Announcing the Kayak Fishing Assoc of California

Over the weekend the Kayak Fishing Association of Southern California Advisory Board voted unanimously to drop "southern" from the organization's name and to invite representatives from Central and Northern California to serve on the board. The new truly statewide grassroots political advocacy group for kayak anglers is now the Kayak Fishing Association of California (KFACA).

We are thrilled to welcome NCKA webmaster Bill Pennington, Great White Kayak Company owner Sean White, and Santa Cruz Kayak Fishing guide Allen Bushnell to the team. These three all-around good guys will bring a lot of talent and energy to the organization. Working together, we'll strive to fulfill our motto: "Dedicated to preseve and expand kayak fishing opportunities."

Please contact me or your local KFACA representatives if you become aware of any access issues. We're continuing our work on the proposed Monterey / Carmel area closures.

Soon you'll be able to visit our new website at www.kfaca.org (under construction). Until we complete the changeover, visit the KFACA at www.kayakfishingassociationsocal.org.

Paul Lebowitz
Director, KFACA

That's mighty white of them

Thanks PAL, it is an honor to be associated with the fine folks that started KFASC as well as Allen and Sean. One question though, why do we have an extra "A" on the end? 

The domain KFAC was already taken. As was just about anything pertaining to 'kayak fishing association' 

KFACA seemed to be the best of what was left, although our webmaster is open to other suggestions.

since you are in the process of renaming, you might consider other alternatives too:

some suggestions:

human-powered

power-limited

non-fossil-fuel

non-motorized

amish ( )

put any of those in front of anglers or fishing of california, etc.

Personally, I like human-powered although that kind of excludes people in wheelchairs.

The real distinguishing feature of what we do is not the kayak, but the fact that
we don't have a pair of 225 horse motors bolted to the stern.

further, if you ever get legislation that favors kayak fishing, the definition of kayak will come into play.
do you want to exclude row boats, pontoons, personal mini-subs?

right now it started with so cal kayak dudes and that is fine, but it's growing and it might be time to
stop and make sure you have the proper abstraction before you find yourself painted into a corner.

best,

J

John, you pose an interesting question.

Why "kayak fishing?"

The term is easily recognizable by people in and outside of the sport.

Nearly every kayak fishing website uses some variation of the term. Plastic Navy does not, a fact that hurts their search engine ranking.

Most guides use the term for the same reason.

In the press what we do is refered to as kayak fishing. Paddler has a kayak fishing department. Pacific Coast Sportfishing has Kayak Korner. The newspaper I write for, the FishRap, has Kayak Nation.

Nowadays, float tubes and their derivitives and kayaks make up the overwhelming majority of human-powered fishing vessels. Which brings up a fascinating point (to me anyway). Why are float tubers allowed in some lakes that prohibit kayaks? I know the answer to this one! Float tubes are defined as floatation aids. Kayaks are vessels.

kayak fishing it is then.

But your example is proof that definitions and naming are important.

Are there any advantages conferred on "vessels"? If not, why are we
classified like that, and can it be changed?

But I guess that's all for you guys to ponder in the future.

Now I better go buy some shades because with you guys running things,
the future is bright!

best,

J

Thanks for including us northeners!  Hopefully the bigger footprint will have a bigger impact in Sacramento.

Now that Paul is experienced in Central Coast Kayak politics, it is good that KFAC is the new name.
Pat