Kayak Rodeo

Giddy up!

Grab yerself a paddle and that dar thing that floats and show 'em here how a proper rodeo is done.

Kayak rodeos have nothing in common with those involving cows, "chewin' toe-ba-kee" and death... for the cows. In a kayak rodeo there are 4 divisions. Junior (younger than 18), Master (older then 40), Pro (those that make every other kayaker look like a beginner), and Sport (those who are too old for the junior class, too young for the master division, and not good enough to enter the pro class). I entered the Sport Division.

In a horse and cow rodeo the idea is to stay on the animal you are riding or chase down a cow and strangle the poor thing with a rope. The only thing remotely similiar between this kind of rodeo and a kayak rodeo is that you want to stay on the thing you're riding. In a kayak you want to stay in the whitewater part, in kayak jargon it's known as a hole. Once on that hole a kayaker wants to perform as many tricks as possible, in 45 seconds, as the judges add up the points.

I took 4th place, in the Sport division, of six other very skilled boaters. I had somehow sneaked by to 2nd place in the first round, but since I couldn't pull off the front flip, the other kayakers that could surpassed me in points in the second round. I was just completely enthralled to be able to show off my new trick that I learned this summer, the cartwheel. The person in the sport division that took 1st beat all of us by a quadrupleton of points. He was a beast out on the wave and looked like a pro.

After our division, the pro kayakers tore up the wave and had a huge battle that would rival that of WWII. They displayed their skills by launching double helixes, barrel rolls, space Godzillas, flips, endless cartwheels, and so many more that I don't even know the names of. As you can imagine by the names of these tricks they looked incredibly AWESOME. Here's some photos that I took and maybe a video if I can figure out how to host it.

Watch a video!

          Lady kayaker

             Flip

       The colorful boats

  Juniors watching the action

Note: I won't be posting for a week. A family friend is getting married in Colorado. It will be an interesting wedding. The wedding is on his ranch and it is going to be an 1800's style Rendezvous and they are getting married at high noon. The invitation said to come dressed in mountain man attire. Ha! There will be many old west style games and parties going on afterwards and a pig roast.

Creation

The Creation of Adam Michelangelo

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I meticulously completed this drawing on YouDraw. It is made up of three panels, because the drawing pad on YouDraw is too small to fit the whole thing in on one panel. Click on the Creation of Adam above or here to enter my gallery and vote and leave comments. I encourage you to draw something too!

The title of this post is 'Creation' for another reason. I stumbled across a great website yesterday. http://www.keo.org KEO is a satellite built to return to Earth 50,000 years after its launched at the end of 2006. On board it will carry messages that are written by people from all over the world. Describe your life, share a thought, pass on your experiences, aspirations and dreams… The satellite will bring back to our far away descendants every message that each and every one of us puts on board. My message is ready for launch. I found the site a little hard to navigate to get to write your message, so here is a link. Write your message.

Creation of this blog entry is winding down to an end. There's nothing left to write about except that I'm still digging dirt and hauling it away in a six wheeler. The six wheeler, which I have named Drivel because it sounds like it is spitting when it runs, is a lot of fun to drive. I really can't tell you why because it only goes about 25MPH but it does make you feel like you're flying, especially with the wind rushing past, blowing your hair. Ahhhh. Drivel is a great machine, without his help I'd have to use the little, flimsy, whimsy, tipsy turvy, wheel barrow of doom. I have not had a good experience with that contraption as you can probably imagine.

When you wish upon a star

I saw the most fantastic sight the other night, a meteor bright
It torched the sky as it sailed by, past mountains it said goodbye
Now sailing by someone so very far away I wished upon that star
Only darkness now....
May my wish come true?
I only knew that the same stars I view are shining down on you
I wished that you will see them too

~Steve Held

Today I worked hard... The sun was unbearable. Sucking the life out of me, I continued to heave dirt and rock into the back of a six wheeler. Phew... All that work is well worth it though when it inspires drawings like this.

My cousins were here shortly for a visit before heading on to Yellowstone. It was great to see them because we haven't seen each other since Christmas. They were only here a day, on Father's Day, and we cooked up a great feast. I salivated over my personal favorites, barbequed ribs, asparagus, artichoke, and watermelon. MMM mmm MMM mmm good.

Tomorrow is the official day of summer, YIPPEE! I'll be enjoying it... well except for the working part. Next week I'll be entering the kayak freestyle rodeo. I'll have to take some photos of that. Until then remember to look up at the stars.

The Last Supper

Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. ~ Matthew 26:20-23

The Last Supper 

I have just realized some very odd occurences between Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper and my YouDraw drawing of The Last Supper.

Leonardo Da Vinci was commissioned to paint The Last Supper in 1495. Da Vinci wanted to experiment with a new style he had invented - tempera (egg yolk and vinegar) plus oil painting on dry plaster. That way he could use more colors and redo portions if necessary. The painting took him four years to complete - 1495 to 1498. His patrons were furious at the delay but Leonardo refused to go any faster.

Unfortunately, Leonardo's style experiment was a disaster. The paint almost immediately began falling off the plaster, the humidity was causing the paint to separate from the plaster on which it had been painted. Over the years, the piece has been vandalized and nearly fell apart completely.



600 years later - 1495 to 2005, I have made The Last Supper a permanent piece. It took Leonardo Da Vinci 4 years to complete The Last Supper, it took me 4 hours - 5:30PM to 9:30PM. Da Vinci experimented with a new style and I have as well by making this intensely detailed piece on a minuscule drawing pad. His piece suffered vandalism and so has mine with some comments by unscrupulous people. Fortunate for me these comments will eventually be removed by the very hard working and kind YouDraw Volunteers.

A cold in the summer

This morning I woke up with a cold. You know the tight clenched up feeling in the back of your throat? Now I learn that it comes with a cough too. I definitely didn't order this. I hate being sick especially in the summer. I know that you get colds year long but I seriously can't remember the last time I was sick in the warm months. I perservered the sickness in my kayak classes today. The classes were really fun. I had a great group of young kids and that really makes teaching great. I brought a whistle because I knew that I wasn't going to be able to yell at all, heck I couldn't even yell if I wasn't sick but it really did help to get their attention. It is so funny to watch people being introduced to kayaking. I remember when I first started and I was just like them but it still gave me a few chuckles as they were flailing about and tipping over. Those kids just thought I was the greatest because I could roll my kayak back up. The looks on their faces just made my day and I almost lost sense of being sick, but now that I have settled in at home and write this blog entry, it creeps back and attacks my throat again. COUGH COUGH! Excuse me I think I should COUGH go.

Down by the River

I went kayaking today and had a blast. The river is practically flooding, it's so powerful. Never once think for a moment that you can control Mother Nature because she will definitely put you back in your place. Kayaking has made me appreciate nature so much and has allowed me to see parts of the world that truely go unnoticed by everyone else living on it. Tomorrow I'm teaching about six sessions of middle school aged kids some basic kayak techniques. I've done this in the past and have had lots of fun with it.

Here's a couple of recent YouDraw pictures I have completed. Vote for my pictures and leave a comment, I'd appreciate it very much!

What Color Are You?

I took this "color" test the other day to find out which HTML color I am...unfortunately that color was pale blue, not exactly my favorite, but the personality analysis was somewhat correct. Take the quiz yourself and see if you're pleased with the results. Post your color to my comments.

you are lightcyan #E0FFFF

Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well. Your saturation level is very low - you have better things to do than jump headfirst into every little project. You make sure your actions are going to really accomplish something before you start because you hate wasting energy making everyone else think you're working. Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation.

I'm nearly finished with Marc's Black Crowe poster. I'm trying to finish it for his birthday which is in a week. Work that still needs to be done is mainly the stage and then a few highlights/shadow work all over.

The linoleum

It's madcap mayhem at my house. We're in the process of ripping out our carpet, painting the walls, and scrapping linoleum off. Let me personally say on the web that removing linoleum is the worst possible thing ever conceived by mankind. Scrapping, hammering and chiseling take forever and give you the worst blisters. There really is no way to remove this crap! It just seems like I'm slamming into a brick wall each time I try to remove a section. It wears you down too. The other day, as I was working, I noticed an area that resembled a face. Maybe it was the light because I couldn't always find it again but then it would appear again. After a couple of days I noticed it all the time. It looked like a head with a broken neck with two huge eyes that looked at me at a gawky angle. I kept looking over at it. I threw my chisel at it and stomped on it, but it remained. Staring.... I swear I just stared back, maybe hours. The more I looked at it the more it resembled a face. Finally it got to me. I couldn't handle that thing looking at me! In a fit of rage I took a razor blade and scored the entire floor making sure that that hideous face get the blunt of it. I don't think the face even cared let alone that floor! In fact I made more and more hideous faces. Lines crisscrossed here and there plunging off of others commiting suicide at their end. But their eyes still remained. More of them now, laughing staring. My parents thought it was funny. They came in to see that the floor was completely scarred and just laughed at me. They couldn't see the faces. Mom the faces were there! They thought I was funny I think I'm crazy anyway they put me on another task. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Steve Held now Google Top 40

I've finally made the Top 40 on Google, 39 to be exact. Try it for yourself, search for Steve Held on Google.com After a while there I thought I'd never make that list, but I did and it is exciting~!.

 
I also came across a great site while surfing google. I hope you have the Time to check it out.

Where have I been?

I haven't updated in a while and well haven't really had the time. I didn't get my cartoon window painting job this year because the Events Complex had a lawsuit last year and their budget has been significantly cut. My mom tried to get me to apply for a 'real' job but I just couldn't picture myself as a McDonald's whathaveyou. So I held out like Stonewall Jackson until something came along that I might actually like.

Now I wake up every morning at 6am and drive to Rock Springs where I am digging basement window wells and helping to remodel a friend's house. You're probably saying wouldn't McDonalds be better? It may be easier to work there but I hold higher standards and I will never work in a fast food joint or Wal-Mart type store....EVER!

I don't have to give up painting all together either. On the side of his house he has a mural of Wyoming made of sandstone that juts out. It needs to be painted and so I get to have fun doing that. It has everything from Old Faithful, to the Tetons.

I've also been busy over at YouDraw.com Check out some of my recent artwork!