🎉 2013 Calusa Blueways Paddling Festival

Its official November 1 – 3, 2013 Sean Fitzgibbon and Jeff Fabiszewski are guest speakers at the 2013 Calusa Blueways Paddling Festival.  The teaching line up is: Cutting Through the Hype, Thru-Paddling the Calusa Blueway, Practical First Aid, and Risk Management For All Paddlers. Join Sean, Jeff, and other notable coaches in Fort Myers-Sanibel for a rocking good time. http://www.calusabluewaypaddlingfestival.com/

Activities are planned throughout Lee County from Friday through Sunday.  Come try a kayak, canoe or stand-up paddleboard for free courtesy of Florida Paddle Sports and Gulf Coast Kayak, which are offering kayak and paddleboard demos and lessons. Food will be served noon to 2:30 p.m. It’s free to attend; food tickets available for purchase at event.  Evening events are at the Residence Inn by Marriott Fort Myers-Sanibel. Join with fellow travelers as we gather both evenings for a full evening of sharing paddling stories, networking, reviewing trail maps, drinks & dinner, live music, and “meet the authors” special programming from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.  You’ll find the most demos, instruction and speakers on the Sanibel Causeway.

• Friday November 1st
  • 2:00 to 3:00pm Cutting Through the Hype, on the Sanibel Causeway
  • 4:00 to 5:00pm Risk Management For All Paddlers, on the Sanibel Causeway
• Saturday November 2nd
  • 10:00 to 11:00am Thru-Paddling the Calusa Blueway, on the Sanibel Causeway
  • 1:30 to 2:45pm Practical First Aid, on the water
• Sunday November 3rd
  • 1:30 to 2:15pm Practical First Aid, on the water

• Cutting Through the Hype: A boat, paddle, and PFD will get a kayaker started.  But there are other gear, materials, designs, and gadgetry; how does one decide what to buy, what/when to use, and what to wear when kayaking?!  This is a great opportunity to understand products: their development, the slick marketing, and the practical financial function.
• Risk Management For All Paddlers: This session provides people with a lens to help identify and manage risk on and off the water.  The best safety is identifying problems before they happen.  The second best safety action is how to react when problems occur.
• Thru-Paddling the Calusa Blueway: Tampa Bay, Fla.-area paddlers Sean Fitzgibbon and Jeff Fabiszewski, aka “Team Sweetwater,” departed on Oct. 19 for a 12-day, 190-mile paddle along the southwest coast of Florida, following the Great Calusa Blueway Paddling Trail. The pair did the trip to raise awareness and funds for the Great Calusa Blueway Paddling Trail — one of the best marked paddling routes in the world — as well as for the Clinic for Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) on Sanibel Island.
• Practical First Aid: Minimal preparation prevents massive maintenance.  This intro on the water class provides commonsense tools to make critical medical and evacuation decisions after a health problem occurs.  The demonstrations combined with realistic scenarios and mock patients are the next step in learning how to react.