[Paddlewise] Slave Lake Fire = many kayaks vaporized

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Greetings out there in kayak land,

I am not sure, but we may have experienced one of the greatest losses of
kayaks in Canadian History in Slave Lake, Alberta,  This was something that
was never in the news, but definitely impacted our kayaking community.

I am the president of a regional kayak club (Lesser Slave Sea
Kayak Club) centered out of Slave Lake, Alberta, Canada.  Some of you may
have heard about the wildfire taking out about 1/3 of our town of 7,000
people.  As we start picking up the pieces and try to get our lives back in
order, we are realizing that many of us lost everything we owned and that
includes a number of sea kayaks.  One of our members eloquently put it, we
lost more boats than many famous naval battles.

I have done a rough tally and I am guessing we have lost somewhere between
20 - 30 kayaks amongst our club members alone.  We were beginning to make a
name of ourselves as the sea kayak capital of Alberta, since we are on the
shores of Lesser Slave Lake - the largest lake wholly within the province,
we would like to continue with that vision.

If there were people that had kayaks that they would like to part with or
sell at reasonable rates that would help us get back on our feet.  I was
hoping maybe somebody out there had some leads on used kayaks, or knew
somebody that worked with a kayak rental company, or a manufacturer to help
us regain some of kayaks to help us back into the sport that we dearly
love.  Since the supply of new or used kayaks is simply not available here
in northern Alberta, and many of us don't have the means to travel to
British Columbia or pay for a new kayak and all the necessary gear.

Any help, suggestions, or direction would be much appreciated.

Thanks a bunch
:-)
Jim Meldrum
Lesser Slave Sea Kayak Club
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