September is upon us and like most, I look back on our lovely summer which flew by much too fast. It seems like our personal motto is “What can we possibly fit in this space of time to maximize our play time on the water?” Just last week we looked at the house and thought that it would probably be a good thing to do some house maintenance. What can we do in 3 days? True to the motto, we packed re leveling a garden wall, grinding down 2 butternut tree stumps, regrading the back yard, conditioning the soil (read clay) with sand and seeding soil for grass. Dawn to dusk.

Our summer was the same, packed with fun and adventure!

We started with ACA North American OC Slalom Championships in Wausau, Wisconsin. Although I was concerned with our level of fitness due to our busy winter and spring with family duties, we did extremely well and a personal best for me – 4 golds, 2 silver, only woman to have a clean run and fastest woman paddler. Andrew brought in 3 golds, 3 silver and one bronze. It is also a meeting of friends and we were happy to see familiar faces, share stories and race together. Afterwards we joined a group to paddle the Wolf River inWisconsin, a mix of creek, gorge and sometimes big features. Definitely to do again!

Next we went down to our annual visit to the Deerfield River and paddled for 3 days, visited Boston for a quick overnight (thank you Ken and Ellen Glusman!), and then went up to the coast of Maine for a quick hello to the ocean. Lobster!!! Yum!!

We then spent 5 days at MKC for our Dream Trip Course, combining honing up whitewater skills in both tandem and solo with strategies to making a trip experience smooth – whether a day trip or one of several weeks. Great fun!!

Interspersed in this was the MKC Slalom Series happening once a month in June, July and August. Thank you to all the volunteers who really make it happen!! Always a good time and fun to share strategies and ideas with folks new to the sport.  We also had some exciting runs down the Ottawa and Gatineau Rivers.

Coming up is the Gull River Race in Minden Sept 7-8th. Added excitement will be trips later this fall to the Upper Yough, Upper Gauley, and the Moose River Weekend. Perhaps most exciting of all will be our trip to Costa Rica as guest instructors with Esprit Dec 28 – Jan 4 for some amazing canoeing. Come and join us!! Contact Esprit at www.whitewater.ca or email them for info at costarica@whitewater.ca

The following are courses and trips that we will be participating in or conducting. Hope to see you on one of them!

2013 Slalom Coaching Series

This summer long coaching series offers 4 days of clinics (Apr 20, May 25, June 22 and Aug 24th) devoted to slalom techniques, racing strategy, mental preparation for racing and practice drills. We will also look at ideas for cross training and nutrition when training for racing.  Max 8 participants. $600/person Contact us through the Contact Page for more information

 

May 4 – 5  Paddle Canada Advanced Solo/Tandem Instructor Recertification 

at MKC on the Madawaska River

For more information go to:  www.owl-mkc.ca/mkc/canoe_instructor.html

 

May 10 – 13 Paddle Canada Atlantic Paddle Symposium St John, New Brunswick

Both Carole and Andrew are invited coaches to conduct whitewater canoeing clinics

For more information see:  www.atlanticpaddlesymposium.com

 

June 15 – 16 Advanced Solo Whitewater Canoeing

RACCC – Ottawa’s Canoe and Camping Club (formerly the YCCC)

Must be a member to participate

www.raccc.ca

 

June 29 – July 1  Solo Whitewater Canoe Slalom Racing Clinic

RACCC – Ottawa’s Canoe and Camping Club (formerly the YCCC)

Must be a member to participate

www.raccc.ca

 

July 12 – July 14  2013 ACA Open Canoe Slalom Nationals & North American Championships – Wausau, Wisconsin

For information see: http://ocs.whitewater-slalom.us/oc-champ.htm

 

July 15 – 17 Open Canoe Slalom Camp and Race

An excellent opportunity to be coached, and videoed. Evening sessions will include video analysis, stretching, physiology and nutrition. This camp leads up to the MKC’s annual Slalom Race on the Wednesday. See link:

www.owl-mkc.ca/mkc/caone_slalom.html

 

July 26 – 28th Weekend on the Dryway, Deerfield River, Massachusetts

 

Aug 12 – 16 NEW THIS YEAR!  THE DREAM RIVER TRIP – Prepare for your Big Adventure & How to paddle with Partners !

When canoeing solo or tandem, well-honed paddling skills and excellent communication are vital to a great day on the water.  Whether a day trip or a multi week adventure, you need to develop strategies to navigate through rapids.  Effective water reading, boat maneuvers and stroke placement leads to success when running

rapids.  Understanding your role within a group or with your partner also contributes to achieving the most from any day on the water.  We will explore methods of river reading, maneuvering in rapids as well as mental preparation and effective communication skills for the journey. Join noted canoe adventurers Andrew and Carole Westwood for 5 days of fun and discovery on both the Madawaska and Ottawa Rivers !

at MKC

For more information go to: www.owl-mkc.ca/mkc/canoe_tripping.html

 

If your whitewater paddling trip is just for one day or lasting for months, and if your in a group of just two in tandem/solo or a larger group, you may want to consider this course. Why? Because you will :

– hone your WW skills whether intermediate or advanced
– be shown river reading strategies
– be learning how to manage the trip on the river as either a participant or leader
– learn ways on how to communicate with a paddling partner
– learn how to anticipate and deal with different issues that may come up on a trip
– have a great time!

You need not be with a partner to benefit from this course. The information is good knowledge for any paddling person to have!

With this in mind we’ve put together a 5-day course at MKC August 12 – 16th 2013. Here is the MKC blurb:

Here we are traveling down again for the spring exodus to good padding and warmer weather! Nothing feels quite as wonderful as shedding the winter gear and donning on sandals, shorts and TShirts. Mind you, we are Canadian. It would be just above freezing and we would still wear the sandals at least! Free the Toes!

It’s all about the paddling, really. A smorgasborg of rivers all for the taking for all levels and tastes. All you have to do is connect with a few key people and your on your way for a great day of paddling!

The towns around are also beginning to notice the positive impact on tourist dollars coming in, and for the first time, the Lenoir City Visitors Center is taking an active part in promoting the event and giving paddlers deals for lodging and a place to gather in the evenings to talk of the day’s adventures. This year is drawing paddlers from Europe and the Canadian North. Who knows. Maybe next year it will draw in people from all over the world!

Unfortunately we lost one of our friends, Dr. Steve Senior to the river. It happened as a freak accident on a section of rapid that we all swam before and never thought it held any consequence. Steve was having a great day and his paddling was strong. He had the strongest and most experienced paddlers in river rescue with him and although their efforts were heroic , they were not able to rescue him in time.

http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/2013/03/19/popular-active-doctor-remembered-as-sportsman-caring-family-man

Our hearts go out to his friends and family and are convinced that his spirit of excellence in all he did will live on.

Last year came and went extremely fast. Add life, family and work challenges and voila. Here we are in 2013 already planning for the next paddling season. Our 2012 year was epic, hunting the elusive river flow that was extremely rare in our area due to a very dry spring and summer. As such we travelled quite far to find the flow we wanted! As usual, we did our instructor recert courses in the spring for Paddle Canada. Andrew continues being active in the Program Development Committee for Whitewater Canoeing. During the summer, we spent a couple of weeks at MKC. We also did a trip down to Massachusetts to hang out with a group organized by Ken Glusman. Again Andrew was in his element talking water physics and the dynamics of boat travel and paddle strokes. Little did he know that some of the folks present were from MIT. WELL! That did it. Evening hours were spent discussing Einstein’s little red book and his theories on flow dynamics. After awhile we had to look for water. And we found it. South. Back to Tennessee. We decided to go after we learned that it had rained for the past 9 days. The creeks were running – and some that only come up once in a blue moon. Heaven! Fall saw us traveling back down again to North Carolina to NOC for the ACA NorthAmerican Slalom Championships.

See the video Paul Mason compiled of the event to show OC slalom at PaddlePointers:

http://paddlepointers.com/home.html

The Canadian group did extremely well, garnering many first place finishes. Andrew and I podiumed at all our events – 14 medals in total! The project that we started the year previous in coaching OC Slalom was on again this year and was a great success! We had a group of 5 and of those we saw significant improvement in their paddling skills. A few joined in going down to NOC to race at that level for the first time. As Bill Kirkland mentioned, you learn more attending one of these events than you could ever imagine. You leave as a different paddler.

Well, sort of. During the upcoming weeks the pages will change somewhat; same look just more to offer! We will be adding a page specifically for techniques articles, a link to canoeing videos, and we’ll be also linking to Facebook!

Stay tuned!

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 at the event.

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!!