Found this old photo of Petey and .... I always wanted to win the Stilson canoe race As a young kid I was so impressed with the winners the great rivalries that formed Who was going to win this year ? New records .... Essentially the race is in fact quite short 2.5 miles of flat water padling Balls to the wall paddling I may add Followed by a 1500m portage on a flat lumber road ( Wide for passing ) Then putting in for a final 1 mile paddle where we finished under a a small bridge Spectators were numerous and many ran along the portage or waited at the canoe put in to see who would crest the hill first and be first team at the end of the portage ( usually the winning team ) The CBC made a film documentary one year The guys producing must have done the race ! :-)) They had to censor some of the swear words heard during the race :-)) From the age of 16 on I attempted to win that race Came close but never won ( 5 years ) I trained year round to better my physical condition Had 4 different partners At the age of 16 I was the youngest ever to participate We were 13th at the beginning of the portage 3rd at the end My reputation was made as the fastest single canoe portager Canoes weighed 90 - 100 lbs I weighed 147 lbs at 16 But I could run with a canoe Fast ! Unfortunately my partner Paul Laurier ( Sir Wilfrid Laurier's grandson ) and I dumped on the way in at the canoe put in We finished last But I had passed a lot of my heroes on the portage Stu Lang wide reciever for the Edmonton Eskimos football team and a host of others The bug was set ... I needed to win that race One year after a summer long canoe trip where I made the decision to leave the bow and reinvent myself as a sterns man ( back of canoe ) I modified the sternstroke during training all of Quetico canoe trip in anticipation of the upcoming race. Decided to use a bowman's paddle ( pulls more water ) The J stroke was transformed into a short flick of the wrist without prying off the canoe gunnels Essentially the J stroke is a steering stroke It is also a stopping motion The less you J The faster you go ! ( Paddle like a bowman ) Well Peter snuck up on me two weeks before the race just before dinner one evening after my summer long canoe trip (where I always was in training ) and asked Guy .... Wanna do the race ? Peter is 5ft 5 inches tall 165 Lb of pure muscle All torso Short but powerful legs As a rugby player he was recruited by the Toronto Argonauts football team We tried to do the course and see how compatible we would be The minute he put his back easily into the stroke I felt a whoooosh Pure power without the effort Imagine the day of the race I always goosebumps remembering the magic of that first stroke It was as if we had been a team for 20 years Well my first time with Pete we set a course record of 28.48 Two more years we set a new record each time The record we set in 1978 still stands 28.08 They have shortened the course by 30-45 seconds Still holds ! I used to have a bet with Pete that i was a faster runner with the canoe than him with the paddles :-))) We would literally race one another The competition was too far behind That is how records are set It was a close race 6 minutes17 seconds for slightly over 1500 meters of portaging Now they use the two man canoe portaging technique In this Stilson era the winner's times are about 2 minutes slower ? Maybe they do not train as hard Or the partners are a portaging unit We were too busy racing one another :-)) Pete reminded me that he was always the winner That I was always 2nd He is the bowman ( Front of the canoe ) He set the records cuz he was under the bridge first :-)) g Montreal Two pictures of the canoe racing author can be seen in the evolution set

Had nothing else to photograph so i thought id do a quick lil' HDR of my dads extremely old Stilson (monkey) wrench. I really love the battered and well used look and texture on this thing. used a concrete slab as a backdrop. Oh and btw, it was a sigma 70-300 macro used on this, a brilliant macro lens, but not much else.