WCSKS 2007

This weekend Jason and I taught at the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium. It continues to be a great venue for new paddlers to get introduced to the sport. In response to last years attendance we had over 40 certified instructors from the US and Canada sharing their expertise. In addition all of the major kayak manufactures had representatives and their boats on hand to answer questions and give people the opportunity to ‘test drive’ their vessels. If you didn’t have a chance to attend this year, mark your calendars for next year. The symposium is held at Fort Worden on the third weekend of September.

We had two keynote speakers this year with Bryan Smith previewing his Pacific Horizon movie. Judging by the response of the audience it was the highlight of the evening. He’s produced his film in HD and it should be available November 1 at paddling.net.

The other big news of the event was IR announcing the winner, and ‘mission’, of this year’s Vacation to Hell. Team Sweetwater grabbed the prize and the mission is to start at the north end of Baffin Island at the town of Pond Inlet in the Canadian high Artic, and then paddle northward towards Devon Island. This will involve a 60 mile open water crossing over Lancaster Sound. From there, the team must make a 45 mile over-land crossing of Devon – The largest uninhabited island in the world. After that, the team will have one last 45 mile open water crossing before arriving at Griese Fiord, a small settlement on the southern end of Ellesmere Island. I’m not sure whether to envy or pity them! Either way it’s going to be a great story.