The Naturally Superior Greenland Style Symposium took place last weekend and by all accounts, it was another huge success.

Lovers of Greenland style paddling unite!

Approaching next month will be the third annual Greenland Style Kayak Symposium taking place at Naturally Superior Adventures in Wawa, Ontario. The get-up takes place on August 21-24...

The photo above from left to right: Erik Ogaard, Dave Wells from Naturally Superior Adventures, Sean and Dave Corrigan from Harbourfront Canoe and Kayak Centre.

Just got back from the Toronto Outdoor Adventure Show with mixed impressions. It's like many other outdoor adventure shows with a mix of outdoor stores, guiding companies, SCUBA companies and adventure travel companies hawking their wears.

I always seem to walk out with a medium view of it. I go to this event interested in seeing what's new and what is going to be coming out for the 2008 season. That never happens as booths really only bring a small amount of trinkets that will likely sell to the impulse shopper. Everybody and their brother seemed to have a great selection of Otter Cases and low-end PFD's though!

The pool had a nice selection of canoe and kayak demonstrations including Greenland rolling and basic canoe strokes.

I have done the pool demo thing in the past and listening to them from the dry floor, I'm reminded again that when we present demo's to the general public, we really need to leave the paddling lexicon at the door. When you are mentioning the word chine, you have gone into territory that is WAY beyond the demo pool session.

Also, keep your explanations really simple.  You are talking to people who most likely have never been in a canoe/kayak before so you don't need explain the scientific design behind your carbon-fiber bent shaft canoe paddle. They just want to watch you spin around like little ducks. After watching you they can get inspired and sign-up for a course. Then you can talk about your fancy new paddle all day...

Lake Superior Cam at wawawebcam.ca

Naturally Superior Adventures along with the town of Wawa, Ontario have unveiled the Wawa Webcam.

On the site you will find a live camera feed of their famous giant goose. Not sure why you would need a live feed of a giant goose statue but at least the camera will provide some entertainment for the local hoodlums youths who want to get their illegal humorous activities documented.

The real gem of the site is the camera feed from the mouth of the Michipicoten River and the home of Naturally Superior Adventures. The location is famous for its giant surf when the wind is blowing against the current.

Right now camera updates the site once an hour due to satellite bandwidth issues but for those who want to see what has been happening, you can view a loop of the last 10 hours of shots.

Back in mid August, Dave (owner of NSA) approached me with the idea and I thought it would be a fantastic resource. I helped out with some technical programming issues around the site. I'm very excited to finally see the site go live.

Oh yes, these are the same outfitters who are planning "The Big One". It is an 8 week guided trip that covered the entire Canadian North Shore of Lake Superior in one summer. You can do it all at once it split it up over 8 smaller 1 week trips. Talking to Dave, there is already one person signed up for the entire trip.

You can read more about "The Big One" here.

Where is the camera located? Here is the location via Google Maps

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Over the years I have heard about different guiding companies trying to find new and interesting trips for their clients. They tinker with the location or the length of the trip, an if they are feeling adventuress, they might make it a push trip.

Then I got my monthly newsletter from Naturally Superior Adventures. There has been a teaser note on their site for a while about "The Big One". Today they announced what it actually is and yes, it is big.

Next summer (2008), they will be offering a giant 8-week guided trip of the entire Canadian Shoreline of Lake Superior. This trip is not for the faint of heart with a complete distance of 670km (416 miles).

Since not everybody has 8 weeks of vacation time, they have broken up the trip into 8 sections allowing people to join in and paddle any part of the trip on week at a time.

Total cost for the 8 weeks is $7560 Cdn.

It will be very interesting to see if many people take the 8 week option. If you did, I would think it would be weird to get new paddling partners every week.

More info: Naturally Superior Adventures

Below is a map of the route so you can get some perspective on the massive size of this trip.



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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.

To keep on top of what is going on, I find myself getting lots of mailings from outfitters and paddling schools from around the world. I'm on lots of mailinglists and to be honest, I usually disappointed with about 98% them. I'm mean come on, it is your primary mean of advertisement and promotion and you don't even take the time to send a lousy photo or a funny story to keep me interested? Hey company owners, want to see a good example? Go to Naturally Superior Adventures and get on their mailing list.

Enough ranting. I don't know what got into me. Sorry about that...

Two things caught my eye in NSA's latest mailing.

They are helping to sponsor a contest looking for the most "Urban" couple. Here is the description:

The panel-selected winning couple will be taken on a guided, all-inclusive five-day kayaking adventure on Lake Superior. A cameraman will follow along, filming the adventure, with the footage later being released on the Internet as a series of reality-TV style "webisodes".

Think you could make the cut? Nominate yourself here. Don't tell your partner just in case you get picked. Now that will make for some great reality TV...

What else if fun in their newsletter...Oh yes, they are planning a really cool trip. They are offering a Voyageur Canoe Musical Tour from Rossport, Ontario to the Red Rock Folk and Blues Festival. You get to travel in a 36 foot Voyageur Canoe with everybody in a fun and relaxing atmosphere. The best part is that this musical journey will be hosted by Ian Tamblyn.

Ian Tamblyn has been a musician, songwriter, playwright and producer for many years. He has recorded several albums and countless soundtracks for theater and film. In recent years, Ian has had a close association with adventure travel and scientific expeditions. These travels have taken him from the icebergs of Greenland to the underwater world of Antarctica.

I can imagine what the campfire sing-songs would sound like. Awesome. As somebody who has guided several trips using a voyageur canoe, there is no better way to travel. Hand-down the most relaxing trip I have ever worked on. More info here.

Things are going to be slow around here for the next week and a bit. On Saturday I'm heading off with Sean from our little city of Toronto and driving north 12 hours to Wawa, Ontario. Where the heck is Wawa you ask? Good question. It is 12 hours north of Toronto.

Ok, ok. Wawa is a small town along the north shore of Lake Superior.

We are going to be putting in at Dave Well's shop/guiding company/paddling school, Naturally Superior Adventures. The plan is to paddle west along the shoreline, then out and around Michipicoten Island. Here is the route for Google Earth if you want to follow along. I added a couple points of interest so I you could follow along. I will update it later when I get back with more details.

The total trip is around 220km and the crossing out to the island is just a speck under 25km. We are hoping to do the whole thing in 7 days. We budgeted a wind day and with the size of Lake Superior, we will probably need it.

Sean and I have been working over the winter on lightening our load and trying to implement some of the ideas from lightweight backpacking. We will see how it goes. It if was warmer we would be cutting things out like drysuits, but with 2c water, they will be worn the whole time.

We good some inside information of a sauna location out there so we are going to try to get the beast fired up.

I will report back when we cruise back to Toronto.