RiverGrizzly

A Lot of Catching Up to Do

Well, the kayak class took its toll on my time and tax season didn't help. So here we go with another attempt to post more often.

I've been thinking lately about a couple of boating disciplines that are not very well known. I'll reveal more in the future but, just to make a list in no particular order off the top of my head:

Canoe sailing is one of the oldest small craft activities. In fact, at one time, in the mid-1800s, almost all canoes had sailing rigs. Today, canoe sailing is becoming a lost art. In fact, canoing is becoming a lost art, but more on that another time.

There are still a lot of sailing resources available and quite a few dedicated boaters. Here's a good place to start: Carl and John's Paddlin' page. Also, take a look at this Australian Canoing site.

Canoe Poling is also an early art from the days when the boats were used for work and not just recreation. The advantage of using a pole over a paddle is that you can go upstream with a pole. That might come in handy if your goal was to leave civilization rather than crash into it. Start by checking out the American Canoe Association page on the subject. And here's another resource: Bushwhacker

Next, dragon boats. A dragon boat is, well, see for yourself: Philadelphia Dragon Boat Festival. That event is close to home but there are races all over the country:  Massachusetts , Texas, Tennessee, California, Colorado, and the world too: Ottawa, Africa, UK.

The last sport that comes to mind is outrigger. Here's a Hawaiian group, and another, where it all started. There is also Northern California, where the water is a lot colder than in Hawaii. And let's not forget Boston and my friends in New York, just to name two more.

More information about these and other boating specialties is on the way.

Broken Resolutions

The results are in. I broke my resolution to post often after the very first New Year's post. Teaching the kayak class is going well but taking energy away from this blog.

Here's what we've been doing in class and I hope to post some of the information soon:
Types of boats
Basic strokes
Safety and rescue
Knots and car topping

More to come.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everybody. I've been preoccupied with other things but I've resolved to post more regularly this year.

In a few days my 2008 Winter kayak class begins, Jan 6, to be exact. This class is at the Lafayette College pool in Easton, PA and is open to everybody. Class begins at 5:30 pm and runs for 8 weeks. If you don't have a boat you can rent one, cheap.

And speaking of cheap, the class is pretty affordable too. For more information go to the Lehigh Valley Canoe Club website.

I'll be posting class notes here too. So keep checking back.

Kayak Class 1

It's that time of the year again when the Lehigh Valley Canoe Club is planning its Winter kayak class at the Lafayette College pool in Easton, PA. If you live in the Easton, PA area and environs, which include Harrisburg to New York City and Philadelphia to Scranton, and you have wanted to learn to kayak in a safe environment, you should consider this course for beginners to intermediate boaters.

I teach this course and it runs Sunday evenings for seven to eight weeks, depending on what we can negotiate with the college. We don't have a start date yet but we will know pretty soon. Keep monitoring the Lehigh Valley Canoe Club web site for information.

You can look at a general course outline here. We've been fortunate, in the past, to be able to combine the Winter pool class with an outing in the Spring. I hope to do that again this year.

Since none of the instructors get paid, the cost is very affordable. The money for the course goes to pay for the pool and expenses, basically. If you need a boat, we can probably provide one, for a nominal fee.

See you there.

Freedom of the Seas

I wrote a nice email to BoatU.S. complimenting them for opposing more regulation and licensing. (See the last post) I got a nice email back that was a little non-committal about licensing. That's because a poll of BoatU.S. members showed that the majority, 61%, favored mandatory education for boaters. More than half disagreed with having to carry a separate boating license, however.

That's not a huge blow for freedom. There are very few of us left who believe that freedom for it's own sake is a value and that freedom doesn't require justification. Why automatically assume that freedom will be abused? Remember, it's in your own best interest to get educated about boating. You don't want to end up a statistic. That's what this blog and RiverGrizzly.com are about, educating boaters.

If you disagree with me and believe that education should be mandatory or that small craft operators should be licensed, then start with yourself and take a safe boating course or a kayak course or a canoe course. If enough of you succeed in making education mandatory then I can shut down this site and do more boating myself.

Alright, I'll get off of my soapbox now. I just wanted to tell you something about my motivation for this blog and RiverGrizzly.com. Next time I'll return to education.

Canoe Licenses?

I've been away for a while to work on AshleyMcRoy.org. a site dedicated to a very young lady with cancer. Visit and donate.

According to Fur-Fish-Game magazine, Congress, at the urging of the Administration, is considering legislation that would require the licensing of all boaters, in the name of national security.

The president of BoatU.S., Nancy Michelman, is opposed to licensing. The magazine quotes her as saying, "Calls by Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Coast Guard officials that recreational boating would be safer if boaters were 'certified' and required to show proof of identification is just not backed up by the facts." And, "The rate of recreational boating fatalities per 100,000 boats has been cut by 75 percent and the number of boating fatalities has been reduced by 58 percent since ... 1971."

Read more here and here.

Instead, Michelman advocates boaters carry their driver's licenses or some other form of identification, just as airline passengers must. And, if the Coast Guard expanded the Waterway Watch program, there would be thousands of eyes patrolling our waters. She said, "Requiring millions of recreational boat owners to be licensed and tasking the already overburdened Coast Guard with implementing a duplicative system solely to identify those operating a boat will be costly to develop, take years to implement, and will not result in a demonstrable improvement in national security."

Some will say this only applies to motor boats or big sail boats but don't be sure. And don't be too quick to jump on the kiss-your-liberty-goodbye bandwagon without a lot of scientific evidence that more rules, more regulations, more taxes and more licenses will help something. If that were true we'd be living in Eden already.

DVD Annual Meeting

I just got back from the DVD (Delaware Valley Division of the American Canoe Association) Annual meeting. The attendance was good and the program excellent. Al Bratton showed his handcrafted canoes and kayaks and discussed building techniques. Al builds boats professionally. He was joined by Wes Tanaka, who builds kayaks as a hobby. It was a lot of fun watching them play off of each other as Noel Rickert interviewed them both.

The meeting reminded me of some of the wonderful parts of the sport. At one time, building your own boat was common because there was no large canoe industry to support the sport. Today, people build boats to explore design ideas and to express themselves in a work of art. And believe me, some of these boats are works of art.

Another rare part of the sport on display was a canoe sail boat. Canoe sailing used to be the most popular part of canoing. But now it's getting harder to find participants.

If you are interested, the Sailing National Championships 5 meter class wil be held on Sept 22, 23 2007 on Lake Nockamixon in Quakertown, PA. The practice sail will happen at 3pm on Friday. There will be three races Saturday and three races Sunday. Late registration will be at 9am Sat and Sun. The skippers' meeting will be at 9:30 and races at 11am approximately.

Magazines that may interest you

One of the first magazines I bought to learn about modern canoe and kayak technique was Canoe & Kayak and here's their web site. There is also a  UK Version and the web site. Here's another UK mag, Canoe Focus and here is their web site .

The American Canoe Association publishes Paddler, free to members. Click here to see the web site.

For you ocean paddlers there is Sea Kayaker (site link) and Ocean Paddler. Pacific Paddler focuses on Hawaii and is free if you live there.

Rapid Media publishes several magazines, Rapid, Canoeroots, Adventure Kayak, Kayak Angler, and Family Camping that you can subscribe to or read online.

I don't know too much about Kayak Session but it looks interesting. Here's their web site.

When I was in graduate school I helped some engineering students with their concrete canoe race (yes, there is such a thing). Here's a magazine dedicated to it, Concrete Canoe.

That's enough for now. If I missed you, sorry, so post a comment about your publication.

More Web Sites

Here are some more web sites for you. Of course, you can do a Google search (I prefer DogPile) but here are a couple I've found useful for those starting out.

Paddling.net has a lot of information. It took me a little while to be comfortable navigating the site but it was well worth it. They pay their bills with advertising and with their online store.

Paddling.About.com is directed to the raw beginner but there is a lot of good advice there. About.com earns it's living through advertising.

My search engine didn't point me to this next one and I don't know why. But I've stumbled across the AtlanticKayakTours expert center. There is a tremendous collection of articles there. They are gathered from all over the internet. AtlanticKayakTours, itself, is a private company specializing in kayak touring in the New York State region and that's how they pay the rent.

There is a lot of information on these sites. In fact, that's the problem, too much and sometimes contradictory information. That's why I hope to help you navigate through all of this with this site and our related site, RiverGrizzly.com. So far, we don't pay the rent. Maybe that will change soon.

 

These are only a few of the very many "for profit" sites out there. As I come across more I'll let you know.

Next time: Magazines.

Where To Go For More Information

Last time I promised to give you sources of information. Well, here goes.

Start with this blog. Then, try my site, RiverGrizzly.com.

One of the biggest organizations, with local divisions, is the American Canoe Association. The ACA web site links to many local boating clubs too. The ACA does a lot to protect rivers and train boaters.

Also, check out the Red Cross. In particular, talk to the people in Safety Services. The Red Cross used to be heavily involved in small craft instruction but doesn't have near the level of support they used to. However, there are still many active instructors and chapters.

Other non-profit organizations include American Whitewater. They do a great deal to protect rivers and river access. Let's not forget the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Boating aficionados sometime criticize the scout programs but, as in most things, it all depends on the local group. Ditto with all the clubs. The YMCA  has programs also and, of course, so does the American Camp Association. Some 2400 camps belong to what we boaters call the "other ACA."

Besides RiverGrizzly.com, there are a few other popular web sites that provide information but I'll cover them separately.

Let me give a plug to a couple, among many, of my friends. For quality river kayak instruction in the North East, contact the Northeast PA Kayak School. Tell Jerry that John Rako sent you. And for really cool boats and gear, contact PS Composites. You know what to tell them.

I have left out many schools and many web sites. I'll review more of them later and then talk about how to get started in canoeing and kayaking.  Until then, see you on the water.