BORN TO PADDLE, KAYAKING WITH KIDS

The first river you paddle runs through the rest of your life. It bubbles up in pools and eddies to remind you who you are. --- Lynn Culbreath Noel

"Can I fall in?"
That question is usually unheard of in my adult classes. Just the thought of rolling upside in their kayak would strike terror into them. But, this query came from smiling freckled-face ten-year-old girl with boundless energy and little fear.

"Sure if you want to," I replied.

The girl and kayak in one motion capsize with a plop, gurgle, and splash. An instant later, in textbook maneuver, she lowers her head to the bow, pushes her legs and feet clear of the kayak and then drops them to the bottom and brings her still smiling face up alongside her kayak.

"Kids love kayaking and most take to it almost instantly," said Current Adventures' Dan Crandall, "We get them smiling at the beginning of class and have them laughing by the end."

Anyone who works with kids regularly knows they come with have short attention spans and aren't to focused on learning the technical aspects of the forward, back or sweep strokes.

The key for instructor John Weed, is to keeping paddling exercises fun, short and interesting. He used a game of keep-a-way to get the students to paddle and steer their boats. From the shore, it looked like a mayhem of bumper boats crashing about the lake, but before long the students are discovering how to propel and turn their boats while chasing a green ball.
Another game Weed used to help kids practice boat control all while having fun was called Sharks and Minnows. He is instructed one kid to be a shark while all the other kids were all minnows.

"I'm hungry!" called out the shark.

"And I'm a little minnow," cried the scattering minnows trying not to get tagged by the shark, because once tagged they become a shark.  It kept going until every paddler became a shark. By using these active games the young kayakers were soon making new friends and having fun all while building paddling skills that they can be used on the lake or river.

Next, it was off to explore. Across the flat-water, the lake offers some special hideaways like “Swampland” and “Berry Pond". As the kids toured the hidden backwaters occupied by turtles, tadpoles, deer and other critters, the wonders of nature came alive to them. Quietly paddling along they became naturalists as they explored and made their own discoveries in the lush wetland.

2019 Current Adventures Kayaking School and Trips Summer Schedule

Kids Kayaking Lessons
Ages: 8-11 yrs.
Prerequisites: none Location: Lake Natoma
Cost: $169 (Includes 10% State Park fee.  Parking is extra.) Time: (3 days) 9:30am – 12:30pm
2018 Dates: June 24-26 ( M-W), July 1-3 ( M-W)
July 23-25 (Tue-Thu)

Junior Beginning Kayaking 
Ages: 10-14 yrs.
Prerequisites: No prerequisites for beginning classes other than age appropriate.
Location: Lake Natoma & Lower American River (on day 3).
Cost: $169 (Includes 10% State Park fee.)
2018 Dates:
June 24-26 ( M-W), July 1-3 ( M-W)
July 23-25 (Tue-Thu)
Time: (3 days) 1:30pm – 5:30pm
Progression:  Teen Camp, Touring Classes, Private Classes and for ages 12 and up consider Eppie’s Junior Training program.

On day three the Junior class ages 10-14, moved on to the easy moving waters of the Lower American River. On the river, the young paddlers after two days of paddling lessons tested their new skills on moving water. While a little apprehension came over the group at the sound of rushing water, but it was all smiles on the other end after they punched through a series of fast water. Before the day was over the youths are immersed in river reading, river signals, and moving water paddling maneuvers.

"This class leaves them begging for more, said Crandall, "The kids always leave these classes super excited and many come back year after year."
Meanwhile back on the lake, I had pushed the kayak up on to shore and dump all the water out of it with help from the still smiling and a dripping wet ten-year-old girl. I was going to get plenty of practice doing over the next couple of days when she asked, "Can I do that again?"

If you want to go  
Current Adventures Kayak School and Trips 
PHONE: 530-333-9115 or Toll-Free: 888-452-9254
FAX: 530-333-1291
USPS: Current Adventures, P.O. Box 828, Lotus, CA 95651
info@currentadventures.com
owner Dan Crandall dan@kayaking.com

This article was originally published in Outside Adventure to the Max July 7, 2017.

Deliverance II
For a group of teens, a kayaking trip down an Alabama river ended up resembling the 1972 movie Deliverance when a teenager says his friends being beaten and threatened with sexual assault.
According to Alabama news outlets, 18-year-old Collins Nelson of Huntsville says he and other friends were on the Flint River in northern Alabama on Sunday when a man paddling behind them began heckling the group.

Collins Nelson of Huntsville

Nelson said the taunting included a threat to sexually assault a female who was with his group and continued further downstream when he says the man and other adults attacked his group.
“It was just chaos from there,” Nelson said in a story told  AL.com, “Flipping our kayaks, flipped my kayak, some man put me in a headlock and proceeded to beat my face.”
Nelson suffered a broken nose and fractured eye socket, among other injuries in the attack. Huntsville police are investigating and said the suspects have been identified and could face second-degree assault charges.

Kayaking NYC For Free
Think you can kayak for free in New York City? Well, then I have a bridge I can sell you too. OK, the bridge isn't really for sale, but you can kayak for free in its view while visiting the Big Apple.

Photo Courtesy of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse

  According to the web site InsideFlyer, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse with the goal of providing human-powered boating to everyone has been providing free kayaking on the East River since 2010. Their mission statement says, "If you’re willing to provide the human power, we’ll provide the boat, life vest, and paddling instructions. Simply walk up, fill out a waiver and we’ll handle the rest."
It must be working, over the years their program has grown from a couple of boats and a single day program to over 7,000 paddlers over the course of the 2018 summer season. Each 20-minute kayak session allows amazing views of Lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and, of course, the Brooklyn Bridge
Besides regular kayaking, they also offer kayak polo games every week; they’re the only organization in the NY-NJ-CT tri-state area that offers that for free.

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2018 IN REVIEW: PICTURES OF THE YEAR

And so for a time, it looked as if all the adventures were coming to an end, but that was not to be.---C. S. Lewis

It's that time of year again when I look back on some of my best images of the last year. Like always, it's difficult to narrow it down to just a dozen. I have so many favorites,  involving an anecdote or recollection behind each image captured while at the river or lake. From those fast times on the Lower American River to the slow-motion days at Sly Park each photo has its own story. So Yes it's hard to pick just a handful of pictures that stand out above the others.

A bent rack

"Someone once said that wherever I am is the perfect picture," long-time famed sports photographer Walter Iooss Jr told WPB Magazine, "I didn’t like the way it sounded but I believe that. It’s not that I’m positive of it deep down inside, it’s that I have to believe it. When you make that decision – ‘This is the place to go’ – you’ve got to live with it. There’s no alternative.”

As a young photojournalist, I followed the career of Iooss, the undisputed maestro of sports photography, boasting an exceptional career that spans over four decades. His iconic photographs of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, the memorable “catch” by Dwight Clark during the 1982 NFC Championship Game, and dazzling portraits of basketball superstar Michael Jordan have been showcased in Sports Illustrated where he has over 300 covers to his credit.

Eppies Great Race training

“Photography is not a job. It’s a way of life,” he told WPB Magazine,  “I live it, think it, and feel it. It’s just in my DNA. I’ve always felt the moment."

I feel the same way. I just love taking pictures of special ripples in time and telling stories. For most of my life, I worked as a photojournalist in both print and broadcast media in a daily grind of trying to provide storytelling images or video to the folks reading the paper or watching their local TV news. At the end of every year, I would usually gather up my best of the best pictures or TV clips and send them off to an array of contests and judgings.

50+ plus paddle with Current Adventures

I won a few awards but never lost. As Iooss has said, the real joy of photography is in the discovery and magic of the moments like shots of Current Adventures' John Weed providing protection while shadowing a young paddler through his first rapid, an anniversary kiss on the water and an Eppies racing smile.
There is one of a lone paddler in the smokey veil of a wildfire and another of my wife Debbie paddling past the remnants of a past fire. There is fun on a glow paddle with Bayside Adventure Sports but also the slog of a portage back up river.

The Lower American River

“Passion, curiosity, excellence, the drive to always want to do it well,” he said Iooss, “You have to reinvent yourself. You can’t stay in one spot.”
So as 2018 draws to a close, I look back at some of my favorite moments I had kayaking with this past year.

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Current Adventures Kid Classes

Current Adventures Kid Class

Eppies Great Race training

Lake Jenkinson

Stumpy Meadows

Lake Natoma

Duck photobomb

Glow Paddle with Bayside Adventure Sports

The Lower American River

THE PATHWAY TO WATER

Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free. ’tis the gift to come down where you ought to be. --- Traditional Shaker

There's no season for me, that gathers up more feelings of nostalgia than autumn. The sound of brown crisp leaves crunching underfoot, the taste of apples and pumpkins doused with sugar and cinnamon and the spectacular sight of migrating geese heading south before winter. It's always a thanksgiving of memories and reflection for me.

I got that same sentimental feeling when I was watching naturalist and canoe guru Bill Mason's 1984 semi-autobiographical documentary, Waterwalker, this past week.

Photos courtesy of the Mason family

In the film, Mason guides us in his canoe along the rugged coast of Lake Superior and on some of Ontario's exciting rushing rivers and through its peaceful meadowland lakes. All the way, he paints, camps, and tells us stories about his love of canoeing in the Canadian wilderness. En route, we escape into his paddling world of beautiful scenery and wilderness pleasures, as he teaches us to reflect poignantly on nature and the history of land's native people.

"There is no wolf attack, I don't get ravaged by wild mountain men or robbed by bandits," Mason tells us in Waterwalker, "In fact, there are no bad guys at all. Just you and me paddling the biggest and most spectacular lake in the world... Lake Superior."

Long before the days of high definition, drones, and special effects, Mason's films now have a nostalgic feel to them. Using a 16-mm film, he blended the natural sound of birds chirping, waves crashing and rushing water to enrapture us into the scene. To bring us in closer, he developed a pre-GoPro perspective to get the shot, using a motorcycle helmet and wood from a hockey sticks to create a helmet cam. It was not lightweight by today's standards and could only shoot a maximum of 90 seconds before the film ran out. There is a story, that Mason almost drowned the first time he jumped in the water with it on. From then on they say, he used several extra PFDs to provide enough flotation for him and the camera to stay afloat.

"It is a testament to his creative genius that at a time of mass online media," wrote Conor Mihell, in a tribute to Mason in Canoe & Kayak Magazine, "Mason's canon of films remain relevant and entertaining on the 30th anniversary of his death, on October 29, 1988."

In Waterwalker, Mason quipped us along about being an artist who loves to canoe or a canoeist who loves to create. His passion for both was poured out freely, all the while encouraging us as Mihell wrote of him, to explore the real world—a dynamic, wondrous and beautiful place of wild rivers and freshwater seas, to be traced slowly, joyously and thoughtfully by canoe.

"I love his simple joy of building a relationship to the world with a canoe, " wrote James Raffan offering Mason more accolades in Paddling Magazine, "Bill didn't really care whether you did this stroke of that stroke in this or that circumstance. Going into nature was the most important thing. How you got there in your canoe was incidental."

I thought about Mason the last time I paddled on Lake Natoma. It was easy too, after a chance meeting with John Weed. A local paddling legend in Northern California, it's obvious Weed and Mason were cut from the same cloth.

John Weed

Like Mason, Weed is somewhat of a mystical spirit. A long-time instructor and guide for Current Adventures Kayak School & Trips he has been known to go on solo trips to Mexican Baja coast for months at a time always bringing back stories wild tales of surviving sudden storms, dodging drug smugglers and meeting great friends along the way.

"When you paddle with others, you can immerse yourself in nature." Weed  was quoted as saying, "When you paddle solo, you are nature."

Always a great paddling companion, on my recent trip to the lake, Weed told me stories of growing up inside the walls of Folsom prison as we paddled up past the Rainbow Bridge near the prison. His dad was the prison's chaplain in a time when many of the prison's employees and their families would live on its grounds and the only way to get to the river then was to stage a prison break.

"It was maximum security then," laughed Weed as we angled around the curve in the river where we could see the prison's tower and stone walls, "Every day at 4:00 PM they would blow a whistle that would send everyone back for lockdown. But for me, that would single that it was time to jump the wall and come down here to go fishing."

And ever since, Weed, just like did Mason has followed the well-worn path to the water. As Mason said, “A journey by canoe along ancient waterways, is a good way to rediscover our lost relationship with the natural world and the Creator who put it together so long ago.”

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for all those like Bill Mason and John Weed for showing us that pathway to the water.

Canada's greatest canoe legend lives on YouTube. Check out Bill Mason's film Waterwalker as it continues to inspire an all-new generation of paddlers. 

 

Pledge to help California State Parks on #GivingTuesday

This Tuesday, November 27, join people around the globe in support of the causes you love like supporting our state parks for #GivingTuesday. Last year, millions of gifts were made to nonprofits on #GivingTuesday and hundreds of generous park lovers like you chose to donate in honor of our state parks.
This year, we’re counting on you to help us meet our goal of raising $75,000 and making it our biggest #GivingTuesday yet! Get ready to celebrate this global day of giving to the California State Parks Foundation.

KAYAK SUMMER 2018

         Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. --- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have found that summers linger in Northern California. There are no hurricane warnings or threats of frost or snow. The mornings at the lake have a certain crispness where you just might need a sweater, at least through breakfast. Outside of my favorite Starbucks adding Pumpkin Spice Latte to the menu board and slow traffic coming from nearby Apple Hill, it feels as if summer is not all that anxious to concede to autumn just yet. But it's on way.

"There is something deep within us that sobs at endings." wrote American author Joe Wheeler, "Why, God, does everything have to end? Why does all nature grow old? Why do spring and summer have to go?"

Lake Jenkinson

Bittersweet for some. A celebration of the change of seasons for others. No matter how you regard it, this Saturday marks the first day of fall, which of course subsequently, means its the official end of summer.

To keep my memories burning bright heading fall, I like to look back at some of my favorite images I created over the summer. Some picture-perfect tranquil moments are accompanied by some fast-paced and lively shots of my time on the water. They compose the snapshots of my summer recollections. But, of course, they are not the whole story.

In a recent Paddling Magazine article title Unforgettable, Everything Instagram Won't Tell You About Canoe Tripping, writer Kaydi Pyette says that her most memorable moments aren't always perfectly lit and beautifully composed, but are the gritty and hard moments hard moments of her trips.

The American River Parkway

"What Instagram so rarely shows is the side canoe tripping not so splendidly picture perfect. There are bugs,"  she wrote, "Followers don't get to see the hours of tediousness invested in capturing this one outrageously perfect moment. we don't see the work it takes to align the gear, sunlight, smoke signals and hang those twee tinkle lights just so."

Guilty as charged. Because I'm not going to tell you how I rolled and swam in front of everyone at San Juan Rapids, ripped the seat of pants while working the boat dock at Sly Park and sliced my big toe on rocks on North Fork of American River. The same goes for loading and unloading trailers of boats, dumping kayaks full of water and long shuttle drives, they just go with the territory.

They were all outweighed by watching a shy kid learn to kayak, helping a father, in an age-old tradition of taking his children on their very first canoe ride and coaching a determined Eppies Great Race participant take on the rapids of Lower American River. Summer 2018, like all my paddling summer before, those are the memories that will kindle in the consciousness of mind.

Sly Park

"When summer opens," wrote American transcendentalist essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, "I see how fast it matures, and fear it will be short; but after the heats of July and August, I am reconciled, like one who has had his swing, to the cool of autumn."

There is something incredibly nostalgic about paddling into the fall season. The lakes are quiet. Gone are the crowds and motorboats and the only sound you will hear are those of nature. The trees are ablaze with a canvas of bold-colors reflecting on the undisturbed peaceful waters.

It was early morning on the lake last weekend. Idly in a canoe, I lingered just a bit longer, before dipping my paddle. The water is still warm enough for a swim, but the air was noticeably cooler. In the distance, a wispy veil of mist hovers over its surface. It's the ghost of summer, I suppose.

Sly Park's Lake Jenkinson

A moonlit paddle on Lake Natoma with Current Adventures.

John Weed and kids classes with Current Adventures.

Debbie Carlson's new SUP on Lake Natoma.

Paddling after dark with Bayside Adventure Sports.

Eppies training with Current Adventures .

Fall comes to Lower American River.

Want to see more photos? Follow me on Instagram

@nickayak
The official feed of Outside Adventure to the Max. Follow us on river trips along the American River and the lakes of the Sierra with Current Adventures as we count my paddling days of the year.

BORN TO PADDLE, KAYAKING WITH KIDS

The first river you paddle runs through the rest of your life. It bubbles up in pools and eddies to remind you who you are. --- Lynn Culbreath Noel

"Can I fall in?"

That question is usually unheard of in my adult classes. Just the thought of rolling upside in their kayak would strike terror into them. But, this query came from smiling freckled-face ten-year-old girl with boundless energy and little fear.

"Sure if you want to," I replied.

The girl and kayak in one motion capsize with a plop, gurgle and splash. An instant later, in textbook maneuver, she lowers her head to the bow, pushes her legs and feet clear of the kayak and then drops them to the bottom and brings her still smiling face up alongside her kayak.

It's an annual rite of summer on Lake Natoma near Sacramento Ca., as nearly dozen kids were taking part in Current Adventures Kayaking School & Trips youth kayaking classes. There students learned paddling skills and water safety while developing a deep appreciation of nature.

"Kids love kayaking and most take to it almost instantly," said Current Adventures' Dan Crandall, "We get them smiling at the beginning of class and have them laughing by the end."

Anyone who works with kids regularly knows they come with have short attention spans and aren't to focused on learning the technical aspects of the forward, back or sweep strokes. The key for instructor John Weed is to keeping paddling exercises fun, short and interesting. He used a game of keep-a-way to get the students to paddle and steer their boats. From the shore, it looked like mayhem of bumper boats crashing about the lake, but before long the students are discovering how to propel and turn their boats while chasing a green ball.

Another game Weed used to help kids practice boat control all while having fun was called Sharks and Minnows. He is instructed one kid to be a shark while all the other kids were all minnows.

"I'm hungry!" called out the shark.

"And I'm a little minnow," cried the scattering minnows trying not to get tagged by the shark, because once tagged they become a shark. It kept going until every paddler became a shark. By using these active games the young kayakers were soon making new friends and having fun all while building paddling skills that they can be used on the lake or river.

2018 Current Adventures Kayaking School and Trips Summer Schedule

Kids Kayaking Lessons
Ages: 8-11 yrs.
Prerequisites: none Location: Lake Natoma
Cost: $169 (Includes 10% State Park fee.  Parking is extra.) Time: (3 days) 9:30am – 12:30pm
2018 Dates: June18-20 ( M-W), July 9-11 ( M-W)
July 31-Aug 2 (Tue-Thu)

Junior Beginning Kayaking 
Ages: 10-14 yrs.
Prerequisites:  No prerequisites for beginning classes other than age appropriate.
Location:Lake Natoma & Lower American River (on day 3).
Cost: $169 (Includes 10% State Park fee.)
2018 Dates:
June 18-20 ( M-W), July 09-11 ( M-W)
July 31-Aug 02 (Tue-Thu)
Time: (3 days) 1:30pm – 5:30pm
Progression:  Teen Camp, Touring Classes, Private Classes and for ages 12 and up consider Eppie’s Junior Training program.

Next, it was off to explore. Across the flat-water, the lake offers some special hideaways like “Swampland” and “Berry Pond". As the kids toured the hidden backwaters occupied by turtles, tadpoles, deer and other critters, the wonders of nature came alive to them. Quietly paddling along they became naturalists as they explored and made their own discoveries in the lush wetland.

On day three the Junior class ages 10-14, moved on to the easy moving waters of the Lower American River. On the river, the young paddlers after two days of paddling lessons tested their new skills on moving water. While a little apprehension came over the group at the sound of rushing water, but it was all smiling at the other end after they punched through a series of fast water. Before the day was over the youths are immersed in river reading, river signals, and moving water paddling maneuvers.

"This class leaves them begging for more, said Crandall, "The kids always leave these classes super excited and many come back year after year."
Meanwhile back on the lake, I had pushed the kayak up on to shore and dump all the water out of it with help from the still smiling and a dripping wet ten-year-old girl. I was going to get plenty of practice doing over the next couple days when she asked, "Can I do that again?"

 If you want to go

Current Adventures Kayak School and Trips 
PHONE: 530-333-9115 or Toll-Free: 888-452-9254
FAX: 530-333-1291
USPS: Current Adventures, P.O. Box 828, Lotus, CA 95651
info@currentadventures.com
owner Dan Crandall dan@kayaking.com

This article was originally published in Outside Adventure to the Max July 7, 2017. 

And from the want to get away file
I'm sure all of us wonder if anybody really sees our social media post amidst the constant bombardment on the internet. I'm sure that is what Oakland California's Kevin Wagter thought when he created a Facebook event entitled “Kayaking with Baby Otters,” this past March.
“I’ve been doing this for years and years. I essentially have between eight and 12 people that join me,” he told the Monterey Herald.
The event went viral with over 7,000 had marked themselves as “Interested” in the event, and 273 actually clicked “Going.”
Discussion on the page quickly exploded with excited kayakers and concerned environmentalists, catching Wagter off guard for the leisurely afternoon in Moss Landing with just a few friends he had planned.
He shut down the public event and put up a new, private event after explaining the situation and apologized for the confusion.

Lost and Found
Ever catch yourself saying, "Hey, I'm having such a great time, let's stay out a little longer."
I'm sure that is what James Matthew Soltis of Illinois thought when he extended his already 10-day kayaking trip in Everglades National Park in Florida this past March.
However, his daughter did not. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, she reported him missing when he didn’t return as planned from the Everglades Wilderness Waterway.
The search was quickly launched and Soltis was found camping by a helicopter crew circling from above the next morning.

BORN TO PADDLE, KAYAKING WITH KIDS

    The first river you paddle runs through the rest of your life. It bubbles up in
  pools and eddies to remind you who you are. --- Lynn Culbreath Noel

"Can I fall in?"
That question is usually unheard of in my adult classes. Just the thought of rolling upside in their kayak would strike terror into them. But, this query came from smiling freckled-face ten-year-old girl with boundless energy and little fear.

"Sure if you want to," I replied.

The girl and kayak in one motion capsize with a plop, gurgle and splash. An instant later, in text-book maneuver, she lowers her head to the bow, pushes her legs and feet clear of the kayak and then drops them to the bottom and brings her still smiling face up alongside her kayak.

It's an annual rite of summer on Lake Natoma near Sacramento Ca., as nearly dozen kids were taking part in Current Adventures Kayaking School & Trips youth kayaking classes. There the students learned paddling skills and water safety while developing a deep appreciation nature.

"Kids love kayaking and most take to it almost instantly," said Current Adventures' Dan Crandall, "We get them smiling at the beginning of class and have them laughing by the end."

Anyone who works with kids regularly knows they come with have short attention spans and aren't to focused on learning the technical aspects of the forward, back or sweep strokes.The key for instructor John Weed, is to keeping paddling exercises fun, short and interesting. He used a game of keep-a-way to get the students to paddle and steer their boats. From the shore, it looked like a mayhem of bumper boats crashing about the lake, but before long the students are discovering how to propel and turn their boats while chasing a green ball.

Another game Weed used to help kids practice boat control all while having fun was called Sharks and Minnows. He is instructed one kid to be a shark while all the other kids were all minnows.

"I'm hungry!" called out the shark.

"And I'm a little minnow," cried the scattering minnows trying not to get tagged by the shark, because once tagged they become a shark.  It kept going until every paddler became a shark. By using these active games the young kayakers were soon making new friends and having fun all while building paddling skills that they can be used on the lake or river.

Next, it was off to explore. Across the flat-water, the lake offers some special hideaways like “Swampland” and “Berry Pond". As the kids toured the hidden backwaters occupied by turtles, tadpoles, deer and other critters, the wonders of nature came alive to them. Quietly paddling along they became naturalists as they explored and made their own discoveries in the lush wetland.

On day three the Junior class ages 10-14, moved on to the easy moving waters of the Lower American River. On the river, the young paddlers after two days of paddling lessons tested their new skills on moving water. While a little apprehension came over the group at the sound of rushing water, but it was all smiles on the other end after they punched through a series of fast water. Before the day was over the youths are immersed in river reading, river signals, and moving water paddling maneuvers.

"This class leaves them begging for more, said Crandall, "The kids always leave these classes super excited and many come back year after year."

Meanwhile back on the lake, I had pushed the kayak up on to shore and dump all the water out of it with help from the still smiling and dripping wet ten-year-old girl. I was going to get plenty of practice doing over next couple days when she asked, "Can I do that again?"

 If you want to go

Current Adventures Kayak School and Trips 
PHONE: 530-333-9115 or Toll-Free: 888-452-9254
FAX: 530-333-1291
USPS: Current Adventures, P.O. Box 828, Lotus, CA 95651
info@currentadventures.com
owner Dan Crandall dan@kayaking.com

2016 IN REVIEW: PICTURES OF THE YEAR

San Francisco Bay with Bayside Adventure Sports

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. -- Albert Schweitzer

I have to admit when it comes to kayaking, I could be classified more as a fanatic than just plain enthusiast. I think about paddling all the time day and night. I dream about my next trip on the river and visualize my last trip to the lake. I consider a day that I don't get out on to the water as almost a day lost.

Professional paddler and filmmaker Rush Sturges wrote on Facebook, "I go to sleep thinking about this river and I wake up excited to paddle it.  People ask me if I ever get bored?  And I never do at these levels. This is the first section of the Little White we call "Gettin Busy" at 4 feet today. It's fast, technical, and steep. But when you're in control of the flow, there's nothing better."

On Lake Tahoe with Cole Carlson

Lake Natoma with Taylor Carlson

I can picture myself in the same way. Anytime I cross any river bridge I look down wishing I was there.  Like Sturges pointed out, there is nothing better than being on the water. So as 2016 draws to a close,  I look back at some of my favorite places and people I had the good fortune of kayaking with this past year. My two sons who both came out to California for a visit this past summer. It was thrilling to take Cole on his first trip down the South Fork of the American River and both got to on an overnight trip to Lake Tahoe. Father and son camp-outs are always special no matter how old they are.

Any day on the water on with Dan Crandall, Kim Sprague, John Weed and the rest the gang at Current Adventures Kayaking School and Trips and The River Store, is always a great day. If it was just a job to them they would have quit it a longtime ago. But, it is their passion for kayaking that flows through them like an untamed river. They are deep in experience and share their thirst of paddling with first-timers and veterans with assurance, confidence and conviction. After paddling with them, you only have one question. When can we go again?

The Lower American River with Current Adventures.

And only to go again and again with Erik Allen, Brian Hughes and members of Bayside Adventure Sports. God created the Earth to RIDE IT. CLIMB IT. CATCH IT. EXPLORE IT. PROTECT IT. I'm hoping for some more trips like the one to Angel Island along with many day trips to some area lakes and rivers.

But mostly I couldn't do any of kayaking without the support and encouragement from my wife Debbie. Always up for an adventure, she shares my same passion of being outside whether on the water, snow or trail.

Lake Jenkinson with Debbie Carlson

In Chasing Niagara,  a film directed by Sturges and produced by Red Bull that focused on Rafa Ortiz’s journey of being the first person ever to go over Niagara Falls in a kayak, Oritz offers this lesson. “I don’t really believe in regretting things, you know?” said Rafa Ortiz. “I believe in that anything that has happened in my life is for a reason and you know there is definitely things that have happened in my life that I would, you know, if I could I would think that I want to change but I think that anything that happens is for a reason and it just makes me who I am.”

Like Oritz, these experiences made me who I am. So as the year comes to a close, I look forward even more adventures on the water, in the years to come and wish you all the same.

The Lower American River with Bayside Adventure Sports

Eppies training on Lake Natoma

Eppies training

Kids Class with Current Adventures

Eppies Race Day

Barking Dog Rapid

The Rainbow Bridge

Lake Valley Reservoir

Loon Lake

Loon Lake with Current Adveentures

The Shoe Tree on the Lower American River

Sunset on Lake Natoma