The Grand Opening of the Sandbar Restaurant

Last week the Sandbar Restaurant held its official grand opening. The Nova Scotia facility was built in 2007 but was never properly introduced to our many friends, fans, followers, customers and business associates. This year we added a new awning, a few landscape changes, a new wine and beverage list and a new and expanded restaurant menu. The timing seemed perfect for an opening celebration.

The Sandbar Restaurant is open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (including breakfast) and is available for special functions, events and business meetings. It’s the perfect place for a wedding reception! Daily specials available – Chicken Wings are a local favourite. Call us for more information (including custom menu preparation) and don’t forget to join is on the deck for a spectacular view of the Shubenacadie River Tidal Bore (click HERE for tide times).

Our staff prepares for the big event. Our kinds of food and beverages, live entertainment and a great view to boot. And the weather couldn’t be better.

Live entertainment was part of the opening festivities. And as you can see, the deck of the Sandbar Restaurant is large enough for any type of music venue.

The new awning and large deck of the Sandbar Restaurant provides an unrestricted and shaded view of the Shubenacadie River.

Imagine all of the friends, family and staff you could accommodate on the spacious deck at the Sandbar Restaurant. And the food..ummm..good!

One of the Great Rafting Adventures in the World!

To ride the waves of the tidal bore in Nova Scotia is to experience one of the greatest rafting adventures in the world!  Many of us have recognized this for years, but is only now being championed by bloggers, travel writers, adventurers and media outlets beyond the borders of Atlantic Canada.

Most recently, the prestigious adventure travel guide, Lonely Planet, endorsed the guide, Backpack Canada in naming the Shubenacadie River among ‘The Top Five Rivers for White Water Rafting in Canada’. This is good news for the adventure travel industry in Nova Scotia, if only as a start toward receiving the recognition the river deserves. The designation of the Bay of Fundy as one of the ‘New Seven Natural Wonders of the World‘ can only further the cause.

Last November The Shubenacadie River in Nova Scotia was selected as one of the ‘Top Five Rivers for White Water Rafting in Canada’. To read the full feature from Lonely Planet click HERE.

The Backpack Canada blog noted that the Shubenacadie was not only “one of Canada’s white water rafting oddities” but “was one of the only places to tidal bore raft” in the country. Certainly, there are many unusual and exciting tidal bores to see and experience in China, England and elsewhere, but there is no other location in the world where tidal bore rafting is a known adventure activity.  Why? Because it is only the Bay of Fundy tides that create these most unusual conditions every 12 hours  - where a series of large waves or a tidal bore is the result, as the ‘highest tides in the world’ enter the Bay and move toward the rivers which enter it.

Tidal Bore rafting is indeed a unique adventure that all Nova Scotians can be proud of. We will continue our media monitoring, our boasting and promotion of this most exciting of natural phenomena.

Facebook Fan Page Official Launch

Our Facebook Fan Page was officially launched today. We want you to enjoy the comments, photos and travel information on our new page and hope you will become a regular contributor.

As a Fan (or Twitter follower) you will be entitled to special discounts and promotions at Tidal Bore Rafting Park. We hope you’ll share your rafting experiences, thoughts, photos and videos with our Facebook community. Just add them to our wall, there are no restrictions.

Follow our page closely, you can expect great things from us in the coming weeks and months!

New Tidal Bore Rafting Compilation Video Release

Perhaps you remember Daniel Marshall of Nova Scotia. Daniel was able to garner the first two of the ‘Top Five Tidal Bore Rafting Videos in Nova Scotia‘ earlier this year. Well, Daniel has just released a compilation video of his many tidal bore rafting adventures on the Shubenacadie River in 2009. This is one of his best. The mud sliding segments are particularly good.

Daniel spends hours editing his material and the result is often a very polished product – which is all the more amazing when you consider he uses a hand held digital camera (a Pentax Optio W10). Anyway..this is it! Enjoy!

Top Five Tidal Bore Rafting Videos

There are probably very few Canadians who have not watched Susan Boyle’s emotional video on You Tube. What is perhaps more interesting, however, is that Canadians watch more videos than many other countries including the United States, France, Britain and Germany. According to a recent comscore survey, 21 million Canadians watched  3.1 billion videos (1.6 billion on You Tube alone) in February, 2009. It would appear that Canadians have a real passion for the medium and it should be no great surprise that many of us are turning to videos for travel and entertainment information about Nova Scotia.

For example, an informal survey of  ‘tidal bore rafting’ videos on You Tube and other websites reveals that the number of videos this year have more than tripled the numbers for 2008 (and there is still a lot of good rafting time left). And the productions, well, they are really quite good! So good in fact we have looked at all of the rafting videos from this and previous years and have selected the Top Five Tidal Bore Rafting Videos in Nova Scotia.

1. Title: Shubenacadie Tidal Bore Rafting – September 21st, 2009 (6.50 minutes) – It is no accident that the first two of our top five choices are videos from Daniel Marshall, an avid tidal bore rafting fan and a Nova Scotian. His You Tube channel reveals several well edited, thoughtful and informative videos of his visits to various Nova Scotia destinations. While many are a little lengthy, they are great to watch and very entertaining. One which deserves a special mention is his filming of  the pounding tidal bore surf hitting the bow of his Zodiac tour boat.  One could feel the roll of the waves,  as his camera, often submerged in muddy water, captured each wave as it broke across the bow.

2. Title: Shubenacadie Tidal Bore Rafting – September 8th, 2009 (6.50 minutes) – In both this and Daniel’s September 21st video one quickly learns that the ‘tidal bore rafting’ experience can be more than just riding the waves. It is fun in the mud of the Shubenacadie River. Daniel’s filming of his friends sliding, falling, rolling and laughing in the dark mud near Maitland, Nova Scotia will bring a smile to your face. After watching this video mud sliding is something you will want to consider with your next tidal bore rafting adventure.

3. Title: Tidal Bore Rafting Bay of Fundy – November 8th, 2007 (3.43 minutes) – While lacking the impact and clarity of some of the other productions, motorcyclist Matt from Waverley, Nova Scotia has produced a first-class video. The music track works well,  the editing is smooth and Matt’s filming of neighbouring Zodiacs climbing wave after wave on the river would have required a steady hand for sure. Matt’s video is the most popular ‘tidal bore rafting’ video on the internet and has received nearly 12,000 views on You Tube.

4. Title: Tidal Bore Rafting, Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada – August 20th, 2009 (1.57 minutes) – When you’re watching this video it is not difficult to imagine why wetsuits and a change of clothes are strongly recommended when enjoying a tidal bore rafting adventure on the Shubenacadie! With the river waves pounding over the bow of the Zodiac, the water constantly filling the boat and splashing the faces of passengers, you quickly discover why they are so important on a rafting tour! But it is all good fun and this popular You Tube video is one of the best.

5. Title: Tidal Bore Rafting – August 8th, 2008 (5.48 minutes) – As you might expect, the production of this Hospitality Guide video is the most professional of all the video material considered. There are interviews with rafting staff, customers, drivers and background information has been added, making it much more informative than the other videos. The production falls short, however, in the actual filming of the action on the water. You don’t feel the excitement or magnitude of the waves associated with a rafting adventure. Despite the shortcomings, the video is well done and certainly worthy of a top five designation.

Hospitality Guide Video

Art Connection Celebrates Historic Shubenacadie Canal

Today marks the beginning of a visual arts celebration of the Shubenacadie Canal. This historic canal and waterway connecting the Bay of Fundy with the Atlantic Ocean was considered a 19th century mega project and flourishes today as an important recreational resource for all of us to enjoy.

The Shubenacdie Art Connection is the first of what many hope will become an annual event of local art exhibits stretching along the length of the waterway from Maitland on Cobequid Bay to the Dartmouth, Nova Scotia waterfront. For two weeks and three weekends from September 19th to October 4th, 2009 twenty-two artists will showcase their love and appreciation of the canal and the Shubenacadie River region.

Among those participating in the event are well-known oil paint artists, Sarah Jane Conklin of Fall River and Carol Morrison of Oakfield; pastel artist, Janice Guinan of Bible Hill and versatile watercolour artist, Gail Sutherland of Bedford (just to mention a few).

Guinan, who paints portraits, landscapes and seascapes usually in pastel, also works in watercolour, acrylic and oil. Guinan notes that her ancestors came to the area in the 1700s and settled in Riverside, near Maitland, Nova Scotia. She said she has often wondered if her family (originally from Ireland) might have helped in the building of the canal.

Work on the Shubenacadie Canal system began in 1826 and was finally completed in 1861. Between 1856 and 1870 steam ships hauling barges moved gold mining equipment, coal, lumber, bricks, and granite through the intricate system of nine locks along two planes on the canal. By 1870, however, the dawn of an efficient railway system in Nova Scotia that was able to transport goods across the province faster and more cheaply made the canal obsolete.

The Look-Off by Janice Guinan of Bible Hill is among the many pieces of visual art featured at The Shubenacadie Art Connection (series of exhibits) beginning today in Central Nova Scotia.

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