Welcome (potential) docents

Harvey’s boats at SSTIKS have proven extremely popular over the years; they are fun to look at and even more fun to paddle. Moreover, they provide a concrete resource to fulfill the education mission of SSTIKS and Qajaq USA.

Greenland Boat Area
Harvey’s boats will be in a special section of the Beach. This section will be marked off from the rest of the event. This section will contain Harvey’s boats as well as other Greenland gear -specifically Greenland Paddles and tuiliks. The Boats in the section will have explanatory material. There will also be signage to size and choose a Greenland paddle.

Docent skills
Those who volunteer as boat docents will learn about the 12 or so boats that Harvey will loan us. We want to be able to describe where they were made, by whom, what they were used for, and something about the why of their designs.
We should be able to describe their paddling characteristics and any do’s & dont’s of their use.
Depending on the boat, we might provide guidance as to the applicability of a particular boat to a particular paddler.
Finally, those who feel comfortable should be able to be a safety boater if needed.

Training
We will offer an optional (though recommended) training to come up to speed on these topics. I have tentatively scheduled this on May 26 or 27 at Sellwood Park. Harvey will teach us the who, what, why, and where of the boats. We’ll then take them to Sellwood park where we’ll learn how to get in and out of the boats from the shore, paddle them, and learn how to deal with a capsize.

SSTIKS Schedule
Still TBD but a rough idea would be to have two docents in the Greenland boat area between sessions, at lunch and before dinner when demand is likeliest to be high. We’ll figure out a reasonable schedule for folks to take advantage of other SSTIKS activities.

Volunteer costs
SSTIKS is a volunteer-run, nonprofit event – No one at SSTIKS gets a salary. All of us volunteers pay for admission to help maintain the program (That is why we can keep it so cheap and make it accessible to so many). We are truly grateful to all who volunteer! That said we do recognize the effort and those who put in eight or more volunteer hours onsite at SSTIKS are eligible for a 1/2 priced admission ($50).