As Steve Showalter tells it, the beach and kayak sounded like a welcome fantasy in the ice-cold dead of winter in 2003, as Miles Spencer described it over lunch.
Months later, Showalter would find himself sweating miles across Long Island Sound on a tippy kayak ”“ Spencer”™s suggestion and perhaps not the most watertight one at that, given that Spencer had only accomplished the feat on two previous occasions himself.
As it turns out, 2003 would become a watershed year for Showalter. Not only is he a board member, fundraiser and paddler in Spencer”™s Kayak for a Cause Inc.; Showalter has become a resident of South Norwalk, moving there three years ago from his native Westchester County, N.Y. after becoming enamored with SoNo where the event occurs July 26 at Calf Pasture Beach.
The charity was started by Spencer and Scott Carlin, an HBO executive who lives today in Santa Monica, Calif. The duo traversed the Sound for the first time in 2001 as novice paddlers, laboring 13-plus miles to the bemusement of passing boaters ”“ strong paddlers can make the trip in two hours, but beginners can take more than six hours depending on wind and currents.
By 2006, the event was recognized by Guinness World Records Ltd. for the most kayaks ever launched simultaneously from a single beach ”“ 303 in all. Last year, 313 kayakers participated.
This year, paddlers are required to raise at least $750 to participate; in mid-June, Kayak for a Cause reported more than 1,000 donors had already pledged to participate. In his first year, Showalter raised $1,100. This year he expects to hit the $2,500 mark.
The charity”™s beneficiaries this year include the New Haven-based Hole in the Wall Gang; Garrison, N.Y.-based Outward Bound; and Cancer Care of Connecticut Inc., Save the Sound and Maritime Aquarium, all in Norwalk.
In addition to hosting a kickoff event earlier this year attended by a few hundred people, Maritime Aquarium created a small exhibit this year featuring Kayak for a Cause memorabilia, including Carlin”™s fly swatter from the first year.
Showalter met Spencer through the Entrepreneurs Organization, both men having served as presidents of the Fairfield-Westchester chapter. Showalter today is chief executive officer of Statlinx, a White Plains-based company that runs an online communications platform helping medical patients keep better touch with physicians, pharmacists and insurance companies.
For the record, he did not require his company”™s services himself following his first grueling paddle in 2003, despite having under his spray skirt just a few introductory classes and Kayak for a Cause”™s mandatory daylong safety class.
“My ego said, ”˜14 miles in a kayak, no problem.”™ My body said, ”˜You”™ve never been in a kayak before,”™” Showalter said. “From 24 inches off the water, you can barely see (Long Island). If it”™s a real hazy day, you can”™t see it at all … It really has that look of a faint, distant oasis. At the safety clinic I started second-guessing myself; it happened to be a windy day; waves and chop.”
The second year the water was more cooperative, he recalled.
“I knew what I was getting into; I didn”™t have the same mental fear,” Showalter said. “A lot of it is mental ”“ a16-foot-long boat is big on land, but when you get out on the water and get way out there, it”™s real small.”
Serious enthusiasts of the sport belong to Sound Kayakers, which organizes not only cross-Sound treks for members in Fairfield and Westchester counties, but also an annual New Year”™s Day paddle and “Full Moon Paddles” in the dark.
Kayakers also compete in the 14-mile Soundkeeper”™s Lighthouse to Lighthouse Race off Compo Beach in Westport, scheduled for Sept. 13 this year. Open to all “seaworthy human-powered vessels,” in the words of its organizers, Mike Tracy won top honors among kayaks last year with a time of just over two hours, placing second overall to a rowing shell.
The Soundkeeper”™s race was scrubbed in 2006 by marine police due to excessive wind and waves.
Kayak for a Cause has indicated it will consider running its own event in wind (and rain) of up to 15 knots ”“ no small daunting prospect for beginners and experienced kayakers alike.
“It”™s a great personal challenge that gives you the opportunity to help others,” Showalter said. “It”™s about pushing your own physical limits and giving back to the community in the same stroke.”
