1988

The beginnings of an organised group specifically focused on Sea Kayaking in New Zealand came in 1988 with Graham Egarr compiling and sending out a newsletter entitled “The Sea Canoeist Newsletter” to a small subscriber list the members of this list paid an annual subscription of six 40 cent postage stamps.

1989

The first national forum of sea kayakers was held at Mapua Leisure Park near Nelson. This was the first of three annual forums held at Mapua organised by Graham Egarr.

1990

Canterbury Sea Kayak Network conceived, while kayaking down the east coast of D’Urville Island, by Ray Forsyth and Sandy Ferguson.

1991

At the Mapua forum in 1991 The sea kayak commodore for the NZ Canoeing Association (NZCA), Dave Robertson, had spoken about what he was going to organize with sea kayaking in NZ. Paul Caffyn and Graham Egarr recognized that the interests of sea kayaking in New Zealand would be better served by a group focused on sea kayaking rather than as a subset of the organisation more focused on white-water and competitive canoeing. Graham and Paul that a New Zealand Association of Sea Kayakers (NZASK) should be established and that NZASK would join the Water Safety Council and could then gain funding for both publications and videos promoting safe sea kayaking. It was decided that Kiwi Association of Sea Kayakers (KASK) would be a better name than New Zealand Association of Sea Kayakers.