Travels with Paddles

a sea kayaking journal

Axel Schoevers (Photo: A. de Krook) Name:
Axel Schoevers
Location:
Rijswijk, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands

Thursday, May 07, 2020

Anglesey from a distance

This would have been the week of the annual Anglesey Sea Kayak Symposium. Starting out as the "Nordkapp Meet" on 30 April - 1 May 1983 it was and is the first international sea kayak symposium.

Allways organized on the May Bank Holiday weekend; the weekend of the first Monday in May. However this year, because of the 75th anniversary of VE-day (the end of WW-2), the Bank Holiday weekend was moved to the Friday 8-10 May to coincide with that. And then "World War C" started... A pandemic uprooting everything, resulting in the first year ever that the symposium does not run.

This year would have been the 20th time that I would have been attending the Anglesey symposium. May 2000 was my first visit; keen on learning all about tidal-races and overfalls to safely plan my own trips in more dynamic and remote areas with my paddling buddies. I returned again and again to become a British Canoeing sea kayak coach. Anglesey has become a regular paddling destination for me for it's accessible scenic, dynamic & learning environments.

So next year May will still be my 20th Anglesey Symposium anniversary. Hope to see you all there again. Paddler's Return, sun shining on the Skerries, Terns and all.

Last year, Hugh brought this classic 1991 Poster to the symposium and I took this picture of it.

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Starship Troopers

Well, what to think about that person with the 'bright' idea to go to war with the galaxy? We all know by now what 'intelligence' this man can muster and stands for. If waging war with the rest of our planet is not enough.

But in the process ravishing a logo that stands for the complete opposite (above), gets me angry.

From very early on in my youth we already had cable television (in the Netherlands). And by that we could receive BBC television. I was a very keen viewer and follower of Star Trek (the Original Series). And probably learning to understand English in the process. The series has been re-broadcasted many many times. At my very first viewings it would not not have occured to me how unique this series would have been on it's release in the sixties. A multi cultural/racial crew on a starship that seeks out new life and new civilizations... Not to destroy, but to learn!

I think the United States Space Force should be renamed Starship Troopers. A much more fitting name and has a much more relevant logo than the misuse of the above Star Trek logo. I hope there is legal action against this plagiarism. On my second viewing it all fell into place and I smiled at the masterpiece; hilarious. How Paul Verhoeven was ever allowed to make it that way and it being released still has me puzzled. The best film to advertise enlisting in the United States Space Force (aka Starship Troopers).

Bad, bad, very bad idea! Hilarious if it only was fiction and it isn't 1st of April either.