Updates & News From Portland Paddle

An Interview with P2 Community Member Cathy Nugent This winter we’re sharing a series of conversations with Portland Paddle guides, each one focused on a specific topic related to paddling the Maine coast. Today we’re talking with Cathy Nugent on falling in love with paddleboarding and getting started in SUP racing. Comments have been edited…

See the Historic Sites of WWII-Era Casco Bay By Sea Kayak Our recent post titled €œSix Historic Forts You Can Visit By Foot or Kayak€ covered some of our favorite forts to visit while kayaking on Casco Bay, including Fort Gorges and Fort Scammel. In this post we’re shifting our focus from these forts built…

Planning and executing the journey of a life time! Have you ever wondered what guides get up to in the off season? Many of us turn to winter sports like hiking, skiing, and ice skating. Others head south for more warm weather paddling adventures. While still others don the appropriate gear, brave the cold, and…

Forts of Casco Bay: Part 1 – European Settlement to the Civil War We’ll follow up this post soon with another featuring the fortifications surrounding Portland harbor that were built after the Civil War.  The sites of Portland’s earliest defensive structures are all a short walk or paddle from Portland Paddle’s site by the East…

An Exciting, but Potentially Troubling, First Sighting Gray Whales were once common in New England waters – photo courtesy of New England Aquarium The New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life aerial transect research team recorded a grey whale feeding 30 miles off of Nantucket this week, the first time this species has…

The Joys of Tide Pooling and Beach Combing with Melanie Collins This winter we’re posting a series of interviews with Portland Paddle guides, each one focused on a specific topic related to paddling the Maine coast. Today we’re sharing a conversation with Melanie Collins about the intertidal zone! Melanie is a registered Maine guide, ACA…

An Interview with Sea Kayak Guides and Racers Erin Quigley and Joe Guglielmetti This winter we’re sharing a series of conversations with Portland Paddle guides, each one focused on a specific topic related to paddling the Maine coast. Today we’re talking with sea kayaking guides Joe Gugliemetti and Erin Quigley to learn about their experiences…

All of us at Portland Paddle love seals, and especially our flippered friends in Casco Bay who we encounter regularly.  We shared an introduction to the types of seals we see while paddling in our Guide to the Seals of Maine last year, but there’s a lot more to cover. In this post we’ll share…

Ten Spots to Take a Rental Kayak or SUP If you’re starting a paddling trip on Casco Bay, our site at the East End Beach is a terrific place to launch. But there are LOTS of other great spots to paddle nearby, and you can rent our kayaks and SUPs for as long as you…

A special course for teachers, school volunteers, and student leaders, in partnership with Teens to Trails Portland Paddle is partnering with Teens to Trails this spring to offer an Educational Trip Leader Permit Training course. The ETLP system is a way for schools to offer paddle sports and wilderness camping programs in compliance with Maine…

An Interview with Sea Kayak Guides Joe Guglielmetti & Kyle Martin This winter we’re posting a series of interviews with Portland Paddle guides, each one focused on a specific topic related to paddling the Maine coast. Today we’re sharing a conversation with longtime guides Joe Gugliemetti and Kyle Martin about two “extreme” forms of kayaking: …