Hello you all. After receiving privately few questions about Finnish scene, I thought to introduce myself and share some knowledge about the situation here - besides just sending some unfortunate e-mail without a decent return address (I am still confused, Jackie, sorry! Pardon me also, if parts of the text are familiar to some of you: I have used the "copy" - button freely to avoid repeating myself, anyway.) Just went nuts with paddling three years ago, to save myself from hanging too much out in the pubs - and to meditate a little bit, to clear my mind. Since the first summer it was great, so now I have a Nordkapp and a SeaLady double. Last summer passed with 1067 kilometres, so I am thinking there might be still be possibilities for developing myself, my skills and physical condition (I am 36). Normally, I have about six weeks of vacation during summertime to make most of it, during winters I´m lecturing history of photography, some other subjects and working as a head of the department of photography in financial, pedagogic and artistic issues. That means a lot of reasons to lose your sleep sometimes.. and reasons to wait for the summer, even if the weather and sometimes slow coming of ice do let one paddle late during the wintertime. I have grown very accustomed to sea, and very fond of it, having spent my chilhood in a small coastal town. We have thousands of lakes (well, 1000 of them, some of them making beautiful long routes with rivers), but besides that: about 1500 kilometres of coastal line with (yes, again) some 1000 islands. The southwest coast is extraordinarily broken and beautiful, making it safe to paddle via inner routes even if having very hairy weather conditions...just check the maps & see! Islands are varying from the inland profiles of large woods to bare stones & bedrock at the furthest holms. It is getting more rocky when going to east, some of the islands consisting of only trees which are desperately hanging on the rocks, piled from the bottom to the surface. Very pittoresque. The Ice Age has left it´s marks. The earth is at the south-west coast rising from the sea about half a metre per hundred years. Even if it seems rough, the ants do still enjoy even these islands.. just spent last summer a chaotic hour of making lunch in an one - and doing some rapid dancing, trying to avoid any contact to the mother earth. The water is very little salty. In the open ( or further from the coast) the water is even drinkable - but not during these hot summers, when that algae is rising from the bottom. One reason, why it is not so salty, is that the water changes quite slowly - so it is also really easily polluted (fertilizers etc.)...which keeps me personally very worried. The algae can cause serious problems to children, small animals and even adults when having a skin contact. It can be a discusting mess to paddle in the stinking green water, if these summers do continue. The club I am belonging to (in Helsinki, the capital) is very small, and one of the oldest (established somewhere 1936), with a quite a fascinating looking wooden shed (yep, coming from the 40´s and still standing, no luxury but electricity). Some of the old chaps are very fascinated with touring (thousands of kilometres per year at the age of 60+), and somehow, I think that it is typical to Finnish paddling: no tide here, not very much Atlantic-style surfing, so your contact with nature and travelling plays more important part when goin out. Some of the member´s longest trips have been the whole Swedish coast last summer, Helsinki - Stockholm route (including paddling about 30 kilometres at open sea) the summer before that, and various times the travels across the Finnish Gulf to Estonia (again some 30 kilos at open sea). Safety is extraordinary serious issue here: in waters which can still give you serious hypothermic problems as soon as you have collapsed, people are keeping the etiquette with PDF´s & other stuff. Long swims even during the summers can not be considered healthy, the winds can bring the cold water up from the bottom very effectively. Of course: this is not the North Pole, check the recent issue of Sea Kayaker (Feb ´98) about Sweden´s Arcipelago and you are getting the picture. The bottom and islands can also raise very disturbing cross-waves in the channels when the wind is correct - not to mention the waters around the shoals, naturally. Ok. I am waiting for the summer, just imagine it now, how it is: the temperature dropped last week 16 degrees Celsius below zero at the south coast. It is warming now. I heard there still is some open water... Ari Saarto Principal Lecturer, dept. of Photography Lahti Polytechnic - Institute of Design Faculty of Visual Communication Kannaksenkatu 22, P.O. 92 15141 Lahti Finland GSM +358 - 50 - 526 5892 fax. +358 - 3 - 828 2815 e-mail: asaarto_at_lpt.fi web: lpt.fi/mi/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net ***************************************************************************
From: "BRADFORD R. CRAIN" <brad_at_mth.pdx.edu> Organization: PSU math dept To: asaarto_at_lpt.fi Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 12:39:09 +0000 Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Sea Kayaking in the Finnish Gulf Reply-to: BRAD_at_mth.pdx.edu Priority: normal Can you tell us about the fishing and the pretty Scandinavian girls? Bradford R. Crain E-mail: brad_at_mth.pdx.edu Dept. of Mathematics Phone: (503) 725-3127 Portland State Univ. FAX: (503) 725-3661 P.O. Box 751 Portland, Or. 97207 ********************************************************************** Well, about the fish: we have them. As for an example berch, pike, burbot. It is fun to make a hole to the ice and try them that way. About the girls: we have them. Brunettes, blondes etc. What did you think, polar bears? DON´T try to make a hole to the ice and get the girls that way .. ( anyway, how old are you?) :-p Cheers, Ari Saarto Kannaksenkatu 22 / P.O. 92 15141 Lahti - Finland - Europe GSM +358 - 50 - 526 5892 fax. +358 - 3 - 828 2815 e-mail: asaarto_at_lpt.fi *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:32:46 PDT