this that
NEWFOUNDLAND DROPS THE GAUNTLET Paddling club launches
Avalon circumnavigation
BY ALISON DYER The Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador paddling club has asked its 200-plus members to tackle one of the great pad- dling feats in their backyard, if not the world: to circumnavi- gate the Avalon Peninsula—the most easterly portion of the island of Newfoundland. “The difficulty of many of the capes and headlands around
the Avalon makes the technical challenge as tough as many of the high-profile expedition routes around the world,” said club president Neil Burgess. The Avalon coastline tallies at more than 1,500 kilometres. What makes the Circle the Avalon Challenge unique is
that it will be accomplished through the combined efforts of club members. Participants can choose good weather and sections that match their abilities. Paddling difficulty ranges from sheltered bays, such as
Richard Alexander ticks off a chunk near Torbay, NF
Conception Harbour, to many exposed headlands with ver- tiginous cliffs where the charts are black with shipwreck sym- bols. Such is the area around Cape Race of Titanic fame. “It’s an exhilarating paddle,” says KNL member Bob Ga-
TOUR DU GOLFE
Quebecer links up the Maritimes BY CONOR MIHELL
Last summer, Serge Savard found a new way to avoid the line-ups, delays and costs of riding the ferry. The 42- year-old from Chicoutimi, Quebec, became the first paddler to link all of Canada’s Atlantic provinces by sea kayak. Savard’s 2005 Tour du Golfe in-
volved six crossings in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting Quebec, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Anticosti Island. Savard, a sea kayak veteran who
has led tours on Canada’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Great Lakes, as well as international trips in Alaska and Fiji, is a senior instructor trainer with the Canadian Recreation- al Canoeing Association. The longest leg—across the Cabot
Strait—took him two and a half days and involved two sessions in the boat. Savard launched from Cape North at the tip of Cape Breton Is- land and crossed 18.5 nautical miles to tiny St. Paul Island. There, he land- ed on one of the island’s two cobble beaches and set up camp on a bluff above the sea. Savard said he was spooked on St.
Paul Island, “the graveyard of the St. Lawrence.” An overnight electrical storm brought the island’s shipwreck ghost stories to life, and the less than favourable forecast of an active low- pressure system nearly caused him to turn tail and return to Cape Breton. But he decided to go for it, paddling
16 || Adventure Kayak spring 2006
gnon. “The swell and waves coming off the cold North Atlan- tic pound this exposed coastline year-round.” Burgess hopes the Challenge will encourage members to
explore new areas and promote informal mentoring by more experienced members, as well as give the club “a serious, extended paddling task that we could be justifiably proud of completing as a group.” Rules include paddling within 500 metres of the shore,
limiting the length of crossings to a maximum of one kilo- metre, and submitting a trip report. Completed bits are high- lighted in red on a map at
www.kayakers.nf.ca. About a dozen people kicked off the challenge with a pad-
dle from an oil transshipment site in Placentia Bay in Octo- ber 2005. And a few with a taste for pack ice continue to bite off pieces of coastline through the winter. Burgess figures the Challenge will take at least one year to complete.
events FEB 17–19 • FEB 24–26 • MARCH 24–26
Advil Outdoor Adventure Show VANCOUVER, BC; TORONTO, ON; CALGARY, AB Canada’s largest outdoor adventure and travel show features the paddler-specific camping, canoe and kayak zone. Choose your next boat, test new gear and plan this summer’s trip. Contact:
www.outdooradventureshow.ca
MARCH 4–12
Everglades Challenge TAMPA BAY, FL Watertribe’s Everglades Challenge is an unsupport- ed, expedition-style paddling adventure race cover- ing 300-nautical miles of Florida’s Gulf Coast, from Tampa Bay to Key Largo. Winners complete the three- checkpoint course in three or four days. Contact:
www.watertribe.com
MARCH 24–26 4 a.m. in the middle of Honguedo Strait
continuously for 14 hours—including three in pea soup fog at night—before landing, 52 nautical miles later, at Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. After the Cabot Strait epic, the re- maining four crossings went smooth- ly. Of them, Savard said his nighttime, 45–nautical mile crossing of the Hon- guedo Strait, from Gaspé to Anticosti Island, was most memorable for its
shimmering bioluminescence and a chance encounter with whales. The tour, sponsored by Kokatat,
Riot Kayaks and Mountain Equip- ment Co-op, among others, sought to promote safe sea kayaking through the use of good judgment. All told, Savard covered 180 nautical miles of open water and spent 46 hours in his boat—and saved $345 in ferry fees.
20th Annual Santa Cruz Surf Kayak Festival SANTA CRUZ, CA The largest surf kayak com- petition in the world draws an international roster of paddlers, novice to ex- pert, to ride the legendary waves of the Steamer Lane point break. Registration closes March 1. Contact:
www.asudoit.com/kayak_fest
For complete event listings visit
www.rapidmedia.com
MICHAEL FRANCISCO
SERGE SAVARD
and
JAMIE LEWIS
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