Author Archives: "canoekayakmag"
Superior Surf
Conor Mihell paddles out in historic surf on Lake Superior last week near Wawa, Ontario. Photo: Megan Gamble/naturallysuperior.com The National Weather Service’s Great Lakes coastal forecast website ranks high on the list of bookmarks for rough-water paddlers in the heart of the continent. When the lakes glow red and purple on the forecast, indicating waves [...]
Catching Up With Nick Troutman
Sure, Austria’s known for Vienna sausages, dancing ponies, and The Sound of Music, but what’s kept it on the global kayaking radar is the fall’s Adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championship. Europe’s premiere creek racing competition, held Oct. 1-2, on the technical Wellerbrueke section of the Oetz River, drew more than 150 competitors from around [...]
Poll Position: Adirondack Paddler Runs For New York Governor
Paddlers and disenchanted New York voters alike have another option in Tuesday’s gubernatorial election—though they won’t find his name on the ballot. John Nemjo, the owner of Old Forge, N.Y.’s Mountainman Outdoor Supply Company—one of the eastern United States’ largest paddlesports retailers—is running as a write-in candidate, with the platform, “I can’t do any worse.” [...]
Crossing: Cyprus to Israel
A team of six Israelis recently completed the first kayak crossing from the island of Cyprus to Israel, some 180 nautical miles in the section of the Mediterranean Sea known as Crusade, according to a first-hand account by Kobi Sade, one of the paddlers, posted on ynetnews.com. The team of paddlers shared two sea kayaks; [...]
Instructor Profiles: Sam Crowley and Nancy Uschold
Photograph by Greg Maino Sam Crowley has sea kayaked solo around Ireland, but he’s still humbled every time he teaches the sport’s most fundamental safety skill. The Marquette, Mich.-based instructor and massage therapist spends several weeks each summer teaching sea kayaking to people with disabilities. “The courage they have is incredible,” says Crowley. “Here they [...]
Rising Swell – World Series
With Game 1 of the 2010 World Series on tap for tonight in San Francisco, ticket prices — $900, say, for a bleacher seat — are again making headlines. There are cheaper seats, of course, like certain floaters now available to fans — well, paddlers — keen to take in a Series game from McCovey [...]
October Hurricane Sessions Trailer
For the Vancouver-based Hurricane Riders, it just means adding another layer. C&K checks in with the hard-charging sea kayak posse that refuses to use shorter boats.
The Phatwater Challenge – Kayak Marathon
The Phatwater Challenge ain’t your average kayak marathon. One former winner of the fall, 42-mile race down the Mississippi River, three-time Olympian Mike Herbert, once wrestled a 725-pound black bear to win a car. The Natchez, Miss., race headquarters is a bluesy biker bar, the Under-the-Hill Saloon, decorated with crawfish pots, tortoise shells and faded [...]
Rapids Beating Bubbles
In the current economic environment, a large construction project for a relatively small, relatively niche sport seems like a gamble. Yet the town of Cascade, Idaho, is a testament to the success of just that. Recreation Engineering and Planning, a Boulder, Colo.-based whitewater construction company, has recently completed Kelly’s Whitewater Park on the North Fork [...]
Risky Business
By Kyle Dickman Professional kayaker Dustin Urban spends most days throwing ends in a man-made hydraulic feature on Colorado’s Arkansas River, walking distance from his house in the neighborhood of South Main, Buena Vista. The freestyle kayak park lies between a pair of classic Colorado whitewater runs, and is surrounded by 14,000-foot peaks laced with [...]
Freya: Why Not Australia?
C&K’s Adventurer of the Year Reflects on the Beauty and Challenge of her Australian Circumnavigation
Freya Hoffmeister: Lonely At The Top
The world’s boldest sea kayaker doesn’t know what the big deal is about
Virtual Reality: Resurrecting The Original Canoes and Kayaks of North America
Edwin Tappen Adney spent six decades studying and reproducing the aboriginal canoes of North America—a lifetime’s worth of work that nearly went unheralded. Adney’s obsession began at age 20, when documented the construction of a New Brunswick Malecite birchbark canoe in the 1880s. From then on, traditional canoes consumed Adney’s life. By the time he [...]
New Fishing Tournament is a Game Changer
When Dave McDaid set out to create a season-ending kayak fishing tournament in his hometown of Jacksonville, Fla., he decided to do things differently. McDaid, the founder of paddlesports apparel label Irish Water Dogs, spoke with area outfitters and all levels of anglers to come up with a concept that’s far different from the typical [...]
2010 US Waveski Nationals
Photos by Chuck Graham Ventura, Calif., served up two very important things this weekend for the U.S. Waveski Nationals: Four- to five-foot surf and clean conditions, which the country’s best competitors turned into dynamic rides while putting on a show in the wet weather. “I’m stoked on everything,” said event organizer Brian Kuszmar. “The judging [...]
Peeling Out
Photo by Colin Moneypenny Dooley Tombras is on the leading edge of a canoe renaissance in the Southeast, though the 28-year-old didn’t plan it that way. Canoeing is just a way of life for this Knoxville, Tenn., resident who made the first descent of Labrador’s Flowers River with his dad when he was 18. As [...]
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