Kayak

George Hitchcock, a poet, painter and UC Santa Cruz emeritus professor whose iconoclastic vision as publisher of the literary magazine "kayak" helped free American poetry from mid-20th century orthodoxies and provided an early forum for such distinguished writers as Robert Bly, Raymond Carver and Philip Levine, died Friday at his home in Eugene, Ore. He was 96. His death came after a long illness, said poet Robert McDowell, a former student and...

If you've ever dreamed of being one of those perfectly balanced paddlers gracefully gliding a kayak through Newport Harbor, dream no more. The Newport Aquatic Center on the shores of Upper Newport Bay will teach you how to do it and give you the opportunity to learn right alongside some of the world's best athletes--including Olympic gold medalists.

Kauai has been a favorite film location since it stood in for Bali Hai in the 1958 movie version of "South Pacific. " It has been Maui in the Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy "Just Go With It" (released this year), and it played the Caribbean in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," the fourth of the Johnny Depp swashbucklers. Sometimes it even plays itself. In "The Descendants," which is to open next month, a father (George Clooney) takes his children to Kauai after his wife is incapacitated.

With an empty stomach and hands bloody from paddling, a San Diego man whose relatives had feared was lost arrived in his kayak on the Hawaiian island of Maui on Thursday morning, completing a 63-day odyssey from the West Coast. Ed Gillet, 36, is believed to be the first person to complete a solo kayak trip from the West Coast to the Hawaiian Islands. "I'm very glad I did it now that I'm here," Gillet told United Press International by telephone from a hotel on Maui.

There is far less hubbub and commotion here on Lake Wheeler than on the busy waters of Newport Harbor, where kayakers Sharon Attlesey, Shirley Dery-Batlik, Sheila Conover and JoJo Toeppner usually train. At home in California, they must make their way among clots of pleasure craft and contend with the drivers of the Balboa ferry.

Paul Revere was captured on April 18, 1775, before he could warn the residents of Concord, Mass., that the British were coming. (He did make it to Lexington, Mass.) No Revolutionary War battle was ever fought at Valley Forge, Pa., even though Gen. George Washington and his troops were there for nine months, including during a horrific winter. Gustave Eiffel - he of tower fame - gave our Statue of Liberty her backbone. In Boston, Philadelphia and New York last spring, I exercised my way through decades of U.S. history that I never seemed to have learned in school.

CHICAGO — Swans have a seemingly placid demeanor, and their monogamous mating habits have made them a symbol of lasting love. But the creatures — generally white, with long graceful necks and a black "mask" around their eyes — are territorial and can be quite aggressive. That makes them good at driving off geese, but can also lead to disaster. Anthony Hensley, 37, encountered the uglier side of their personality last weekend in a horrific way. He tended swans that helped keep geese away from a condominium's pond near Des Plaines, Ill. Witnesses told police that a nesting swan circled Hensley's kayak early Saturday, then attacked him, toppling the kayak and tossing him into the water.

The long-awaited Paddle the Los Angeles River pilot program got off to a wobbly start Monday as two dozen civic leaders in hard hats and bulging life vests stepped into kayaks and pushed out through murky ripples in the Sepulveda Basin. The group of flood control officials and City Councilmen Tony Cardenas and Ed Reyes was chaperoned by experienced kayakers and naturalists on hand to make sure no one tipped over into the treated urban runoff or entangled themselves in the heavy brush laden with shredded clothing and plastic bags that lines the 70-foot-wide channel.

New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, a beginning kayaker, said his unplanned swim through a white-water rapid was just "what happens when you go kayaking." But experienced river users said the governor violated basic precautions by exceeding his skill level in an ill-equipped kayak and making the attempt solo. They said Johnson set a poor example for other novice kayakers. The GOP governor said he dumped his kayak in a rapid on the Rio Grande on Sunday, then floated through the rapid into calmer water.