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.

Finishing up 2011

YMCCC River Reading Course

Our fall season finished with the Y River Reading course on the Ottawa River Middle and Main channels. The weekend was highlighted by both superior paddling and culinary skills. Thanks for the terrific food, gang! As always, a very entertaining weekend.

Festivals and Events:

Andrew attended the Gauley River Fest this year – first time in about ten years! He and a group of advanced paddlers will likely appear in the upcoming Canoe Movie II which was being partially filmed

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Canoe Techniques: MITH

MITH describes the technique used to carve your canoe smoothly through eddy turns, S turns and peel outs. Carving maximizes the benefits of hull features to control the arcing path of the canoe and maintain its stability.

Momentum

Momentum is necessary to move the canoe in an arcing path toward, and across, the eddy line.The skill of a carving taps into two types of momentum; forward and turning momentum.Momentum comes from either forward strokes or from gaining speed from descending the gradient of

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CARVING USING THE INSIDE CIRCLE : The 2 X 4 Forward Stroke Technique – Developed by Andrew Westwood

The 2 X 4 refers to the use of the two forward strokes (the onside and the cross forward) and four stroke elements to provide complete control of the solo canoe.

The skill builds on the concept of carving, or paddling an arcing path. Picture the canoe in motion with the bow cradled by bow waves. By using the 2 X 4 technique you can control how these bow waves direct the canoe’s path (much like the reins on a horse). The

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