The kayaking world owes a lot to Ann Dwyer, nicknamed Grannie Annie, who died from a stroke, this week. She was 83. I learned this information from the kayaking blog Paddling Instructor. I knew nothing about Grannie Annie until I started looking for information. She ran the company Kiwi Kayaks for a time. When I was a kayak instructor for Cape Cod Kayak we used Kiwi Kayaks, Kim at Cape Cod Kayak sell many of the Kiwi Kayaks on the Cape, too. In my search for info on Grannie Annie I cam across this nice recount of time spent paddling with her by Jim Thaxton.

Grannie Annie was also the founding member of the Marin Canoe & Kayak Club in California.

Ann also wrote Ann Dwyer’s Easy Waters of California-North.

by Ann Dwyer
Easy Waters of California” is likewise sure to become a classic reference book for paddlers of all disciplines.
Ann Dwyer has been paddling Northern California since the early 1960’s. No one knows it better.

She was a pioneer and she will be missed. Her legacy will be carried on by those of us who enjoy paddling the river ways and streams and oceans.