Incredible as it may seem, the Harper government is considering the emlimination of the historic right of public navigation in Canada.

Under the direction of the Minister of Transport, Lawrence Cannon, the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA) is being re-written to eliminate the obligation to consider impacts on navigation when building dams, bridges, causeways, booms or other invasive structures on thousands of waterways across Canada.

They hope to achieve this by exempting “minor waters” and “minor works” under the NWPA, and by re-defining “navigation” under the act in a way that it may exclude all recreational navigation, all white water streams, all seasonal waterways, all people-powered vessels of any kind, and in fact any vessels with less than one meter draft.

For more info and how to get involved - please visit: http://www.canadianrivers.net/

and also http://vvcc.ca/calendar/info.php?trip=393

The staff headed out one evening early June for some white water fun.  We find there is nothing better than some white water playing to improve your strokes, steering, edging and bracing confidence.  The bugs were horrendous, however despite this and low water, all had a great time playing in the rapids and surfing the one nice wave.  We especially had fun with the canoe - royalex Nova Craft 16 Prospector & the Wilderness System Ripper Sit On Top.  In fact everyone that got on the Ripper that night could not stop giggling and laughing - it’s so stable and fun. It surfs great too - side surfing not so much - just spits you off and you go for a little floating swim, then climb back on and you are ready to go again.  We’ve been selling a lot of them at White Squall Paddling Centre - go figure since for 2008 they retail for $ 330. !!!  What a great deal for so much return in fun!  Enjoy our little video

Moon River Staff Training Night - White Squall June 2008 (13 min video)

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Tim’s Tips

Tim’s Tips are often stolen from others or taken from the woes of the unwary -  so here we go….

Tip #1

Balsam Boats – ( i ain’t tried this but it sounds fun)  take a balsam twig and cut the resin blister with your knife.  Then put it in the water and watch it bubble and smoke and become your very own toy boat.  Apparently there is a reaction between the water and the resin, but who cares about that.  I’m keen to try it – please let me know if you have and if it works!!

(This came from a book I just read called the “Last Guide” by Ron Corbett. He’s writing about Frank Kuiack, one of the last old-time fishing guides in Algonquin.    It is a fascinating read and highly recommended.)

Tip #2

When putting a Dory out on the ice with an anchor and rope so that when the ice melts the boat will bob merrily at anchor…..its a good idea not to rush mother nature and try to throw the anchor (really a big concrete block)  down through the ice. You get really, really wet….the block stays smushed in the ice….and that’s about all she wrote.  This gem comes from one of our new apprentice recruits…..like any of us senior guys would ever try that eh?

April 10 : Ice Report: Paddling Centre - we are still iced in at the Paddling Centre. However went from 2 feet to 1 foot of ice in a week so expect by 3rd week (rain, sun and warmth permitting) to have open water. For those who wish to Test Paddle today we are happy to transport demo boats 5 min. to open water (a local lazy creek ). �

Until then we are still skate skiing on the lake, can you believe!!!  Even though some of the flower beds at the Squall are starting to sprout and very little snow is left on the ground.

Parry Sound Harbour is open now and the Big Sound is soon to be open as well for paddling - however it will be drysuit season for a number of weeks yet.

The Rivers are all in flood and whitewater season is in full glory in the region: French, Magnetewan, Moon, Manitouwabing and Seguin Rivers.

We just took delivery of all our new Delta Kayaks for the season yesterday and are anxious to get out on the water and give some of the new models a try

As soon as we have open water at the Paddle Center, we will post it here an also at whitesquall.com

Thanks,

Graham

We lost a dear friend Willie P. Bennett a short while ago. Many of you would remember him backing up Fred Eaglsmith at our spring gatherings and know what an incredible talent and special man he was. Willie was a legend in Canadian music and we were so very lucky to know him.

Meteorites and Kite Skiing
Big news around here this past week was a meteorite falling out of the sky west of the Limestone Islands. CBC phoned asking if we had a run on snowshoe rentals from folks trying to find pieces of it. I wanted to cook up a story for them about gangs of Parry Sounders running out over ten miles of the Bay icepack with their trusty snow shoes, but apart from the odd sled roaring out and quickly turning back part way, I think that was all the rise mr. meteorite got out of us. Talk at Horton’s was mostly round how hot space rocks melt into ice really quick huh? One of our friends did try to kite-ski out, but got turned back by bad ice. So….a bit of space history is lodged firmly out there in the big beyond. Speaking of being out of this world, the skiing on the Bay has been unbelievable these past few weeks. You can glide forever - and ever and ever. Read more about the meteor over Georgian Bay…
Tim’s Tips # 1
We’re coming into the early paddling season where the water is still icy cold. If someone suddenly dumps in cold water, one of the things you have to watch and treat for is Cold Shock. This involuntary inhalation of water into the lungs is not always easy to detect - and it can happen in conjunction with a severe cardiac and pulmonary response. So…treat every cold water dump as potentially serious and do yourself a favour - read the best article I’ve ever seen on this topic in the February 08 edition of Sea Kayaker magazine.

Tip #2
Before I zip up my map case for a trip, besides a compass, I always throw in a sheet or two of paper and a pencil. The pencil is kinda obvious, and sure-the paper is to write upon – BUT – the edge is also a really simple way to draw a straight line if ya don’t have a ruler-and by pencilling on the edge your start and endpoints-you can transfer that down to the map scale and measure out distance travelled really quick. You can also use that edge to walk a track or travel line over to a compass rose on a marine chart. So….we don’t need no stinkin’ dividers or parallel rulers eh?

The university of Western astronomy department cameras along with a number of cameras in Ontario caught a rare sight at around 11 pm on March 5, 2008. A meteorite was spotted at about 94 km altitude and broke up at about 24 km above Georgian Bay possibly leaving bits strewn across the Bay’s ice surface. It looks like from the U of W map on google the region appears to be northwest of the North Limestone Islands west of the McCoys. Read more info at Parry Sound North Star.

We hope to learn more about this over the next few months - and will post more info here if that happens.

Tim’s Tips # 1 - Crummy Resumes

-nothing to do with paddling, but what the heck - we get many resumes coming across out desk, and i’m floored by the number that are not well written. Actually, they are really bad. Somehow this urban myth has arisen that they should be brief - to the point of excluding interesting things that make that person and their story unique. So….to all you resume writers out there, say if you used to be a bouncer-tell us that you volunteered for the Hooterville ladies auxilary bake sales for 5 years
and don’t leave out that you won the 1995 Miss Catfish Creek Conservation Award. These are the things that will get you a job - not some blather about wanting to “work as a team member in a challenging outdoor environment” That’s just corporate-speak and won’t help in getting a job here. Maybe we’re a bit different ( some would say off the wall) , but my
guess is that other employers also want to see creative, unique applications.

Tip #2 - Funny Compass

-this tip is all about checking your gear. we just came back from the wilds of Algoma, winter camping and back-country skiing. Had a great time but truth be told, we kinda got lost in the middle of nowhere…..and when we checked our compass, the silly thing had 400 degrees instead of your basic 360 ( go figger) We still don’t know what kind of compass it is
(anybody out there have an idea?) but I do know that it does throw you off a wee bit, which isn’t too healthy in a nondescript bush. Lesson? Check your gear-dunno how many times I’ve said that, but it’s time I listened to myself!!

( we’ve since found out since via several email replies to our newsletter - the 400 measurement is in Grads / or mils. A military measure used mainly in the past and still a bit now in Europe)

Squallerus Hollerus 2008 BS

(“before springtime” in case you were wonderin’!)

It’s the dark times of winter, a time when little boys and girls should really be off skiing, not worrying about watery times to come. But Mother Nature works in wild ways. Right now there’s a 50 knot blow on the Bay with a full-on riot of big waves. A fine way to get in the mood to ramble on about paddling…..

Superior Dreaming

Have you ever taken a big tipi and woodstove and stuffed it into the back hatch of a kayak? Well we did in late Oct. for our annual staff adventure up the northeast shores of Superior. See photo gallery http://www.whitesquall.com/v/superior07_001/

Outhouses & A Great Summer Job!

The Bay needs looking after, and we’re involved with several community groups working together with both levels of government to hire and train summer students as Bay Stewards. It not only provides great summer jobs, but their presence out on the water encourages campers to paddle and tread softly. It’s a grass-roots success story, and we’ll continue to help. I figure one day I’m gonna apply for that job ….

New Kids on the Block

After many years. we’re welcoming back Valley Sea Kayaks from the UK, as well as an expanded lineup from P&H.

- read more about new boats, boat prices dropping as the planet heats up, and kayak programmes at White Squall on our Squaller Holler Newsletter page at http://www.whitesquall.com/squaller_holler.php

Hi Everyone

Boat Shows
This is the season of Boat Shows of all description. We wanted to let you know that up here, there have been transport trucks arriving all winter - and it’s a funny sight to see us hauling new recruits through the snowdrifts. There are well over 200 new boats on site right now. So…..if you see your dreamboat in a show winking at you, chances are we have it here. . We’ll store if for free til springtime, and will cheerfully match the lowest show price anywhere in Ontario. See : http://www.whitesquall.com/boat_inventory.php for complete listing of what’s here.

Tim’s Tip #1
If you stuffed your drytop or suit away in the basement, go down there right now and put 303 on the gaskets. If ya don’t, they’ll dry out more quickly and then you’ll need new ones and they ain’t cheap.

Tip #2
When it’s windy and cold out, Vaseline works well to prevent frostbite on exposed skin. Dermatone is the fancy stuff (and I like it best cause it smells better) Point is you need something durable to prevent convective heat loss from your skin surface.

That’s all she wrote folks-bye for now-tim