Cold Water Workshops & other upcoming events!

Oh, I will start by mentioning that we DID have a great paddle to the Graveyard of Ships on Sunday, and with 50% of the attendees being bloggers with cameras, it was well documented! See writeups & pix here and here.

From Cold Water Workshop at the Small Boat Shop

Working late tonight getting ready to go on vacation (Deception Pass! Saturday & Sunday! Woohoo! Can't WAIT!) but just thought I'd post a notice I'd put up on Sebago's email list on the Sebago blog & Frogma. Fall is upon us, it's cold-water workshop time!
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I'm passing these on because I think that these formal workshops that you'll start seeing at the local outfitters starting around now are the absolute best way to learn about cold-water paddling safety. It's tons of fun going out all winter, and it can be done safely, butyou need to know the risks, and have the right skills; the right gear to mitigate those. Go to a workshop run by a reputable paddlesport dealer & you can walk out with 2 out of 3!
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EVENT #1 - NY Kayak, 10/11/08I start this with Randy's email to New York Kayak:
We're offering our free Cold Water Immersion Clinic at 10AM onSaturday, October 11. Dr. Lili Banan from Bellevue ER will talk aboutthe physiology of cold water immersion and treatment for hypothermia,Tom Harsh from Kokatat will talk about kayak apparel and cold waterimmersion wear, and I'll do a short talk on risk management for offseason paddling. Tom will have all of the Kokatat Dry Suits and PaddleSuits to try on and water-test after the talk!
Hope to see you!
Randy
New York Kayak Co.40 N. River Piers (Pier 40)W. Houston & West St.New York, NY 10014212-924-1327 800-529-2599http://www.nykayak.com
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EVENT #2: Sunday, October 12th at Empire Kayaks in Island Park:11:00am.. Join us for this free clinic and learn how to dress properly to safelyextend your paddling season. There will be drysuits to try on and demo in thewater. Big discounts on drysuits purchased the day of clinic. Call to reserve:
516 889 8300
www.empirekayaks.com
*************************************EVENT #3: Saturday, November 8th, Chuck Sutherland will be leading a cold waterworkshop at the Annsville Creek Paddlesports Center.
Full details here.
And here's AKT's BCU Expert Center link - I'ma big fan of going, listening, asking questions; then trying the gear but reading's good too:
>http://www.atlantickayaktours.com/pages/expertcenter/main-expert-center.shtml
And of course Chuck maintains one of my favorite cold-water boating safety sites:
www.enter.net/~skimmer/coldwater.html*******************
And of course how can I leave out The Small Boat Shop's. It's not even scheduled yet but this one's particularly fun because they hold in in FEBRUARY. Fall ismore the usual time of year for these, because they are aimed at getting peopleready for off-season paddling - but the problem with trying out cold-water gear in October & even November is that the water just isn't that cold yet. I specifically went to the Small Boat Shop's last year because I wanted to try swimming in full winter gear in very cold water & see how that felt. It wasn't the coldest it's ever been for them - there was no actual ice - but it was 39 degrees and although the situation was completely controlled (warm shop & hot beverages steps away), it was interesting feeling that level of coldness pressing in all around. Gives a real sense of the inevitability of what would tohappen if you were to end up in that water without a way to get out, even with all the gear - that's just buying you time, but in the end, if you can't get back in your boat in a certain amount of time, you are in a kind of trouble thatyou are going to need more and more outside assistance to get back out of.

Nice to get that first-hand understanding and then jump out and run back into a nice warm shop!

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So that was the Yahoo group post. BTW I'll also add that if you're up in the Cold Springs area, another one of my favorite outfitters, Hudson Valley Outfitters, is offering 20% off Kokatat cold-water. Even if you can't make a workshop, a reputable paddlesports dealer will steer you right.
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A couple more local events that I'm sort of sorry I can't make (psyched though I am about Deception Pass):

Sunday, October 12th: If you happen to wander over to the Hudson, you may notice about a zillion kayakers out there - they'll all be out there for the Riverkeeper's Waterfest. Sounds like a fun day on the water. Weather looks good!

Oct 12 Sunday
Times of sun and clouds. Highs in the low 70s and lows in the upper 50s
E WINDS 5 TO 10 KT...BECOMING SW IN THE AFTERNOON...THEN BECOMING W AFTER MIDNIGHT. WAVES 1 FT OR LESS.

And then of course of Sunday October 19th, all the big names in kayak racing descend upon the isle of Manhattan for the 3rd annual Mayor's Cup kayak race. (at least in the current form, 4th annual if you count the one I was involved in back in 2001 - that was not a race, though). Actually would've been a fun time to be in town; Oscar Chalupsky's giving a racing forward stroke clinic on Thursday the 16th at Manhattan Kayak, I've never met him personally but he sounds like someone who'd really be a lot of fun to take a class from. There was also a brief rumour about Freya doing something but life sort of happened, in the unfortunate way it sometimes does, to the person who was originally seeming to organize & I haven't heard much more.

Oh yeah, as long as I'm rattling on...on out in November, Marcus Demuth has organized the NY Premiere of This Is The Sea IV - again, that will be at Pier 66.

OK...that's all folks!