Kayak

Richard Hamlin recalls his initial reaction when his wife suggested they take a kayaking trip while in the San Juan Islands: "I said, 'No, it looks like work.'" He was half right. Kayaking can be work ? as in a great workout ? but it can also be a getaway from the rigors of the day. "From the very first time, I loved it," adds Hamlin, who is now an instructor at the Marina Aquatic Center in Marina del Rey, part of UCLA Recreation. Most people kayak in one of two styles of boats.

KAYAKING Workshop Conor Flannery will present "Cause to Paddle: A Solo Kayak Expedition," about his 2,500-mile journey to Anchorage, with advice on gear, navigation and more. When, where: 7 p.m. Tuesday at the REI store in Manhattan Beach, 1800 Rosecrans Ave., Suite E; 7 p.m. Wednesday in Northridge, 18605 Devonshire St.; and 7 p.m. Thursday in Santa Monica, 402 Santa Monica Blvd. Admission, info: Free. Register at http://www.rei.com/stores/14 for Manhattan Beach; http://www.

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...

Heather Wylie was a key instigator of what must be the biggest, most important boating expedition ever undertaken on the Los Angeles River. With two dozen others in kayaks and canoes, she braved the river's shallow waters, paddling past garbage trucks at the water's edge, homeless bathers and other unexpected riparian obstacles. "I've never had so much fun on a boating trip," Wylie told me. "It was a new kind of adventure." That adventure cost Wylie, then a 29-year-old government biologist, her job — and $60,000 salary — with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

I'm standing on a slice of paradise in Crete. The sun is burning down out of a blue sky, the sandy beach beneath my feet is stretching to crystal-clear sea, but terror is numbing my senses. Kayak instructor Russ is explaining that we're going to capsize our lightweight Rainbow Lasers, then unsnap the spray skirt holding us in, and eject from the submerged cockpit in a forward rolling somersault. "I didn't join this trip to become James Bond," says Jim, who's busy squeezing what he calls his "good-living gut" into a canary yellow lifejacket.

For the last five years, artist Nancy Rubins has been working with boats the way the late Nam June Paik used to work with television sets — using the not-so-raw materials as the main elements of her sculpture. Only in Rubins' case, the resulting sculptures are dynamic in form, as if they might take flight. She strings assorted kayaks, rowboats, canoes and other small water vessels to each other and to an armature with steel cable, so they look like branches scraping the sky. Her newest sculptures, built over the last two weeks at Gagosian Beverly Hills for a show opening Thursday night, extend so high that her construction crew kept setting off a motion-sensitive fire alarm near the gallery ceiling by mistake.

EUROPE Slide show Dave Garfinkle will show slides of his recent trip to regions around the Black Sea and the Caucasus, including a visit to Istanbul, Turkey, a road trip in Romania and a cruise around the Crimea and up the Dnieper River. When, where: 7:30 p.m. Monday at Distant Lands, 56 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena Admission, info: Free. RSVP to (626) 449-3220 THE ALPS Presentation Author-photographer Gary Scott will present slides and stories from "Great Walks in the Alps," including the Dolomites of Italy and the three-country Tour du Mont Blanc circuit.

JAPAN Photo talk Mark Edward Harris will show images of traditional and contemporary Japanese baths from his new book, "The Way of the Japanese Bath." When, where: 2 p.m. today at Pacific Asia Museum, 46 N. Los Robles Ave., Pasadena. Admission, info: Free with museum admission ($9 adults). RSVP to (626) 449-2742, Ext. 20. AFRICA AND PERU Travel night Los Angeles Zoo will present a preview of two zoo-sponsored trips to southern Africa and Peru.

A 49-year-old man was found floating in Newport Harbor on Saturday morning and was pronounced dead soon after at a hospital, authorities said. Two kayakers found the man, fully clothed and facedown in the water, shortly before 7 a.m. near the Orange Coast College seabase, said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Shontel Sherwood. He was pronounced dead at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian. Police said he was a local resident. -- David Zahniser