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 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

 

 

 

 

 

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!

 

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.

 

 

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!

 

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

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!

No complaints here about the weather we had over the summer.  It will be hard to beat!

Andrew and I have been fairly busy but are now starting to spend time catching up with life. Quick synopsis of the summer:

• Paddle Canada’s New Canoe Instructor Courses get underway (story coming soon)
• Andrew gets knee surgery and recovers enough to paddle in the ACA Nationals – with great results (more later including my “recovery” races – and yes there are medals)
• Vacationing on Les Iles de la Madeleine
• Great courses given for MKC, and for the YMCCC
• Visitors from Canad.be  Belgium
• Meeting wonderful people along the way!

And now looking forward to good fall paddling on the Moose and Independance next month!

Cheers,

Carole