Photo Album: "peoplepaddle2006/sanfrancisco-09-30-06" |
Paddlers to the horizon. 73 of 'em to be exact. Here about 50 of 'em are shown rafting up at Pier 32 right before the start of the world's first "People Paddle" in San Francisco on Saturday September 17, 2006. 
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The Event Report for People Paddle San Francisco 2006
By: Dean McCully Hi Everybody 73 kayakers were on the water by 10am last Sunday Sept 17 2006 for the first annual People Paddle San Francisco. What an awesome day, probably the most gorgeous paddling day in San Francisco history. Temps were in the mid 70's, tide was slack shortly after launch so there was little current, and winds were practically non existent. Ahhh, California!!! Gotta love it!. All in all, the entire day exceeded our wildest expectations, especially for a first year event. Thanks to super human efforts by many people, People Paddle is officially declared a riproaring success. NEWS FLASH! PeoplePaddle just took the lead picture in the San Francisco Sentinel today! Check it out: Photos from the Sentinel And from Ted Choi of City Kayak: Photos from City Kayak on Flickr.com Most of the participant paddlers were brand new to kayaking, so we were able to attract several dozen new paddlers introduced to the sport in a very safe, controlled, venue. City Kayak on Pier 38 & we offered 4 training sessions before the event, and many of our newbies showed up for full-blown training classes taught by Lisa B & Bo B & Ted & others. We now have 50 or 60 brand new, well trained, new kayaking buddies on the water. How cool is that? We were joined at the dock on Sunday by an impressive number of safety escort kayakers, mostly drawn from the ranks of BASK and WSK, all of whom gave up a Sunday morning to show us precisely how safety boating needs to look. (All you safety kayakers know who you are, and we are eternally in your debt!!!!) We were also joined by a sizeable armada of motor escort skiffs/whalers/zodiacs/etc. Escort vessels included the fabulous folks from SFPD who brought their patrol boat along to escort us as we paddled the ~4 mile course. The SFPD chase boat was waiting for us in Pier 40 when we arrived shortly after 8am. When we saw the cops waiting for us, we feared, "Oh oh, the fuzz is here to bust us because we forgot to get one permit or other." Nothing doing, the SFPD chase boat saw the permits we filed months ago and figured they'd come down and join us for a great cause. They were kind enuf to escort the entire event the whole way. Cool! The escort fleet also included a Sheriff & Coast Guard guy who was impressed enough to come out with his wife and carry our race timer Beth as paddlers raced the course. We were even accompanied from the Bay Bridge to McCovey Cove by the Phoenix, San Francisco's famous fire boat. There's something cool about seeing SFPD & SFFD boats on the water with us, with the Coast Guard guys squaking their well wishes to us on the marine band, while every manner of support vessels spread out all over the course to ensure everybody's safety. Let's see, police, fire, coast guard, yup, we're pretty well covered from terrorist attack, boats catching on fire, speeding tickets, heart attacks from eating too many brownies.... Very cool! Launch was very fast and effortless. We were concerned about launching so many kayakers so quickly, but volunteers from OneBrick Volunteers came by and launched boats for us in record time. Gee, those OneBrickers, as they call themselves, were awesome! We'd show them something once, and they'd immediately catch on. Maybe that's because OneBrick frequently rents kayaks from City Kayak on Pier 38 and the group has a lot of experience paddling? Who knows. Whatever the reason, they were indispensible help. ALL 73 paddlers finished the entire course. Nobody fell in, and reports were that a great time was had by all. Larry Ellison even joined us in his pirates costume, and finished first place! (No, not the Oracle guy, but the guy who caught 2 of Barry Bonds' home runs. After selling both homers for the approximate GNP of Sweeden, Larry bought a REALLY cool kayak with a bunch of awesome electronic toys for watching Giants games while on the water. (Waterproof computer with wireless connection to AT&T Park's Wireless connection so he can watch the game from his boat, anybody?) ;-) Who knows, maybe PeoplePaddle will become a San Francisco tradition, rivaling, some day, B*y to Bre*kers in weirdness? We made a whole pile of pledge money for 16 participating nonprofits, so perhaps the idea will spread out and infect other kayak venues to do some more great things for the community! I sure hope so.... We're currently planning an after-party to congratulate our paddlers, honor our donors, and present gift checks to the 16 nonprofit partners who benefited from the event. Stay tuned for details on that. Paddle on, All! Hope to see you on the water again soon! Sincerely, The Other Lisa (Bickford), and Original Dean (McCully) |
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Note: This event report does not necessarily reflect the opinions of EyeYak or any owners or subsidiaries. EyeYak is not related to any other club, organization, company, or anything anybody on this planet has ever heard of. And that's the truth. Your mileage may vary. Have a nice day.
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