"Laredos Riofest"

"Laredos Riofest is celebrating its third year in 2012. The main event is a 33-mile kayak race along the Rio Grande with competitors from around the world competing in different classes. The festival also includes a 7-mile recreational kayak race..."  Note: There are cash prizes!

"San Antonio Bay Day"

"Dear Paddlers of Texas,
You are invited to explore the San Antonio Bay and Guadalupe River Delta on guided tours through one of the most undeveloped areas along the Texas Coast, as part of the inaugural San Antonio Bay Day in Seadrift, Texas.  Attached are more details about SA Bay Day, which is being sponsored by the San Antonio Bay Partnership..."

"Texas Rivers Center"

"The Texas Rivers Center represents a partnership that brings together the Texas State University's Meadows Center for Water and the Environment with branches of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the National Park Service in a newly renovated educational and research facility located at the headwaters of the San Marcos River on the Texas State campus. In April 2007, the Texas River Center celebrated a grand reopening to mark the completion of the $3.1 million renovation project that transformed the former landmark resort hotel into a major facility devoted to the study and protection of Texas waters..."

"Russell Crowe laughs off kayak mishap"

"Russell Crowe has joked he didn't get lost on his kayaking adventure, he just "ran out of day". The Oscar-winning actor was picked up by a Coast Guard boat after kayaking in the waters of New York's Long Island. The Gladiator star was with his personal trainer when they lost their bearings and ended up in Huntington Bay, almost ten miles from Cold Spring Harbor, where they set out..."

"Kayaks overtake canoe sales in Canada"

"Retailers say kayaks now outsell canoes by a factor of ten in some locations, and far more people are signing up for kayak lessons than for courses on how to master the subtleties of the J-Stroke. "I haven't taught a canoe lesson in years. We don't even offer them anymore," said Kelly McDowell, owner of The Complete Paddler in Toronto. Kayaks make up 70 per cent of his sales, canoes 30 per cent. "I don't remember what year it took off. It's just been gradual over the past decade." Retailers say kayaks are outselling canoes because they are faster, cheaper, lighter, smaller, and require little training to use recreationally. They cut well through still water, rapids and swells. Because they sit low in the water, they aren't as affected by wind and waves as canoes are..."

"91-year-old paddles down river in kayak"

"Some people might be astounded that a 91-year-old woman could kayak five miles down the Cuyahoga River by herself, but it was no big deal for Aurora's Louise Sheldon. "I wasn't sure how far I'd go, but I went the whole five miles," she said. "We had fun. That's what counts. I just loved it. I wanted to keep going." Independence Village, an Aurora retirement home, hosted the kayaking event for its residents... Louise and three other Independence Village residents participated..."

"Romantic proposal ends with rescue as canoe goes astray"

"A canoe trip started with a marriage proposal and ended with a water rescue for one Detroit-area couple. Nathan Bluestein, 27, and May Gorial, 32, set out Saturday in a canoe in the Wild Fowl Bay area of Lake Huron... Bluestein pulled out a ring and asked Gorial to marry him. "I accepted, very happily," she said. The two talked and snapped pictures. In their excitement, they didn't realize the tide in Saginaw Bay had taken them a little too far from shore. The couple tried paddling back with all their strength. But with strong winds and 3- to 5-foot waves, they didn't get anywhere..."

"Isle of Man to Monaco by kayak: The 'ultimate weight-loss regime'"

"As Chris Allix approached his 60th birthday his doctor told him to "lose a little weight". His response? "I thought why not kayak to Monaco?" Speaking from his kayak near Cannes, in the French Riviera, the Isle of Man company director is now 84 lbs lighter and just days away from completing his 2,000-mile journey. "If you are going to lose some weight you may as well have an adventure," he said "I was nearly 280 lbs when I saw the doctor and last time I weighed myself I was around 196 lbs. I think the doctor will be happy..."

"Media attention, reward for missing canoe keep growing"

"Word of a unique reward offered for the recovery of a valued family canoe has spread throughout Maine and across the country... Once word of the theft got out by word of mouth and on social network sites, friends ponied up to offer a reward, and in typical Allagash fashion, that reward was anything but typical: $250 and a gallon of gin. Since then, the only thing to spread faster than the news of the canoe theft was the nature of the reward offered in what is otherwise a dry town... Everyone, it seems, is now on the lookout for the 20-foot, green canoe and in the hunt for the reward, which has now grown to $650, two gallons of gin and a gallon of Irish whiskey..."