Localcurrents
East—Pub night adventure races Finally the kayak season is here and it is time to dust off our paddles and go. In St. Andrews, New Brunswick, we start the paddling season in style with Paddlefest, an Earth Day kayak, music and film festival. The activities kick off May 6
with a beach clean-up and continue through the weekend, including: kayak workshops and excursions; a slide show by New Brunswick author and photographer (and AK contributor) Alison Hughes; the Waterwalker Film Festival; and, a concert by a “mystery” performer of international stature. Who will it be? To attend all or part of the weekend, contact
jmsteel@nbnet.nb.ca….Farther up the New Brunswick side of the Bay of Fundy, the Atlantic Kayak Association is busy planning another great year of trips. Their website,
www.geocities.com/atlantic_kayak_association, has all the details. For you folks from central and western Canada, I can almost guarantee that the photos on this site will tempt you to sample our hospitality and kayaking. You won’t be disappointed….In la belle province plans are also underway for a great season. Go to
www.canot-
kayak.qc.ca and follow the links to sea kayaking clubs. Even when the water is frozen, the Montreal club gets together for social events. Check their website for the date of their outing to a cabane à sucre. I have been to the sugaring off in Quebec and it was a lot of fun (delicious too)….In a previous article I mentioned Sea Sun Kayak School’s 16-kilometre race in Halifax. Last July marked the fourth “paddling” of the event and it is getting bigger all the time. Trevor MacLean won the men’s senior division again, Jennifer Lewandowski won the women’s senior and Robert Fraser took home the men’s masters. There were no entries in the women’s masters. C’mon, ladies! The fifth annual race is scheduled for June 25. Contact
info@paddlenovascotia.com….Also in Halifax, Sea Sun is hosting paddling nights at their historic St. Mary’s Boat Club location, Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:30 to 9 pm. For $12 you can drop in and borrow a boat. Bring a friend for free on your fourth visit—
www.paddlenovascotia.com…. Paddlers in Newfoundland have been getting together all winter long with their winter seminars and are now busy planning their annual retreat to Terra Nova National Park on the May long weekend. This is sure to be a great time with some beautiful day trips and lots of socializing at the pub night and the more-formal sit-down dinner (
www.kayakers.nf.ca)….For you adventure racers, the Rock is the place to be this year. Raid Avalon has three races scheduled that will include a paddling section. They are June 19–20 in St. John’s, July 31–August 1 in Carbonear and
September 4–5 in Ferryland. And from August 1–8 the 2004 Adventure Racing World Championships will be held near Corner Brook on the island’s west coast. Fifty of the world’s top teams will be in town to compete against each other and the rugged Newfoundland terrain!
east@adveturekayakmag.com
Central—Meeting of masterminds There’s no surer sign of the beginning of the paddling season in the Great Lakes than sea kayak symposiums. Georgian Bay’s White Squall (
www.whitesquall.com) opens up the symposium season on May 15 with a two-day event featuring workshops and instruction, an open house, boat demos, a cardboard kayak race and a Saturday evening Fred Eaglesmith concert. The following weekend, Caribou Expeditions (
www.caribou-
expeditions.com) and Stokely Creek Lodge (
www.stokelycreek.com) organize the Stokely Paddlefest, an all- inclusive weekend of fine dining, lodge-based accommodation, and paddling on the rivers and sheltered waters of Lake Superior, just north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. And stateside, the Western Michigan Coastal Kayakers Association (
www.wmcka.org) hosts its annual shindig at Muskegon on the weekend of May 28. Registration is limited for all events….Meanwhile in Wawa, the battle continues over a proposed trap rock quarry. In February, the Champions of the Great Lakes Heritage Coast—a group of well- known Canadians including Pierre Berton, hockey legend Bobby Orr and astronaut Roberta Bondar—urged the provincial Minister of the Environment Leona Dombrowsky to hold an environmental assessment of the project. The Citizens Concerned for Michipicoten Bay (
www.ccmb.ca), a local interest group including some kayakers, has been fighting for an EA since Michigan-based Superior Aggregates proposed quarrying at the site in 2002. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Waterkeeper Alliance have also weighed in. Despite the celebrity input, the government is still unsure whether an EA should be required. Give the minister a piece of your mind:
minister@ene.gov.on.ca….Aspiring racers in Ottawa can now join the new Synergy/Trailhead Kayak Race Series, a bi-weekly event starting June 1 with 5-10 km races on the Ottawa, Gatineau and Rideau rivers. Recreational and competitive classes for touring kayaks. Post-race social events and prizes. Visit
www.trailhead.ca or
www.synergyat.ca….Another new event on the Ottawa River kicks off on Canadian Rivers Day, June 13 in Pembroke: The Miramichi Lodge Paddlequest, a 15 km group paddle, barbecue and fundraiser, is a good chance to discover the kayaking potential of the upper Ottawa River (go
ADVENTUREkayakmag.com 45 —Doug Scott
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