Upcoming Events, and the NYC Watertrail Calendar

Quite a few events coming up in the next 2 weeks!

This Thursday, 3/11/09, from 6 pm to 9 pm, the Long Island Community Boathouse will be holding a fundraising Bongo Surf Party winter fundraiser at The Foundry, one block south of the Queensboro Bridge. Entertainment, prizes, Indian, Thai and Italian food, and more, all for $20.00. Full details at www.licboathouse.org (plus you can find more information about their free public paddling programs in Long Island City, which will resume once the water warms up!

Marcus Demuth is doing the rounds with another slideshow, this time of his Falklands adventure in January '09. He's a great guy, a great paddler, and a great photographer, and I think I can guarantee it'll be a fun evening there at the Pier 66 Boathouse! Next week Tuesday, 3/17/09, at 7PM. Yep, St. Patrick's Day, hey Marcus, you should drop in a couple of your favorite Ireland slides at the end! More info at the Manhattan Kayak Company blog. More about Marcus's adventures (including dates for appearances at the Downtown Boathouse & my own Sebago Canoe Club) at www.MarcusDemuth.com.

And as next week Thursday, 3/19/09, turned out, there are 2 really neat-sounding, no-drysuits-required events going on. I'd have a terrible time deciding, except that lucky for me (mirthless laugh, ha ha), I probably won't be out of work on time for either one. Plus my folks are dropping into town for one of their adventures in campanology (this time at NYC's historic Trinity Church, I may get an interesting picture or two out of that) so phew, no pesky decision-making for me. The duelling events on Thursday, March 19th are:

1. Kate Williams, Executive Director of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, will be giving a talk about the Trail at the Arsenal Gallery at 6:30pm. The Arsenal Gallery is located at 64th Street nd FifthAvenue inside Central Park, NY. I'd posted more about this back in February, full details here!

2. Dr. John Waldman, author of Heartbeats in the Muck, an absolutely fantastic book about the history & ecology of the Hudson River & a great addition to any Hudsonophile's bookshelf, will be giving a talk at the Beczak Environmental Center in Yonkers. That begins at 8 PM. A flyer with full details can be found here.

Advance notice, but somewhat timely insofar as I've got stand-up paddling on the brain (and the blog) after last weekend's fun - want to try this SUP thing for yourself? Live in the NYC area? On May 24th, there will be a SUP try-out day at New York Kayak. I'd mentioned my try-out to one of my co-workers today, he was really intrigued, wanted to know where a person could try this, so I checked in with Randy & that's the day!

Finally - just want to put in a plug for the NYC Watertrail Calendar! This is something that a couple of my favorite local "kayaktivists" have been working on over the winter; the idea is to help maximize the public benefit of the NYC watertrail by having a calendar showing all the various events on or around Watertrail sites, many of which are free, open to the public, and require NO paddling experience! Another goal is to have a central calendar that groups can consult to avoid schedule conflicts - for example, Marcus's presentation came very close to happening on Thursday the 19th too - an event in Yonkers & an event in Manhattan will most likely not impinge upon each other too badly, but add in Marcus in Manhattan & you're definitely starting to play tug-of-war with the potential pool of audience members.

I've actually volunteered to help out with this a little - I don't put in a fraction of the volunteer hours that some of our area human-powered boaters do 'cause I just don't have the free time, but the calendar is something that fits in well with my blogging hobby anyways. I'm posting stuff here all the time anyways, I can always take a couple more minutes & add them to that calendar, too. It doesn't require a huge time commitment - I can do it in ten-minute increments here & there if that's all I have & that works well for me. And whenever I'm finally able to get to updating my sidebar (Blogrolling.com is back, YAY!) that calendar will make a good addition. Much more helpful than the 2006 Cruise Ship Schedule I think I still have over there!