Paddling Clubs...

Do you belong to a paddling club? If not would you if you could? If you do what sort of outings and activities does your club do? Thanks!

No, my wife and I are private people

– Last Updated: Apr-19-05 12:45 PM EST –

We like to keep it in the privacy of our bedroom.

I belong to
Kayak Newfoundland & Labrador. ITs a great association, we plan two nights a week for pool sessions, which will be ending very soon. We also provide areas for people to give presentations about trips they have done lately…also we book trips (day trips) we also have a retreat in may (which we are lucky enough to have Justine Curgenven give a couple of lectures.



Being a guide, I joined the association originally to become a part of our paddling community, but thought that it would interfere with my ‘privacy’ on the water. It does not. It is often fun to join a group on the water.



jim.

i should…
…plain and simple

yes!
I belong to an ACA Paddle America club (Green Bay Paddlers United) and am also a member of an unofficial club (NE Wisconsin Sea Kayakers). We do several official trips each summer (whitewater and sea kayaking) and weekly unofficial trips with fellow members. The main reason I am a part of the club is that they actively promote kayak safety and education. The club teaches several classes at local YMCAs and does a lot to promote the sport in this area. I have also become friends with many paddlers through my affiliation and have found them to be excellent paddlers/teachers/human beings.

Not any more
I did in 2002 and 2003, but the club was going in a direction I did not like.



They now have few few trips at all, either day paddles or weekends/longer. IF I belonged to a club, it would have to have more paddling, period. And yes, I would contribute by organizing some myself.



I am happy paddling by myself or with one or a few friends, so the lack of an active club does not bother me much. The lack of active paddlers in this area DOES bother me. To me, the fact that you go on one or two paddling vacation trips a year, or that someone gave you a checkmark because you did a pool wet exit, does not make you a paddler. But that’s the norm around here.

Paddling Club
Yes, I belong to POST, a 20+ year club in the San Francisco Bay area that is predominantly canoes with a few kayaks. The club has an active outing schedule (http://www.canoecal.org/)with the current 2005 calendar showing 22 outings (mostly weekend, a number of one day, and several extended trips)as well as community instruction days in the fall and spring. POST is somewhat unusual in owning its own van, 8 boat trailer, and about 10 canoes as well as a shed full of paddling gear and group camping equipment. The roster stands at around 100 members and trip leadership is shouldered by around 30+ people. I joined in January 04 and I’m leading my first trip this weekend (30 mile canoe camping on the Middle Sacramento River. An excellent way to improve your skills, learn new routes, and meet similarly bent folks.



Bill Ashworth

PARADISE PADDLERS IN KEY LARGO
is a nice group that supports a bimonthly newsletter, several cleanups of area beaches and campsites a year, and multiple outings throughout the year, usually several a month, varying from moonlight paddles to back-county (Florida Bay) overnight or 2-3 day camping trips. We also publicize supporting local charititable and ‘nature-promotional’ events a number of times annually. And most of us try to show up at the annual South Florida Multiclub Picnic.



Speaking of which -this year’s goes down at John U Llyod State park in Lauderdale on Saturday, May 14th.



I like this group because they’re a generally pretty friendly group that’s helpful but pretty much non-judgemental. Sally & I joined when we ran only our SOTs and were gladly and warmly welcomed.



It doesn’t hurt that the Club is run out of FBO, Florida Bay Outfitters on Key Largo, as we get a few perks at the shop to go along with a great gang behind the counter and in the office.



We don’t get to go on as many jaunts as I’d like, but that’s mostly our own busy scheduling and activiites bumping up against club schedules, but I suspect that’s the case for everyone.



At any rate, IF you can find a like club, join it -it can only expand both your paddling, and your people, horizons, as you



PADDLE ON!



-Frank in Miami

Several
I belong to ConnYak, The Rhode Island Canoe & Kayak Ass’n, and the Appalachian Mountain Club.



All 3 are fairly active, ConnYak probably being the most active. If they don’t have a scheduled paddle, there’s one being cooked up on their BBS, pretty much all year as long as the harbors don’t freeze (And they did the last 2 winters). RICKA does sea kayaking, flatwater, surf and whitewater, and I paddle mostly whitewater with AMC.



It keeps a kid off the street…



Wayne

OOPS-I ALSO BELONG TO THE FLYC
The Fort lauderdale Yakfishing Club. No big deal, just a bunch of paddlers who like to fish from their boats. No dues, no badges, no commercialism, no official officials -just Cap’n Jimbo who runs the website, and a bunch of us regulars who team up here & there to go fishing, to attend the South Florida Multiclub Picnic, and to put on own own annual -maybe it’s semi-annual at this point, we’re so casual about this sort of thing, we really don’t know -“yak-in”.



A “yak-in”… we just can’t help it -most of us are boomers who remember the 60s, LOL!



ANyway, we have some pretty fair anglers among us, and we’re all more rather than less enthusiastic about it, but our Motley Crewe is the least pretentious group I can think of off-hand. We’re mainly SOTers, but there’s a few SINKers in there, and a couple of cool South AFrican SOTs mix in with a ghanoe and a jon boat, too.



We ain’t hoity-toity nohow, and when we get together, we have a hoot and a half as we yakfish and feast (on our own catchm BTW…) and party as we



PADDLE ON!



-Frank in Miami

Yes…
Tho it’s not a club in the formal sense. It’s a group of folks who enjoy paddling,arn’t interested in how fast or how far, and are out simply to enjoy the day and padle as many of New Yorks waterways as the season permits. Last season I was out a good 30 times with this ‘club’ and once with the ‘formal club’. I paddled 4 seasons solo…Have to say; I enjoy paddling with these folks more. (when one of them’s husband is a chef and the after paddle spread looks like a 4 star resturant complete with checkered table cloth, well…what can I say?!)

Thursday Night Canoe Club
That’s the moniker of “our club” if ya want to call it that. Just a few of us that get together for a paddle on local rivers. Distance, speed aren’t a factor, just the enjoyment of paddling. Fact is there are no rules, and it’s open to whomever wishes to join in! No snob stuff with this club! :wink:


Paddle club?
http://www.appliedeccentrics.com/kayak/mauri015.jpg

No club …

– Last Updated: Apr-20-05 12:41 AM EST –

Too far away; closest is about 85 miles.The only two others I know about are over 125 miles.


BOB

Never been the club type…
But I am the acting pres of Pictou County Paddle & Oar club. We’re coming up on our 6th year, and every moment has been rewarding. I’m lucky to paddle with keeners like irishmanng. Club clout gives us the ability to hire trainers, rent pools and demand discounts. We paddle every Wednesday evening as well as most weekends, but for some reason we’ve had terrible luck getting folks to turn out for overnighters. That may change this year. There’s a ton of pics and links on our club Yahoo board:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pictoucountypaddlers

Anyone, anywhere is welcome to post.

HCC
…aka Hoosier Canoe Club. Problem is, they’ve been all caught up in the ACA Paddle America affiliation thing for 2-3 years because of the insurance issue. The club used to be all about paddling, but now most conversations on & off the water revolve around the ACA affiliation pros & cons. I’m tired of it to be truthful. I re-upped my dues this year (which more than doubled 'cause of the ACA affiliation), but this may be the last time unless the club gets back to its core purpose of paddling. It’s not the money, it’s the dissention among the members that is grating on me. I don’t need a club to go paddle, but the club needs me and others like me to survive.

I find paddling
with paddles is much easier, and save the clubs for the baby seals and dodo’s.

Yes And No…
I let my membership lapsed in one club after 4 years. I am part of an informal surf group that’s now a little over a year in existence and slowly growing. But, it’s a “no dues, no rules” group.



I just found out this weekend that I am now a rated class II leader for NH-AMC. Never went for the rating but I’ve paddled a bunch with some of the AMC leaders and have helped with the ww school for the past three years. Guess I have been made “official” since I can sign rating cards for folks on class II trips that I may lead. But, I don’t plan to lead any official trips.



sing

Yeah
No spankin’ the (reef)monkey in public. You’ll give us other paddlers a bad rep.

FSKA
I’m a member of the Florida Sea Kayaking Association located in North Florida (FSKA.org). We have approximately one hundred and fifty people in the club, but only thirty or forty people are real active. The club plans events all over Florida and in every kind of paddling environment. It’s funny but kayaking has brought people together (who are now good friends) that would normally never know each other. Kayaking is a great sport!