Summer is ending soon, so why not grab a paddle and some glow sticks for an end-of-summer float?
Floats & Friends has organized a glow paddle event for the end of the summer, set to take place on Sep. 20 at Tyee Spit. Organized by Sherri Collingwood, this is the second time the event has taken place in Campbell River.
"I was inspired after more than a dozen friends asked me to make the paddle public," she says. "Until then, it had been just between friends. One night, we caught high tide and [the] full moon and decided glow sticks and headlamps would make the paddle not only "doable" but wildly fun, and the reaction to those photos on Facebook was crazy, so the glow paddle public event was born."
Last year, Collingwood said the two events she did attracted 35 people, with 16 attending, not including her friends.
"I thought that was epic," she says.
For this year's end-of-summer event, as per the event page on Facebook, 682 people are interested, with 67 people confirmed to go (as of Aug. 30). A previous event this summer had 50 people attend. Collingwood was asked to do an earlier event so kids could attend, where 75 people showed up.
"There were dogs on SUPs, a dancer, parents and kids, groups of friends, coworkers, and people who just discovered the estuary and are curious," Collingwood recalls.
To make their boat (SUP, kayaks, canoes, etc.) glow, people can tape glowsticks down or use stings of lights, solar lights from their garden, or anything that lights up.
Collingwood is using an RGB LED strip sandwiched between layers of gorilla tape on her kayak. She also has a disco light and a bulb with an LED heart inside.
She recalled someone had string lights in a clear Tupperware container on his SUP during one of the events. She also recalled running into Tom Hall of the CR Paddlers group, who was out that evening for kayaking practice.
"I had to warm him [that] those weren't people coming to bombard him. It was my little event," she says. "He loved it, by the way, and sent me a nice compliment, which really means a lot as he is an icon in the kayaking community. So, this event has just taken off for me, and I'm overwhelmed because the response is genuine, fun and good times by all. I've even heard of my own event secondhand."
As for the paddle, participants don't do anything but paddle up the river and float down so everyone can have fun, regardless of experience level. Collingwood has noted that high tide will be at 7:03 p.m. on the day of the paddle. Sunset is also due at 7:20 p.m., while the moon will rise an hour later. The paddlers will launch at the playground parking lot at Tyee Spit, head across the river into the estuary to a back enjoy and then paddle up to join the main river under the old bridge at Hwy 19.
"I kept these events going because the response has been so good," says Collingwood. "My intention was to introduce more people to the channels and trails behind the estuary, to encourage stewardship, and open up a new adventure for people."
