WaterWalker Film Fest coming to Calgary - One night only!
Image from the film: Paddle to Seattle
photographer Brian A. Dixon.
The WATERWALKER Film Festival, a collection of the best canoeing, kayaking and environmental films of the year, will be shown in Calgary for one night only! The festival presentation is on Friday, March 18th at Mount Royal University, starting at 7:00 pm. The evening is presented by Undercurrentsand the Mount Royal Eco-Tourism Program.
All proceeds will benefit Leave No Trace Canada. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. They are available in person at Undercurrents. Or, if you order tickets by phone at 262-GEAR you can pick them up at the "Will Call" at the door. All tickets include a $10 discount at Undercurrents!
Entries to the festival encompass an exciting range of locations, content and styles. Both amateur and professional film makers have submitted their films from around the world – they are authentic and filled with plenty of great footage. You can expect to see “everything from the serene to the extreme!”
The WATERWALKER Film Festival is a tribute to the late Bill Mason, the great conservationist, canoeist and filmmaker who cared passionately about his work and the wilderness. He wanted to share its beauty and to promote its protection. As he once said, “Film is for me a means of expressing my feelings about the things I enjoy, things I am concerned about, mostly the natural world”.
The WATERWALKER Film Festival came together following Mason’s death in order to help continue his vision.
Leave No Trace Canada is a national non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and inspiring responsible outdoor recreation through education, research and partnerships. Leave No Trace builds awareness, appreciation and respect for our wildlands.
Most paddlers have not heard of this yet, but those of us in the industry have been fuming about it for months now. The whole thing hit the mainstream media on Friday, so we thought a blog was in order. See the CBC story here.
Essentially, there are new regulations for guided canoe and kayak trips/lessons/etc. Most of the regulations involve safety gear, float plans, cold-water safety and other matters that any reasonable group does anyway. No big deal.
The problem is the requirement that the guide/instructor boat be registered. Well, actually the problem is the definition of guide/instructor – anyone leading a group (whether paid or volunteer) can be defined as a guide. Then, the boat they are in needs to be registered. Registering your boat is a serious pain in the tush (see the instructions below) and it costs $50! And, you might be surprised to know this could apply to you!
If you have dreamed of making a living in the paddlesports industry - and you know you have - then this job might be for you. The Bow Waters Canoe Club, one of the more active paddling clubs in Canada is seeking a Program Co-ordinator. The details are below, but the job is essentially, "person in charge of everything." Application deadline is January 31st.
If you have seen the latest edition of SUP Standup Paddler magazine ("available at Undercurrents now" - shameless plug!) you would have seen a fabulous photo of three paddlers surfing a tidal bore on their SUP boards.
Tidal bores occur when the ocean's incoming tide moves up river against the river current. The wave or waves can travel upstream for miles. These are real "tidal waves," not to be confused with a tsunami. They don't happen in many places, but they look like they are worth the trip.
SUP Standup Paddler magazine has a 'behind the photo' description and video of this tidal bore and the surfers. Fascinating! Visit that page here.
Park your car upriver. Paddle down towards the sea. Then surf the bore back to your car. It doesn't get any better than that!
Who even knew that there were world records for waterfall descents in dingies? Ya, dingies?!? Here is the video. Check it out for yourself.
I'm not expert at extreme dingy, but it looks like all you need is more courage than brains, a few people that are close enough friends that they will help you but not so close friends that they will try to stop you. Oh, and a crappy dingy from Cdn Tire.
At least the celebratory beverage at the end is classy.
No words have ever been more truthfully stated! Remarkably, it took an Australian beer company to do so. A friend linked me to this actual Australian beer commercial, and I knew all you canoers and kayakers would appreciate it.
This Saturday, June 26th is National Canoe Day. It's a big deal - maybe an even bigger holiday than Christmas!
In Calgary, there are no events listed on the official website, but there are still lots of ways to celebrate this significant national holiday. Go for a paddle. Take a non-paddler for a canoe trip down the Bow. Stop into Underdercurrents to buy yourself a new canoe. Or, just give your existing canoe a hug.
If you are doing something canoe-related this Saturday, there is still time to register it on the website!
For more information about National Canoe Day, visit the official website.
On Wednesday (June 2nd) there was a "test-drive" of the Calgary Weir (Harvie Passage) by invited experts and the area designers.
Randy and Mark from our strategic partners, RMPC, and our repair guy & paddler extraordinaire, Mark, were among the invited experts to test the features and provide feedback to the designers and construction folk. Everyone who paddled it found the features were more exciting than anticipated. Of course, the water level was only 90 (on the low side!) so that makes the waves more retentive.
The team was testing "drop #3" and "drop #4" in the river left channel. The first two drops are not constructed yet. And, the river right channel is partially completed, but has no water flowing in it, yet.
A YouTube video with some of the highlights is below. Check it out!
