Canoe Kayak Magazine May 2016

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//-->REVIEW:6 LIGHT TOURING KAYAKS TESTED // 2016 DRYSUIT AND ACCESSORIES GUIDESPRING2016LIFE STYLEBORN TO PADDLEGRAND CANYON RECORDS SMASHED6 REC-TOURING KAYAKSFESTIVAL SEASONDRYSUIT AND ACCESSORIES GUIDE• TALES FROMCHILDHOODSON THE WATER• STAYING YOUNG WITHALEKSANDER DOBABORN TOPADDLE• A SLOWAPPRECIATION OFLAKE POWELL• THE RACE FOR ANEW GRAND CANYONSPEED RECORDTTHECCOLORADORIVER 2WAYSRIVER-TRIPPING’SMILLENNIAL PROBLEMHobie kayaks and stand up paddleboards will take you places you’ve never been before.Discover new waters with Hobie.hobiecat.comFOREWORDJeff MoagOMy childhood paddling experiences boil down toa few laps of the pond at day camp, three tripson the Current River and a Boy Scout canoeingbadge. That, and the time my father and Ipaddled a rental kayak around a small bay. Iwas 10, and it was the first time either of us hadbeen in a kayak. It was a peculiar boat, set up sothe two paddlers sat back-to-back, like a kayakversion of Dr. Doolittle’s Push-Me-Pull-You. Mydad was unfazed. He’s blind, and couldn’t seewhich way we were going anyway.Every one of those early trips is still strongin my memory. Childhood experiences arepowerful; they shape the rest of our lives.When my dad was 7, his father broughta Victrola home from the second hand storewhere he worked. The scratchy records itplayed opened my dad’s world, and soon mygrandfather started to bring home other thingsthat didn’t sell at the store–a guitar, a mandolin,a fiddle. My dad learned to play them all. He’dfound his passion, and music has been with himhis whole life.Though I didn’t grow up paddling, thosechildhood trips left their mark. In my twenties,after I broke my knee so badly I could hardlywalk, it was paddling that saved me. On thewater I was free again. No limping, no pain. I’dfound my thing too, but it wasn’t one my dad andI shared. He doesn’t paddle, and though I knowthe Bluegrass standards by heart, I can’t singany one of them in tune.So last spring, when David Jacksonsubmitted a terrific photo essay about canoebuilder Bill Miller’s annual fiddle fest in NewBrunswick (“Death of a River,” June 2015), Iasked my dad to join me at the very next Fiddleson the Tobique.We joined a flotilla of canoes for a six-milefloat down the Tobique River, me with my paddleand dad with his fiddle, playing Bob Wills tunes.Our new friend Maurice drifted nearby, playingboogie-woogie on the keyboard. A dozenmusicians made the trip on a floating stage builtatop two 26-foot canoes. They played Handel’sWater Music, traditional Canadian Maritime reelsand, when dad and I came close, joined in for“Take me Back to Tulsa.”It reminded me of the Bluegrass festivalsI grew up with, and the best of the paddlingevents I attend now. There was a sense offamily on the river that day, the same feeling wecelebrate in this issue with a collection of essaysabout raising kids as paddlers (Born to Paddle,p 32). In a roundabout way, each of those storiesis about the value of helping children find anactivity that they love, and that you can share asa family. It’s something you want to start early,if you can. But what I learned that day on theTobique is that it’s never too late to fall in lovewith paddling, or music for that matter. Nor is itever too late to share those favourite things withsomeone you love.–Jeff Moag4| canoekayak.comMAKE YOUR ESCAPE.Wherever there’s water, there’s an opportunity to get away fromit all. Just you, the outdoors, an Old Town NEXT, and the rhythmof it all. It’s the canoe-kayak crossover that lets you escapecivilization, even when you’re smack dab in the middle of it.To learn more, escape toPADDLENEXT.COM [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]