How does a retired IBM business manager fill his time after
working with the same company for 38 years? Ken Brunton had no
problem answering this question. Spending time with Laura, his wife
of 44 years, is top on the list, but kayaking is a close rival.
Brunton, who is 64, has been kayaking for about 20 years. But since
he retired two years ago, he
’s been able to devote more time to the sport, like almost every
weekend. He’s got 13 and a half kayaks in his home to prove it.
He’s already built one himself, and he’s busy making another.
How does a retired IBM business manager fill his time after working with the same company for 38 years? Ken Brunton had no problem answering this question. Spending time with Laura, his wife of 44 years, is top on the list, but kayaking is a close rival.
Brunton, who is 64, has been kayaking for about 20 years. But since he retired two years ago, he’s been able to devote more time to the sport, like almost every weekend. He’s got 13 and a half kayaks in his home to prove it. He’s already built one himself, and he’s busy making another.
The Bruntons have lived just about everywhere – Germany, New York, different places in California and even Paris – before moving to Morgan Hill 20 years ago. It was in New York, where his kayaking began “by accident,” according to Brunton.
Brunton happened to see an advertisement one summer for a three-day kayaking class with a whitewater school. It was something to do, so he, and two of his sons – Ian, who was 14 at that time, and Colin, 12, enrolled in the course.
“And Ian and I have been doing it ever since,” said Brunton. Ian, a graduate of Foothills College and the University of Alaska, once worked as a river guide and now works on the Alaskan pipelines. Father and son have the same adventurous spirit, said Laura.
Kayaking is the sport of moving a boat with a double bladed paddle from a sitting position, as opposed to canoeing, which uses a single bladed paddle while in a kneeling position. There is white-water kayaking, which is done on moving water through river rapids, and then there is sea kayaking, which captures the excitement of the waves in oceans and lakes. Brunton does both.
Most important, kayaking is a skill, according to Brunton, and as with anything to do with water, he advised, there’s always safety in numbers, whether you’re a fair-weather kayaker, paddling along Monterey Bay, or the serious kayaker, like Brunton, who has ventured off through icebergs in Patagonia and into the Ecuadorian jungles.
“Especially for whitewater kayaking, for safety reasons, it’s good to be in a group of two to three people,” Brunton said.
Whitewater kayaking is an especially skill-intensive sport, said Brunton.
“I like the dynamics of it, it’s challenging and exhilarating. There are gradations of difficulty. Not all rapids are created equal. You need time to build up your skill.
“To borrow somebody else’s quote, ‘It’s like taking an exciting roller coaster ride and putting you in control.’ I don’t like to go in a place I don’t know anything about; you can get killed doing that. It’s extremely easy to get trapped, and the waters can be violent,” Brunton warned.
And this veteran kayaker has had his share of close calls. His scariest experience happened about 10 years ago, when he got stuck in a horizontal whirlpool at the north fork of the American River in the Sierras.
“It was pretty humiliating because it happened in front of half of the best teams in California,” Brunton chuckled. “You get stuck in this hole, the water turns, and it can be difficult to get out of. You can get stuck there talking to God for a very long time.”
Brunton has seen many other beautiful and exotic places on his kayaks. He’s traveled the Canadian Barrens, and to the Arctic. He’s been to Ellesmere Island, an island in Nunavut Territory in northern Canada, in the Arctic Ocean separated from Greenland by a narrow passage and just 800 miles from the North Pole. He’s kayaked along the Merced River coming out of Yosemite, which he describes as “an undammed river with beautiful water quality and a natural run-off.”
His favorite spot is paddling around the Queen Charlotte Islands, in Haida Gwaii, just off the coast of British Columbia.
Most of all, Brunton is in love with the beauty kayaking offers.
“It takes you to places you otherwise can’t get to. There are such beautiful places, especially in Haida Gwaii, which has the protective wilderness, a park, an interesting culture, with abandoned villages and great people,” he said.
Brunton is a member of the Loma Prieta Paddlers, a South County group of kayakers that frequents the rivers on the western slope of the Sierra and many other places. Next year, he hopes to venture off to the Yukon River.
“I’m really looking forward to that experience!” Brunton said.
Local Stories explores the lives of Morgan Hill residents every Tuesday in the Morgan Hill Times. To suggest a subject for Local Stories call Editor Marcus Hibdon at 779-4106 or e-mail [email protected]
