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NTSKW On-the-Water Event (Volunteers Needed !)

Event created by Sue H.

Gather & Launch location:

Long Wharf Landing, 113 Atlantic St, Gloucester, MA 01930

Participants from New to Sea Kayak Workshop on 5/31/25 will be given the opportunity to get in a sea kayak provided by North Shore Adventures. NSPN volunteers will support workshop attendees in learning some basics, for example, how to do a wet exit, how to maintain balance, properties of the forward stroke, turning and reversing a kayak. Assisted rescue demonstrations and practice will be conducted. And if time allows a short paddle in Jones River.

NSPN volunteers please send me a message (Sue H.) indicating you will be there ! The Board and I really need your help to make this event safe and enjoyable for NTSKW attendees . Your role would be to support one or two paddlers in the activities outlined above. It would be most helpful if you arrived at 8:30 to get your kit and boat ready before participants arrive at 9:00 am. HT is at 9:36 am on the day.

Thanks and Cheers ! Sue

Edited by Sue H.

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    Bolonsky Adam

    Paid Member

    (edited)

    Hi Sue;

    I will be in Gloucester that day and can pitch in.

    Could you provide some more details however - is there an hour-by-hour agenda? Are participants renting their kayaks from North Shore Adventures? If so, wonderful. I worked for them as guide under their previous owner and really enjoyed their spontaneous come-on, come-all ethos.

    How is the day being publicized? I hope it attracts younger adults....

    In so many ways sea kayaking has become a moribund pursuit: most paddlers are retired or older, quite well off, and seem as a cohort, consciously or not, to indulge in creating a illusion of a high bar to entry: too much overemphasis on club or other advanced protocols, to little of an atmosphere of come on, try this out, have some fun, feel like you had an adventure, maybe return later to learn skills.

    North Shore Adventures on Bearskin Neck when I worked there: if a customer could fit into a pfd, could sit on their rear inthe cockpit and could move their arms back and forth while holding a paddle, well, they paid and signed their waiver and off they went with guides lead and sweep. Me aside, the guides were strapping young college boys who loved brandishing their VHF's and tow belts. And then out into Sandy Bay to circle Straitsmouth or to do an out-and-back to Thachers to land and climb the north tower.

    It worked as a business model and tourists loved it. And no one gave a hoot whether they were in a 9' sit-on-top, a 14-footer without a sprayskirt, a 16-footer kitted out with watertight bulkheads and decklines and so on. Some days the place was so busy customers simply got dropped into whatever boat was available at the moment.

    Edited by Bolonsky Adam