Zack Fields
Knik Canoers and Kayakers host show at the Bear Tooth
Courtesy Image; Still from Kayaking the Aleutians
For four decades, the Knik Canoers and Kayakers (kck.org) have been organizing paddle trips around Southcentral Alaska. From instructional canoe classes to party-style raft floats down the Kenai, KCK is the oldest-school paddling group in Anchorage. This year, KCK is expanding its programs to offer an Anchorage screening as part of the National Paddling Film Festival. These seven films of paddling around the world include a documentary about two women’s sea kayak traverse of the Aleutian chain, the first human-powered journey through the Aleutians.
The National Paddling Film Festival started more than 30 years ago. Kentucky local and KCK board member Chris Hellman organized this year’s film fest at the Bear Tooth. “The goal of the festival is to get the local paddling community members engaging with each other on issues of common interest while generating funds to help local water resource conservation efforts. Alaska has a very broad range of paddling opportunities so we intentionally selected a wide range of film subjects.“ said Chris Hellmann.
The featured film of this year’s festival is a nearly hour-long depiction of Justine Curgenven and Sarah Outen’s Aleutian chain traverse. In 2014, Curgenven and Outen paddled 1,500 miles over 100 days from the western Aleutians to Homer, surviving horrendous weather and turbulent currents. The trip necessitated 20 long open water crossings. Crossing even shorter stretches of open water can be daunting, but hop-scotching the Aleutians would be nothing short of terrifying. Not surprisingly, given that they completed this trip, both Curgenven and Outen are extraordinary athletes. Curvengen also has circumnavigated Haida Gwaii, Sardinia, Ireland, New Zealand’s south island and Tasmania. She has completed other harrowing crossings, including from Russia to Japan and an extended island hop from Indonesia to Papua New Guinea. Sarah Outen’s Aleutian traverse followed a solo rowing crossing from Japan to the Aleutians, part of a human-powered circumnavigation of the globe that took from 2011 to 2015.
In addition to the nearly hour-long Aleutian documentary, the film fest will feature six other shorter movies. They include "Why We Teach You," a story of parenting through kayaking, and "Martin's Boat," tribute to conservationist Martin Litton, who campaigned against damming the Grand Canyon. Litton led a river guiding companies whose wooden dories took travellers down through the canyon. The film fest also includes the Swim of the Year Awards, clips of paddlers wiping out ("carnage," in paddlers' idiom). The Creation of Tits Deep is a story of a women’s paddling club—perhaps KCK will be collecting suggestions for a new name for that organization at the film fest. Chris Hellman summarizes the movies this way: “Whitewater paddlers drop into the abyss, a short on the joy of bringing our youngest paddlers into the sport, a whitewater carnage compilation, a Grand Canyon river running adventure that highlights the history of Colorado River conservation and a multi-sport Arctic trekking odyssey across Canada's Baffin Island featuring sea kayaking, whitewater kayaking, and backpacking.
Alaska is a fantastic and challenging place to paddle. Our rivers are faster, steeper and colder than anywhere else in the United States. There are fewer road crossings, more strainers, and more uncertainty on streams that rarely get paddled. Gravelly glacial streams have frequent strainers and some rivers have iceberg-choked glacial lakes and rapids where glacial termini constrict the water against cliffs. As compensation for those challenges, you will see temperate rainforest and glaciers and can fish the most prolific rivers in America. You may paddle by seals, bear, caribou, moose and among salmon in their most bountiful habitat on earth. Paddling is a worthy activity to celebrate, and a national film festival featuring an Aleutian crossing is a good way to start.
Anchorage Paddling Film Festival starts at 5:30 p.m., Monday April 2 at Bear Tooth (1230 W. 27th Ave.)
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