This year Seapaddling.com is running summer camps for younger paddlers who would much rather cut a dash in a kayak than float idly about like jellyfish!

Ocean Kayak® and Necky® Kayaks, respected leaders in the paddlesports community, are pleased to announce their latest contribution in the fight against breast cancer, a quarterly donation of $8,655 to the Breast Cancer Fund.

I don't know if anybody has noticed but I recently tried to cut down on the number of accident articles posted in the news section of the site. Scanning the news, there are so many and after a while they all start to read the same. If I posted every one, it would look like everybody and their brother is dying out there and the stats show that it just isn't true.

I do however post articles about tragedy if it could be used for learning or teaching. If it just a death article, it's probably going to be a no-go.

On that note, I recently was following a accident that took place a couple weeks ago in Maine where two paddlers went out and only one came home. It was interesting to read because the survivor (Brandon Andrusic) was able to get to an island and spent the night there before being able to summon help. The decision to stay on the island for the night caused some controversy and there was some negative chatter about his decisions.

Brandon recently wrote a letter into the Portland Press Herald telling his version of the story. I posted a copy of it for you to read and learn from it. It gives some interesting analysis into an accident that I know from first hand experience, can go sour in less than three seconds.

Thanks for Leif for the link to the letter.

[Click "Read More" for the letter]

If you haven't downloaded and listened yet, jump over to Simon Willis's blog and download his latest podcast. He does an amazing interview with Bill Spear, the watch manager at Clyde Coastguard.

Simon gets down and dirty to figure out what goes on there and how kayakers can make the Coast Guards lives a little easier.

Link

Kokatat athletes Ruth Gordon and Dan Burke are crowned World Champions at the 2007 Freestyle Kayaking Championships, held on the Ottawa River in Canada first week of May. The competition was held at "Bus Eater" wave, which is the biggest wave the World Championships has ever been held on.