In an open letter to the paddlesports industry, Tim Rosenhan and Joe Matuska of the Trade Association of Paddle Sports informed members and colleagues that the group was shutting down its West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium (WCSKS) in 2010 due to insufficient cash or the revenue stream to run the show. The symposium was started 26 years ago.

In explaining the decision, Rosenham and Matuska said that TAPS has lost funding from Outdoor Retailer. Last year, TAPS received $30,000 from OR, and in previous years, OR generously supported TAPS with up to a $62,000 stipend.

“We are grateful for this past financial assistance from OR which helped make the WCSKS possible,” they said. “This year that OR funding is going instead to the new Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) paddlesports group.”

Secondly, the WCSKS last fall lost about $15,000. “In previous years the event has been modestly profitable,” said Rosenham and Matuska. “Last year the difference was largely our inability to secure corporate sponsorship.”

The future of the WCSKS is unclear. But TAPS says it will not continue unless another organization takes over the funding and management of the event; said the TAPS representatives, “we are out of cash.”

As for the suture of TAPS itself. Things don’t sound so great:

“TAPS will operate through 2010. We will watch developments with the new OIA paddlesports group. We will also listen to our membership as to what useful role they want us to play. We believe that above all everyone in the industry desires healthy growth in paddlesports, and we are committed to that goal.”