Instructional Video: Canoeing by Reg Blomfield

This is a fantastic video from the mid-1930's demonstrating some amazing paddling skills. Toward the end there is a shot that is hard to imagine being taken with the technology that pre-dated GoPros by about  70 years. Whoever paddles near me when I'm solo in an empty canoe better be ready to duck because I'm going to be trying out the "technique" demonstrated at 10 minutes in!

Improve Your Kayaking the Hansel Way

Bryan Hansel posted on PaddlingLight.com his list of 22 Ways to Improve Your Kayaking Skills Forever. It's a great list and I highly recommend checking it out for yourself here at http://www.paddlinglight.com/articles/22-ways-to-improve-your-kayaking-skills-forever.

I was going to repost an edited version of the list here to show which of the points I'm already doing or working on, or which I haven't done, but I'll let you head back to the original posting to cross-reference my checkboxes below. Note that just because I've checked the box it doesn't mean I'm done working on that item. Most of the list (all of the list?) are items that we need to work on throughout our paddling lifetime. Go ahead and see how many of the points below you can check off the list. What points would you add to your own version of the list?

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In order to check #3 off of the list and avoid the Dunning-Kruger effect, visit ColdspringPaddling.com and give me a shout for some lessons!

Lessons Learned From a Bad Day on Blackstrap

Here is an interesting article that appeared in the recent Star Phoenix. It makes the case for, among other things, receiving proper paddling instruction and interviews Kevin from Eb's and Viki from Kingston Kayak Instruction (see here for a recent post relating to lessons I took from Viki).

For those not from the region, Blackstrap Lake is a long narrow prairie lake set in a valley. Winds can come up quickly and would be funnelled and intensified within the valley.

Lessons learned from a Bad Day on Blackstrap

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I Rolled, I Rolled!

Last night I taught the second half of an introductory kayaking clinic at Erindale Lake (a local suburban pond). After the class I decided to spend a little time out playing on the water. I went through some of the exercises described in the book Sea Kayak Strokes by Doug Alderson (I have access to an online version through the library at my workplace). These exercises had me progressively building the motions to perform a kayak roll, with a paddle float on my paddle throughout. Initially I was in a high brace, then laid on the back deck while in the high brace, then moving my body out beside the kayak, then eventually tipped right over and moving back to the upright high brace position. This progression of movements worked very well for me and allowed me to work toward building these motions into my muscle memory, so that they can hopefully become automatic. The next step was to be completely upside down, then using the paddle (with paddle float) to get back to that upright high brace position, rolling the kayak underneath me using my hips and trying to keep my centre of gravity low and remembering to bring my head up last. Rolling up from completely submerged proved quite easy when done this way, however I was still reliant on the paddle float so was cheating.

I'll be heading out to practice again soon - this time I'll be focussing on reducing the amount of pressure that I'm putting on the paddle float. Hopefully Jay can come out with me and we can work through some of the exercises together. With any luck, after a couple of sessions we'll be rolling our kayaks without the cheat of using the paddle float.

If you have any tips or tricks, please leave me a comment!


See an update at this link!

Instructor's Course Guest Starring Michael Pardy

This will be a very short post because I'm darned tired. I just finished a Paddle Canada "Kayak Instructor Introduction to Kayaking" course. It was a three day course, running all day Friday, Saturday & Sunday and included classroom sessions, on the beach sessions, and lots of paddling (at Pike Lake). The course was operated by Viki of Kingston Kayak Instruction. Viki is herself becoming certified as qualified to teach instructors so had Michael Pardy here assessing her. Viki is a very good instructor and I've enjoyed her courses in the past, but having the added element of a paddler and leader of the caliber of Pardy here in Saskatoon was something remarkable. I only wish I could have taken even greater advantage of that resource. Although right now I feel burned out from the sun (a rare thing here lately) and being on the water, I would have eagerly taken a few more hours of his time if I had the opportunity.

I'm proud to say that I have received a conditional pass (as did all 6 of us in the course), and following the submission of my yet to be received homework assignments, will be officially a flatwater kayak instructor qualified to teach the Paddle Canada Introduction to Kayaking 8-hour course.