GLSKA - News

Current items of interest to GLSKA members and other paddlers
(Updated May 12, 2008)

The 19th annual West Michigan Sea Kayaking Symposium, run by the West Michigan Coastal Kayakers Association, will be held on Big Blue Lake near Muskegon, Michigan, May 23-26. The programme will include lectures, demonstrations, on-water instruction and special programmes for women and children. For more information, visit the WMCKA web-site.

The 2nd annual Tip of the Thumb Heritage Water Trail Festival will be held at Waterfront Park in Port Austin, Michigan, June 6-8. The event will feature camping, food, music, guided hikes, group paddles and presentations. For more information, visit the Tip of the Thumb Heritage Water Trail web-site.

The 40th annual Canoe the Nonquon will be held on the Nonquon River and Lake Scugog on June 7. This fundraiser for the Scugog Shores Museum features both recreational and competitive races for numerous classes of canoe and kayak paddlers. For more information, visit the Scugog Shores Museum web-site.

Paddlefest Toronto, hosted by Mountain Equipment Co-op and the City of Toronto, will be held June 13-15 at Sunnyside Beach in Toronto. It will feature on-water and on-land workshops, seminars, boat trials and a gear and boat swap. For more information, visit the Paddlefest Toronto web-site.

The 19th annual Inland Sea Kayaking Symposium will be held at Washburn Wisconsin, in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, June 18-21. For information, visit the Inland Sea Society web-site.

The 10th annual Rossport Islands Paddlefest Symposium will be co-hosted by Naturally Superior Adventures and Superior Outfitters near Rossport on the north shore of Lake Superior, June 20-22. It will feature instruction and tours of the Rossport Islands for paddlers of all skill levels as well as the Reel Paddling Film Festival and a concert. For information, visit the Naturally Superior web-site or the Superior Outfitters web-site.

The 24th annual Great Lakes Sea Kayaking Symposium will be held at Grand Marais, Michigan on the shore of Lake Superior near Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, July 17-20. Sponsored by the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Club in Michigan, the Symposium will feature lectures, workshops, instruction, boat trials, demonstrations and guided trips. For information, visit the Symposium web-site.

Both White Squall and Nationally Superior Adventures offer sea kayaking, sea kayaking instructor and sea kayaking guide national certification courses through the spring and summer. They also offer canoeing and wilderness first aid certication courses. For dates and information visit the White Squall and Naturally Superior Adventures web-sites.

Skip Ciccarelli, a prostate cancer survivor, will be kayaking from Chicago to New York City to raise awareness about prostate cancer. He will leave Chicago June 14 and paddle up the west coast of Lake Michigan, along the Wisconsin coast, through the Mackinac Strait, down the Michigan coast of Lake Huron, through Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie to Buffalo and the Erie Canal. He will follow the Erie Canal to New York, hoping to arrive there by August 8. Paddlers are invited to join him along the way. For more information visit Skip’s web-site: paddle4prostate.

Canadian Kayak Anglers is a new group promoting kayak fishing across the country. For more information visit the Canadian Kayak Anglers web-site.

GLSKA's Georgian Bay Committee hired two stewards who worked in the islands of eastern Georgian Bay during the summer of 2007. You can read more about our stewards and their work on the Georgian Bay Committee pages. You can follow the stewards' weekly activities in their Stewardship Report.

The GLSKA Book Shop is a handy source for books reviewed in Qayaq as well as a wide selection of other sea kayaking and Great Lakes books. (It is run in association with Amazon.ca, and other books and recordings they carry are also available.)

PLEASE NOTE: All purchases, including goft certificates, made from Amazon.ca from any link at the GLSKA Book Shop earn commission for GLSKA. So if you plan to purchase anything from Amazon.ca, whether kayaking related or not, please do so via the link at the top of the Book Shop page, and help support our club.

GLSKA has new T-shirts. The shirts are quick drying, 100% polyester. Unlike cotton T-shirts, these are ideal for paddling and camping. They are bright yellow, so visibility on the water is enhanced. These T-shirts are also less expensive than most synthetic or cotton Tees, at only $15, tax included. We also still have about a dozen baseball caps left. The caps are beige with green brims and are priced to clear at $15 (tax included). These products will be available at the Spring Rendezvous and other GLSKA events.

GLSKA member Donna Griffin-Smith, as well as looking after our memberships and helping with the newsletter, is also an accomplished watercolour artist. Since retiring from teaching, she is now devoting more of her time to her art. If you have a favourite photo of a sunset, kayaking scene or campsite, Donna will work from your photo to create a realistic landscape in watercolour. She can also include your kayak in the painting (a kayak portrait). Various sizes are available, framed or unframed. You can arrange a studio visit to see examples of her work. For more information contact Donna at don_donna@sympatico.ca.

We are always looking for contributions for future issues of Qayaq: news items, trip reports, paddling destinations, book reviews, articles on equipment, do-it-yourself projects, kayaking techniques, safety – anything that you think would be of interest to fellow paddlers. Articles may be long or short, and may be submitted on paper (preferably typed but also may be handwritten) or electronically in a format readable by Word or Wordperfect. (RTF format works well.)

Please send articles to Qayaq c/o the GLSKA Postal Box or e-mail to GLSKA at glska@canada.com.

Deadlines for each issue are: Spring – March 1; Summer – June 1; Autumn – September 1; Winter – December 1.

Back issues of Qayaq are available for most issues of Volume 1 through Volume 19. If you find any articles of interest in the Qayaq Index, please contact the newsletter editor to obtain back issues. The cost is $2 each, plus postage.

DIRECTORS
Keith Rodgers, President
Rob Muylwyk, Secretary
Karen Granville, Treasurer
Dawn Lawrence
Jim Mark
Bert Millar

TRIP COMMITTEE
Bert Millar

GEORGIAN BAY COMMITTEE
Keith Rodgers (Acting Chairman)

MEMBERSHIPS
Linda Ball

NEWSLETTER EDITOR
Sandy Richardson