What's on
The month of November has opened the door to winter with the first snowfall along
with the heavy torrential rain that caused so much misery to innocent people.
Isn’t there anything we can do to respect Nature before more destruction ensues?

We were very lucky (really!) to enjoy the last of the autumn sun on the island of Vulcano. 
We were there for the week-long BCU courses run by Phil Hadley and Ben Keen:

new talents have emerged, both from among the paddlers as well as the coaches!

The month of December will commence with the annual winter meet on the 30 November and

1 December organized at Bocca di Magra (Ligurian region) by the evergreen Luciano Belloni.  The program title says it all: WISKIE - WInter Sea Kayak Italian Event... cool no?!
We intend to go obviously, with a surprise!

The rolling classes have already started, at the communal pool in Legnano, every Thursday from 21.30 to 22.30, with a possibility for a swim if you arrive an hour before.
The warm and comfortable environment of the indoor pool is ideal to learn the roll as well as to improve one’s Greenland paddle techniques... booking is necessary as places are limited.

The December newsletter is the last one in a year that has been very intense for Tatiyak.
It will terminate in style with a coastal voyage camping along the eastern coast of Sardinia.  This trip will complete the circumnavigation commenced in summer 2006 and continued in the winter of 2007.

Of course we will keep you updated on our blog with daily reports and more: stay with us! 

We will return home and to work after the Epiphany (6 January): unfortunately we won’t have time for the January newsletter and thus the motive for wishing all (in anticipation)

our Season’s Greetings and best wishes for a brilliant 2014.

We’ll meet again in February with more news!

Kayaking snippets
Since I commenced kayaking - already more than a decade ago – my habits have

changed considerably. Amongst other things, I’ve adopted the kayak as my yardstick when

making all kinds of purchases: these shoes cost as much as a paddle, that coat is less than a

waterproof jacket, those trousers as much as a towline, that handbag a set of hatch covers...
The Christmas season demands that gifts (sometimes superfluous) are exchanged, but we have nearly always managed to opt out from this consumerist ritual. When it is inevitable we have always tried to choose presents that are useful (for kayaking, obviously!) without offending the few (unfortunate) friends and family that aren’t (yet) paddlers!

We’re very careful what to ask from Santa Claus...

Call of the Inuit
The book written by Ottorino Tosti is a little gem in the travel book section!

Love for the Greenland landscape and its inhabitants seeps through every page

and makes one read it quickly.

We devoured it over a weekend as soon as received from the author, complete with a special dedication and promptly included it in the reading section of the Tatiyak website. 
We therefore hope to encourage kayakers and enthusiasts of the Inuit culture

to include it in their Christmas shopping list.

In this way you will be helping to raise funds for the ItaliAmmassalik Association.

We’ve also resumed our old habit of updating the list of books from the four corners

of the world about the Arctic... happy reading to all!

Over the horizon

Georges Alexandre is a French-Canadian paddler that few people know about.

He is on a voyage from Tunisia to Brussels to petition the European Parliament –

as he has stated “for a more humane approach to the immigration issue”.

His yellow kayak and paddle inhabit Facebook both in the original French

as well as in Italian with his rallying call: “let’s go, inshallah"!

Wind and snow have forced him to stop at the lock gate of Chateauneuf-du-Rhone

but we’re sure that he’ll resume his river voyage and arrive in Belgium.

Sign his petition please, it’s important and is much more effective than talk!