Derek Bamforth was a good friend of mine. He was just about to retire, but died fairly suddenly last week of Prostrate cancer. He was the owner of Pacific Canoe Base in Victoria. He sold me my Nordkapp over 20 years ago. He ran one of the first west coast sea kayak symposiums here, at the University of Victoria, even before the popular Task event. He was editor of the Ocean Kayaking Association of BC for many years, ruffling the feathers of many paddlers like Matt Broze and John Dowd. Derek was opinionated and biased toward narrow, heavy British boats, and never compromised those "values." He sold many VCP kayaks over the years, and a lot of canoes. He made many people very happy in their new-found sport of paddling. He introduced Derek Hutchinson to the west coast, which brought up the skill level of most paddlers in the area. He reinvigorated production of the Thermofloat Sea Seat, trying to sell thousands, but it never panned out. Derek wasn't a paddler himself. He loved fishing and making his own beer, which he shared with his friends whenever they dropped by. He loved his Irish Setters over the years and his Jazz music. I'll miss you Derek. I'm sorry I never ordered that Kevlar Nordkapp. And despite your gruffness, you were a good man. Rest in peace. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
In a message dated 06/13/2002 2:03:29 AM Eastern Daylight Time, dougl_at_islandnet.com writes: << Derek Bamforth was a good friend of mine. He was just about to retire, but died fairly suddenly last week of Prostrate cancer. >> you can't imagine how many times i hear this...i write the obituaries for the police department i work for....a couple of weeks ago a 55 yo died and i overheard someone say "He worked himself to death." carpe diem but then most of the people on this list, by the very nature of the topic, do .... sandy kramer *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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