Pam wrote to the City of Tacoma to find out why they canceled the Kayak Symposium. This is the reply from their Parks Director: I'm not sure if they'd let someone else take over the coordination or not but with WCSKS gone we need something in the Puget Sound area. I thought that the venue did pretty well. Nowhere near as large as the one in Port Townsend but seemed adequate and interesting when I attended last summer. I'm also wondering why there was such a "high demand" on the staff. Except for the coordinator. No volunteers? A few reasons for the discontinuance. Financially the event was a strain on us and couple that with the high demand of the staff, of which we lost our coordinator and the originator of the event. Without a person who had a passion for the event we were not willing to continue. In addition, the event was in need to mature into some intermediate as well as advanced levels and the staff did not have the capability to do so. The venue had physical restraints as well, to make in more financially feasible we would have wanted to expand and Owens Beach had too many limitations regarding parking, beach access (over the logs), beach size and conflict with non-event public access to the area. We will however continue to offer our Kayak trips which reach out to new paddlers. Anyone who wants to take this on should contact the City of Tacoma Parks Department. Am I the only one who thinks that kayak and canoe rentals to just anyone who wanders up is not a good idea at the Tacoma Narrows? Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** 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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