They look like a rainbow of M&Ms, fresh out of the box, lined up neatly by a child.
The colourful, candy-like whitewater plastic kayaks are soon taken from the pool deck and slid into the water by novice and experienced paddlers alike.
And the activity of the night, a pool session of the Squamish Paddling Club at the Brennan Park pool, is reminiscent of the playfulness of childhood.
There’s laughter and chatter as paddlers manoeuvrer, splash and roll around each other.
But there is a serious side to this event too. The pool sessions are a safe way to learn and practice paddling skills while the temperature and weather keeps many out of local waterways during the winter.
Experts are on hand to give guidance and advice, including Dave Berrisford, one of the founders of the club.
The club’s mandate has always been to be inclusive of all types of paddlers.
In the 1990s, when Berrisford moved to Squamish, the community only had a whitewater-kayaking club.
“I realized when I got to Squamish there’s a waterfront here, there’s ocean here,” he said. “I started exploring the coastline a little bit and realized there needed to be a paddling community here.”
The whitewater club eventually folded and the Squamish Paddling Club was born in 2009.
When it began, the club had a handful of members. It currently boasts 100 members.
The growth of paddle sports in Squamish thrills Berrisford.
“In the 1990s it was still relatively kind of a rare sport. You’d recognize anybody who had a boat on the roof of their car — you’d know them,” he said.
“Now, when I am driving around Squamish I’ll see a whitewater boat or a sea kayak on the roof of people’s cars and I don’t know them — that’s fantastic. I love that.”
Inclusion is written right into the club’s constitution, which highlights as its purpose to “promote a non-exclusionary club for all disciplines of paddling sports in the
Sea to Sky area.”
Members include those who paddle on rivers, lakes and the ocean.
Paddling is an all-ages and abilities activity, according to Berrisford that includes a plethora of watercraft sports and recreation including sea kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, surfski, canoeing, outrigger and whitewater paddling.
“If you use a paddle to move, we’ll take you,” Berrisford said, with a laugh.
The club is a non-profit society, run by dedicated volunteers, he added.
Club member Guillaume St-Louis said both the hard work of volunteers and increased popularity of paddling sports are the reasons for the growth in membership to the group.
“I think that stand-up paddle boarding has a lot to do with the increase in popularity of paddling sports. At least that is what got me in the sport and I tried other options from there,” he said, adding he joined a few years ago.
“I always wanted to be part of a group like that, promoting ways to get out and explore our beautiful waterways,” he added.
Other mandates of the club are to enhance education and environmental awareness related to local waterways; and, promote youth involvement in safe, co-ordinated programs.
Berrisford cautioned that Squamish is windy and novices need to go out with a group of people who know what they are doing.
“That does hold some people back in Squamish,” he acknowledged, adding that the club has social sessions once or twice a month to allow experienced and novices to go out together on local waters.
Getting out on the water allows paddlers to see things in a whole new way, Berrisford said.
“It is a completely different perspective.”
Being a paddler means you can’t help but care about the local lakes, rivers and Howe Sound.
Club members help divers clean up trash from Brohm Lake.
“It is unbelievable,” Berrisford said. Divers go under with nets and fill them up with trash, come back up and Squamish Paddling Club members take the bags of debris to shore.
Folding chairs, tables and barbecues are just a few of the discarded items he has seen brought up in addition to the usual cans, sunglasses and water toys.
Paddlers have a firsthand view of the positive changes in Howe Sound over the last two decades, according to Berrisford.
“I paddled when Woodfibre [pulp mill] was there, when the saw mill was there — when there was a lot of industry on the waterfront — and I have definitely noticed an increase in wildlife,” he said.
He added Britannia Beach had not yet been fully cleaned up when he first started paddling in Howe Sound in the early 1990s.
The club doesn’t get political about such issues, however, he stressed, adding he wants everyone to feel comfortable to join the club, which wouldn’t be the case if it became politicized.
Squamish currently attracts world-class paddlers.
Though it flies under mainstream radar, Squamish hosts the Canadian Surfski Championships in July. The event’s name has recently been changed to the Canadian Downwind Championships to reflect that more than just surfkis can participate. The race is a 21km downwind challenge for surfskis and standup paddleboarders that goes from Porteau Cove to downtown Squamish.
This year’s race is set for July 14.
Downwind simply means the wind is at the paddler’s back.
[Go to www.canadiandownwindchamps.com for more.]
The competition attracts paddlers from South Africa, California and Hawaii.
A surfski is a long, narrow, kayak on which the paddler sits on top. It also usually is manoeuvred with a foot-pedal controlled rudder.
“We get world champions to do that paddle,” Berrisford said, adding locals don’t always recognize the amazing views and conditions Squamish has for paddling of all kinds.
A recent success for the club was the building of a proper storage boathouse down on the Mamquam Blind Channel, just a few steps from the water, Berrisford said.
Storage is available to members for their paddling-specific boats. [Contact the club at storage@squamishpaddlingclub.com for more on their storage options].
“That has boosted our membership,” Berrisford said. “People can ride their bikes down, lock their bikes ups, grab their boat or their board from the storage facility.”
The club is currently working to buy an outrigger canoe for Squamish.
“It is a boat you can have multiple teams using it,” he said.
“It is just a really great community builder; it gets people on the water safely.”
Contact the club to donate to this cause, he added.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
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*Upcoming club events include the Paddling Film Festival 2018 World Tour, which the organization co-hosts, at Valhalla Pure Outfitters on May 10.
Proceeds to benefit the club. Tickets at the store. “It is the hottest paddling films,” Berrisford said. - *The club hosts a demonstration day on May 26, where people can come down and learn about the club at the Boat House on Loggers Lane. Boats will be available to try. There will also be food trucks for hungry paddlers and attendees.
For more on the Squamish Paddling Club or to donate to the organization, go to squamishpaddlingclub.com or their Facebook page.
The club is always looking for experienced boaters to volunteer, email info@squamishpaddlingclub.com.
