Work Party on the Kan

The reno of the Kananaskis is done in-river for the season, but it is not finished. A work party is being organized this weekend to work on the trails and egress points. And, more in-river work is planned for spring!

 §         Work Party: Sat and Sun, Sept 13/14

§         Begin at 10 am

§         Work rain or shine

§         Bring your own tools – rake, shovel, pry bars, gloves, saw etc

§         Bring your own lunch, beverages, sun screen

§         Bring a smile ‘cause it’s fun to work together!!

Kananaskis Rebuilt Report

This spring, and again in late August, earth movers and tonnes of rock were brought into the Kananaskis River to rework the river features. "The Kan" has a long history of man-made features. Originally, they were placed by the Alberta Whitewater Association (AWA) as a slalom training and race site. Over time, features were added for playboaters, rafters, surfers as well as teaching-appropriate facilities. This year the goal was to clean and/or fix features that have changed by flood or time, as well as add more features and better performance characteristics to the river. The whole project is valued at $200,000.

Last week, Tony, Chris and Aimee went out to the river with river surf boards to check out the changes....

"SUP with OR?"

Far and away, the most talked about new thing in paddlesports at the annual Outdoor Retailer (OR) tradeshow earlier this month in Salt Lake City was Stand-Uup Paddling or SUP. It is the sport of standing on a surf board and paddling with a very long canoe paddle. During the on-water demo there were line-ups to test-drive the SUP boards.

SUP was developed in Hawaii in the 50's as a means . . .

A few months ago, I posted two blogs about the rewriting of the Navigable Waters Protection Act. This is a very serious issue that affects all paddlers across Canada. Transport Canada would like to eliminate developers' obligation to consider impacts on navigation when building dams, bridges, causeways and other invasive structures.
The new law will ignore all whitewater rivers, all seasonal waterways and all vessels with less than a one-metre draft. This is a direct assault on Canada's tradition of river travel and the future health of our waterways by the same people who are supposed to protect both. It is a fundamental breach of public trust.
It was time that a voice was given to paddlers across Canada so a new website was born. I speak for Canadian Rivers was developed to ...

If you are Tao Berman, you run for the state legislature!?!

Berman set the world record for the highest waterfall ever paddled when he intentionally dropped over the 98. foot Upper Johnson Canyon Falls in Banff, Alberta back in 1999. Since then he has ...

We're back !


I haven't made any entries is this blog for a while - I've been on vacation! My beloved and I, along wih Rascal the wonder-pup, were travelling around southeastern Alberta and southwestern BC. We camped here and there, paddled a little and relaxed alot.

Next week we are off to "Outdoor Retailer," the annual tradeshow for, well, outdoor retailers in North America. For my first few years attending it was a mind-numbingly huge disneyland of outdoors stuff....

 

Leave No Trace Canada is one of the two major organizations that Undercurrents sponsors. This year, with help from the LNT Canada Education Committee, we developed a 7 principles card that is specific to Canadian rivers and lakes. Undercurrents paid for the printing of all 10,000 of the cards and donated them to LNT Canada....

REGISTRATION IS OPEN for the 2nd Annual Alberta Paddlefest, July 11-13 2008.

Hosted by Alberta Whitewater Association (AWA) in conjunction with Alberta Recreational Paddling Association (ARCA), Alberta Paddlefest is oriented towards newer paddlers and those who have never paddled.  There will be programs in ...

Here's something that virtually never happens during summer - canoes on sale!

Starting today, and for a limited time, all Esquif Royalex canoes are $200 OFF!

Also starting today is our Summer Clothing Sale! Brands like Mountain Hardwear, Royal Robbins and Mion are 25-50% OFF! All the details are here .

Hurry in while the sale lasts!

One of the fun things I get to do, besides Undercurrents, is write the gear review column for KANAWA, Canada's Paddling Magazine. I test-drive the latest and greatest paddling/camping gear, and talk about the best of them. Some we carry in the store, and some we don't.

I just submitted my latest column - it will hit the newsstands in about two months. I thought I would post one of the reviewed items on this blog for your consumption. (The editor will clean it up for publication and make it more readable) It is an interesting item, and we do carry it in the store.

Shewee

The Shewee is a British invention which has proven to be ‘big relief' for women ...