Our River Notes page highlights recent articles, new instructional concepts, and paddling techniques. River Notes also includes our river journal, so you can follow our trips throughout the year.

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Gull River Race 2011

Our only race this year was the Gull River Race during the second weekend of September. Unfortunately I was (and still am) nursing a partial supraspinatus tear (and probably labrum as well) in my shoulder and couldn’t participate. Andrew did and brought home 4 medals – 3 gold and one silver. Steve Senoir, coached by Andrew over the summer, was successful obtaining a top 5 finish! Well done, Steve!!

MKC’s 40th Anniversary!

August was quite memorable especially being at MKC with past and present alumni for 5 days of teaching and ending on the weekend with the Anniversary celebration. Over 300 instructors, and staff with their families attended, some of which worked at MKC from the very first days in 1972. It was for us a truly magical time. For Andrew it was reconnecting with people he had taught with since 1992-93 – so over 20 years! For me, I was in awe as most of my relationship with MKC was through the instructor programs with Whitewater Ontario, and had not spent much time at the facility proper. It was wonderful to see so many people share the same teaching philosophies, camaraderie, and how MKC played an important part of each of these persons’ lives in some form or another. (Not to mention recapping the past practical jokes!!) Thanks to Claudia and Dirk for making MKC – OWL what it is today.

The Red Deer River, Alberta

The last week of July found us at a dude ranch right beside the Red Deer River for Alberta’s first Paddling Symposium. Hoskins Canoe hosted this 10 day event which had local instructors as well as a crew from the east: Dave Humphries, Paul Mason, Andrew, and yours truly. The Symposium comprised 5-day and 2-day Novice to Advanced technique courses for both tandem and solo.

The instructors never having been on the Red Deer were taken down by local advanced paddler, Ryan on an epic run on the Sunday covering the equivalent of 3 day trips. By the end of the day we realized a few things: first there are NO eddies big enough to stage practice drills on the river (well no, there were perhaps 3), second, this river is continuous as in, you swim, you better have good self rescue, and finally there are NO (I mean zero) flat water areas to fine tune paddle strokes. No lakes either. After some prodding, we found out that a local kayak club was using the fire water reserve pool in back of the town Home Hardware to play water polo. Yep. You got it. That was our flatwater area! It was great to teach the 2X4 as a technique to carve in and out of river features.

I had the opportunity to do a woman’s only course that was very successful. The course not only looked at honing skills, but also using the river to one’s advantage by focusing on efficiency. We also dealt with real vs. perceived risks and how to manage that mindset. Mornings would start with focusing on a mix of yoga style stretches and meditation. Near the end we had a few of the boys join in on the stretches as well!

Andrew and Paul taught an advanced skills course in their usual style of precision and playboating in the same course. Paul drew a collage that showed some interesting events that happened during the week. Evenings had us viewing the day’s videos and Paddle Pointers technical video clips.

A big thank-you to Hoskins Canoe and the crew for making this an amazing trip that I will not soon forget!

Check out this link for photos and video on the event!

http://www.haskincanoe.ca/Site/2011_PC_Whitewater_Canoe_Symposium.html

 

 

 

 

 

Update – Massechusetts July 2011

We were invited to the Deerfield river to teach a course on the Dryway section by Ken Glusman. Having never been on this section, we were quite excited by the prospect! It definitely has some creeking aspects to it and draws in the use of river scouting, and quick manoeuvering to get must moves – a perfect playground for advanced instructing!! We started the 3 day course honing down precision paddling skill and used the Zoar Gap eddies as targets for manoveuring. Our group consisted of Ken, Deb Riel and Rod Sleith, Barry Kesselman, Tom Sawyer and Charlie Sweet. Our proud supporters were Ellen Glusman, Diane Sawyer, and Julie Sweet who joined us for the apres-canoe! Thanks for the good times, victuals, toasts and lovely conversations!

 

New This Year!

Several people have asked Andrew to start doing personal coaching for canoe slalom. Steve Senoir in particular sparked Andrew’s interested and we have thus started a new endevor of personal coaching! This includes analysis of where the person is in their slalom skills and creating a work plan to improve; nutritional advice and planning better nutritional habits;  helping the athlete in training with skill exercises; and support during races. Steve our “first” coaching client achieved a top 5 finish at the Gull River Race. Way to go Steve on an astounding success! We are already signing up participants for the coming year! Let us know if you want to take part.

 

 

Spring 2011 – Tennessee and Paddle Canada

March Tennessee Trip:

Basement floods a week before we leave for paddling in Tennessee. (BTW we are still finishing renos in the basement). Tennessee was amazing as always. Ended up doing some new creeks as there was a good amount of water that week. The best thing about this trip is reconnecting with the crew in the US. Paddling season had begun!

Paddle Canada:

Andrew has been busy most of the year taking part in the Canoe Program Development committee representing Ontario. The Canoe Instruction Manual came out this spring and he spent time recertifying and conducting PC Instructor Clinics throughout the year.

I obtained my PC Advanced Instructor for both Solo and Tandem canoe last year from PC IT Andy Convery so was quite keen to get some specialized courses going!

 

Breaking News! Carole finally submits an Update!

I really don’t know how people tweet, blog or spend endless hours in front of a screen. On weekends I’m up at the crack of dawn, usually at the local Home Hardware/Depot by 7am (yep I’m a reno-geek) coffee in hand,  and have half my “to do” list done by 10am. If I can at all help it I’m outside. We don’t watch TV – no time!! So when life gives us the usual challenges (many of which have occurred over the past 2 years) things like this website suffers. The priority list usually goes Andrew, family, Jessie, friends, boating, house renos, garden, admin/house cleaning laundry and well, you see where this is going. Oh yeah. Work fits in there but that is one of those constants. How you folk with kids manage during stressed time lines, I have no clue. Hats off to you.

 

I warn you now, these will be a long posts that I will enter under different titles. So those of you with “magazine scanning” attention spans should perhaps pace yourselves with one paragraph a day.

Let’s see. If we go by chronological order the following posts will highlight what we have done/seen this year.

Cheers!

Carole

Calendar of courses and events 2011

Solo Intermediate Skills Course:

   with the YCCC club  Date: Spring – TBA

Must be a member.  For more info go to: www.yccc.ca

 

5 Day Week of Rivers  June 1 to June 5th:

Course based at MKC along with Andy Convery  

Class III level, travelling to different rivers.

For more info go to: www.owl-mkc.ca

Paddle Alberta Paddle Canada Whitewater Symposium July 25th to August 1st

  • 5-day Paul Mason and Andrew Westwood Advanced Solo Canoeing course
  • 5-day Carole Westwood Women’s Intermediate/Advanced  Solo Canoeing Course
  • Weekend clinics Solo/Tandem Canoe

For more info go to:  www.haskincanoe.ca

Andrew and Paul Mason Advanced Solo Canoeing Course at MKC

 August 22 to Aug 26th:

For more info go to: www.owl-mkc.ca

Gull River Slalom Race, Minden Ontario September 10 and 11th

 

Advanced River Reading Skills Course October 1 to 2nd:

   with the YCCC club 

Must be a member.  For more info go to: www.yccc.ca

Helipress Paddle TV

Heliconia has added a new form of media in their goody bag!  Paddle TV, which features all kinds of short clips on kayaking, sea kayaking, kayak fishing and, of course, canoeing!

Check out this link to see instruction clips from our Canoeing video (full video available through Helipress – second icon found on left side bar of this page)

http://www.youtube.com/user/PaddleTV

Once there, you can also click on CanoeTV found under the video screen for more clips.

Enjoy!

Water Reading – know the language of the River

Choosing to run whitewater, and doing it successfully, can have a significant impact on your next canoe trip.  Jumping in over your head and running a rapid that results in an overturned boat, or worse, can ruin your trip, or at least your gear.  Often your choice, and success, comes down to your ability to read water, the language of rivers, and understanding all that the river is trying to communicate to you – its’ paddling audience.

 Language:

 The language of rivers is composed of two main visual characteristics; texture and colour.  As you moving water winding its’ way over rocks, ledges and around outcrops and around bends in the river bank, you’ll see a veritable kaleidoscope of changing colours and wave patterns.  Each obstacle leaves a visual marker to it’s’ presence.  By looking at the changing textures and colours you can decipher the river bottom, the level of difficulty of the water features, and ultimately, make a choice as to whether you ought to run, or not run, a rapid.

The Vocabulary: Colour and Texture:

As water tumbles over rocks, ledges and gravel bars, the distinctive roughness of each disrupts and slows the water down.  Each collision alters the water surface with vortices, boils, waves, and when air mixes into the current, changes it’s colour to lighter shades of blue, green, black and brown.  Every change signals a river bed or water feature that might have to be avoided by your canoe.

 Texture:

Reading the texture of the water includes looking at everything from large standing waves and dramatic rooster tails, right down to the small swirls and bumps often found on eddy lines.  Each can be equally significant.  For many, however, a rapid is first judged by the roller coaster of waves they’ll ride during their run.  Beyond looking at size, navigable waves usually occur in groups, or families.  Standing waves should have a minimum of three similar, evenly spaced waves decreasing in size as you look downstream.  Lone wave should be approached with caution – chances are it is hiding a rock.  Also, waves positioned across the flow of water are much easier to “punch” than waves that cross the current at an angle.

Other than waves, rivers create a fascinating display of textures visible as bubbles, swirls and boils.  Each is a clue to changes in current speed and potential obstacles to be wary of.  Look for water which appears rough and bumpy in texture, almost like gravel, and you most likely are witnessing an eddy line – the abrupt division between two currents.  Knowing where eddy lines are is crucial for planning canoe placement to enter or exit an eddy pool and for timing your strokes for stable eddy turns.

Colour:

The most common colour patterns on a river are long parallel bands of similarly shaded water.  Each band indicates a speed of current with neighboring bands being either faster or slower.  No set rule applies that one shade of water is quicker than another; you’ll have to be the judge as sometimes an eddy effect will be dark, while other times deep fast flowing currents will be dark.  Suffice to say that it is the alternating dark and light bands which show changes in velocity.

By recognizing current speed, pick out the slow bands of water and determine if the currents are caused by submerged rocks that may have to be avoided if you select to run the rapid.  If you’re planning to cross the river in a front ferry, adjusting your ferry angle to match the changing speed of the current will aid efficiency, and possible avoid an unfortunate loss of balance mid-stream when crossing from one current to another.

Reading whitewater is a lot like learning a language.  The more you practice the better able you will be at quickly deciphering the message.  Fluency comes once you can glance quickly at a set of rapids and “read” precisely where to paddle your canoe.  Building upon the basic vocabulary of texture and colour will allow you to scout a safe route down your next rapid, or even more importantly, recognize when it would be safer to portage around it.

 Cheers,  Andrew

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