Canoecopia 2011 kicks off the paddling season

At the Valley booth, with boats all around.

We've written about Canoecopia before. It's the largest paddlesport expo in the world, held in Madison, Wisconsin. It attracts about 20,000 people who come to see the latest boats and gear, hear the presentations, and connect with paddling clubs, environmental organizations, and the community of fellow paddlers.

Every year, there's something new on the gear front. This year, we were eager to check out the P&H Delphin and the Valley Etain--especially the Etain LV, which was air-freighted in for this event. We're hoping to test the Etain this summer on something wetter than carpeting.

Shawna Franklin and Leon Somme showed a trailer from their upcoming sea kayak rescue video.

Canoecopia offers nonstop presentations--a dizzying choice of about eight per hour, hour after hour, for three days. Choosing which to attend can be tough. We attended one by Shawna Franklin and Leon Somme of Body Boat Blade, and another by Keith Wikle on surf kayaking. We also gave a couple of T-rescue presentations in the tiny pool. It was kind of like rock gardening, only without the moving water and with hard linear surfaces in lieu of craggy ones.

Eighty enthusiastic people survived the heat and humidity in the pool area to see if we would scratch the new boats Valley lent us for our T-rescue demonstrations.

We spent time wandering through the expo hall, catching up with friends and checking out the cool new stuff.

We're always happy to see Cindy Scherrer of Confluence Watersports.

Hanging out with Keith around the campfire.

The hallway was filled with tables staffed by clubs, organizations and nonprofits. The CASKA table got lots of traffic, as did others.

Chuck and Tom at the CASKA table.

Canoecopia feels like the true start to the paddling season. We see a lot of smiling people, and always leave happy.