Brandon and Heather's Lake Baikal Photo Essay

Editor's Note:Brandon's world record attempt has been postponed due to the passing of his mother, Janet Lynn Nelson, on the day of the event. WetDawg and the paddling community extend their deepest sympathies to the Nelson family.

Adventure, compassion and a little healthy competition will come together on April 13th when Brandon Nelson of Bellingham, Washington sets out to break the world record in ultra-marathon distance kayaking. At 8:00 AM Brandon will launch his specially designed kayak on Lake Whatcom with the goal of paddling 144 miles in a 24-hour period. Brandon's record-seeking mission has been dubbed KayakForCare, in honor of his mother a former Hospice worker currently waging her own battle against ovarian cancer, now under the care of Hospice. The boat he'll be paddling, CA-125, is named for the blood test that can be used to detect ovarian cancer. KayakForCare is a bittersweet adventure that will hopefully raise people's awareness of ovarian cancer and garner support for the thousands upon thousands that have been touched by Hospice care. WetDawg recently caught up with Brandon to ask him about his goals, the boat and how we can help.

WetDawg: I've heard you're quite the adventurer. Are you an adventure racer? What kind of events do you participate in?

Brandon Nelson: I started ultra marathon kayak racing in 2002, when I teamed up with my friend John Weed in the 460-mile Yukon River Quest. I loved it and, despite typical rookie pain, felt like my body was comfortable with the distance. A month later I teamed up with my wife, Heather, in the 316-mile Lake Michigan Challenge. In that race I had the benefit of Heather's professional adventure racing strategy (she was racing with Team Subaru Adventure Racing at the time) and we won that race overall in 4 days, 12 hours. After that I was hooked. Heather and I also love to set out on the occasional exploratory expedition, but racing is our passion right now.

WD: What made you choose a kayaking record as the one to beat?

BN: Kayaking has been my sport of choice since I started paddling in the Sierra Nevada in 1993. After about ten years of whitewater, Heather and I tried sea kayaking on the Sea of Cortez, and it just clicked with me. I come from a family of golfers—the ultimate seekers of the perfect stroke. I haven't golfed since I was about ten, but I have that gene of wanting to strive for perfect mechanics of the swing…perfect energy transfer. I can fixate for hours on every dip of the paddle, the slightest changes in blade entry or torso rotation. As a sport, kayaking just resonates with me like nothing else I've tried. Striving for any other record would be "work" whereas this one feels very natural to me.

"I come from a family of golfers—the ultimate seekers of the perfect stroke."

WD: What is the current ultra-marathon distance record that you're trying to beat? Who set it and when?

BN: The current world record for miles paddled in a kayak on still water over 24 continuous hours was set in S. Africa on New Year's Day of 1991, by a woman named Marinda Hartzenberg. She paddled 137 miles.

WD: For readers unfamiliar with the Bellingham area, can you describe where you live and a little bit about Lake Whatcom. Is this where you're setting up the course for the record-breaking day?

BN: Heather and I moved to Bellingham in August, 2003, right after we flew home from circumnavigating Lake Baikal in Siberia. We had raced up here in the Spring of 2002 and fell in love with it. It's an epicenter of world class paddling, and the racing community up here is as passionate and open to newcomers as it gets. When we got to Bellingham, we bought a fixer-upper in a forested subdivision called Sudden Valley. The best part is that Lake Whatcom is less than two minutes from our door. The world record course, a 2-mile oval track we set up last week, is about a ten-minute paddle north of the Sudden Valley Marina where we put in. Overall, Lake Whatcom probably isn't technically the best body of water in the world for this record because it gets wind almost every day, but it's the home court and you can never discount that advantage.

WD: Your website mentions that the folks at WWU's Vehicle Research Institute made your boat for you. How did that come about? Can you tell us a bit about the process? How involved were you? What were your specifications? Did they model the boat on anything?