this that
Coming to a Beach Near You Forget about glass fishing floats. The newest pieces of sea junk sure to top the list of beachcombing ocean paddlers are Global Ocean Observation Sys- tem drifting buoys. These high-tech pieces of flotsam collect ocean data and relay it to satellites. Last fall, the worldwide network of drifters was completed with the launching of number 1,250 into the Atlantic off of Halifax, N.S.
You Name It In a fun marketing campaign, Seaward Kayaks is hold- ing a naming contest for its new kayak: a multi-chine, Greenland-style boat. Polling closes on February 28 and the winner will get a cozy fleece. AK editor Tim Shuff hoped that his name submission, “Ho!,” would take the prize. “‘Seaward Ho!’ has a nice ring to it,” said Shuff. To submit a name, click the “New Kayak for 2006” link at
www.seawardkayaks.com.
Katrina Blows Away Kayakers’ Islands Although Hurricane Katrina may have temporarily increased the region’s navigable waterways, the storm’s aftermath left New Orleans paddlers looking for new day trip destinations. According to Craig Guillot, a local sea kayaker, the hurricane obliterated parts of Ship, Cat and Deer islands at the mouth of the Mississippi. There’s no word whether or not the is- lands will be rebuilt; it sounds like locals have other projects on their minds.
Proposed Campsite Becomes Log Dump What could have been a prime campsite on B.C.’s Quadra Island will be off limits to paddlers touring the waters east of Vancouver Island in 2006. Lannie and Ralph Keller of Coast Mountain Expeditions had proposed a new regional park and campsite at Raven Bay, one of few beaches in the area. The Kellers said the site would have been perfect for sea kayakers exploring the surrounding Discovery Islands and for playboaters looking to maximize their surf time on the nearby Okisollo tidal rapid. Despite a strong lobby from pad- dlers, B.C.’s Ministry of Forests reserved the beach as a log sorting and dumping area.
Delta Sea Kayaks Launched Genco Technologies, a B.C.–based thermoforming company, is launching into the kayak market with design and busi- ness guidance from kayak industry veteran Mark Hall. While most of the big kayak manufacturers offer some thermoform boats, Genco’s Delta Kayaks may be the first to specialize ex- clusively in this lightweight, high-gloss plastic construction. Hall lauded his builders—“These guys know how to stretch plastic”—and claimed that Delta Kayaks will be technologi- cally superior and weigh up to 10 pounds less than competi- tors’ offerings. Visit
www.deltakayaks.com for specs.
— Conor Mihell Delta 14.5
18 || Adventure Kayak spring 2006
MARK HALL
and
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM
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