Women On Waves: Summer Solstice Paddle
Women On Waves:
Summer Solstice Paddle
June 21, 2008
Bellingham, Wa
In a typical race, there are 20 guys on surfskis to every 1 – MAYBE 2 – women. These stats inspired a few of us gals on skis to do what we could to balance the gender gap. The result: Women On Waves, or WOW. In 2006, our inaugural event, WOW Surfski Demo Day in Bellingham, brought in over 60 women from as far as Portland and BC.
This summer we are hosting a series of group paddles throughout the Pacific Northwest. Our first event was a 10-mile Summer Solstice Paddle in Bellingham. We were treated to a beautiful glassy day as we paddled out of Marine Park, past Chuckanut Island, on to Whiskey Rock, and back.
Information about upcoming events will be posted on our Yahoo chat group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WomenOnWaves/All women are welcome to join!
Our next group paddle will be Saturday, July 19th in Seattle.
~In the Spirit of Compassion and Adventure~
Heather, Brandon and Hayden
(All Photos by Brandon Nelson or Traci Cole)
Hey this is great to see Heather…hopefully the efforts of your team will see more women taking part in the local surfski racing scene…it was quite disappointing that no US women surfskiers bothered to take part in the Tour de Indian Arm leg of the Think International Surfski Challenge…3 Canadian gals raced surfski at the Lake Whatcom race. At this week’s Deep Cove TNR race there were 6 or 7 women surfskiers…this is quite encouraging…seems there is some good momentum being generated with more and more women now giving surfski a try as they see their peers out there having fun racing skis.