anyone know of there status?
phone number listed on their website is disconnected per the recording.
I would like to attend their yearly symposium if they still exist. I attended several years ago and think it worth the trip if for no other reason then to experience Fort Desoto Park.
any clues?
Sweetwater Kayak Shop
Sweetwater is alive and well.Our club meets their. They had some problem with their phone system due to a lightning hit a few weeks ago. Their phone # is 727-570-4844. I plan on being at the Symposium next year also. Gets better every year.
I agree
one of the best “seakayaker” shops in Florida.
THANKS!!!
do you know the dates of the 2006 symposium, didnt see them listed on the website…glad you are coming, hopefully i will meet many from p.net there…
Sweetwater 2006 Symposium
The Symposium is Feb. 24-26th. The BCU/Greenland week is the 21-24th. It will be at the usual location at Ft. Desoto. Sweetwater has updated their website which should be up in about a week.
symposium and GP /BCU week
Can you tell me a bit more about this? I definitely want to be there.
Paul
Paul…
surf for Sweewater Kayaks, when you find their website scroll down and look for ‘symposium’…the info from the 2005 symposium is listed. I went 3 or 4 years ago and think is def. worth repeating because you cant attend all the classes offered because so many overlap. I also want to do another Greg Stamer roll class…he specializes in Greenland style rolling techniques. Like all symposiums you will meet paddlers from all over the country, listen to speakers who’ve done major paddles. Before the symposium dates there is always BCA instruction and certification…that doesnt mean too much to me because know one in upper east Tennessee has ever heard of the Brittish Canoe Union 
The food is excellent too, and the park it is held in (am i repeating myself?) is rated as having one of the nicest beaches in the country…there is a bit of history too in Fort Desoto itself.
And there will be vendors aplenty showing off the newest boats. I’m hoping to find someone to paddle a 50 miles section of the Big Bend Saltwater Trail with before the symposium but so far no one has expressed an interest here.
Good luck and hope to meet you there.
ahhh st pete beach…
ft desoto is on the bayway running from the highway over to st pete beach…i went to school right there 20 years ago…
in the 80’s you could still at least see water (sea water…get it? ha) from the bayway…now, pretty much only at bridges…
desoto on the other hand is very nice.
head down to pass-e-grille beach…take a left at the don cesar (giant pink hotel - yup sounds pretty gawdawful to us yankee types but it isn’t bad at all and fits right in) and go on towards the end…on the gulf side you’ll see a large open victorian looking restaurant/bar…the hurricane. have a grouper sandwich and a kahlua colada and watch the sunset from the deck - then leave…the crowd can be too young.
20 years ago that was a ramshackle little ranch style place with the same sort of food only you’d wander off onto the sea oat covered dunes to watch the sunset. the present incarnation is more grandiose and still nice…but not better.
sweetwater used to be right off the bayway as well but moved i think to a location closer to downtown?
Format addition
In prior years, Greenland instruction at Sweetwater’s event has only happened during the weekend symposium. New this year is that during BCU week, there will also be a full week of Greenland instruction. There was plenty of cross-over last year (even with Nigel Foster trying Greenland rolls in a tuilik), and this will build upon that.
Greg Stamer
Details!
A week? Of classes? All Greenland specific?Sounds interesting, and pricey…
Details…
Details are still being worked out and Sweetwater is talking with Qajaq USA. I don’t know what Sweetwater intends to charge for these classes. So far some of the G-style instructors who have expressed interest in helping teach include Cheri Perry, Turner Wilson, Dan Segal, Freya Hoffmeister, Mimi Clifton and myself.
Greg Stamer
Well, I would have time…
… to build a qajaq by then…
looking forward to seeing it!
Greyak. the first step is the hardest…
Paul