Why I've Been Quiet This Winter - and What's Next

This winter was hard, but I'm improving. I wanted to share where I'm at, what I've got planned for this season, and what I'm really excited about. So I was very quiet this winter. I think I posted one video in the past five months. That's not normal. And that's because it was a tough winter. I've been dealing with back-to-back frozen shoulders. My right shoulder froze too. It started freezing two years ago, put me out for almost a year. I got back for about two months of paddling. I was having such a great time early last season, and then my other shoulder started to freeze on me. And it went through the same process. I stopped paddling July 15th, and I knew by around August 15th that it was freezing. And here we go again. And it was nice to know what it was. The first time around, for the first three months, I didn't know. The doctors didn't know. Physiotherapists didn't really know. They were guessing it was freezing. But this time we knew much quicker, and I knew how to deal with it once we realized, I realized, it was freezing. And so it was a little easier to deal with it because of that. But at the same time, I also knew how long the recovery was going to take. And so that was just frustrating. It was a frustrating winter going through the same thing again, the long rehab. And then on top of that, I dealt with a more significant health issue for, well, for a couple of months this winter that really took me out. And, but I'm dealing, I'm doing so much better now. The shoulders are doing quite well. I'm ready to start paddling again. And even though after my winter's challenges, I'm, there's about 25 pounds less can, I'm ready to get my strength back and, and get going again. And I've got some trips I'm super excited about. So I wanted to just take this time to do a quick update, let you know how I'm doing much better. I'll let you know what my plans are for this season and tell you some things I'm really excited about for 2026. My plans this season are to do a lot of what I've done in the past, which has been on this channel, the Paddle TV channel, uh, instructional videos and kayak reviews. Primarily, not just kayaks, but primarily kayak. Probably do a few less reviews this year, simply because I've reviewed almost a hundred boats over the past four years. And there aren't as many boats that I'm excited to review. I mean, there's still lots out there to do, don't get me wrong, but it's also actually getting more difficult to get kayaks to review. Some companies just, they don't want to, not me to review their boats, but then there's other companies where just the shipping of boats of kayaks these days is really costly and a big pain. And so I get it. So we'll, uh, we'll be doing some reviews, but not a ton, a lot more instruction, uh, on this channel for sure. You know, what I'm really going to continue to focus on with all the content is helping people get the most of the time on the water, whether it's beginners, making sure they're using the right equipment, uh, doing it safely and most productively. So they have the best time possible and don't have a crappy, scary or uncomfortable time or experienced paddlers and, uh, who, uh, who want to push things further, who want to try new things, who want to continue to learn because, you know, that's what, you know, keeps us coming back is feeling like we're progressing and learning. So a lot of everything this year on my Ken Whiting Adventures channel, my other YouTube channel, which is dedicated to backcountry adventures, I started that one only about a year and a half ago and got quite a few good adventures up there, but not nearly as many as I'd hoped thanks to the shoulders. But I have got a number of doozies planned this year. I had to postpone a number of backcountry trips that I had planned for last summer and fall. I'm going to be doing those this spring and early summer and planning some more for later summer in the fall. A couple of the ones I'm really excited about in the near term are, uh, I'm excited to go to the north channel of Georgian Bay. I love Georgian Bay. Georgian Bay is just awesome. The north channel of Georgian Bay is, well, it's further north. It's still part of Georgian Bay, but it's kind of separate from Georgian Bay. I've never been there before. There's a ton of exploring to do there. The other place, the other trip I'm super excited about is, uh, back to Lake Superior, going to the Slate Islands. It's this little archipelago about seven miles, I think, seven or eight miles offshore. So it's a bit of a crossing on Lake Superior to get there, but it's as cool, looks like a really cool group of islands with, um, a population of woodland caribou. One of the things I am going to focus on a bit more with my adventures, and this is for a couple of reasons, um, are more accessible adventures. I've always loved epic trips, epic adventures, but epic trips are something that not many people can actually do themselves. And sometimes the best adventures, the most beautiful places, the the coolest experiences, they aren't the furthest away. They aren't the most remote. They can be almost like a backyard trip. Something that's just much more accessible, that more, a lot more people can actually consider doing themselves. So I'm going to focus a bit more on those, partly because I think it's really, that's something that's missing in the industry, is seeing what's possible, not just for the highest end adventurers, but for the common, more common adventure. But also because I'm coming off of two years of paddling very little. And, uh, you know, I gotta, I need some time to build my strength back up. But also, I can't believe I'm actually saying this because I'm having paddled so much over 35 years, I've never felt my confidence compromised. But I need to build my confidence back up. And that's my confidence in, for one thing, my body being able to handle these backcountry adventures. But also, you know, I just haven't been paddling that much over the two years. Now, paddling's like riding a bike. It's going to come back very quickly, but it's those rougher conditions. It's those windier conditions. It's when you just haven't done it as much as you normally do it. You know, for me, it's just in the past two years, only two months, I've been able to paddle. The confidence isn't where I want it to be. I know it's going to come back quick, but I'm not in a rush either. One thing I definitely learned over this winter when going through some hard times was the things I really missed weren't the epic adventures. It wasn't this adrenaline withdrawal. It was just being outdoors, being out here, you know, being on the water. It was having those experiences either alone or with family and friends. It was those times at camp, sitting around camp and seeing the shadows lengthen at the end of the day, or the sun coming up, the smells around camp, the sounds. I mean, all of that stuff. That is what I really missed the most. It wasn't about these epic trips. I still like to believe and I still think I will have some epic trips in my future. Actually, that's not even fair to say. Epic is all relative. And for right now, for me, an epic trip is just going to be an overnight trip right now, doing something that I haven't been able to do for the past two years. Yeah, I've got epic trips coming up, but they're more accessible epic trips in the short term, which I'm really excited about sharing. And so there you go. That's what I'm up to. Sorry, I've been so quiet for the past while. And thank you for sticking with me for for hanging around and for the extremely supportive comments that have that you've left. It's it's been really awesome. No, it's such a great paddling community is is such a great community. Stay tuned. I am getting going again soon, but the ice is still here. So I can't create content very quickly right now. But it will ramp up quickly as I'm able to get up, get out on the water. So we'll see you again very soon with hopefully a more interesting video for you on the water. More interesting for me too, on the water. In the meantime, subscribe to PaddleTV if you haven't already and to my other channel, Kinwinding Adventures. We'll see you again very soon. Much sooner.