Pool session set for Dec. 15

Consider joining the SDCKA for our Dec. 15 pool session. It's free to members and only $10 for non-members. Since membership and pool use fees are the same, join today and get in to upcoming sessions free. We'll take the first 10-12 sign-ups for this event, where you can practice wet exits, learn about rolling and rescues and just have fun. The session is two hours long and information is available on our club's Facebook page. Email Jarett or Steven for more information.

Join us on Dec. 15 for another pool session at YWCA Downtown Sioux Falls

Mid November Cruise

Dave Mary and Larry will meet at the east-end of Lake Alvin for a cruise November 17th at 1;30 pm If anyone wants to join us you are more than welcome.

Mary Larry and Dave

More river clean-up

We are planning two more river cleanups in the next week and a half. Because of the drought we have the rare opportunity of cleaning the rivers themselves.
Clean Up 1: Sunday Sept 23rd Noon - Skunk Creek at 12th through to Marion Road and beyond depending on time. Clean Up 2: Wednesday Sept 26th 5:30pm - Farmfield Park at 57th downstream.
Come dressed to get dirty. It worked well to walk right down the river with canoes in tow to hold the garbage.
Please consider giving a little love to the rivers as thanks for the fun they give us...in normal years. If you have any questions you can call Dave at 605-366-6844 or email at dfctx@msn.com

Dave Finck and Larry Braaten will go from Grandview to Klondike on Saturday September 15 at 1:00 P M
Grandview is just east of Lake Alvin about 8 mile trip on the Sioux River approximately 2-2 1/2 hours. Anyone wishing to go is more than welcome. E-Mail dfctx@msn.com, or call Dave 605-366-6844 with any questions. Hope to see you there.

Dave and Larry

 

GET THE YUCK OUT OF THE MUCK

SDCKA is joining forces with AmeriCorps NCCC as well as other groups from our area to clean up our river way parks.

We will be meeting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, September 8 at Rotary-Norlin Park.

Dave & Mary will bring 2 canoes.   We think we can paddle, push or pull the canoes down the Sioux and club members can help pull the trash from the water & deposit it in the canoes.

Please bring boots, gloves, may need poles & waders and grabbers,
we can use all the help that we can get. Plan on getting dirty!

SDCKA members, let Dave, Mary, Jarrett or Steve know you are willing to help.  Hope to see you Saturday!  Email dfctx@msn.com or call 366-6844

FULL MOON CRUISE, FOOD, FUN, AND FELLOWSHIP

Full moon coming up this week-end. Larry Braaten Mary and I are going to (Splitrock Park) on the north end of Garretson we will meet at 5:30 PM on Saturday Sept 1^st do a cruise up the creek and back, then have supper (bring your own meat to cook hot dogs hamburgers or steak or whatever you want) and a dish to pass and your own beverage. I will bring a grill and plates and plastic ware. Then after supper we will do a moonlight cruise. You can join us for all or any part of this fun evening. If you have any questions you can call Dave at 605-366-6844.Hope to see you there,

LET;S DO THE JAMES RIVER



















Larry Braaen, Mary and Dave Finck are planning a trip west to the James River if you would like to join us we will be meeting at the truckstop at 1:00 P M on Saturday Aug 11th, at the Canton turn off from interstate 29 south of Sioux Falls and convoy to the river from there. If you have any questions you can call Dave at 605-366-6844. we will put in at hyway 44 and CR11 and take out at Wolf Creek

SDCKA-APPLICATION

NAME______________________________________________________

ADDRESS___________________________________________________

CITY STATE ZIP CODE _______________________________________

TELEPHONE #_______________________________________________

E-MAIL_____________________________________________________

$10 SINGLE ______ $12 FAMILY_______

　

MAIL TO:
  SDCKA
  BOX 90227
  SIOUX FALLS, SD 57109

Dave and Mary Finck and Larry Braaten will go from Grandview to Klondike on Saturday July 7 in the evening at 5:00 P M
Grandview is just east of Lake Alvin about 8 mile trip on the Sioux River approximately 2-2 1/2 hours. Anyone wishing to go is more than welcome. E-Mail dfctx@msn.com, or call Dave 605-366-6844 with questions.

Mark your calendars & plan on taking water samples at Lake Alvin, June 16, at 9:00 am.
Training will be provided, just bring a kayak or canoe. This will take about 2 hours.
Jeremy, from Dakota Water Watch, will take the samples we collect and analyze them, and report back on the condition of the water.
Email:
dfctx@msn.com, or call Dave, 366-6844 with questions, or to let us know you'll be there.
We are planning on grilling hot dogs…then about 12:30 we will go from Grandview to Klondike. Grandview is just east of Lake Alvin about 8 mile trip on the Sioux River approximately 2-2 1/2 hours. Anyone wishing to go is more than welcome. PLEASE LET US KNOW IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO ATTEND THANK YOU

Larry Braaten, mary and Dave Finck are planing a cruise from Klondike
to Highway 18 at 1:00 P M on Sunday June 10.   It is a nice cruise and
 the water is good we will shuttle first Hope to see you there.  If you have
 any questions you can call Dave at 605-366-6844

SATURDAY: PADDLING FAIR

Annual Paddling Fair Family Park, Sioux Falls 
Saturday, June 2 - 1 - 4pm

Our popular paddling fair returns again this year with new partners and a new location. The fair will be held at Family Park (12th & Tea/Ellis) on the western edge of Sioux Falls. This year, we've partnered with the Sioux Falls Parks & Recreation Department and Sun 'N Fun Specialty Sports. We encourage you to come out, bring your boat (if you have one) and try out someone else's. If you've ever wonder what it's like to paddle a sea kayak, canoe or stand-up paddle board, this is your time!

Larry Braaten and Mary and Dave Finck are planning a trip down Splitrock Creek
from Corson to Brandon we will meet at 1:00 PM on Saturday May 19 at McHardy Park
southeast of Brandon. Please do not remove your kayaks since we will be moving
once we decide on where we want to go for sure. Anyone wanting to join us are more than welcome. If you have any questions you may call Dave Finck at: 605-366-6844.

South Dakota Canoe & Kayak Events Calendar

Join us on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/15793060604/

April 28 & 29 - Niobrara River Early Season Paddle
Valentine, Neb
Camping available Friday and Saturday night at Smith Falls State Park in Valentine, Neb. Saturday paddle from Cornell Bridge to Smith Falls and Sunday paddle from Smith Falls to Rocky Ford (25 miles total distance).
For more info, contact Cory
Diedrich at 605-321-6554 or cory.diedrich@sanfordhealth.org

May 5 - Boy Scout Camp-O-Ree
Lake Lakota (Newton Hills/Canton) 8:30am-4:00pm
Members are encouraged to bring out their kayaks to assist with help introduce kayaking to young Scouts and their Adult leaders. We are expecting a sizable group so the more the
merrier. Lunch will be provided.

May 5 - Annual Missouri River Clean-up
Riverside Park, Yankton, SD
More info: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Missouri-River-Cleanup/154549804609415

May 8 - Big Sioux Water Festival
SDSU, Brookings
The Big Sioux Water Festival is a collaboration between East Dakota Water Development District, SDSU and the Brookings County Conservation District. The festival has been serving an
average of 1,000 4th graders every year since 1993. The goal of the festival is to provide a multi-topic, multi-disciplinary, one day water themed event where kids can apply their knowledge of water education they have learned in their classrooms.

SDCKA will have a booth during this event, showcasing recreational opportunities on the Big Sioux River. More info: http://www.bigsiouxwaterfestival.org/

May 16 - Adopt-A-Wetland Clean-up
Sioux Falls
SDCKA has formed a partnership with the City of Sioux Falls to adopt-a-wetland along the Big Sioux River within the city limits. On May 16, members will gather at the 26th (& I-229) at canoe launch area at 5:30pm to clean-up the wetlands area just to the north of the parking lot. We hope you can join us!

May 26-27 - South Dakota Kayak Challenge
Yankton to Sioux City
After being forced to cancel in 2011 due to high water, SDKC is back this year ready to challenge the most experience paddlers. Currently, 115 racers from all across the United States will converge on the Missouri River to take part in this challenge. SDCKA has helped out in years past by providing volunteers along the race route at various location.
Visit http://sdkayakchallenge.org/volunteer.htm for more volunteer information and email cory.diedrich@sanfordhealth.org to sign-up.

June 2 - Annual Paddling Fair
Family Park, Sioux Falls
Our popular paddling fair returns again this year with new partners and a new location. The
fair will be held at Family Park (12th & Tea/Ellis) on the western edge of Sioux Falls. This year,
we've partnered with the Sioux Falls Parks & Recreation Department and Sun 'N Fun Specialty Sports. We encourage you to come out, bring your boat and try out someone elses.
If you've ever wonder what it's like to paddle a sea kayak, canoe or stand-up paddle
board, this is your time!

June 16 - Water Sampling w/ Dakota Water Watch
Lake Alvin, Harrisburg
We will be working with Dakota Water Watch again for our annual 'snapshot in time' water sampling event. Meet at the boat ramp on the southwest corner of the lake at 9am.

57th to 26th on the BSR

Sol Brich, Mary and Dave Finck are planning a Cruise on Monday April 23 at 5:00 P M
from Farm Field Park (on 57^th street just west of Western Ave across from the Dairy Queen) to the take out on 26^th street. Sol and I will meet earlier around 4:15 P M and move our vehicles to 26^th street. We have trailers to bring the kayaks back to Farm Field Park at the end of the cruise. If we can get started earlier, we can get done before dark. The weather forecast is calling for sunny and 70 degrees. If you have any questions you can call Dave at 605-366-6844. You can come at either 4:00 P M if you want to shuttle first or 5:00 P M and we will get you back to 57th street, we will work it out either way.

Anyone wishing to join us is more than welcome.

Earth Day Paddle this Saturday at Flandreau

Join us between 9-10 a.m. Saturday, April 21 for the annual SDCKA Earth Day Paddle. We'll meet at the Powwow Grounds north of Flandreau and paddle the Big Sioux River down to the dam in town. Here's video of the finish line area. Don't worry, we'll stay well clear of that dam, folks:




This paddle is about 2-3 hours. High on Saturday is supposed to be about 55, with some south winds in the neighborhood of 10 mph. Pack a dry bag with spare clothes - better safe than sorry.

Some have talked of continuing past Flandreau to Egan's City Park. We can do that, we'd just need to allow time to shuttle those vehicles and we'll plan on deciding at the gathering in the Powwow grounds.

Call Jarett at 605-941-4940 for more information or email him to RSVP!

Hey all

Larry Braaten, Mary and Dave Finck will be going to Lake Alvin to do a little Paddling on Saturday, April 14 at 1:00 P M. Anyone wishing to join us is more than welcome. We will meet at the boat dock on the west end of the lake. Hope to see you there. If you have any questions you can call Dave at 605-366-6844.

Larry Dave and Mary

Canoeing Africa

The following was submitted by Loren Odland, SDCKA member from Sioux Falls.

In March my wife, Sandy, and I were in Cameroon (in western Africa) to visit the Churches, Mission Stations, the Hospital, the Seminary, Bible Schools, Elementary Schools, and the people of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cameroon. We also helped put a roof on a new church building at Ndokayo (pronounced “doe-ky-oh”). We drove over 1,400 miles on roads that were in a variety of conditions – none of them pristine! J The drive from Meiganga to Garoua Boulai is very rough with major sections under construction. It was dry season so the road surface was mostly rust-red powder and billowed behind our vehicle blocking visibility completely for anyone following us. We stopped for a break at the Lom River near the Cameroon border with Central African Republic. A lone fisherman was checking and resetting his nets using his dug-out canoe. I watched and waited until he came to shore. As I was watching him, he was watching me. Although we had a major language barrier (his language is Gbaya and mine is English) we communicated enough so he knew I was fascinated by him, his canoe, and his paddle. When I asked to take pictures, he quickly let me know it was okay. I “just happened to have” my SDCK sticker with me, so that shows up in a couple pictures. I didn’t know how to ask him if I could fasten the sticker onto his canoe, so I simply set it on the bow. When we parted, I thanked him in his native Gbaya: “Osoko”. We both smiled.

Imagine the setting: the river was very low, the banks were very high, amazing bird songs filled the air, the concrete bridge over the river was missing major sections of guard rail and the decking of the bridge itself was questionable. In spite of the river current, this fisherman handled his canoe with grace and confidence. He made the canoe from a log and used fire to burn out the inside to help make carving the interior easier. I don’t know the species of wood for sure; but mahogany is the native tree that reaches that size and is used for most building. (The church rafters are solid mahogany!) The canoe is extremely heavy and would take more than two men to portage it!

I’m on the pastoral staff of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in southeastern Sioux Falls. Sandy has her own long-arm quilting business --- and the amazing ability to encourage me in my love of boats and water. She joins me on the water when she can – and even went with me to Africa!

Anyone interested in a cruise on the Lom River? It might take some planning; but count me in!

You can reach Loren at odland3@sio.midco.net

Upcoming events

CORRECTION: Paddling Fair (Family Lake) is June 2 and the Water Sampling Event(Lake Alvin) is JUNE 9.

Apologies for the "dead" nature of this blog - Facebook has really taken front seat in our electronic efforts to keep members connected. The FB link for our group is here and it gets a lot of traffic for cruise announcements and tons of other stuff. Remember, even if FB seems foreign and scary, you can join and use it solely for kayaking, it's up to you. Eight hundred million users make FB a bit of an obvious choice in terms of keeping in touch.

We have added new authors for our blog and the club's renewing its efforts to keep this site active and thriving. Let us know what you want to talk about it and we'll do it here and on Facebook.

We have a number of events upcoming, including a planned April 21 cruise on the Big Sioux River between Flandreau Powwow Grounds and the Flandreau Dam, shown in the photo above.

Jarett Bies is the contact on that event, and with this amazing spring weather everyone's out paddling, so please join us, invite us and keep paddling!

Our paddling fair is June 2 at Family Lake in Sioux Falls, and we'll need your help at 9 a.m. on June 9 to sample water at Lake Alvin, too.

Keep paddling be safe, pack dry-bags with extra clothes every time out, take lots of photos, and we'll see you on the water!

Your voice is needed

Federal agencies including Fish and Wildlife and National Parks are seeking public input on land protection planning along the Missouri River between Fort Randall Dam and Sioux City, Iowa.

Learn more or add your voice here. About 40 people attended a meeting in Vermillion, S.D. on Feb. 23, and many land owners had questions. The agencies want to hear from land owners but also from recreational users like the members of our club.

Please share the link with anyone you know who might have input on their planning.
http://parkplanning.nps.gov/projectHome.cfm?projectID=40350

March 4 pool event coming up

Big thanks to all the members and new members who came out on Feb. 19. You can watch video of it above, or go here to seem more images and videos.

We still have room in our March 4 session. Same time and location. We do encourage members who haven't made a session to come out and join us. All are welcome, but we want to make it available to as many new folks as we can!

More images are on our Facebook group page, too.

Feb. 12 session full; plenty of space on Feb. 19 and March 4

What do people do at these sessions? The one-minute video above shows you.

We've nearly reached capacity on our Feb. 12 event, but have plenty of room in the Feb. 19 and March 4 sessions. Remember each is held 9-11 a.m. at the YWCA in Sioux Falls. There's a back door right to the pool.

Look forward to seeing you - you can search our past posts on this blog to get a nice map of the YWCA area for parking, unloading and more. Remember: Wipe out your boat before you bring it inside; we don't want to haul sand, mud or anything else into the host's facility!

Here's the SDCKA group link on Facebook, too! We try to update both as much as possible.

Pool Sessions Set For Feb., March

We'll host three pool training sessions at the YWCA in Sioux Falls:

Feb. 12
Feb. 19
March 4

Each session is from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Come work on wet exits, rescues, or anything else you might like to try in a cozy, sand-and-mud free environment. Club members will be happy to help show what they know, but there's no formal lesson plan or agenda. These events work best with 10 or fewer paddlers; there's room for roughly 4-5 boats on the water at a time. You do not have to bring your own boat.

Cost is $10 for non-members - pay and you've got your membership!

Come out and join us; post here if you have questions. The YWCA is located near the Argus Leader in Sioux Falls. There's a back door that goes right into the pool area, take 11th Street east to Dakota Ave. Trailer parking in the bank lot just east of the YWCA is available. Make sure your boat and gear are clean as a courtesy to our hosts.

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who came out today for our annual conference! We had another great turnout and a good group of presenters.

Here are a few links from today's presenters:

Erin McManus Photography: http://www.erinmcmanusphotography.com/

Greg Latza Photography: http://www.greglatza.com/

USD Missouri River Institute: http://www.usd.edu/missouri-river-institute/

South Dakota Kayak Challenge: http://sdkayakchallenge.org/

Camping & Cooking with the Bare Essentials: http://www.amazon.com/Camping-Cooking-Bare-Essentials-Complete/dp/0975301608/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327799832&sr=1-1

Team River Runner: http://www.teamriverrunner.org/

Here's the video that Steve was working to show during his presentation: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-20128743/freeing-disabled-vets-with-kayaks/

Thanks again - and see you on the water!

SDCKA Conference Schedule

South Dakota Canoe & Kayak Association Annual Conference

Saturday, January 28, 2012
12:00 – 4:00 p.m.

The Outdoor Campus
4500 S. Oxbow Ave
Sioux Falls, S.D.

12:00 Welcome & Year in Review
Steven Dahlmeier, President SDCKA

12:20 White River Memories
Greg Latza & Erin McManus

12:40 Camping & Cooking with the Bare Essentials
Tony Keller, Author

1:00 Canoeing with the Cree Revisited
Dave Greenlee, SDCKA Member

1:30 Business meeting

2:00 Break

2:20 Team River Runner
Stephen Bruggeman - South Dakota Chapter Representative, Team River Runner

2:45 The Missouri River Flood of 2011: Causes, Impacts, and Post-Flood River Management
Tim Cowman - Director, USD Missouri River Institute

3:25 South Dakota Kayak Challenge
Jarett Bies & Steven Dahlmeier – Race Co-Founders

SDCKA By-Laws

During our upcoming conference on January 28, 2012, SDCKA members will vote on making changes to the SDCKA by-laws. Below is the current version and the version with proposed changes. The highlighted changes have been voted and approved by the board.

Current by-laws: http://www.sdkayakchallenge.org/pdf/SDCKACurrentBy-Laws.pdf

Proposed by-laws: http://www.sdkayakchallenge.org/pdf/SDCKAProposedBy-Laws.pdf