Alex McGruer sent me some photographs this week. It was an evening trip from last summer. I don't believe he had his digital camera by then, maybe this explains this late showing....but actually, the timing is perfect as the wind and snow howl outside my window. It could also be that the images were picked up by
SeaPaddler.co.uk. as well as text by Alex himself. This photograph is posted with Alex's permission...and is of his son Sandy, on his first actual ocean trip. Seems the pool and the pond practice paid off. Sandy was well rewarded that night, if the look on his face was any indication....I think he's hooked. Oh,...and the look on the face?...you should have seen Alex's...proud father like you could imagine. Remember, that Alex is almost fanatical about sea kayaking, always has a boat or two on the top of the car, paddles all year when it's possible and has been doing it for as many years as anyone on this island. Sandy's mother kayaks too...so finally finding a good evening for a new teenager to have his first sortie on the open ocean was important to all. But yeah, Alex was proud and Sandy seemed to love it. We made it back to the beach by eleven o'clock.
Please check out
Wendy Killoran's post with the NL tourism commercial...Love this place as we do, there is much truth in her words.
And of the privilege of sea kayaking...hmmm...interesting what
Michael had to say...I know that I wondered a similar thing after my last trip to Labrador. After fifty years of the government's establishment of the Labrador coastal communities(remember, they were a nomadic people)....no one in Labrador kayaks. They invented and made their own version of the sea kayak...but with speed boats and snowmobiles, all kayak related skills are lost after only a few generations. Maybe we, "the privileged few", could someday return the skill to these people of the north....and to their children. Something to think about.
