Well it's been awhile but now that hockey season is over it's time to start focusing on jstroke.com again!

One of the primary reasons I built the website is to give our community members a great place to invite other paddling fellows out to their favorite watering holes (and I don't mean ye local pub). I am hoping that as membership on the site grows, members will take a minute to create Waterway (or River) pages that allow other members to see where we are all having fun and where the river or lake is that you're paddling.

Some quick directions:

Not all of us need this but man, if you're going out into some open water you had better think about using a float plan.

No matter if you are going for just a few hours on it is by far... in your best interest to let someone know where you expect to be and when you expect to return. If you plan a longer cruise, leave a copy of a written float plan with a friend or local outfitter.

One of the primary reasons I wanted to build Jstroke.com was because I thought there was a need to give paddlers an easy and cool way to ask for and look for other people to float with.

Some choices in life can be overly difficult. Where should I go to college? Is this the person I should spend the rest of my life with? Bud Light or Miller Lite? You get the point right? But some of our choices in life are really simple and rightfully so. The decision to get out with the family or your best hombre and head out to a local canoe livery is one that can be made instantly or with very little thought.

Very seldom do you come across something that you just feel is right. Well today I found a paddlesport gear provider who just knocked my socks off. GaiaSports hits a homerun when it comes to quality products. Visit their website Gaia Sports and take a look at some of the highest quality and fully functional products that you could ask for in paddlesports gear.

From the paddle floats to the dry bags you will be hard pressed to find better. So give them a look or take a look here to get a feel for what the pro's use when they take a float.

Passion does not choose the person, the person chooses his passion. When I set out to create this site, I wanted to bring two key components together. The canoeist/kayaker and the river. I want to give everyone the opportunity to find the rivers that an outfitter services without having to scour the Internet for it. And I want to give the outfitters the opportunity to get more people involved in the paddlesport community.