editor’s notes A STEP BEYOND PURPOSE
>> An expedition as defined by my dictionary is “a journey or voyage un- dertaken by a group of people with a particular purpose.” Especially, it goes on to clarify, “that of exploration or war.” Perhaps that’s why, 10 years ago, when I was preparing to paddle home to Hamilton, Ontario, after my last day of university in Thunder Bay, I thought I needed to have a cause and gather sponsorship. After five years of driving the
north shores of Lake Superior, Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, I wanted to paddle the waters I’d only dipped my toe into before getting back be- hind the wheel. I spent the winter dehydrating vegetables, tracing the Great Lakes coastlines with a piece of string and writing sponsorship proposals. With the effort spent gathering sponsorship I could have bought a lawn mower and raised enough money cutting grass to do the trip for its own sake, but somehow hav- ing a cause higher than avoiding the nagging voice of real life seemed to legitimize my efforts. I thought I needed to justify three and a half months on the water, an entire sum- mer, something no one in their right mind would do without a reason. The fact is, kayak expeditions as
traditionally defined by their exter- nal purposes are coming to an end.
6 || Adventure Kayak spring 2006
Unless we find water on Mars, we are running out of places to explore. And although kayaking, like canoe- ing, downhill skiing and mountain biking, remains a part of the training of the Canadian Forces (in case the federal government needs to storm the beaches of Nunavut using the War Measures Act?) true kayak jour- neys for the purpose of war are few. We’re left trying to contrive new
purposes for our expeditions—pub- lic awareness campaigns, fundrais- ing, television contracts, being the first or the fastest. It may be, as Alex Matthews argues in this issue’s Rock the Boat column (page 24), that the only difference between modern ex- peditions and plain old trips is that expeditions have corporate spon- sors and satellite phone interviews with the press. So it was with my trip, which be-
came the Stay Afloat Expedition. We met Colleen Omeara at the De- partment of Fisheries and Oceans, who suggested we turn our trip into a safe boating mission, which she would use in a summer-long Coast Guard safe boating campaign com- plete with TV, radio and newspaper media stops along the way. I often wondered if talking to
school kids about boating safety was enough of a purpose. It cer- tainly wasn’t as grand as exploration
or war, and there are more worthy causes—Simon Osborne circum- navigated Britain and then Ireland raising money because his brother died of leukemia. I thought about a possible fundraiser for the Heart and Stroke Foundation—“Three mil- lion strokes for heart disease.” But maybe I didn’t need a pur- pose at all. We can take a lesson from Forrest
Gump who, in the movie of the same name, became a national celebrity when he ran around the country continuously for three years. When reporters asked why he was running he said, “For no particular reason. I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I fig- ured, since I’d gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I’d gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going.” I think I’ll call my next big pad-
dling trip the It-Seems-Like-Fun Expedition, and the purpose will be the joy of embarking on a long jour- ney without an extrinsic purpose. Watch for it. I’ll be giving interviews with the press via sat phone.
Scott MacGregor Editor-in-Chief
SCOTT MACGREGOR
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52