tour of Australia), Ryder Hesjedal recently broke the record for it's ascent on a bicycle, awesome... we are considering attempting an ascent, at a much more civilized pace... perhaps including a few stops for a snack of triangle egg sandwich? Simon (and his wonderful family) and I are sharing Ryder's home here in Maui... so big thanks, and good luck in AUS Ryder! Yesterday included a good swim, a great 70min run with Lauren Groves, and a few laps of Kahalui Harbor in the surfski with the Queen of Maui, and OC-1 virtuoso, Lauren Spalding-Bartlett... tomorrow: more swimming, and some serious gym-time, before I lose 25lbs.

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::MAUI MAUI MAUI::

I'm hooked on Maui. Totally sold, it didn't even take a week. This place is awesome. On day 3, my buddies Lauren and Kai took me out on a messy downwinder in the surfski; Lauren and I saw a bunch of humpbacks, they were splashing around seemingly enjoying themselves quite a bit. I wondered for a moment what they think of us, or if they even notice us at all (and I hope they do) as they crash their thousands of pounds of whale-body onto the water surface in a magnificent breach. They are remarkable creatures, and I hope they don't mind us sharing their playground. Since Friday I've been out on the water a few times, once in a Surfski race on Saturday, where I placed something like 3rd, but maybe 5th or maybe not at all, depending on where you look... either way, I had an awesome time, (we saw an orca, or something like an orca cause I don't think Hawaii has a lot of orcas) and was stoked to catch a few decent runners, cause usually I just splash around wasting energy like the flat water meat-head that I am. There are a couple other fun races to do while I'm here... sweet! Today Kai and his boys from the Hawaii Canoe Club brought me out on the north shore in the two-man outrigger, thanks to Phillipe for a wicked session. We paddled a great pace for 2 hours, and saw (read: scared the crap out of...) some huge sea turtles and an enormous manta ray. Phil and I went through one wave in the OC-2 at a pretty steep angle, ended up totally airborne on the other side and came crashing down in the boat pretty quick. I was feeling a little warm and wanted a dip in the ocean anyway ;) ...

Besides paddling in the Pacific Zoo slash Ocean Playground, I've been getting a lot of running and biking in with L'Equipe de Trois Sport as well. Kyle "flex-down" Jones up there (photo credit: Coach "Ruthless Slave-Driver" Joel) is pretty sure he can do more chin-ups than me, but he's been a little quiet since our uphill-sprints set yesterday... Simon "Big Daddy" Whitfield is back from his World Book Signing tour, (he didn't write a book yet, but he'll sign any book you bring him), we had a nice chatting-pace ride to past Kahalui Harbour and back this afternoon to round out a great weekend of Sports. I heart Sports.

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Some great vankayak.com pictures coming soon... check back!

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::ALOHA BABY::

I'm on the Hawaiian island of Maui training with some super-fit triathletes, really hoping it's contagious. Pictured above (L 2 R), pre-ride is Kyle "500 Watts" Jones, Jordan "salt 'n vinegah" Rapp, me: Adam "ass-over-teacup" van Koeverden, Andrew "the beastly barista" McCartney, Jeff "big in Penticton" Symonds, Lauren "the climber" Groves, and Sarah "star-spangled" Groff. Not pictured above is Simon "I heart Edmonton" Whitfield, who will be back tomorrow, Joel "the coach, don't piss him off with any stupid nicknames" Filliol, and of course the "Diaper Duo" Jennie and PK. Today's training was a morning swim and a noon-time ride of about 3h20min, the last 40min of which was a 1500 ft ascent in 30min with a wicked 50kph+ descent in like 6minutes. Yesterday was an all-three sports day, with a great am swim, a quick 70min run in the cane fields with Lauren, and a quick but death-defying ride in the early afternoon. Thanks to Salt 'n Vinegah for my new turquoise tire, and thanks especially to the visually impaired green-bmw lady in Haiku for not making this a one day camp for a few of us, (but coming damn close). I'm really stoked about our three weeks here, excited to get out on the Surfski a bit while I'm here, and truly honoured and humbled by all the wicked tri-folks I have the pleasure of punishing myself with for the rest of the month. Check back for uncharacteristically regular vankayak.com updates and news, and hopefully some awesome photos...
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::RAD CANADIANS::

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To kick off 2009, something new. This is the first of hopefully many installments of a section I'm entitling... "RAD CANADIANS". As the name suggests, these regular vankayak.com posts will highlight the accomplishments, ideas, opinions, projects and awesome stuff that Canadians have going on. This is not to suggest that not all Canadians are Rad, for the most part, we all are... but there are a few unfortunate exceptions; Nickelback and Howie Mandel are decidedly UNrad, certainly among Canada's worst exports. Thankfully, the rad things that Canadians do (invention of insulin and basketball) most definitely supercedes the bad things that Canadians do (baby seal clubbing, allowing Ben Mulroney to be on television). And so, these posts are a testament to all of our homegrown awesomeness.

Rad Canadians [post 1.0]

Solar Car guy Marcelo da Luz

This Torontonian has the World Record for distance driven in a solar car, one which he built. 15,070km, all the way to the end of the Trans-Canada highway, through Alaska to Inuvik. Never heard of/been to Inuvik? That's cause it's like a 3000km drive Northwest of Yellowknife. Read about him in today's Toronto Star newspaper. Despite a terribly negative and pessimistic headline, the (too brief) article does go on to talk about Marcelo's remarkable and incredible drive (both intrinsic and on the tarmac), and his wicked cool car; it looks so much like a UFO, onlookers in Vernon B.C. freak out and almost run into traffic to avoid being abducted by little green men (extra credit given for using 2001:A Space Odessey muzak). I want to know more, this guy is way cooler and way more inspiring than whoever the crap is the next top model or so you think you can dance celeb-reject. Way to go Marcelo, I am a big fan.

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