For Jim Meldrum, sea kayaking has always been about more than moving across water. Meldrum, president of the local sea kayak club, says the sport has brought people together, created memorable experiences on Lesser Slave Lake and beyond. Kayaking has even become a practical tool for search and rescue work in the region.

Meldrum says the local sea kayak club dates back to the late 1980s, around 1989.

It all began with a group of Northern Lakes College employees who had a shared interest in sea kayaking and wanted to paddle together.

Over time, Meldrum says, the club became stronger and eventually reached a peak around 2015. Since then, he says, it has settled into a smaller and less active group, though he would like to see interest grow again among people using proper sea kayaks and appropriate safety practices.

Meldrum recalls kayaking as the ice has just begun to melt. describing the sound of paddling through candling ice.

“It sounds like a chandelier breaking when you drive your kayak through it,” Meldrum says,

Meldrum says he wishes people understood that the club was an alliance of people with a shared interest. It was not only about paddling, he says, but also about socializing, experiencing the outdoors together, and being safer on the water as a group.

The club also made room for memorable experiences, including night paddles under northern lights and meteor showers. Meldrum says sea kayaking has given him opportunities to paddle near marine mammals, including belugas and killer whales.

He recalled paddling in Churchill, where belugas gather in large numbers in the Churchill River estuary.

“It’s exciting, it’s scary, it’s incredible,” Meldrum says of close encounters with marine mammals. Meldrum says his own interest in paddling began long before the club formed.

In the 1970s, he was involved in canoeing and diving while he worked as a lifeguard. Sea kayaking appealed to him because of his lifelong affinity for water, but the cost of kayaks made the sport seem out of reach at first. Around 1988 or 1989, he began building kayaks himself, later helping others get into boatbuilding. He began building kayaks for others, including ten-year-old Emitt Okemow.

Meldrum also sold kayaks to club members and visitors from places such as Edmonton.

Meldrum says the history of sea kayaking also drew him in. He notes that sea kayaks have been used for thousands of years by Indigenous people. They were used for hunting and travelling on the water. That connection to water, history and practical use is part of what made the sport meaningful to him.

Meldrum says sea kayaks have also become important to Lesser Slave Search and Rescue.

As a co-ordinator with the organization, he says sea kayaks are well suited to missing-person searches because they are easy to deploy and allow searchers to move along shorelines where larger boats may not be practical.

He says the search and rescue group received a grant from Search and Rescue Alberta for equipment. Around the same time, Meldrum says, a friend on the fire department was considering selling two kayaks and a trailer.

“The stars aligned and it just made sense,” Meldrum says.

Meldrum says Lesser Slave Lake’s size and shallow shorelines make sea kayaks useful in the region. He says the area includes rivers, streams and lakes, and sea kayaks can move quickly while still allowing searchers to see close to shore. Meldrum says his kayak has a hull speed of about eight knots, compared with about three knots for many recreational kayaks.

Meldrum says the local group is the first search and rescue organization in Alberta to use sea kayaks in this way.
He says other search and rescue groups have shown interest in the concept, and the local team is helping create a pathway for others to follow.

The kayaks have already been used on three searches, he says.

For Meldrum, sea kayaking remains both a recreational outlet and a useful community resource.
He says people in the region are fortunate to live near a beautiful lake. Sea kayaking offers another way to connect with it in a relaxing, healthy and environmentally conscious way.

Sara Driedger
Lakeside Leader