Interview, Journal

Karl Vollmer – Interview With Paddle Canada

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I couldn’t be prouder than I am of my son Karl . . . cybersecurity consultant, volunteer fireman, and sea /river kayaker.  The following was published on January 14, 2026, in Paddle Canada’s Instructor News.  [Edited for length]

Paddle Canada Sea kayak and river kayak instructor trainer in a dagger kayak paddling down a river in Canada

Welcome to 2026! Instructor POV is starting off the new year with one of our own. Karl Vollmer: level 2 sea kayak instructor trainer, advanced river kayak instructor trainer, chair of the PCC (Program Coordination Committee), chair of the river kayak program development committee, database manager, and general paddling powerhouse.

Paddle Canada: Hey Karl, thanks for taking the time to be a part of our Instructor Series. We’re excited to hear all about your experience as a Paddle Canada Instructor so let’s dive right in. Give us an intro about yourself – what do you do and where do you do it?

Karl Vollmer: Thanks, I’ve been in Nova Scotia for almost 20 years now. I have an IT desk job by day, but spend my weekends and evenings on the water, and in the water. I work for Ontario Sea Kayak Center, Cape Lahave Adventures and Cloud 9 Adventures as a sea kayak guide and instructor. My true love is river kayaking. I run https://whitewaterns.ca and https://whitewaternb.ca. I have spent the last 15+ years trying to aggregate and make available all of the river beta and water level information for free to the community as a way to remove barriers to whitewater paddling in the Atlantic provinces. I’ve also recently picked up River SUP’ing which is a new challenge.

PC: What was your first paddling experience and what inspired you to become an instructor?

KV: My first paddling experience in memory is going over a lower overhead dam in a canoe as a small kid with my father. That experience has inspired me to have a better understanding of water and how it works. It has also driven me to help other people understand so that they can be safe, and have an amazing, positive time on the water. Being on the water in a Canoe, or Kayak or on a Sup should be a safe, positive and fun experience. I work as an instructor and guide to help make that happen for people.

KV 2 1
Photography

Chehalis Western Trail – Olympia, Washington

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Need to relax and reflect?  You could walk the  Chehalis Western Trail outside Olympia, WA, where this photo was taken by my daughter, Yukyo, on New Years Day, 2026.  The trail is the longest shared-use path for cyclists and hikers in the region.  It occupies an abandoned railroad corridor that was once used by the historic Weyerhaeuser-owned Chehalis Western Railroad.

Pond on the Chehalis Western Trail, Olympia, WA.

[Photo copyright symbol Emily Vollmer, Click on image to enlarge]

Journal, Photography

Chaco Canyon Road – NW New Mexico

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Chaco Canyon Road, looking south.

Where to go?  Toward an expansive horizon is always my first choice.  In the case of Chaco Canyon Road, the southern exit from Chaco Culture National Historic Park, it was 40+ miles of dirt road across the Navajo Reservation with the warning sign declaring, “Road not maintained, may be impassable to passenger cars.”  There are no structures, no signs of habitation the length of that road.  There are steep drops into and out of arroyos that flood with cloudbursts, as well as deeply rutted mud slumps that require 4WD to cross even in dry weather.  There are no guarantees.  But being alone with the unknown is a great way to get to know yourself.    [Photo copyright symbol Max Vollmer, Click on image to enlarge]

Documentary

Meredith Monk

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Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942) was an American avant-garde composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer.  She was awarded the National Medal of Arts by Barack Obama.

Renee Nicole Good was a  mother, poet, activist, citizen, and ultimately a victim of U.S. Government orchestrated racial violence.  To honor her, I am celebrating women with the strength to follow their conscience, their passions, their dreams despite the risks associated with doing so.  Without them the world would not be as rich and beautiful as it is.  [Click on Full Screen icon in the lower right corner to best appreciate the video]

Journal

What kind of world is being born?

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Excerpts from a Christmas  essay titled “What Kind of World is Being Born?” written by Vinson Cunningham, featured in the December 25, 2025, New Yorker magazine newsletter.  ” . . . All of us are surfing events, responding to tectonics deeper than we know. Only time will tell what we’ll be forced to sit and think through and attempt to describe. 

[Continued . . .]

These days surrounding the winter solstice are dark, dark, dark. Nice time to think about what we might make together when the light returns. Merry Christmas, no matter how sharp the birth pains. Fear not!“

Journal, Photography

Oregon Mozart Players – Candlelight Concert

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Oregon Mozart Players Candlelight Concert 2025 at Central Presbyterian Church, Eugene, OR

I’ve volunteered for the Oregon Mozart Players off and on for over 25 years and was happy to usher once again for this year’s Candlelight Concert.  Beautiful music for the season.  The program included Alessandro Scarlatti’s Christmas Cantata, as well as  a Concerto Grosso by Archangelo Corelli, and Suite III from Ottorino Respighi’s Ancient Airs and Dances.  Even the names are musical.  My favorite  was a 20th century Christmas Suite by English composer, Alec Rowley, based on traditional English carols.  [Photo copyright symbol Max Vollmer, Click on image to enlarge]

Journal

The Elephant man – David Lynch

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From an article titled 2025 Was David Lynch, by Jessica Winter in the December 12, 2025, New Yorker newsletter comes the following in a discussion of the Lynch film, The Elephant Man.  “[Lynch] was not an empathic director but, rather, an uncommonly compassionate one. The word compassion comes from the Latin for “to suffer with”; it means to be present in another’s suffering, which is, in essence, the experience of watching “The Elephant Man.”

[Continued . . .]

In Catholic theology, to be present in another’s suffering is a means of breaking down false divisions between people. Love and community are inconceivable without compassion, and a void of compassion made possible the sadness, despair, and horror that shaped this past year. That void makes our humanity feel contingent, negotiable. Are you an animal or a human being? Am I a good man or a bad man? In the film, Lynch dissolves the scene before the question is resolved. Outside the film, no one who should ask is asking.”

Journal, Photography

Camping at Comb ridge – October 2024

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The open road and the Southwest, especially Utah, are never out of my thoughts.  Spring and Fall are the best times to visit the desert.  [Photos copyright symbol Max Vollmer, Click on any image to enlarge]

Evening
Changing colors over Comb Ridge, looking south
Fading light to the west.

Young adventurer and lover of wild places , Everette Ruess, disappeared without a trace  in 1934.   He was last seen camping in Davis Gulch south of Escalante, UT.  His remains were not discovered until 2008 near Comb Ridge, northwest of Bluff, UT.   I’ve been reading Ruess’s letters and journal entries in A Vagabond For Beauty by W. L. Rusho.  I can relate to his  efforts to reconcile himself with the civilized world around him when he was in the wild one.  Camped on the side of Navajo Mountain in the desert Southwest on June 7, 1934, he wrote this:  “I have always been unsatisfied with life as most people live it.  Always I want to live more intensely and richly.  Why muck and conceal one’s true longings and loves, when by speaking of them one might find someone to understand them, and by acting on them one might discover one’s self.”