It's always sad to hear about paddle makers who are shutting down. Things change and people move on. That's life.

I just saw the note posted today that Jodie Marc-Lalonde of Turtle Paddleworks has closed down their operation due to high production costs and a bit of waning interesting in keeping it alive.

It's to bad, they always made a solid canoe as well Greenland touring paddles.

There are lots of great paddle makers and Jodie's were up there with the best of them.

An interesting story came across the old news wire last night so I contacted Jim Miller, Werner Paddles Marketing Manager to get the full story.

UC Sports is a manufacture of both paddles and surfboards. They have their own line of products but recently expanded it to include that were extremely similar to Werners blades; so similar in fact that the names of the blades are the same.

Comparing the two company's websites together, it is very clear that US Sports even stole the site template including colours and Werner's own stock photography.

Just read the news that Hugh Bradner, renowned physicist and professor emeritus at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, died 5 May 2008, in San Diego, CA after a prolonged illness.

His scientific career mixed both science and ocean exploration to develop several ocean technologies including the first neoprene wetsuit.

In 1951, while working at UC Berkeley, he decided to spend some 'weekend time' improving diving equipment for navy frogmen, which began his pioneering research on the wetsuit. Bradner focused on the design of a wetsuit for military underwater swimmers and developed a foam wetsuit using a unicellular material known as neoprene.

Bradner was well regarded for his collaborative approach to science, evident in his reluctance to claim himself as sole inventor of the wetsuit. He continued to consult for the military throughout his scientific career. His other research endeavours led to novel diving equipment, including underwater contact lenses, a single-hose regulator and a decompression meter. Bradner even developed a loop system for quickly extracting U.S. Navy SEALs from the water via inflatable boats.

Hugh Bradner was 92 years old.

More info: sciencecentric.com
Photo Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego

The Olympic Delivery Authority has just put out to tender the contact to construct the new Row and Canoe/Kayak flatwater facilities for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

So, if you have any building skills, get your proposal in soon as they want to award it towards the end of 2008 and make sure you clear up your calendar as they want to start construction in early 2009.

I'm pretty sure that I could be up for the project. I remember building a bird feeder with my father then I was 10 and that bad boy looked great up on the tree at the cottage. Not sure why any birds never used it though. Maybe it was the lack of a hole in the front...

More info: builderandengineer.co.uk
Photo credit: en.beijing2008.cn

A big congratulations goes out to brand new British Canoe Union 5* Coach and friend of the site, Mark Tozer.

He had his final assessment this past weekend and reading the posting on his blog, it sounded very intense.

Mark is also the organizer of the 3rd UK Storm Gathering taking place this October.