KASK FEST 2017

We are excited to announce that the registration for the 25th annual KASK National Sea Kayaking Forum is now open. We can also reveal the location: It will in Ponui Island, a treasure island in the Hauraki Gulf!
The event has a new name: KASK Kayak Fest 2017 – Ponui Island

You can register here: Registrations
More information here: FAQ

The 2017 event will be unique, memorable with plenty of opportunities to paddle, share ideas and learn on and off the water. KASK has never done an island destination before. Imagine landing with your kayak to be greeted by wild donkeys and sleeping in a tent while kiwis forage around you at night.

Diarise this date now!
3-5 March 2017

Update – Lynn Redz Patterson NZ circumnavigation by kayak

We at KASK have been following Lynn Redz Patterson since she started her epic journey paddling around New Zealand – it is nearly 200 days since she left Takapuna and since then she has paddled over 3,500 km. I talked to her this morning: she is in West Coast – with 3.2m average westerly swell pounding the coast, she is waiting for 2-3 day window of good weather for her next stint.

We wish her all the best for the rest of her journey. Please checkout the latest video Lynn just posted this week:

Lynn Redz Patterson just posted this video of how she spent 43 days kayaking around and through the fiords, as part of her attempt to paddle around the entire coastline of New Zealand in a kayak.

Mike Dawson needs your help – Rio

One of our fellow paddlers needs your help. New Zealand athlete, Mike Dawson has qualified for the Rio Olympic Games in Canoe Slalom. To get to the startline uncompromised he needs to raise $40,000. To help him raise the money, he has created and is selling a recipe book. Please visit his site and buy his amazing Athlete Cookbook, full of great recipes from all over the world and some stories to go with it!

We wish Mike all the success at the Rio Olympics and hope to have him talk to us about his journey at the next KASK Kayak Fest 2017 – Ponui Island on 3-5 Mar 2017, all being well.

Reviews

Review of the Paddling Perfection Adventurer – By Shawn Walsh
“The latest boat to come out of the Paddling Perfection stable. This light and responsive kayak will put a smile on the faces of both beginners and the more experienced paddlers with handling that makes it fun and responsive while still having enough room for a weekend away….”
Read the full review here.

We will be publishing more reviews by our members. If you want to submit a review of a latest New Zealand kayak or kayak related accessories, apps and gadgets, please get in touch with KASK through the links at the bottom and we will send you some review guidelines. We are especially interested in non-vendor sponsored reviews with pictures video etc.

Event Survey Results

Thanks for your input to help us improve our National sea kayaking event by completing our event survey early this month.

The respondents thought the KASK Sea Kayaking forum as it is at the moment is somewhat useful, with good objectives especially related to skills development. It needs to be fully catered and it should stay focussed on sea kayaking, aimed predominantly at intermediate paddlers and strong beginners. It should run once a year in either North or South Island and should be held in February or March and should ideally be followed by International Kayak week.
The full results of the survey can be found here.We know we have to make some major changes to the event moving forward.
Your responses have been really helpful to the new event team to come up with a outstanding event for 2017 that aligns with what most of the members and the paddling community want:
– We have a name change – ‘KASK Kayak Fest 2017’ and with excellent leadership from Shaun and the event team we have a vision for the next event.
– We are moving away from sit down slideshows to on water instructions and activities. Nick and Ruth are working hard to put together the on water stuff for KASK Kayak Fest 2017 – Ponui Island.
– We now know that most of you are comfortable with sponsorship to help keep the registration cost down as well as what sort of sponsorship is acceptable. Jim Hawkins is looking at sponsorship – and if any of you want to help, let me know and I will put you in touch with Jim.
– We now know most of you don’t want to pay more than $250 for registration. Pauline and Chris have been working hard crunching the numbers to come up with an early bird registration at $250
– We now know how important catering and food is. Shelley is working hard with caterers to come up with a great menu so you can focus on having a good time on water instead of cooking!
– Thanks for telling us how best to communicate with you and the importance of easy registration and online / credit card payment. Pauline and myself have come up with a marketing plan to keep you in the loop.

Member Survey results:

Thank you to everyone who completed the member surveyearly this year. We really value your input and we use the survey results to find out more about our members and their needs and wants to stay relevant and to ensure that the members get value out of their membership.

“a typical current KASK member is a male, in their 50’s, owns multiple kayaks, paddles regularly throughout the year, typically doing day paddles or weekend paddles and consider themselves to be either of intermediate or advanced skill level.”
The full results of the survey can be found here.

If you are a member, you would have already got an invite to take part in our AGM – which this year will be through on line meeting application. The KASK Committee will be on line on 7:00 PM, Monday 23 May and we are inviting KASK members to try ‘Go To Meeting’ just to check that you have everything set up ready for the AGM the following Monday (30 May). If you do have problems connecting please be patient and we will try to sort it out with you.

KASK AGM 2016
May 30, 2016 at 7:00 pm – 7:45 pm NZST

Joining KASK

You are already in our database as a paid KASK member, which is why you are receiving this email. However, if you know other paddlers / friends / colleagues who could benefit from being a KASK member, they can join using this link:JOIN

Signing up for e-newsletter
If you know other paddlers would like to receive copies of this e-newsletter, ask them to subscribe using this link (rather than simply forwarding this email to someone who might accidentally unsubscribe you from the list!!).
http://kask.org.nz/newsletter/

Getting in Touch with KASK

Kiwi Association of Sea kayakers has an active committee. The contact details of the committee members can be found here. We are always open to your comments and input and feel free to contact me any time.
Happy paddling over the winter.

Tim Muhundan
President
Kiwi Association of Sea Kayakers
(021) 2767727
[email protected]
http://www.kask.org.nz