I don't know what I would do if this happened to me. Imagine you park and quickly run into the corner store to grab a few things for home only to discover when you come out, the there is now a canoe sitting on top of your car.

Actually, thinking about it, I think that I would enjoy it...

Join Canadian folk musician Ian Tamblyn and 11 other paddlers as you travel along the Lake Superior Coast from Rossport to the Red Rock Folk Festival.

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Naturally Superior Adventures on Lake Superior.
Music by Rodney Brown from the CD "The Big Lonely." Videography by David Newland and Molly Donovan. Produced by Molly Donovan for Murray Point Media.

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I just got this poster from my friends at Naturally Superior Adventures. As some of you may recall, I was one of the guest speakers at it in the great summer of 2006.

They just sent this email and I discovered my little face (and boat) on it! Click on the poster to see my smug little face. :)

They also sent along a little letter about this year's event. If you are looking for a great Greenland paddling symposium, you need to check it out.

Hello sea kayaking fanatics,

In just over a month's time we at Naturally Superior Adventures will host our second annual Greenland-style Paddling Symposium here on Lake Superior at the mouth of the Michipicoten River. Dates: Friday, August 24-Sunday, August 26. Price: $275 (all inclusive). Save $50 if you bring your own boat.

We hope you will attend.

In this all-levels paddling festival you'll learn to paddle the old school way with a skinny-bladed Greenland-style paddle. No experience is necessary. We provide handcrafted white pine Greenland paddles to use for the weekend. It's Canada's only Greenland-style paddling festival.

This symposium features much of the same attributes of our other festivals: Small class sizes (maximum 50 participants), expert instruction (from Doug Van Doren, Bonnie Perry and Robin Cook, among others) and great meals and entertainment (a house concert with Mark Dunn and Clay Rooster). What's more, we're also organizing Naturally Superior's own Greenland-style games-a traditional paddling "triathlon" including a sprint race, rolling competition and hunting with "live" targets.

To register or to find out more, call 1-800-203-9092 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Check out our website for more information: http://www.naturallysuperior.com/workshops_and_events/greenland_symposium.php.

See Through Canoe, a Colorado based company, is introducing transparent canoes and kayaks. The clear watercraft provide a more interactive experience with nature than their conventional counterparts. The cutting-edge portable products can be ordered either online or at See Through Canoe's home base in Idaho Springs.

Things have been very busy for me over the past couple of weeks, thus the lack of activity online.

This past weekend, I co-taught a Paddle Canada Level 1 kayaking course with my trusty teaching buddy, Sean. We had a great time, and I'm fairly certain that the students also had a good time. We had great weather for the types of conditions. The water on Lake Ontario was a little cold hovering at 12c (53f) so rescues needed to be quick and slick or else your hands numbed up in no time. Good lesson about remembering to dress for the water temperature rather then the air.

As some of you know, my foot pump broke a while ago. The diaphragm rotted out and split. It was a modified Henderson Chimp pump. I took pump into the sailing shop to order a new diaphragm and discovered that the replacement cost was extraordinary high for that model.

At the time, I decided that the best thing to do was to switch over to an electronic system. To summarize my experience with the electronic system that I built, it was a good less in designing and building something that really didn't work. Basically, it worked great when I didn't really need the pump. The second that I needed the pump in real life, I could be quite confident that it wouldn't work. I gave it a full season to sort out the bugs but to no avail. I then decided to rip the whole thing out.

Since pulling out the electronic system, I did hear a few, "Told you so" comments, but that is OK. It was a good learning experience. I still believe that an electronic system could be built bombproof. I just didn't have the patience to do it. Here is a great commercial system that rocks...

So, I'm back to the foot pump again. UPS just delivered to me a brand new Guzzler 450S. I'm kind of excited about getting it in. I should have it installed later this week. I will let you know how it goes.

Paddler Magazine has joined into a partnership with USA Canoe/Kayak that makes Paddler The Official Publication of USA Canoe/Kayak and adds more than 1200 subscribers to Paddler’s subscriber circulation base.

The Royal Canadian Mint has just released a new limited edition $20 coin with an Inuit kayaker on it.

Here is the press release:

Two striking $20 sterling silver coins are being issued to mark Canada's recognition of the 125th anniversary of the first International Polar Year, when the first of several coordinated multinational research expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic were launched. The coins, designed by Ontario artist Laurie McGaw, prominently feature Sir Martin Frobisher who, in 1576, was the first to attempt to discover the Northwest Passage aboard the Gabriel. A ship appears alongside a 16th century compass and an Inuit paddling a traditional kayak.

7,000 of these coins are being issued with the reverse finished in stunning metallic blue hues, achieved through a unique, leading edge plasma effect. The RCM is the first Mint in the world to produce this jewel-like finish on a coin, by virtue of a proprietary coating which can produce different colours by varying its thickness. The blue effect was chosen to evoke the cold climate of both poles. Thanks to the efforts of the RCM's R&D team, the RCM continues to be a world leader in its field.

Suggested retail for the plasma effect coin is $249.95 CDN. Another 15,000 coins are offered in a proof finish and retail for a suggested $64.95 CDN.

More info

RACINE, Wis.- (Business Wire)-July 11, 2007 - Johnson Outdoors Inc. (Nasdaq: JOUT) today announced the Company, along with seven other unrelated vendors, has been tapped for a contract covering a variety of military shelters, trailers and other military supply components. This marks the third year of the contract, originally announced in September 2005, under which total combined orders could range from a minimum value of $25,000 to a maximum cumulative total value of $96 million across all eight vendors combined. No orders have been placed with Johnson Outdoors under the renewed contract.

Johnson Outdoors Inc. (Nasdaq: JOUT), a global leader in innovative outdoor recreational products, today announced the Company has reached a settlement agreement with Confluence Holdings Corp. that will end a long-standing intellectual property dispute between the two companies. While the terms of the agreement are confidential, the settlement does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing by either party and includes a one-time payment by Johnson Outdoors of $4.4 million which is expected to have an unfavorable impact on earnings in the third fiscal quarter. The Company is scheduled to report Fiscal 2007 third quarter results on Thursday, July 26^th at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. "After weighing the costs, risks and business distractions associated with continued litigation of this matter against the potential benefit, it became clear that it was in the financial best interests of the Company and its shareholders to settle and move on," said David W. Johnson, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.