I am forever mesmerized by the glory of these mountains.


“From the eastern boundary of this vast golden flower bed rose the mighty Sierra, miles in height, and so gloriously colored and so radiant, it seemed not clothed with light but wholly composed of it, like the wall of some celestial city. It seemed to me that the Sierra should be called, not the Nevada or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light. And after ten years of wandering and wondering in the heart of it, rejoicing in its glorious floods of light, the white beams of the morning streaming through the passes, the noonday radiance on the crystal rocks, the flush of the alpenglow, and the irised spray of countless waterfalls, it still seems above all the others the Range of Light.”
– John Muir, First Glimpse of the Sierra


Ashley from Cornwall.


Patrick had a quad, but one of the fin boxes broke. So he decided to saw off the tail, hack a slit big enough to shove a single fin down the middle, and apply a thin coat of something resembling clear nail polish to the exposed foam. Innovative! I paddled out with him but we didn’t sit in the same spot for me to see how his experiment turned out.

I was so excited when Eric R. Lorey, a professor at Cranbrook Upper School, contacted me to let me know he is teaching a new religion and philosophy course that will include the study of Intellasphyxia in its curriculum. Cranbrook Art Museum re-opened on 11-11-11 to include a vast collections vault viewable to the public, particularly to students of the art school and high school. Looking at the syllabus above, this is an ambitious, forward-thinking discourse for the high school level. I’m certain there will be lots of interesting papers to come out of this!


Building swell at nightfall saw tow-in crews and a few prone paddlers in Hanalei Bay.