Fastest yet

Three years ago Thunder Bay’s Joe O’Blenis set the world record for the fastest travel time around Vancouver Island in a kayak.

A year later, Britain’s Sean Morley broke O’Blenis’ record of 23 days, finishing the trip in 17 days, four hours and 49 minutes.

"Just smoking fast and everybody started asking me if I was going to go back out," O’Blenis said.

After some coaxing from friends and a couple of glasses of wine, he decided to try to break the record again. And on Sept. 4 he succeeded, finishing the 1,150-kilometre journey 16.5 hours faster than Morley.

He knew he had Morley’s record beat on the last day and said he was really pushing it this time, averaging 70 kilometres per day.

"I wasn’t going back to British Columbia just to go around the island," he said. "If I didn’t believe I could beat the record, I wasn’t going this time."

O’Blenis prepared with a lot of training before setting his kayak into the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 19 to begin the trip. He spent about 15 hours each day on the water paddling and only stopped to eat and sleep.

"There were evenings where I’d be pulling into a campsite after dark, literally running up the beach with my gear, setting up the tent as fast as I can, making a meal and eating and within 45 minutes I’m asleep," he said. "There really wasn’t a lot of time for exploring, walking up and down these beautiful beaches."

Paddling with his father since he was 11 years old, O’Blenis said he loves the peacefulness of being out on the water, whether it’s an early morning paddle on a calm lake, fishing from a canoe or racing to a finish line.
Just being out on the water trying to beat Morley’s time meant a lot to O’Blenis and he said it was a tough trip.

"I was sore. My hands were a mess, covered in blisters and it was good to be done," he said. "The last week of the trip I swore I would never do it again."

But those thoughts didn’t last long once he was finished. He’s already been thinking back to where he could have gone a bit faster and he lost almost a whole day on the water when he experienced problems with his boat. He had to have another one shipped across the island to him.

"I could probably do the trip maybe two days faster, three days faster," he said.