Membership type

How are you joining?

Choose your membership category. Family memberships are for people in the same household and living at the same address.

New memberships are discounted after July, and the late-season price is shown below.

Primary member

Your details

Skills

Paddling experience

Experience details are optional but help trip leaders plan appropriate outings.

Paddling levels

Self-assessment guide

These guidelines can help you compare your sea kayaking experience to the five Paddle Canada skill levels. We prefer Paddle Canada certification when you have it, but Self-Assessed is appropriate if your skills were built through experience rather than formal courses.

If you are self-assessing, compare your current skills and comfort to the standards below and choose the closest fit in typical club conditions, not just on your best day.

Basic

Comfortable rafting up, doing a wet exit, and taking part in an assisted rescue in cold water.

Comfortable paddling in winds up to 8 knots with a rippled sea state, and able to paddle forward and backward, sweep, and low brace.

Level 1

Comfortable paddling in winds up to 10 knots, current up to 0.5 knots, and light chop.

Can do assisted and unassisted re-entries in cold water, along with low and high braces, sweep strokes, and draw strokes.

For SISKA's Energizer paddles, we also expect you to maintain about 3 knots.

Level 2

Comfortable in moderate winds of 12 to 19 knots, combined seas up to 1 metre, surf up to 1 metre, and current up to 3 knots.

Developing a basic roll and able to perform forward and reverse sweeps, low and high brace turns, draw and sculling draw strokes, low and high braces, and bow and stern rudders.

Proficient in self and assisted rescues, able to maintain about 3 knots for an extended period, and familiar with towing and on-water communication.

Level 3

Comfortable in moderate winds of 12 to 19 knots, combined seas up to 1 metre, surf up to 1 metre, and current up to 3 knots, including paddling along exposed coastline.

Comfortable planning and carrying out a multi-night paddling trip.

Strokes and rescue skills are well developed, roll is solid, and you can comfortably maintain about 3.5 knots.

Level 4

Comfortable in strong winds near 20 knots, moderate to rough seas, seas over 1 metre, and currents over 3 knots.

Have a strong understanding of weather, navigation, and seamanship, with excellent kayak control.

Comfortable launching and landing in surf, with a reliable roll in most conditions, and able to maintain about 3.5 knots.

SISKA trip leaders may still review whether a specific activity is the right fit for your experience and current conditions.

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You can turn off these general club announcements later. Critical activity updates can still be emailed when they directly affect your participation.

SISKA Privacy Policy

Who we are

The South Island Sea Kayaking Association (SISKA) is a non-profit recreational club based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. We bring paddlers together for sea kayaking, learning, safe paddling, and community on and off the water.

What we collect

When you join or renew your membership, we collect:

  • Your name and email address
  • Your phone number
  • Household member details (if applicable)
  • Membership and waiver records

Third-party services on forms

To reduce spam and automated abuse on public forms, SISKA may use Cloudflare Turnstile on the membership join form, public contact forms, and guest activity registration and waitlist forms. Signed-in visitors bypass Turnstile on contact and guest activity forms. When verification is required, technical request information and the Turnstile response token are sent to Cloudflare so SISKA can verify the submission.

Why we collect it

We use your personal information for:

  • Membership administration — processing applications, renewals, and maintaining the membership roster
  • Activity coordination — organizing paddles, clinics, and club events
  • Safety — contacting participants about activity details, and reaching you in the event of an emergency or if you are running late to an activity
  • Club communications — sending newsletters and activity announcements

Who can access your information

  • Club executives and paddle leaders can see your name and email address to coordinate club activities.
  • Activity leaders and organizers for activities you sign up for can see your name, email address, and cell phone number. Your cell number is shared for safety purposes — for example, so a trip leader can reach you if you are running late to a paddle.
  • Third-party activity providers: if you register for an activity offered by a third party through SISKA, your contact information will be shared with that provider so they can coordinate the activity with you.

Communications

We send occasional newsletters and activity announcements to keep you informed about club happenings. You can unsubscribe from these general announcements at any time.

However, you cannot unsubscribe from critical notifications related to specific activities you have signed up for. These include cancellations, safety information, schedule changes, and other updates that directly affect your participation.

Analytics and issue reporting

SISKA uses PostHog, a third-party service, for site and app usage analytics and for signed-in issue reporting inside the member portal.

When analytics are enabled, we may collect technical information such as the page you visited, the route or area of the app, your signed-in role context, and basic device or viewport details. For signed-in users, we use internal account identifiers rather than names or email addresses in analytics payloads.

Session replay is limited to allowed pages. Sensitive fields and sensitive areas are masked or excluded, and replay is disabled on login, waiver, membership application or renewal, communications, treasurer or payment, and similar sensitive screens.

If you use the in-app issue report form, your report may include the text you submit along with technical context about the current page or session so SISKA can investigate the problem.

What we do not do

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. Your information is only shared as described above — with club volunteers who need it to run the club, and with third-party activity providers when you choose to register for their activities.

Data retention

If you are no longer a member and would like your personal information removed, please contact our Privacy Contact.

Your rights

You can request to view or correct your personal information at any time. Privacy requests, correction requests, and privacy concerns can be sent to our Privacy Contact.

Privacy contact

Our Privacy Contact handles privacy requests and concerns for SISKA. We aim to respond within 30 business days unless the law allows more time.

If you have a privacy concern that we have not resolved, you may ask the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia to review the matter.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Changes take effect when posted to this page.

Your membership starts once we receive your payment and the required waivers.

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