Be Kind To Your Yacker Week
Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California. The 6th annual Be Kind To Your Yacker Week, a celebration of escort crews, kayakers, and paddlers, is underway around the world this first week in April.
Initiated in 2009 by Phil White (aka Flipperless Fil) of Derby, Vermont and the co-founder of Northeast Kingdom Open Water Swimming Association and the Kingdom Games, this week is Yacker Week in the open water swimming world.
“Here’s to all those who make these swims and expeditions and outright adventures possible: Kayakers, escort crew, patrol boaters, and volunteers on the beach. Without your enthusiastic support and sacrifice, it just would not be possible. Thanks, mates!” says White.
He explains Be Kind To Your Yacker Week, “It’s a week to honor and thank our yackers for their help and support in the open water. Without them we’d be “lost, feckless souls, locked in the lanes of our short little pools.”
Photo shows Beth Barnes of ikayak4u.com.
Yacker is an American-English slang word for kayaker, a support person in a kayak paddling alongside an open water swimmer giving reassurances, providing navigational IQ guidance, and carrying hydration and fuel for the swimmer.
Copyright © 2014 by World Open Water Swimming Association
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.
Latest posts by Steven Munatones (see all)
