F &Jetsam P EOP L E | INDU S T R Y | SAF E T Y | VH F lotsam NEWS FROM THE PADDLING WORLD
Transferable skills. PHOTO: DAVE QUINN
INDUSTRY NEWS BY DAVE QUINN Want Fries With That?
WITH BOOKINGS DOWN IN THE RECESSION, HARD-UP KAYAK GUIDES GOT CREATIVE Tis decline left many guides out of work
AS LAST SUMMER’S eco-tour bookings declined alongside the economic slowdown, paddling guides across the country traded in their paddles, pancake flippers and natural history guidebooks for hammers, chainsaws and computers in an effort to put food on the table. Although day tours did not decline appre-
ciably, big-ticket, multi-day expedition book- ings were down significantly across the board, with some large companies’ bookings down as much as 50 per cent from recent years.
12 ADVENTURE KAYAK | SPRING 2010
and has forced them to take extreme measures: many of them had to find real jobs. Tis hard- ship had a significant impact on the lifestyles of these notoriously peripatetic individuals. “I have been working for BC Ferries and
for the Coast Guard,” said one displaced sea kayak guide. “Tis keeps me on the water at least. But I
miss the spontaneity and wilderness aspects of sea kayak guiding. On the other hand, I actually sleep in my own bed, see my family
on a regular basis and have some money in the bank now.” Other guides found themselves work in
the construction trade, while some turned to other outside work as educators or forestry workers—but even those industries felt the pressure of the so-called recession. Some guides, temporarily forced from the
last wild reaches of the coastal world, re- sorted to the depths of homebound deprav- ity, taking up computer-based work such as, well, writing.
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