Important Changes to PFD Type Classifications

The ACA recently represented paddlesports in Chicago, IL for two days of meetings pertaining to the upcoming changes to labels for lifejackets.

As the traditional lifejacket Type codes are phased out over the next several years and new devices are brought to market, we will keep the paddlesports community informed and will update all ACA course curriculum accordingly.

For more information, please visit: www.americancanoe.org/?PFD_Types

Going Paddling? Be Prepared For Anything...

By Rachel Johnson, Executive Director, National Safe Boating Council

You’ve checked everything off your list – life jackets, sunscreen, food and snacks – you’re ready to enjoy the perfect day on the water with friends. Despite being fully prepared, the weather shifts unexpectedly, and pretty soon you find yourself in a lot of trouble, fast. You grab your cellphone from your pocket to call for help, but there’s no signal. Fortunately, your vessel has a registered Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) with GPS capabilities, and Search and Rescue forces are alerted and arrive within minutes to help.

Each year, more than 500 lives are lost in recreational boating accidents. While it is very important for boaters to understand the importance of boating safety, such as always wearing a life jacket, staying sober and following navigation rules – having an emergency locator 406 MHz beacon on board their boat or on their life jacket can mean the difference between life and death when it’s critical for Search and Rescue forces to arrive as soon as possible.

The Saved by the Beacon National Safe Boating Campaign, led by the National Safe Boating Council (safeboatingcouncil.org), shares the importance of boaters owning an emergency locator (406 MHz) beacon and understanding how to use them correctly in the case of an emergency. An emergency locator beacon is used to alert Search and Rescue forces by transmitting a coded message on the 406 MHz distress frequency via satellite and earth stations to the nearest Rescue Coordination Center.

Boaters often prefer an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRB) over a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB), because it is registered to the vessel, not the person. An EPIRB should be mounted in an area on the vessel free of overhead obstructions, yet easily accessible (Category I). It may also be carried in a ditch bag, which is a compact floating bag designed to hold items a boater may need in an emergency (Category II). An EPIRB is waterproof and may be manually or automatically activated. They are specifically designed for a worse case scenario of just you and the beacon in the water. If your EPIRB has GPS coordinates, it can alert Search and Rescue of your position in as little as 2-3 minutes. Owning a properly installed EPIRB is a sound investment for boaters, as it may save your life and the lives of loved ones during an emergency.

A PLB works in the same way as an EPIRB, but is registered to the person, not a vessel, and may be used on land as well as the water. However, PLBs require a little more effort to operate, as they must be manually activated and held out of the water to function properly. A PLB is small enough for boaters to attach to one’s life jacket, however, if it is not attached to your life jacket, you may not have it when you need it the most. The National Safe Boating Council believes wearing a life jacket is a simple life-saving strategy for recreational boaters. Learn more at safeboatingcampaign.com.

Both EPIRBs and PLBs must be registered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at beaconregistration.noaa.gov – it is very easy and takes just a few minutes that might become a lifetime of survival. If any of your information changes, you must update your registration (phone, address, marital status, sell your boat).

There are hundreds of stories of peoples’ lives saved by the use of emergency locator beacons. To learn more, please visit savedbythebeacon.com. Before you go boating next, make sure to purchase, register, and have on board your vessel an emergency locator 406 MHz beacon. You never know when it may save your life and the lives of others.

Rachel Johnson is executive director of the National Safe Boating Council (NSBC), a nationally trusted resource for the advancement and promotion of safer boating through education, outreach and training. Saved by the Beacon is a national campaign led by the NSBC to help recreational boaters understand the importance of emergency locator (406 MHz) beacons and how to use them correctly in the case of a boating emergency. The campaign is produced under a grant from the Sports Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, administered by the U.S. Coast Guard. For more information, please visit savedbythebeacon.com. Follow NSBC at twitter.com/safeboatcouncil and facebook.com/nationalsafeboatingcouncil.

Do You Know an Instructor Who Deserves Recognition?

The ACA is proud to partner with Kokatat for the Instructor of the Month recognition program. Winners receive a free Kokatat life jacket as well as recognition in the ACA's eMagazine, Paddle. 

Submit your nomination today. 

To view previous winners of the Instructor of the Month award, click here.

Why Download the Paddle Ready App?

In a recent Richmond Times Dispatch article, writer Tee Clarkson reviews the ACA's Paddle Ready app. He touts the float plan feature as his favorite. "With the cold water time of year approaching, these features could certainly be helpful in keeping paddlers safe and those at home without worry," says Clarkson. 

We've recently added some awesome new features to Paddle Ready to make it even better. Download it for your iPhone or Android device, and see for yourself.

We would love to know what you think of the latest updates. Please send us an email at clloyd@americancanoe.org with your feedback, or consider leaving a review in the app store!

Legendary Olympic Coach Bill Endicott Presents ACA Legends of Paddling Award to Kent Ford

At the ACA Instructor Trainer Conference Legendary Olympic Coach Bill Endicott had the opportunity to present the Legends of Paddling Award to an amazing paddler and educator, Kent Ford. We salute you, Kent - for being such an incredible influence and positive force for the sport of paddling that we all love. 

Kent Ford's unique background includes over thirty years of teaching paddling, international whitewater slalom racing, winning world titles, coaching for the U.S. Kayak Team, and working as public address announcer at the last five Olympic Games. Now Kent focuses on teaching recreational boating to a worldwide audience through his company Performance Video. His twenty videos and books have influenced the education of half a million paddlers and have made him one of the most recognized paddlers in whitewater sport worldwide. Best of all, Kent's teaching style is enthusiastic, supportive, and open-minded. 

As an ACA Instructor Trainer, Kent has led programs at most major U.S. paddle schools, as well as in Switzerland, Canada, and Japan. A veteran of over 340 rivers in 28 countries, Kent has been a member of expeditions to the Soviet Union, Costa Rica, Turkey, and Mexico. Kent holds a BS. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and resides in Durango, Colorado. 

A volunteer member of the City of Durango's water commission, Kent advocates for sustainable water policy. His pro-bono video productions on threats to the Dolores and Animas Rivers helped excite advocacy and protection on their behalf. Other recent projects include organizing the Whitewater Symposium, an industry roundtable supporting the health of paddlesports. Kent was recently inducted to the International Whitewater Hall of Fame. One of his more recent projects was "The Call of the River," a documentary film on the vibrant history of whitewater paddling.

Photo Contest Winners!

We couldn't pick just one winner of our photo contest, so we chose three! 

First place will be featured in the upcoming issue of our Paddle eMagazine, and all three winners will receive prizes. Thanks for all of your submissions! 


First Place: Greg Spencer

Second Place: Chad Blotner

Third Place: Maria Schultz

A Year in the Wilderness to Protect the Boundary Waters

By Dave Freeman. Dave and his wife Amy have traveled over 30,000 miles by kayak, canoe and dogsled through some of the world’s wildest places. The Freemans run the Wilderness Classroom, an educational nonprofit organization that introduces kids to wild places.
This article originally appeared in the September 2015 issue of the ACA's Paddle eMagazine.

As September fades into October, the paddling season in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness typically comes to an end. The leaves fall to the ground, and winter usually reminds us of its fast approach with a sprinkling of snow and frosty nights. In reality, the late fall is one of my favorite times to paddle in the Wilderness because the bugs are gone, there is plenty of solitude, and watching the early morning fog slowing dissipate with your hands wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee is simply magical.

On September 23rd, my wife, Amy Freeman, and I paddled into the Boundary Waters like we have countless times before for a fall canoe trip in our nation’s most popular wilderness area. Unlike previous trips into the Boundary Waters, we plan to stay for a very long time, a full year to be exact. We will explore this million-acre maze of lakes and rivers by canoe until freeze up, which usually happens in late November. Once the wilderness is covered in snow and ice, friends will bring in our toboggans and sled dogs, and haul our canoe out of the BWCAW for the winter. In April, as the lakes begin to melt we will switch back to canoe for the rest of the year-long odyssey.

Last year, Amy and I paddled and sailed 101 days and 2,000 miles from Ely, Minnesota to Washington, D.C. to help protect the Boundary Waters from a series of copper mines in a sulfide ore body that are being proposed along the southern border of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. We are wilderness guides and educators and this is our way of working to keep this wilderness wild. We care deeply about this place and we will do everything within our power to ensure that it remains intact for the next generation. We made a commitment to protecting the Boundary Waters when we paddled to D.C., but we know we still have a lot of work to do to protect the Boundary Waters watershed from sulfide-ore copper mining and we want to do what we can to finish the job. A Year in the Wilderness is a continuation of our work with the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, which is working to permanently protect the Boundary Waters Watershed from sulfide ore mining. 

We will camp at approximately 120 different sites during this Year in the Wilderness and travel more than 3,000 miles by canoe, foot, ski, and snowshoe. This journey is about bearing witness to the very land and water we are fighting to protect. We hope you will join us through regular updates we will post on social media (@freemandexplore and @savethebwca) and Savetheboundrywaters.org. Plus, elementary and middle school students will be able to learn along with us through www.wildernessclassroom.org.

Earlier this month the Animas River in Durango, Colorado, turned an eerie shade of mustard-yellow a few days after the one-year anniversary of Mount Polley copper mine’s tailings dam failure, which news reports called “Canada’s worst mine disaster.” Instead of the week being dominated by Mount Polley retrospectives, headlines are recounting a homegrown mining disaster a hundred years in the making. Though these mines are not in Minnesota, they are shocking displays of what can--and often does--go wrong in the hardrock mining industry, and should serve as a warning as we consider the impacts of placing sulfide-ore copper mines in the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. 

As paddlers and wilderness enthusiasts we need to be a strong voices for our waterways and the environments they course through. We hope you will join us in our efforts to protect our Nations most popular wilderness, and get involved in this important issue. Now is the time for us all to take action and help protect the Boundary Waters. 

To learn more, please visit: www.savetheboundarywaters.org.