Re: [Paddlewise] Port Townsend symposium

Sandy wrote:
>Any reviews for us East Coast paddlers?  Shall I make an effort to attend 
>sometime?  

Sandy, et al (long post warning):
I can offer you my reflections only, for the most part. I hadn't been to
the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium for 15 years or so. The last time I got
yancy after only a day, and had wished I was on a paddling trip instead.
Not having gone to a big symposium in so many years (I've only attended
small ones), I was blown away by the sheer size and scope this year. Here
are some good things and bad things:

Registration - Somewhat disorganized. People got into loooooong lineups,
and not until they finally spoke to someone, did they realize they were in
the wrong lineup. Simple signage would have been nice. 

Food - Situation was bad. I was volunteering, so got symposium free in
exchange for two, four hour blocks of volunteering, but no food or
accommodation. I got food from in town, but did buy one meal ticket, so got
to experience the food service. (Extra meal tickets were at an absolute
premium - you were supposed to have preorderd/prepaid meals if wanted). You
had to sit down at a table the cafeteria staff appointed, and wait to be
served. Meal times were very short, and food did run out. Some of the staff
were not very pleasant.

Information - Not bad, but some people had a hard time finding classes at
the beach, and a few no-shows were evident by the speakers. A map and
schedule helped, but there were small errors, which is to be expected.

Learning Facilitators - Most of the ones I went to, and the ones I heard
about, were good, but not too many excellent, and a few really stunk. I had
hear some of these lectures 15 years ago, so thought some of the stuff was
fairly vintage. One lecturer, I interupted 30 times with corrections and
qualifiers, so decided to not go to too many for sake of embarrising my
self. (Ken Fink is still talking to me, however!).

Weather - Outstanding! Summer finally hit the west coast up here. Hot, a
bit of wind, bit of fog first day, not a cloud after that. Make sure you
preorder good weather next year, and keep up their tradition of fine
weather :-)

Beach Demos - Seda and Easy Rider noticeably absent. Some new faces (I was
told) apparent. Lots of boats to try. Lots of time between events and
classes for try-outs. Part of reason I went was to see some new stuff, as
year 2000 coming and figured lots of new models would coincide.

Evening Presentations - Awesome. Moving. Beautiful images. Evening dance,
well, Regea (sp?) band was hot, but mostly due to the weather! One retailer
was seen doing the "Worm" across the dance floor - he was a little under
the weather himself the next day.

Retail Sales - No really great deals at the tent. 20% off, perhaps. I can't
remember if boats were on sale, just clearance gear - however, I don't
think retailers/manufactures should be expected to be "giving away" boats,
as it were, just because it's a symposium.     
 
Paddlewisers - I put a stupid little yellow tag on my hat with a "P", just
to see what would happen (there was a previous post mentioning this alert
device). Mostly people in general asked why I had a stupid little yellow
tag on my hat with a "P". I told them to pee off (not really!). It did
work, and I met Nick 'Love my Mariner' Lyle, Hank 'Lightning' Hays, and
Andree 'a decent ACA Person' Hurley. Matt 'no damn rudder' Broze also
crashed the scene, but eventually coughed up some money :-)

Personal Highlight - Harvey Golden, Inuit style paddler and builder of fine
replicas. He has made 20 (cost $80.00 US each to make). He brought 4 or 5
of his kayaks, and spent the three days wowing the crowds and me, including
Chris Cunningham. Delightful fellow (he has participated in the past with
Maligiaq). I got dizzy just watching him.

Best Mr Nice Guy - Nigel Foster. No one, at least no one of his experience
and expertise, comes close to having such a balanced, non-ego centric
personality. Other famous players should emulate this man. He had some
really great ways of conveying concepts/ convictions on certain matters.

Best Presentation - Chris Duff. His 'Round Ireland slide show and reading
from his new book was truly moving. I assume this is what the symposium
people saw too, as I heard him (along with Andree and Matt) at a separate,
private presentation in town. I went with Matt for Pizza, but unfortunately
missed Tim Lehman's Baffin Island presentation that was on at the same time
back at the symposium. The Baffin slides were dedicated to a couple that
died off Baffin last year. I'm doing the accident report for Sea Kayaker
Magazine on that incident, and was truly sorry I missed out - oh well, at
least Matt was good company. BTW, Chris Duff used a Nordcapp for his GB
exploits, but is switching to a Romany for his upcoming New Zealand trip -
the traitor! Another BTW, Chris uses a paddle tether *and* body tether.

Best New Boat(s) - My wife warned me not to look and lust after young,
hard-bodied women at the symposium. No problem. I was all over the new
Nordkapp Jubilee. I have never had a chance to try it out. Lust, lust,
lust!!!!! I would have liked to try out some Mariners, but the manufacturer
was also noticeably absent - at least his boats and official involvement.
However, Matt was busy down on the beach with a day pass, trying out all
the new boats. In the late afternoon, he methodically measured every
specification of as many new boats as he could, but he ran out of time.
Matt keeps all these statistics somewhere. Ah Matt, so many boats, so
little time!!!!

Other Notables: The Dagger "Baja" plastic boat was a real screamer for a
great day, rough-water play boat, though this would have to be verified in
the rough. Kajak, makers of the rubber hatches, had some great new boats.
They also have a variety of rubber hatch sizes, from large oval, right down
to small knee tube size, for retro fitting to other boats (ie, you can
order hatches separately. I have address, if needed). Current Designs had a
new, improved, Gulfstream. There were lots more good boats too.

Gear - Stolequist, Palm, and Kokatat had some great PFD/integral tow system
stuff, all using the preliminary bungy in-line connection from the PFD's
back "D" ring. 

Volunteering - They forgot to put me on the Saturday list, so I only had to
do one block on Sunday. It was in the rescue boat with a US Coast Guard
Reservist female gender unit. Had a great time chasing wayward kayakers.
"Hey you, you are only allowed 50 feet from shoreline, please!" Hope this
never becomes a reality for all kayakers one day, on all waters. Coast
Guard lady also hit (!) a kayak with the Zodiac (didn't see the novice
coming from behind a moored sailboat). Due to my, err, excellent quick
thinking, I dived over the edge and grabbed the coaming of the victims
kayak, preventing a knock-over and impressing the ocifer - oooohhhh!.
Anyway, it felt great for me to be a rescuer for once, rather than the
rescuee :-) 

All in all, I'm glad I went. Now I just have to explain all my purchases to
my wife this week - brand new, first in North America, redesingned CD Bent
Shaft paddle with graphite/nylon blades in whitewater shaft layup, Sea
Kayaker vest and shirt and back issues, double chamber paddle float, water
bladders, etc, etc. Well, at least you guys understand! 

BC'in Ya
Doug Lloyd (Caveat - I am in no way connected to any of the above
retailers, though I do tether myself to Nordkapps)


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