Have You Licensed Your Canoe or Kayak Yet

TheStar Boaters fear they’ll be up a creek without a $50 licence

The above article refers to an issue thats recently come up in the Canadian paddling community, Transport Canadas new regulations that seem to require the licensing of canoes & kayaks.

This item also appeared in todays CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/02/25/ottawa-canoe-rules.html

Ive been aware of the issue for well over a month now, and have resisted blogging about it, primarily because I was waiting to see what it all means, and hoping for clarification of several points. To that end I have been reading the information put out by Paddle Canada, and PaddlingInstructor.com, as well as following closely (but not getting mired into) the conversations at Canadian Canoe Routes and West Coast Paddler.

These rules are confusing, and there has been a great deal of confusion of how these rules will affect local paddling clubs (like the SCC), Guides, Scouts, schools, and other organisations that are important for introducing canoeing and kayaking to new paddlers.

As an instructor, its not not the end of the world for me. As someone who occasionally volunteers to take the less experienced out on the water in canoe and kayak, this could be a very big deal. Ive been hesitant to take a stance while Ive been trying to figure out what it all means. However, Im more and more of the opinion that this is a bad thing for individual paddlers, and for paddling culture in Canada.

During discussions of these new rules it gets brought up that it will be impossible to enforce. That may be, but they dont need to enforce it at all for it to be very important. It suddenly becomes important when something bad happens on a trip, course or minor excursion, and you are deemed to be a leader.

The good thing here is that they perhaps seem to be backtracking a bit, based on the comments from Chuck Strahl, Federal Transport Minister as reported in the above CBC article.

So, if you paddle, especially if you take others paddling, look into this and form an opinion for yourself. Keep an eye on how this is progressing and if your not satisfied or if this has you worried, consider writing a letter expressing your concern to your elected representatives. Also, spread the word. I think very few of us even know about these regulations at the moment, though the news is spreading.

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Harvey Golden and the Lincoln Street Kayak and Canoe Museum

Traditional Kayaks & The Lincoln Street Kayak & Canoe Museum

About twenty years ago, I was living in Portland, Oregon, attending college (for the third time) to earn a degree in architecture. Someone told me I should grow up and have a career. Having tried this path before, I knew the lure of building and adventuring in boats was my true love and would be difficult to abandon.

So, I was thrilled one night, at dinner with a friend, to be asked to build a lapstake tender for his old catboat. Since moving to the Portland area, I had not built any boats, so when it came time to make a mast and sprit, a search was on for some adequate spruce lumber. I stopped into Cross-Cut, the local specialty wood warehouse and immediately fell into conversation with a young salesman named Harvey who was even more excited about my project than I was.

It turned out, the warehouse, which sold every type of wood imaginable, had an empty storage loft upstairs. Harvey was teaching himself to build kayaks up there. I didnt know then and perhaps he didnt either, that he would pursue his hobby with a passion until he became the worlds preeminent expert on arctic kayaks. Over the years, his friends have watched in wonder as he filled his home (in a re-purposed neighborhood store) with authentic kayak replicas. It was a museum in the making, with boats in every corner and hanging from the ceiling, nearly forcing the family out on the street.

Well, Harvey has now opened a true museum a few blocks from his home, in yet another old store. Yesterday afternoon, I joined my friends, the Coots, for an organized visit. Oh, my! It was a wonder of the world!

I couldnt begin to describe it here. If you are anywhere near Portland, OR, you must visit. Harvey is a quiet, unassuming, walking encyclopedia of ancient traditional boatbuilding methods. He built most of his replicas himself (70 or 80? were not sure), true in every detail, with contextual adjustments made when substituting synthetic materials for animal hides. He has made every effort to make these replicas appear and most importantly, perform like the originals. He has tested each design, in personal voyages of discovery.

Harvey is also aesthetical:

 " In a more abstract sense, kayak replicas have a great appeal to my imagination and intellect.  Their forms and construct inspire awe and genuine wonderment--especially when one considers the harsh context of their origin, and the phenomenal diversity of their forms.  Launching a replica kayak is much like stepping into a time machine: It drops you into a different time, culture, and experience as you leave the shore-- you realize that the original kayak, now gathering dust in the backrooms of some museum, once gave somebody much the same feel on the water that you are now experiencing."   

I encourage you to contact Harvey on his museum website. The history and construction methods, with photos, of all known arctic kayaks can be found there. He has also written a book with descriptions of each type, augmented with detailed line drawings.
Hes about to publish another and were looking forward to that.

His collection is the largest and most diverse of traditional kayak forms in the world, representing the Koryak, Chukchi, Unangan (Aleut), Yupik, plus Inupiaq/Inuit and Kalaallit (Greenland) cultures.

The lighting in the museum was a challenge, but I got a few decent photos, which Ive uploaded to the Doryman Flickr site, with descriptions (as best I could from a short visit). Needless to say, I will be going back.








Heres the slideshow:

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