Sunshine Coast Stand Up Paddle Board Festival - Sunday July 6th

We are happy to give a shout out to Kokatat Watersports Wear and Werner Paddles dealer, Alpha Adventures and help promote their Sunshine Coast Stand Up Paddle Board Festival on Sunday July 6th in gorgeous Porpoise Bay Provincial Park in Sechelt, BC.


I had the opportunity to get on the water in Porpoise Bay this past Saturday while I was in town to clinic the staff at Alpha Adventures.  What a spot!  My friend, MO is new to kayaking and this was her first time on salt water.  She did great and loved the comfort and stability of the Hurricane Kayak Santee 126.  Another favourite feature of the boat is the lightweight at only 40lbs!!!

MO enjoying the Hurricane Kayak Santee 126

The view from the Hurricane Kayak Santee 116 Sport

Stand up paddle boarding, demos, clinics, culture and recreational racing - A great day of SUP activities!
Proceeds donated to Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue – (Coast Guard Auxiliary)

Both races are recreational.  Short Course - 2.4 km and Long Course - 4km.
Demos and Clinics – $5 per person gets you unlimited access to demo all boards and clinics (based on availability).
Races are an additional $15 entry fee per race, but remember, proceeds go to charity!

For more information contact the folks at Alpha Adventures at:  (604) 885-8838  or check out their website

Schedule of Events (TENTATIVE)-
09:00am- Festival Begins- demos available throughout the morning and some in the afternoon where board availability permits.
09:30am- SUP fitness clinic – 30 minutes
10:00am- Basic Paddle Strokes Clinic- 30 minutes
11:00am- Advanced Paddle Strokes Clinic- 30 minutes
11:30am- Short Course Racers meet at tent
12:00pm- Short Course Race begins
02:00pm- Long Course Racers meet at tent***
02:30pm- Long Course Race begins***
03:45pm- Awards Ceremony and Prize Draw
04:00pm- Festival Ends- have a great evening!
See our Accommodation and Travel Info page if you are joining us from out of town.

Road Travels, the Good and the Bad...

We just got off the road this past Tuesday after putting over 9,000km on our #roadwarrior rig and it was definitely a trip to remember.

On a super, awesome positive note, our "new to us" 2008 Chevy Express performed great and the gas consumption was not double what the trustee old Subaru was and we had a TON more space.  Hurray!!!

We did a number of clinics (if we missed you, we hope to see you with the new 2015 product in August or during future travels in the territory).  Getting on the water is always fun and we had a chance to do that with the crew from Endless Adventure in Castlegar, BC.  Here are a few photos.

Enjoy the comfort and speed of the Jackson Kayak Ibis

Nick, taking the Jackson Kayak Journey through its paces

Checking out the stability of the Jackson Kayak Big Tuna

 The bad news, was 3/4 of the way through the trip when we got a call from my parents, that my Opa (Grandpa) had died.  The fun stopped there.  I was very close to my Opa and this loss (however expected at the grand age of 86) has been tough for me.  Thanks to all of you who sent kind words, they were very much appreciated.  We returned to Saskatoon (from where we had just been 10 days prior) for the funeral and we were very fortunate to be there and celebrate a life well-lived!  We had to get back to work and hit the road that night.  The trip improved from there.

North to beautiful, Smithers, BC to assist Kokatat Watersports Wear, Jackson Kayak and Werner Paddles dealer, Aquabatics Smithers at their consumer demo day.  A huge shout-out to Susan and her staff for moving the date ahead by one day to give us a couple of days off to rest after the epic driving - you guys ROCK!!  I am super excited to say I got to spend some time in my Jackson Kayak Cuda 12 and do a little fishing up on Babine Lake (about an hour north of Smithers).  We had great weather and I landed my first FISH from a kayak!!!  A beautiful rainbow trout, the day prior my "nephew" Eli caught 3 (which we ate, they were delicious).  While the photos did not turn out as I had hoped, this is the proof :)

Kayak fishing on Babine Lake, BC - I got one on the line!!!

There he is...see him??!?  Fun times!

Here are a couple of photos from our consumer demo in Smithers with Aquabatics.  The weather forecast was for thundershowers so we were pretty stoked to have a warm, sunny day!!!

Young Ian, having a blast!!

Lake Kathyln, a beautiful spot to get on the Jackson Kayak SUP boards

The Jackson Kayak Big Rig, big enough for you AND your dog!!!

Re-Cap 3 Rivers Rendezvous Whitewater Festival 2014 - Team Paddler, Luke Vollmerhaus

So, another Pincher Creek 3 Rivers Rendezvous is in the archives and it was one of the best yet (in my humble opinion). This year I believe there were close to 350 paddlers who came down south for this increasingly popular event near the sleepy southern Alberta towns of Lundbreck and Pincher Creek. As the festivals name suggests, there are 3 great river systems in close proximity to the campsite/event venue, the Oldman, Castle and Crowsnest drainage's.
This year, we were graced with near perfect water levels across the board and as far as May long weekends in Southern Alberta go, great weather. The days were mixed with clouds, warm sun and short rain showers (and one epic thunderstorm).

Photo: Lori Vollmerhaus // Paddler: Andy Vollmerhaus // Location: Castle Falls (I think…)

There are many great aspects to this event. Due to the semi remote location of the festival there are lots of paddlers who rarely get to hop on these southern runs despite their spectacular beauty and awesome white water. There’s also an enormous variety in difficulty of white water available, everything from barely class 1 for your beginner to staunch class 5 for your experienced adrenalin junkie.

It is a festival of contrasts, there are loads of wide eyed new paddlers down there, looking to take their first whitewater strokes, often being led by clubs from all points of the Alberta compass, there are the groups of intermediates who just love to paddle, socialize and really embrace the entire paddling culture in a way that gets me so stoked, the old dogs) who are there to help, cruise and go with the flow a bit, and then there are the frothing at the mouth chargers who want to run big water, big drops and get ‘rad’ so to speak. With all that going on one could assume that there would be ego, cliques etc, but for some reason (and maybe it is just paddling), but at this festival all these people rub shoulders with each other, talk up their runs for the day, drink beer and maybe even shoot off the occasional firework or three at the wee hours of the morning together. You can’t help but get caught up in how pumped everyone is to have come out of the Alberta deep freeze and have all these wonderful rivers running and so close to the campsite.

There are more paddling festivals throughout the year but this is certainly one of my personal favourites.

I hope everyone’s season is off to a stellar start, keep it safe and rip it up!

Cheers,

Luke