At the Paddle Alberta AGM on November 23^rd, the first-ever "Environmental Super Hero Award" was presented. Tony Palmer from Undercurrents was the flabbergasted receipient!

According to the Paddle Alberta Environment Chair, Mike Horembala, Tony " had been working away quietly, in the background without hoopala, but had accomplished so much to assist the environmental cause."

IceBreaker is the world's leading manufacturer of clothing from New Zealand merino wool. I've had a customer tell me "it is like crack cocaine - once you have some, you can't stop using it!" Another customer said, "when I wear IceBreaker, it establishes homeostasis - I'm warm when the air is cold and I'm cool when the air is hot!" A third customer wore his for 39 days straight without washing it, "and it never stank!"

I have just received word that the Imagine Surfboards 'Eco technology' Split Board was a big winner at the ISPO "Brand New Product" awards. It won the "best in category", but also won the "Overall Best Product".

ISPO is the outdoor industry tradeshow in Europe. It is held twice a year and it awards the Brand New Product awards at each show! This award is the industry's biggest award for new products and is the trend barometer for the outdoor industry!

Our job at Undercurrents (at least the way I see it) is to pre-shop for our customers. Every year, we shop for the best product and best values we can find. Sometimes the best value is the most expensive (because it has something that is more than worth the extra money), sometimes it is the least expesive, but usually it is somewhere in between - where there is an excellent balance of price and benefits.

We have always choosen brands to be carried in the store based on the "best products and best values" credo. The only brand I have longed for, but not been able to acquire for our customers has been Werner paddles. But now we have them!

You may know that that a major upgrade to the Kananaskis River was completed this summer in two steps - some of the work was done in the spring, and the remainder just in August. The Daily Planet TV show on the Discovery Channel recently profiled the Kan rebuilt. You can watch it below, or if you visit discoverychannel.ca.

We were at a weir committee meeting this week where we learned more about the construction schedule.

An agreement has been signed with a contractor to install the in-river portions of the weir rebuilt, which will be known as "Harvie Passage." The contract value is around $16.5 million. Wow! When we started this project 9 years ago, the estimated cost was $6.4 million - welcome to Alberta!

Fencing will be arriving at the site next week, after which the contractor will set-up a base of operations and start bringing in machinery, rocks and supplies. This winter they will extend the wall of the flood gate structure - completing it this winter is a requirement of the contract. There will be nothing paddleable next summer and the area will be just as deadly as it is today.

If you are one of those paddlers that let your Cosmopolitan magazine subscription lapse years ago, you are going to be glad that Undercurrents receives media releases about paddling from all variety of sources.

Brad Ludden, a professional paddler for years (first with Riot and then Dagger) has been selected as the "Bachelor of the Year" by Cosmo. The magazine selects a bachelor from each US state and then choose an overall winner. Lucky for Brad, Cosmo did not allow any of the Alberta men into the competition!

I have blogged about the Navigable Waters Protection Act previously (here , here & here ), but it occurs to me that our federal election is a unique opportunity we have to protect our rivers! I'll explain below.

The NWPA is the federal law that protects any waterway that is navigable (ie can be paddled by canoe or kayak) from random construction that might impact its navigability or its environment. The federal conservatives tried to change the act last session to remove the need for an environmental impact assessment for "minor works" (which includes many bridges and dams??) - those projects that could most impact the waterways paddlers love to paddle.

Last time, the conservatives . . .

Harvie Passage Fully Funded

It was announced Monday that rebuilding the deadly Calgary Weir into a user-friendly section of river, Harvie Passage, is now fully funded! Construction could start within 30 to 60 days!

The funding is coming from the following sources:

• Province of Alberta, $13.7 million

• City of Calgary, $2.4 million

• Calgary Foundation, $3 million

The project is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2010. Harvie Passage will consist of a natural-looking river section with two channels.....

Historic Nahanni movie

In the 1950s a Calgary couple went to the Nahanni and made a very fine family film about their adventures. It came out in 1957 and the attached poster gives the details of its one night show here in Calgary next month.

This is an informative movie, funny, entertaining and for all who have been on the river, a great "prequel" showing what the river was like many years ago.

FYI, when they toured this film across Canada and the US, she ran the film projector and he did the narration - live! - each time they presented the film. They still live in Calgary.

It is playing for one night only, October 6^th, at the Globe theatre.

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