My Kayak Is Defective, It Won't Go Straight!

This is a funny animated video about two ladies discussing why the one can't paddle her kayak straight.

Defective Kayak
by: Firstfoundation


Having similar problems? Contact Coldspring Paddling Instruction and we can help!

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!

Coldspring Paddling on Shaw TV

Cool! Thanks to my neighbour, Kevin (who sells collapsible fishing boats - called Porta-Botes - through his company Adventure Portable Boats), Coldspring Paddling is being featured in an upcoming edition of Shaw Cable's t.v. show Big Summer.

A reporter and cameraman are coming to my course on Thursday to film a bit of us out on the water and to conduct the interview. Assuming that they decide to use the piece and that it goes to air, I'll let you all know where and when you can see it. (It's going to be hard to tune in over our rabbit ears but I'm going to try.)

Trailer Design IRL

Last month I posted about the design for modifying my utility trailer and turning it into a kayak and canoe trailer.

I was trying to avoid having to shuttle kayaks in two loads for my lessons (I need 7 kayaks for a set of lessons) and also avoid having to overload the roof racks on my CRV.

CRV with a couple too many kayaks on one roof. The Thule racks are really good but still, I'd rather avoid this.

I took the trailer along with my sketches and required dimensions to a local welder (CJ's Welding near Clavet) and he went to work. About $1200 later (including the replacement of the trailer's leaf springs, which were apparently broken), and I have a trailer that will serve to haul up to 12 kayaks at a time on their sides, or 4 canoes sitting flat.

Room for 4 canoes or kayaks sitting flat. Or, with kayaks leaning toward the pillars there should be room for up to 12 assuming their decks are not too tall. The bars are 78" wide, the same as the Thule load bars on my vehicle. The welder added a plethora of  loops for tie-down points, on the bar ends and at various points on the racks. The racks and the extra tongue bracing are all removable so that the trailer can serve for hauling stuff to the dump and similar mundane tasks. 

My canoe & kayak at 17.5' and 18' respectively are among the longest loads this trailer is likely to see. The rack spacing allows the canoe to fit on the lower rack as well.

Close up of extended tongue with removable brace in place. The pin near the receiver pulls out in order to remove the barce. Note that the re-wiring was not complete at this point. I also want to add a jack to the tongue. In it's previous state the old trailer didn't need a jack because it was quite light. All the extra steel adds a lot of weight and the trailer is now fairly heavy. Plus, I might have occasion to unhook the trailer with a load of kayaks and that will be easier with the jack.

Close up of the trailer end of the tongue. The original tongue bracing is seen on top, and the original tongue was removed and a larger square tubing welded in it's place in order to act as socket for the telescoping tongue. When in short mode, the pins at the corners pull out as well as one near the receiver and the outside brace lifts off. The extended tongue can then slide back into the socket and pinned short.

A much nicer load distribution. My two kayaks on the CRV roof (with Thule racks), plus another 6 kayaks on the trailer (4 on the bottom, two sitting flat on the top bars). The two kayaks on the top of the trailer are relatively short. If I wasn't careful, I could run into a problem with the kayaks on the car hitting the kayaks on the top tier of the trailer.

I still need to figure out the perfect arrangement for ropes or straps for easily securing the load.

The center pillars have been padded with sections of rug to protect the kayaks and the kayaks are resting on foam blocks on the load bars. 

So, let me know what you think of the end product!

PC Level 2 Course in BC

A few weeks ago I was in BC for a Paddle Canada Level 2 kayaking course. The course was run by Viki and Doug, who instruct with Kingston Sea Kayak Instruction and Comox Valley Kayaks, respectively. Viki and Doug work very well together and they put on a fantastic course, I can highly recommend them if you get the chance. It was tonnes of fun and I feel like I learned a lot. Rolling a loaded kayak in the current of Surge Narrows by the end of the course felt like a fantastic achievement!

Here is a slideshow of some of my photos and a couple of videos taken during the course. Enjoy!



If you prefer, visit the Picasa Web Album directly.

Goepel Passage Rolling and Rescues

Here is a video from the recent kayaking course that I was on. This was filmed at the outflow of Goepel Passage, near Surge Narrows Provincial Park and the east side of Quadra Island, BC. We were practicing rescues, with one paddler heading out into the current across the eddy line, attempting to roll, then "wet exiting". The partner in another kayak was supposed to head out into the current and TX rescue the first paddler, emptying their kayak of water and helping them to get back in their kayak, all while floating down current in the tidal rapid. In the video here, you see the first paddler, Dave, head out into the current, perform two rolls, then flip a third time in order to wet exit the kayak. Meanwhile the second paddler, Mark (on the left side of the video), heads out to rescue Dave. Unfortunately, Mark may have got his edging wrong as he crossed the eddy line because he too flipped, but unintentionally. That meant that I had to stop filming and go rescue one of the paddlers (Dave) while one of the instructors (Doug) went to retrieve Mark. That is, after all, why I was positioned downstream from the others. It turned out to be an excellent practice of real-world dumps!



For pictures from the course, see my earlier post.

Surge Narrows, Here I Come!

Five weeks from now I'll be at Discovery Islands Lodge, on Quadra Island at Surge Narrows for a Level 2 kayak course. Looks like fun!!!!!! (p.s. Watch in HD, if you can.)



Coincidentally, PaddlingInstructor.com also posted just this afternoon another video from Surge Narrows. Check it out at the link.

How Not to Use A Paddle Float

This Youtube video is an excellent reason why paddlers should take lessons before heading off on their own. At least this fellow is trying out his skills in a controlled environment with at least two people on the dock that could assist him if necessary. A paddle float reentry is quite easy when you do it right and there are a number of things that this fellow is not doing right. Come join me for a paddle sometime and we can talk about it and practise before you need it for real.

Edit Update:
So now that we've seen how NOT to do the paddle float entry, let's have a look at doing it in a better way:

For more videos like this, see the Sea Kayaking TV channel on YouTube.

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! - I mean it this time!

I Rolled! No really, I mean it this time! (See my post from a couple of weeks ago.)


Last night at the tail end of the pool session for some kayak lessons I was assisting with there was time to just mess around in the kayaks. I was again playing with the paddle float for bracing and pseudo-rolling. I was concentrating on not putting much pressure on the float end of the paddle and bringing my head up last. At the prompting of one of the students I tried without the float, and it worked! I had full success about 6 times rolling on the right side! I'd screw it up some of the time and always it was because I forgot to bring the head up last or was otherwise putting too much pressure on the paddle. When it worked, it worked very well. I could not believe how effortless it was. It was a VERY good feeling.

Now, to practice, practice, practice until it becomes totally natural on both sides and in all conditions.

In the meantime, I gotta go finish getting my stuff together because I have kayak lessons to teach in the morning.

Bryan H. says I should start working on my butterfly roll next. (The video below is of some random person on Youtube doing a "butterfly roll".)

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.