A half-hour drive from downtown Vancouver, you can slip into a two-person kayak for a paddle up Indian Arm. Genial Peter Loppe and his Lotus Land Tours (1-800-528-3531, www.lotuslandtours.com) organizes half-day kayaking trips, with picnic lunches (salmon, mulled wine). Best of all, from your kayak you get a duck’s-eye view of the glorious setting where ocean meets rainforest. An easy paddle also takes in the old wooden buildings along this eleven-mile fjord one of which has variously functioned as a brothel, remote hotel, and Prohibition-era liquor outlet.
Although most kayakers hang up their paddles in late autumn, some go out year round. If you’re prepared to dress warmly, carry the essen¬tial safety equipment, paddle with a companion or two, and keep to the less windy waterways, you will experience life on the water at its most pristine in the off season. All of this does not come cheaply: outfitting a winter kayaker can cost hundreds of dollars. Then there’s the kayak itself.
Ecomarine Ocean Kayak Centre (i668 Duranleau Street, Granville Island, 604-689-7575, www.ecomarine.com) runs what some say is the best ocean-kayaking school around. It rents single and double kayaks, as well as roof racks to carry your kayaks into the deep beyond.
Feathercraft Products (1244 Cartwright Street, Granville Island 604-681-8437, www.feathercraft.com) makes folding kayaks. These gorgeous, sinewy craft are modeled on 5,000-year-old hunting kay-aks made of driftwood, whalebone, and sealskin. When you order a kayak, Feathercraft will shape it to fit your body. Then you can go out and kayak around the relatively quiet waters of False Creek, or col¬lapse the kayak into a portable package (some fold down into backpacks), head across the Lions Gate Bridge, and steady yourself for a tumultuous plunge down the Capilano River.
Kayak and canoe enthusiasts might check out the False Creek Community Centre (1318 Cartwright Street, Granville Island, 604-257-8195). This is the base for the False Creek Racing Canoe Club and the focal point for seafating paddle sports such as dragonboat racing, outrigger canoeing, and marathon and voyageur canoeing. It’s also home to the perennial world-champion False Creek Women’s Dragon Boating Team (note the arms on these well¬toned women, who are often seen hanging about the center and dock).
Another mecca for naturally powered watersports — dinghy and other small-boat sailing, windsurfing, paddling, rowing, and ocean kayaking — is the Jericho Sailing Centre (1300 Discovery Street, Westside, 604-224-4177). Operated by the Jericho Sailing Centre Association (www.jsca.bc.ca) at an enviable location on Locarno Beach, the center has its own fleet, which it rents out and uses for teaching, regattas, and races. A number of clubs and teams also operate out of this former World War II aircraft hangar.
This is an all-age operation. Older people learn recreational sailing here, and life-jacketed toddlers experience their first rowboat. And on many a morning you’ll catch sight of a team of muscular Hawaiian-style paddlers confronting the waves (and plunging into the water — it’s part of their relay-style routine) in preparation for an international race in Hawaii.
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