Annual Been There & Back FRental Salerom September 8th
to 11th
Since 1978 The Place to Meet Friends and Find Good
Bargains
www.trailhead.ca
1960 SCOTT STREET, OTTAWA, ON • TEL: 613.722.4229 FAX: 613.722.0245 •
SCOTTST@TRAILHEAD.CA
Localcurrents West
illustrations by lorenzo del bianco
When the first autumn gales whisk away fair- weather puddle jumpers, diehard paddlers will gather at surf beaches along North America’s west coast. This fall, find perfect waves online with the U.S. Navy’s swell
model, available at
www.fnmoc.navy.mil/PUB- LIC/WAM/all_glbl. The website gives a six-day wave height forecast for the whole world, leaving you ample time to scheme your way out of work.
No doubt the Navy website will be getting lots of hits leading up to the fourth annual Canada West Paddle Surf Fest, which runs September 24–25 at Tofino’s Cox Bay. For more informa- tion visit
www.surfkayak.org/kayakfestival, and while online, check out a live webcam of Canada’s favourite surf beach at www.west-
coastaquatic.ca/webcam.
North America’s largest gathering of sea kayakers runs September 9 to 11 in Port Townsend, Washington. The West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium blends skills workshops, world class speakers and boat demos with a Friday night improv act and a Saturday night dance (
www.wcsks.org).
Your best bet to hook up with a paddling club is in the off-season. From September to June, mem- bers of the Pacific International Kayak Association (
www.pikakayak.com) meet on the second Wednesday of the month at Langley’s Harmsworth Hall. Just down the Trans Canada, the Sea Kayak Association of B.C. (
www.skabc.org) meets on the first Tuesday of the month at the Vancouver Planetarium. SKABC member perks include fall surf sessions, winter pool paddling and access to a cornucopia of paddling gear and books.
— Conor Mihell Central
Late summer is the perfect time to learn to paddle on the prairies. Kayak training continues through August at Winnipeg’s Fort Whyte Centre. Topics covered in the four-hour workshops range from basic strokes to rolling. Those looking to test drive new boats should check out
Fort Whyte’s Paddling Open Houses, which run Tuesday and Thursday nights. A full schedule is available at
www.fortwhyte.org. And if you just can’t get enough, the WAV Paddling organization (
www.wavpaddling.ca) welcomes sea kayakers to its regular winter pool sessions.
On August 26th some of the world’s finest Greenland style paddlers will gather for three days of instruction near Frankfurt, MI, on the east- ern shore of Lake Michigan. Mentors at Qajaq Training Camp ’05 include gurus Greg Stamer,
44 // Fall 2005
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