Thanks to Sea Kayaker Magazine, we have a fascinating program for Saturday evening at GGSKS 2012. VENUE: Bayside Elementary School, 630 Nevada St, Sausalito, CA 94965  DATE: Saturday February 18th 2012 TIME: Doors open at 7.00pm COST: Free to Symposium attendees, $10 at the door for everyone else. PROGRAM: 7.00pm    Doors open, raffle tickets and books available for sale 7.20pm    Tribute to Eric Soares 7.30pm    Karen Carlson, Boater Outreach Specialist, Seabird Protection Network, Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary 7.45pm    Tracy Corbin, Membership Coordinator, San Francisco Baykeeper 8.00pm    Jon Turk. Presented by Sea Kayaker magazine 9.30pm    GGSKS raffle in

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Singer/songwriter Steve Wilson, known affectionately as Hull Cracker to his adoring fans will be performing in the bar at the Presidio Yacht Club on Friday night (02/17). Steve Wilson has been singing since he could talk. One of his earliest memories is of his father spinning 45’s of “The Big Rock Candy Mountain” with a toy spinning in the middle of the turntable. His mother was tolerant of his singing but not his non-stop whistling. Steve picked up the guitar at nine following in his older brothers footsteps. The sixties came along full of music and poetry, ripe for a

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Make sure you return to ggsks.com often to check for schedule changes.  The following changes have been made recently: 2nd session of Advanced Boat Control Master Class ADDED on Friday, Feb 17 2nd session of Advanced Rock Gardening ADDED Sunday, Feb 19 Bay Journey REMOVED on Friday, Feb 17 BCU 3* Assessment REMOVED on Sunday, Feb 19

  If you’ve attended GGSKS in the past, you know that some classes are more popular than others.  Sometimes classes fill because of the subject matter, other times because of the coach(es) leading the class.   In the past, rosters for popular classes have grown large, sometimes up to 25 people signed up for one class.  The large classes met in the morning with an appropriate number of coaches and were split up into smaller groups.  While this worked well, it did present one major problem – many students would not get the chance to work with the named coaches

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Author of ‘Cold Oceans’, ‘In The Wake of the Jomon’ and ’The Raven’s Gift’, kayaker, adventurer and scientist Jon Turk, Ph.D will be our keynote speaker on Saturday evening at GGSKS 2012. National Geographic has nominated fellow adventurer Erik Boomer and Jon Turk as one of the Top Ten Adventurers of 2012 for their truly epic first circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island in 2011. Here is what Jon says about his life: “For almost forty years I have wandered through exotic and remote landscapes and returned to write and speak about my adventures, the people, and the environments that I have been

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We received some big news today. P&H Sea Kayaks are donating a Delphin Surf in Limited Edition colors as first prize in the raffle for GGSKS 2012. Thanks to Graham Mackereth, Jim Hager and the P&H crew. The raffle is only open to GGSKS participants and a percentage of the proceeds will be donated to the Marine Mammal Center.   Here’s the press release on the new Delphin Surf:   P&H Delphin 155 and 150 – Now in Surf Spec. Due to popular demand the Delphin is now available with a top end surf specification. The single layer construction and

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Thanks to the support of GGSKS Five Star Sponsor Valley Sea Kayaks we are delighted to be able to announce that BCU Level 5 sea coach Gordon Brown will be coming to GGSKS 2012. Gordon runs Skyak Adventures on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. He is the author of the ‘Sea Kayak – A Manual for Intermediate & Advanced Sea Kayakers’ and he produced two DVD’s. Here is the trailer for Vol. 1: Gordon will be teaching all three days of the symposium and running a BCU 5 Star Training during the following week. Thanks to Valley Sea Kayaks’ west coast

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Matt and I want to thank those participants and instructors that provided feedback on this year’s Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium. We are taking all of your views into consideration as we plan for 2012. It is no easy task as there are so many contradictory opinions and great ideas; some that we will implement and some that are just too cost prohibitive, but we felt it important to respond now to your feedback and give you an idea of where we are going with GGSKS 2012.  We are striving to find the balance between quality and cost, providing the

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The GGSKS raffle raised $1515 for the Marine Mammal Center. Thanks to all the companies that donated product, especially Kokatat for the dry suit. And a BIG thanks to everyone who purchased tickets. It’s our little way of saying thank you to the animals that are often the highlight of our paddling experience.

You can win a Kokatat Dry Suit plus lots of other fabulous prizes in the GGSKS. Tickets can be purchased at registration and on Saturday night when the draw will take place after the slide show presentations.  The Saturday night presentation and raffle is for symposium attendees only and you must be present to win.  Tickets are $5 for one, $10 for three. Proceeds go to the Marine Mammal Center. Other prizes include: Werner Cyprus paddle donated by Werner Paddles Werner Tybee paddle donated by Werner Paddles Glacier Breeze Spray Skirt donated by Snap Dragon Design Short Skirt (blue) donated by Snap

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Who:  GGSKS is running the contest.  Anyone can enter.  GGSKS production and coaching staff are judges. What: The 2011 GGSKS Video Contest.  Strap on your helmet cams and record some sick footage from the weekend.  Then go home and spend the next 7 days editing one awesome video down to 4 minutes or less.  Easy, right?  The video that best captures the overall vibe of the weekend will be voted the winner.  Footage can include anything – landscapes, interviews, action shots, time lapse, etc.  Get creative with this.  The winner of the contest will receive an awesome prize package and

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P&H Sea Kayaks will be hosting the GGSKS party on Friday February 18th at the Presidio Yacht Club. The South City Blues Band will be playing in the bar upstairs and food will be served downstairs where we will be screening movies for those that don’t have the energy to dance. Click the image below to hear some samples from their latest CD. And keeping with the Tsunami Rangers theme of this year’s Symposium, the band’s saxophonist is John Lull, one of the founding members of the Tsunami Rangers, former Program Director for California Canoe and Kayak and author of “Sea

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Perhaps one of the most famous and certainly one of the most modest sea kayak ghurus, Nigel Dennis will be coaching at GGSKS 2011. In 1980, Nigel completed the first ever sea kayak circumnavigation of Great Britain together with Paul Caffyn. Since then Nigel has carried out expeditions in Antarctica, Easter Island and the televised expedition around Cape Horn. In many ways Nigel has inspired fellow sea kayakers to explore the great coastlines of the world. He will be leading a BCU 5 star training during the week preceding the Symposium and then will be teaching a variety of classes

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We are delighted to announce that Eric Soares, Commander and co-founder of the legendary Tsunami Rangers will be the key-note speaker and a guest instructor at GGSKS 2011. Eric will be presenting the slide show “Tsunami Rangers Retrospective” on Saturday evening at the Marin Headlands Hostel. The event is only open to Symposium attendees and space is limited so please sign up early. We have seen a preview of the slide show and it is truly remarkable. You will also be able to purchase signed copies of Eric’s new book “Confessions of a Wave Warrior”.  

We’ve begun to update the coaching talent for the 2011 GGSKS and we’re proud to announce that some of the world’s finest paddling professionals are returning to San Francisco Bay this February.  Check out the coach page for a full list of returning coaches and new faces like Eric Soares, Shawna Franklin and Leon Somme!  Eric is an important piece of California’s kayaking history and will be giving a presentation Saturday night.  Looking forward to it…

We’ve been busy preparing things for 2011 and registration is now open.  You gave feedback and we listened.  There are a couple new courses offered this year and the focus of the event is still based on the features in Northern California.  Many of last years coaches are returning this year along with some exciting new faces. Confirmed coaches will be listed soon and constantly updated as things develop. There is another lodging & meals package offered this year, at a slightly higher price.  The cost of the hostel has increased since 2010 and the food program will be better

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The dates for GGSKS 2011 are February 18/19/20. Planning is well underway so please check back soon for updates. 

  2010 Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium Report                     By Tom Bergh, Maine Island Kayak Co It’s the first day of the Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium’s BCU 4 Star Sea Leader Training. The tsunami from the massive Chilean 8.8 Richter earthquake is scheduled to arrive at the Golden Gate Bridge at 1326 today. Its amplitude has been raised from 2.5 to 3.5 feet at 1100. There’s no report on its period but one of the 4 Star Leader Training candidates has computed a wave propagation of hundreds of miles per hour based on the latitude differences from mid coast Chili to

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We are getting some great photos in from folk who attended this year’s symposium. Here’s a few. Please keep them coming! http://ggsks2010.shutterfly.com/ http://picasaweb.google.com/bryant.burkhardt/100226GGSKS?feat=directlink# http://gallery.me.com/seakayak#100123