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PETE'S PICKS
The weather forecast is a little iffy this weekend so I thought it would be a great opportunity for you to sit everyone down and actually map/plan out your spring and summer adventures. Pull out the calendar, fire up the internet, call your friends and make some commitments to get outside! Here are few ideas to help get you started:
Get Outside!
Pete Eshelman
Director of Outdoor Branding
Roanoke Regional Partnership
  
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It's Time to Stand Up!
The fast-growing sport of stand up paddleboarding (SUP) is a fun, easy way to go play on the water. With a minimum of equipment, you can paddle anything from ocean surf to lakes and rivers.
Paddleboarding offers an amazing full body workout and is quickly becoming a favorite cross-training activity by many outdoor athletes. And since you're standing at your full height, you'll enjoy excellent views of everything from what's in the water to what's on the horizon. It's almost like walking on water!
SUP changes your perspective; anglers have a better view of fish and can access shallow waters with ease, while white-water enthusiasts now have an added challenge on their every-day runs.
Tangent Outfitters is providing a course on stand up paddleboarding at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center on April 3. This course is the first step to getting out and standing up on the hundreds of miles of rivers and lakes located throughout the Roanoke, VA region.
This two-hour paddleboarding adventure will start with teaching the following:
- Getting familiar with the parts of a stand up paddleboard and stand up paddle
- Basic safety precautions for getting on and off a stand up paddleboard
- How to wear your pfd
- On water safety
- Paddling on your knees and most importantly standing up to paddle and various stances.
- How to get back on the board in deep water.
- Effective forward stroke, back stroke, sweep stroke, J-stroke.
- How to paddle forward, spin, stop, brace, turn, and move sideways
This April 3 course is $65 per person - Contact Tangent Outfitters at: 540-626-4567 - space is limited.
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29,035' and Full of Trash
 In the spring of 1994 Steven Goryl led the first environmental expedition, Sagarmatha Environmental Expedition, to the top of Mt. Everest (29,035 ft) via the Nepal side of the mountain. The group included five climbers, with five sherpas; two of the team members made the summit without oxygen, becoming the 3rd and 4th Americans to do so. The expedition was unique and precedent setting because the team removed 5,000 pounds of trash (bottles, tent poles, fabric, plastic, etc.) from the mountain! Since this 1994 expedition the government of Nepal requires every group attempting to summit to remove at least 2,000 pounds of trash from the mountain, thus cleaning up a once filthy world wonder. The American Alpine Club awarded the entire expedition the David Brower Award for Environmental Action. Come hear Steven Goryl's recap. This high-energy 90 minute presentation explores how he planned the climb, what it took to pull it off, the pitfalls and problems they encountered while attempting the summit. Finally he ends with a question and answer period. Gorgi brings unique items from his climb that the audience can feel and touch as well as pictures and video from the trip. Details:
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Help the Blue Ridge Marathon
The Rotary Club of Roanoke Downtown's community service project this year is to recruit and manage volunteers for the Blue Ridge Marathon. They are making great progress, but still need a few more volunteers. Join community members and help ensure participant's of America's Toughest Road Marathon have an experience to remember!
There are two types of volunteer positions that still need filling:
- Course Marshals - Responsible for directing runners and ensuring their safety as they cross street intersections. You are assigned to a specific location.
- Barricade Brigade - Help move road barricades at specific intersections during the race.
Time commitments:
- Most positions require you to be present 7am-3pm on April 16, however there are some that require less time. If you can't commit to 7am-3pm but want to be involved, email your availability to beth.pline@rso.com.
To volunteer:
- Click here to access the online volunteer registration page.
- Mark either Course Marshal or Barricade Brigage (Saturday, April 16 only)
- Check in at the runner expo (April 15 (4-8pm) at the Taubman Museum)
- All volunteers will receive a "Sherpa" volunteer shirt
Questions:
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First Ever Atlantic Crossing in Sea Kayak
Yesterday we discovered a great story about Aleksander Doba, a paddler who completed the first ever crossing of the Atlantic in a sea kayak. The journey took just shy of 99 days to complete and covered 3352 miles. What's amazing is that Aleksander is 64 years old.
via Jon Bowermaster...
An obscure Pole named Aleksander Doba has pulled off a somewhat obscure first: sea kayaking across the breadth of the Atlantic Ocean in 98 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes, the longest open ocean kayaking adventure ever.
Leaving quietly from Dakar on October 26 and spending much of the first two months fighting into relentless winds and currents which kept pushing him north, it seemed - if you followed the GPS tracker online - that the 64-year-old Doba was going in circles, or repeating some kind of weird figure-8 patterns.
A straight line from Dakar to his finishing point in Fortaleza, Brazil, would have been just less than 2,000 miles. Of course thanks to winds, storms, currents and the two hours he slept each night, there are no straight lines in ocean paddling. In the end he paddled a total of 3,352 miles (average speed: 1.4 miles per hour; average daily distance, 33.5 miles; longest day, 78.6 miles).
Doba is hardly a novice to the kind of physical strength and mental endurance necessary for long solo paddles. Though this time he embarked in a sophisticated, 23-foot kayak with monster roll bars and a pair of flotation cabins at either end - he had previously kayaked more than 40,000 miles, including a 2,600-mile trip around the Baltic Sea in 1999, a 3,300 mile journey from Poland to Norway in 2000 and a 1,200 mile circumnavigation of Lake Baikal last year.
Continue reading the story>>>
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Upcoming events to keep your eye oN
- Weekly bike rides throughout Roanoke & NRV Valley
- Monday Bike Polo
- Tuesday Tune Ups
- Dragons Tooth Hike Followed by Dinner at the Home Place - 4/2
- Intro. to Caving - 4/2
- Stand Up Paddleboard Clinic - 4/3
- Wednesday Night Disco Spring Mt. Bike Race Series - 4/6, 4/20, 5/4, and 5/18
- 32nd Annual Clean Valley Day - 4/9
- Mill Mountain Mayhem 10K Trail Run - 4/9
- National College Blue Ridge Marathon - 4/16
- Down by Downtown Music Festival (part of marathon) - 4/16
- Twilight Bicycle Criterium Race - 4/16
- National Paddling Film Festival - 4/22
- Canoe Demo at Carvins Cove - 4/23
- Tree Top Canopy Tour - 4/30
- Backpacker Magazine's GET OUT MORE TOUR - 5/7
- BrewRidge Music Festival - 5/7
- Smith Mountain Lake Triathlon - 5/7
- Trail Nut 10K & Half Marathon Trail Run - 5/7
- Gallop 4 The Greenways - 5/14
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Roanoke Regional Partnership · 111 Franklin Plaza, Suite 333 · Roanoke, VA 24011540.343.1550 X 104 · www.roanoke.org
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