THE NEWSLETTER OF KAYAK NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR FALL 2002 Volume 2 (2) Ebb & Flow IN THIS ISSUE: Surf’s up in Newfoundland Book review Greenland expedition Bay of Islands sea kayaking KNL news Eelgrass research ...and more Meet your Executive Dan Miller - president President’s message [email protected] Peter Buckingham - vice-president [email protected] meet Peter Armitage - secretary [email protected] Louise Green - treasurer your [email protected] Richard Alexander - past president new president [email protected] Members at Large My name is Dan Miller and I’m excited and honoured to be in the position of president of Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador Craig Burden (west coast director) for the next year. Neil Burgess Mark Dykeman Darren McDonald First, let me tell you a bit about myself. I’m a retired fisheries Alex McGruer biologist who has spent 31 years studying pelagic fish, most Mark Simpson recently working on capelin in the Newfoundland region. When I retired four years ago, I got involved in kayaking and it has Letters to the editor since become a big part of my life. For me, kayaking is a sport Address your letters to with limitless possibilities for learning. I love being on the water [email protected]. Published and viewing our province from a marine and aquatic perspective. letters may be edited for length and clarity. Once you have seen our coastline from a kayak, the province will never look the same to you again! Cover photo - kayaking on Western Brook Pond (photo Craig Burden) We’re most fortunate in Newfoundland and Labrador to live in Newsletter Submissions one of the most beautiful and accessible kayaking environments Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador is a anywhere in the world. We also have a community of paddlers, provincial kayaking club representing the both sea kayaking and whitewater, that I have found to be the interests of both sea and whitewater kayakers. Ebb & Flow is the club’s official kind of people with whom I enjoy passing time.. We share a newsletter and is published between 2 and 4 common interest in the aquatic environment and a sport that times per year depending on the executive’s involves people of all ages and backgrounds. available time. Our club, Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador, is an organization We welcome your submissions to future issues of the newsletter. However, we can’ t of paddlers that promotes the sport by organizing club paddles guarantee we’ll publish them all. We and social events, hosting an annual spring retreat, publishing a reserve the right to edit submissions for newsletter, and acting as a voice to promote kayaking safety and style, spelling and length. If you have an instruction. Under our past president, Richard Alexander, the article you would like to contribute, please club has grown from a fledgling organization to a dynamic group contact Peter Armitage at the email address above. of more than 100 members. Ebb & Flow production Your club has organized a programme of activities for next year that the board hopes you'll find challenging and interesting. This Peter Armitage (editor in chief) and Richard issue of the newsletter contains a new book and video review Alexander (copy editor & layout assistance). section and other interesting articles. Remember, while winter Interested in joining Kayak has arrived, our paddling season never ends with pool sessions at Newfoundland & Labrador? the Aquarena continuing after Christmas. These sessions are a great time to work on your roll and improve your paddling Membership renewal- April 1st (one year) technique! Drop us a note by snail mail at: Box 2, Stn. “C”, St. John’s, NF, A1C 5H4, Sincerely, Dan Miller or pick up an application from our website - www.kayakers.nf.ca. *PS. The executive would like to express its gratitude to the many volunteers who helped with club activities during the year. 2 Sea Kayaking in the Bay of Islands By Keith Nicol Sea kayaking is a great way to see the Bay of form an impressive backdrop to the skyline. Islands in western Newfoundland. The area offers an amazing amount of diversity and will appeal to There are also many options along the south shore beginners and experts alike. As the name suggests, including Number #4 Brook in York Harbour. It is it has lots of islands but it also has three fjord-like an ideal launch point for trips to Seal and arms and spectacular scenery. Governors Island. Seal Island is particularly worth visiting for its secret cove laced with white sand. If you are just starting out, then you might want to Also, nearby Bottle Cove offers a sandy beach for try some of the launch points close to Corner Brook starting trips out into the open Gulf of St. like Prince Edward Park or the community boat Lawrence. From Bottle Cove you can paddle to access in Irishtown or Mt. Moriah. These areas Little Port or Cedar Cove or around South Head to offer shoreline paddling so that if you want, you Lark Harbour. can be close to shore. Also the wind and waves are generally more conducive to learning in these more protected parts of the Bay of Islands. Destinations from Irishtown include the Hughes Brook Estuary or the scenic shoreline toward Summerside. At Mt. Moriah, you can paddle along steep cliffs and small gravel beaches toward Cook's Brook or back toward Corner Brook and the yacht club. We often see osprey patrolling the shore near Cook's Brook, and there are often terns swooping Keith Nicol and diving in this area as well. All of these trips require a careful weather eye and Further along the north shore is McIvers which competent paddlers with all the safety equipment. offers many destinations. For competent paddlers, it You often need stay well away from the steep cliffs is the preferred launch point for paddling to Wood's in the area due to wave rebound, and there are few Island, but it also has a huge tern colony just off landing places. However, you are rewarded with shore. McIver's Island is home to over 1000 terns sightings of different sea birds like guillemots and according to a recent survey by Environment eider ducks and impressive views of offshore Canada. islands like Weebol. At present, there is little information about paddling in this area, but the local club is hoping to rectify that over the coming months. For anyone interested in learning more about local sea kayak destinations contact Craig Burden (president of the west coast chapter of Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador, tel. 709- 783-2101), Explore Newfoundland (a local kayak business, tel. 709-634-2263) or Keith Nicol (709-639-1770). Keith Nicol Contributor Keith Nicol has Level 2 CRCA Sea Kayak certification and teaches Outdoor Pursuits/Environmental Studies at Sir Wilfred South of McIver's is a scenic waterfall and a long Grenfell College in Corner Brook. He can be deserted gravel beach which is ready-made for reached at [email protected] beach walking. From this shore, you also get great views of the Blow Me Down Mountains which 3 May We Rant and Roar No More A Book Review by Eric West I suspect every serious kayaker harbours a secret He also tries to reproduce their speech as text, with desire to paddle around a large island - at least all the mixed results. This approach seems forced and paddlers are aware of the beauty and adventure that makes for awkward reading as he tries to capture the awaits them on such a trip. All islands have a special local dialect as well as his own spoken imitation of appeal, and the idea of circumnavigating the Island it. Instead of showing respect and affection, which of Newfoundland captures our imaginations. We the author undoubtedly feels for outport people, this would all like to paddle along, if only vicariously in distracts our attention and distorts the meaning of the pages of a book. Glancing through May We Rant their words. The author's own spoken words vary and Roar No More, I was taken by the audacity of a between urban slang (“dude”), literary allusions young person actually planning such a trip, let alone (“Heaven is as much under your feet as it is above succeeding in completing the voyage. It makes your head” [Thoreau]) and bay dialect (“I donno, b'y, week-long trips around the coast seem like a walk but dis ain't the way folks should be strivin' to live”). around a puddle! Unfortunately Paul's skills as a social commentator Michael Paul is a young Newfoundlander who had are not up to Thoreau's. The book becomes filled been living away for several years; hitchhiking with ranting and cheap shots toward the government through Europe and Asia, eventually settling in India (The book's title comes from his realization that “To for an extended period. In the process he developed a rant and roar would get us nowhere. Only through critical attitude to Western society in the tradition of our actions can change take place.”). It’s a bitter writers such as George Orwell and Henry Thoreau. denunciation of the modern way of life displacing Returning to Newfoundland, he wanted to explore the traditional, although the author doesn't attempt to his former home in a way that would put him in explain how past mistakes might be remedied. touch with the place and its people. The kayak seemed to be the perfect vehicle in which to The back cover summary of the book describes it as accomplish his goal.