Snaky Wet Exit Doesn’t Stop Fun of Sea Kayak Symposium

My first time sea kayaking was going well until I came up from my first wet exit. Shocked by the cold Lake Michigan water at Rowleys Bay, I was even more shocked when I lifted my head out of the water and saw a good-sized snake slithering on top of the water right behind instructor Mike Looman.

Gasping for air from the shock of the cold water, I tried to say, “There’s a snake behind you!” but it came out a hoarse whisper. Mike heard my words but said, “No there isn’t” as he turned and saw the snake right behind him. Instinctively, he dug his hands into the lake and scooped water at it while shimmying out of the way, causing the snake to divert its menacing advance. Mike said he had felt something behind him but thought it was a towrope, not a two-foot or better Northern Water Snake.

Other than that freakish encounter, it was smooth sailing for me during the remainder of my Kayak Essentials course, offered during Rutabaga’s 10th Annual Door County Sea Kayak Symposium the weekend of July 12-14.

Scooting around the various classes held for kayakers from beginner on up was Rutabaga Paddlesports owner Darren Bush, armed with digital camera, video camera and a helmet cam for on-the-water experiences. He appeared to be having even more fun than the participants who had come from throughout the Midwest to take part in the kayaking weekend based at Rowleys Bay Resort.

Bush said the idea for a sea kayak symposium came from one of his own employees who attended another symposium.

“Basically, he was there in a plastic boat that wasn’t all that high-end. It was a bunch of experts making fun of him all weekend,” Bush said. “He came back and said, ‘You gotta have something for people who aren’t experts’.”

Great idea, Bush thought, but how do you pull it off?

“First, you have to hold it in a place where beginners want to go to, and there has to be housing,” he said. “It had to be a location that had good, sheltered water, lodging and that wasn’t too far from other areas such as Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago. And would have other places for people who wanted to camp.”

Bush spent a day driving around Door County and realized he had found the place when he arrived at Rowleys Bay Resort.

“It is the perfect location,” he said. “We had 220 people our first year. It was almost impossible to manage, but we pulled it off. It just kind of took off.”

The first thing I noticed is how friendly, funny, positive and informed the instructors were.

“No experts allowed,” Bush joked. “We have a ‘no attitude’ rule. We had a couple of instructors years ago, all they could talk about was their experiences. They had bad reviews and weren’t invited back. If anyone comes and has an attitude, we reject them. We have people we want to hang out with. They’re not getting a lot of money to be here. We can’t afford it. We had one guy who got $50, basically a stipend for gas, and he spent it all at the auction. That’s how it works.”

The auction he refers to takes place during a Friday night dinner for the kayakers. It began on a whim about six years ago when someone at the dinner – it might even have been Bush himself – suggested auctioning off a pie to benefit the Door County Land Trust.

“A guy bought it for 20 bucks and handed it back and said, ‘Auction it off again!’ So we made $75 for one pie. People want to give,” Bush said.

Rutabaga Paddlesports also donates a portion of the weekend’s proceeds to the Door County Land Trust, an amount that has added up to more than $30,000.

“This place is beautiful for a reason,” Bush said. “We have Door County Land Trust working really hard to keep this place from becoming another Wisconsin Dells or Minocqua or one giant fudge shop. We really appreciate that, so we decided to donate a portion of the proceeds to Door County Land Trust.”

“The Door Count Land Trust is so honored that for the past 10 years Rutabaga Paddlesports has donated a portion of the Door County Sea Kayak Symposium proceeds and hosted an auction to support our land protection work in the country,” said Terrie Cooper, land program manager for the Land Trust. “Since 2003, the Land Trust has received more than $36,000 from Rutabaga. Rutabaga truly practices what they preach by supporting the communities they paddle in.”

Cooper has also participated in the symposium over the years.

“Paddling is a great way to explore Door County and, most importantly, building skills and learning how to paddle safely on these big, sometimes very challenging, waters is important,” she said. “Rutabaga staff does an outstanding job building skills and confidence in paddlers of all skills. Their ratio of students to instructors is the lowest of any Midwest kayak symposium I’ve ever been part of. Their instructors are top-notch and the symposium makes paddlers of all levels feel welcome and celebrated.”

“I don’t know why Door County isn’t a bigger destination,” Bush said. “This could be the Moab of sea kayaking. They go to mountain bike in Moab and there’s nothing there. It’s an old uranium mine. This place is beautiful. It’s so good here, so much beautiful shoreline, so many beautiful state parks to camp at. There’s not a massive amount of powerboat traffic except down farther on Green Bay. There’s nobody here on the lake side. It’s pristine. It’s perfect. I don’t know why people don’t come here from all over the country.”

But you can bet Bush and the Rutabaga Paddlesports Symposium will return.

“This is my favorite weekend of the year,” Bush said. “I come up here and people’s lives are changed in just three days. There’s nothing better than that.”

For details on the Rutabaga’s 11th Annual Door County Sea Kayak Symposium, stay tuned to paddlers.com/everyonepaddles.