Anybody a member of WSK or BASK?

Howdy Anglers

I'm new here, so forgive me if I missed it but....

Any Western Sea Kayakers (WSK) or Bay Area Sea Kayakers (BASK) on this BBS?  If not, I want to hook you up with WSK and BASK and see if we can't get some cross-polination of ideas going between those 2 very active clubs and you guys.  

Cheerio!

Dean

Not to my knowledge, most here are fisherman first, paddlers second, but that is evolving over time.

Dean,  what did you have in mind?  Are there WSK or BASK members interested in taking up kayak fishing?  If so, we might be able to do something.

Dean to my knowledge no one here is a member of those groups. We would be interested in cross polination. Hopefully some members of WSK and BASK would like to try some kayak fishing and I know I could use a few paddling pointers!  

Send me a PM or an e-mail with what you have in mind and we can get the ball rolling.

I heard WSK and the BASK do some kayak camping and touring = I'd be very interested in that. But being on a sit-on-top kayak - there's no way I can keep up to speed with what they paddle.

Trolling motor?  

NEVER  

Back in the day before even Elric's site, I investigated BASK and read their articles, but there was some kind of membership fee to get on their mailing list or however they mass-communicate.  About the same time I found mike's kayak journal, which gave me all I needed to know about launch sites, ect, so I never really felt temped to join bask.

I guess if they had an open BBS I'd check in on occasion and offer to take people fishing in my spare SOT tandem in exchange for learning the ropes in a SIS.

I suppose a couple of us might be able to give a presentation as guest speakers at a meeting or something.  We've got some good photos to show.  

Howdy Again

I'm an avid (rabid?) kayaker.  I own 19 kayaks, believe it or not.  Most of 'em even float.  (Though don't ask me about the kayak that my "friends" once dubbed "Titanic".  No further comment....    )

I'm constantly leading humungous trips all over Northern California, mostly on my own, sometimes thru WSK and/or BASK.

The cool thing about the clubs is that they are GREAT places to meet kindred spirits.  WSK is about 200 people, BASK is about 600 people, and the interest of such a large group of paddlers is quite diverse.  In the clubs, you find everything from your super-speed-demon kevlar-racing hull speed nutcases who use kayaking to burn off testesterone, to the inflatable kayak crowd who would prefer to sit on their butts in the middle of a lake and stare at the clouds all day.   And you find EVERYTHING in between.

The downside of organized clubs is, well, politics/egos/etc.  Anybody who has ever been in a club knows precisely what I'm talking about....  Nuff said....  

By the way, BASK and WSK do charge for membership (something like $30 / year each club, I think).  But that's an AWESOME deal.  First, by joining WSK, you get a free ACA membership ($20-$25 value) plus ACA's magazine and INSURANCE if you lead a trip under the WSK umbrella.  Second, by joining BASK, you get access to the knowledge of 600+ paddlers (not to mention a classified board that rivals anything that Craig's List has to offer.)

Unfortunately, neither club has switched to a BBS format, and both clubs are still stuck in the stone age of listservs. It sometimes takes a bit of effort to find old email threads in the archives.  But the groups are great groups of paddlers, many of whom fish, and most of whom (including me) would like to LEARN to fish....

So I'll definitely ping the officers of at least BASK and see if we can't get you guys to do a fishing demo or something at one of our meetings.  


Anyhoo, almost all of my boats are sit-on-tops.  I do have 2 fast 18' ocean boats that I take on long distance camping trips (eg thru the San Juan Islands in Washington State, etc).  I also take the ocean boats on whale watching trips, etc.  But I don't really like the long boats and I usually prefer just goofing around on my SOTs.  I also own a few inflatables, but the inflatables are a hassle to deal with so I usually just stick with my hard shell plastic SOTs.  

I started a general-purpose kayaking website a few years ago, just as a hobby.  Long story but the BBS started out as a demo for WSK.  Longer story, the WSK demographic wasn't quite ready for a BBS.  (Heck, some of those guys aren't ready for indoor plumbing!      Just kidding.)   So the BBS sat there idle for a while.  But I started throwing pictures onto it, and I built a calendar, and I thru thousands of links onto the site, and, voila, a hobby site was born....

Nowadays, I freely offer photo posting services for kayakers of all pursuasions in all clubs or unaligned paddlers.  Have a looksee at the freebie offerings if you have time.

http://www.eyeyak.com

FEEL FREE to sign up on the EyeYak forum.  The forum has been quiet for a while, but as the season gets underway, more trip posts are likely to start popping up.  Check the calendar for upcoming events.  I'm running a huge Loch Lomond trip about 2 weekends after Easter, and you're all invited.  (But you gotta sign up on EyeYak so I remember to invite you.)

See yah on the water soon, I hope....




Dean

Dean,

I'm definitely interested on the touring / camping aspect of kayaking. In fact, I'd like to learn white water as well - but because kayak fishing tends to be a never ending expense (buying bait, replacing lost tackle, ect....) It's hard to find cheap places to learn the other branches of kayaking.

I'll be checking your site from time to time and maybe we can hook up and get some paddling done!

By the way...welcome to the brotherhood of kayak fishing    

Thanks for posting Dean.  He's my alviso information contact and has provided a ton of info.  One other thing he mentioned to me via email was that he does work with the disabled and was possibly interested in taking some folks out on a fishing expedition.  Any volunteers to paddle a double and share some fishing info?  

Art

Joel, are you serious about learning WW?  I used to do quite a bit of it before I moved to CA, but haven't done it in the past few years as I don't know too many people that do it.  I still have an old boat in my garage that I was thinking about getting rid of.   If you get the chance, get out there on the rivers.  Your learn a lot that will add to your "paddling game".  Heck, I might even join you.

-Allen

I'd rather surf over WW, it seems safer and more straightforward, I guess you use the same kind of boat though.  Surfing practice might also help alot on those rough landings when fishing...

I'd wait several months before having a speech or seminar about fishing to those clubs as it's kind of the off-season right now.  In april/may halibut and/or salmon may be around, then in july bottomfishing will open and that's probably the best fishery for beginners as it's relatively straightforward.

Joel, are you serious about learning WW? I used to do quite a bit of it before I moved to CA, but haven't done it in the past few years as I don't know too many people that do it. I still have an old boat in my garage that I was thinking about getting rid of. If you get the chance, get out there on the rivers. Your learn a lot that will add to your "paddling game". Heck, I might even join you.

-Allen

Yup - I try to learn something new every year. I thought of learning how to spear dive but the waters around HMB are not exactly the best for this activity (too cold / too murky) I figured white water kayaking or kayak surfing - I'm kinda leaning towards kayak surfing now since there are many beaches South of HMB that are close by. I have friend's who just recently moved to Sacramento and are getting into the white water kayaking. They are trying to convince me to drop kayak fishing and get into the white water scene.......NEVER

The reef just south of the end of pillar point is one of the best kayak surfing spots in CA.  It's too far offshore for the flatboarders...

Bill: I noticed I couldn't find this site on google with a couple straightforward searches, though I could find sites with links to norcalkayakanglers.com, can you sprinkle the site with 0pt keywords or somesuch to increase our google score?  I know there's an entire science of increasing your google score and I'm no expert, but it'd be great if this place was easier to find.