Before we announce, please be aware that you can only receive a specific award ONCE.  You can recieve more than one award, but they have to be in a different category.  Once the year’s up, slates clean again.  Cool? 

Also, we will be reviewing posts by MONTH.  That means that most of our judging on each category will be for the current month.  We’re looking for the best trip journal for the month of May, for example, not the best trip journal blog.  Keep that in  mind and be sure to try to post on all sorts of stuff relevant to our prize list.

THE AWARDS FOR MAY:

Kayak Session, AW Journal, Canoe & Kayak, Rapid Mag - Random New Blog
We had quite a few blogs set up this month, but the one selected randomly was the Yurt Blog (http://worldkayakblogs.com/theyurt/)… Jessica from Reno!  Good start, welcome aboard!  Jessica receives a subscription to all four magazines here!  Nice!

Smith Optics - Best Trip Journal
This award was the toughest to give out.  There are a good many amazing stories out there and everyone seems a pro with the camera!  Great job all, I can only imagine that the summer will bring many more to choose from.  The winner is Chuck Spornic with a nice Nantahala story… Chuck, with his 2007n stories and trip reports… http://worldkayakblogs.com/libcds/ … again, there are a great many out there!

American Whitewater - Mind over Matters Award
There are a good many folks out there involved in the protection of our rivers and environment.  Our first winner in this department goes to one of our Ambassadors… Wesley Bradley… aka Wildwildwes… We thought he was kept busy enough with setting up WK Hometown Throwdowns and being a Sexy Kayaking Beast (look that one up)… His stuff on land grants appears on his posts. Not to mention he just emailed us to sponsor him in raising money for a local charity via a creek race… many does this guy ever slow down??  http://worldkayakblogs.com/wildwildwes/2008/05/22/patagonia-land-grant-for-rocky-fork%e2%80%8f/ is the winning post this month. 

Jackson Kayak - Newby Paddler Blog Award
Our new paddler award was hard to find… then along came Barry with his posts on how he and his wife gettin’ into boatin’.  Barry, a few Jackson instructional videos will help for sure!  Congrats, and let us know how it goes… we all know you both will be hooked in no time!   http://worldkayakblogs.com/barry/

Smith Optics - Paddling Guru Instructional Blog Award
There are a few paddling tip posts in the system for sure, some from pros, some from recreational paddlers… but one series of posts has been the busiest … a fella who posts on how to capture and manage whitewater video footage.  Will Richardson is Helipress’ Video Boy and is responsible for some of their latest flics.  Will is pushing to make us all pro video boaters!  You gotta keep an eye on his posts… they step you through some amazing detail and instruction on how to do it like the pros!  http://worldkayakblogs.com/videoanimal/2008/03/25/how-to-post-video-on-the-net-part-2-compression/ .  Will gets a cool pair of Smith Optic shades for his next shoot!

MION Community Spirit Award
This was a hard one.  All posts tend to return back to the community.  We have two clear standouts in May… our ambassador Gary Wilson (rapid pirate) and WelshKate!  Both were so in tuned with community spirit that we couldn’t but help posting them up as winners.  http://worldkayakblogs.com/rapidpirate/ http://worldkayakblogs.com/welshkate/ - really amazing trip reports, photos, fun with local boaters, key information and much more… amazing guys.  A pair of cooool shades from Smith Optics for both of ya!

Each year, starting with September 2008, World Kayak will be rewarding its online community activity… this year with a dooozy of a prize package.  The Best Blog of the year will go to that blogger who shows all of those attributes that make for a great blog, specifically those attributes World Kayak is rewarding with it’s monthly blog awards (blog presentation, trip descriptions, instructional advice, community spirit, social awareness and more). 

PRIZE: 

A Jackson Kayak of their choice

A Mitchell Carbon Bent Shaft Remedy

An IR dry top

An IR skirt

A Predator Helmet (Red Predator Lee)

4 magazine subscriptions (Kayak Session, Rapid Magazine, AW Journal and Canoe & Kayak Magazine)