If you ask companies these days they will tell you they are buried in requests from paddlers who have no clue why they should be sponsored other than they are going somewhere. We write about that quite a bit. You need to know what you are asking for and why they should help. Fair enough. But keep in mind that a paddler with their act together is not a beggar either. They are potentially offering a lot of value in very meaningful and sometimes unexpected ways.

When they arrived they found a mainly agricultural people who were more or less happy to trade and leave the island’s shoreline and harbors to the Phoenicians. In time the Carthaginians took control. ( I can’t say Carthaginians without visualizing George C. Scott) In time they were defeated by the Romans and on and on it goes until next week when Justine & Barry show up…

Tom Sharp had told me some time ago that he and Corey Freedman would be hosting Maliqiaq Padilla this spring and setting up a qajaq (or “kayak” if you prefer)  building class.  If you’ve been following along on Twitter you know I promised you the details today.  So without further distraction…

So this has the potential to rock…  It’s this funky (and FREE) application for Mobile phones and PDAs called Smap.  Smap uses your GPS enabled phone or PDA to record your routs and then upload them to Sanoodi’s website where everyone can tune in.  Kinda like  the spot thing, with out the spot. .  (and [...]

Alright, you know those kids who sometimes seem to have it more together than you do?  Yarg!  Well, if you’re a paddler and you don’t know Hanna yet, chances are that in the coming years you will.  Impressive young lady.   If you want to know where kids like her come from you simply need to [...]

This afternoon I head back to Canoecopia for my second day hanging out at the Door County Symposium booth. Yesterday was funny in that it seemed everyone that I had hoped to find later in the day seemed to all arrive at the booth instead. That was quite nice actually. Less [...]

Races form and rush down the wide hallways. In these strong currents eddies form around beer sales and snack vendors. Small dams and large boulders of friends and acquaintances appear and disappear mid-stream forcing the river to flow around them or slowly erode them away. Subtly hidden in this torrent you have a reunion of friends and family. A celebration of familiar faces that you may only see once a year or sometimes less. Here you can touch base and once again remind yourself that we’re all in this together…