Editorial: Winter Getaways

October-November 2005

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

by Alan Wilson

Many paddlers take winter holidays to find warm water during our northern off- season, so each fall we present stories from those who have undertaken trips the winter before. It’s fun to fantasize as we read these stories that maybe this is the year for a tropical trip of our own.

Our purpose in presenting this annual issue is to demonstrate that paddling is a worldwide and year-round activity. You don’t have to hang up your paddle in the fall. And if you have a folding kayak, you can pick up and go anytime—and practically anywhere.

Of course, some paddlers are less willing or able to travel afar, and find off-season paddling closer to home, such as in the Pacific Northwest or in southern US states, especially Florida (after hurricane season). The protected waters and islands in WaveLength’s home waters (the Gulf Islands of the Pacific Northwest) can be benign, if not balmy, practically any month of the year, as long as you go when it’s good and dress for it. But if you’re looking for something actually warm, well it’s hard to beat the south.

Florida’s not all that far away, or Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, even Cuba—all served by some of the companies advertising this issue.

Or, if you’ve got the yen for overseas travel, you could visit, say, exotic Tonga in the South Pacific, or Thailand in Southeast Asia where your tourist dollars will help the region get back on its feet after last year’s terrible tsunami.

So whether you register at a sweet little oceanside B&B closer to home and day paddle among the flocks of over-wintering birds, or whether you want to do a little migrating yourself this year, we wish you happy paddling.

To all who live—or used to live—along the US Gulf Coast, we extend our deepest sympathies. It’s been heart-wrenching to see the aftermath of Katrina, just as it was with last year’s Asian tsunami. The parallels are striking and coastal development is part of the problem. The loss of mangroves in coastal Southeast Asia exacerbated the damage there and the loss of marine buffer zones on the Gulf Coast likely increased the havoc of the hurricane. With global warming models predicting increasingly severe storms and sea level rise, how can we afford to take those risks? For more on global warming, see news.