Looking for destination inspiration? Check out this beautifully shot five-minute video featuring canoeing and camping in the wilds of Scotland. The group ventures into the wilds of Assynt, one of the UK’s most ancient landscapes. They are making the journey by canoe, through the myriad of lochs that fill the deep valleys, surrounded on all sides by towering ancient peaks.
For more information visit wildernessscotland.com.
In July, two Canadians—skinny stick aficionados and mentors James Roberts and James Manke—will set out for Greenland to compete in the 2014 National Greenland Kayaking Championships, making them the first team from Canada to do so. Inspired by the remarkable culture and history that drives their passion, they will navigate the challenges and logistics of getting to Greenland and participating in the event, experiencing the excitement and sharing their learning through a documentary film. “By working through this ourselves and creating a resource that will make it easier for others to do the same, we want to inspire paddlers to go visit this amazing, intact culture,” says Roberts.
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The film will be released to the public for free at http://greenland.qajaq.ca/ later this summer. Roberts and Manke are presently seeking community support to help complete the funding necessary to make Greenland Bound a reality. Visit http://greenland.qajaq.ca/ to learn more and make a donation. Follow along on Facebook for updates.
“Welcome to the Whitewater Grand Prix, the biggest, most badass kayaking event in the world. Traveling from the Ottawa River on Gladiator wave to the cold northern Quebec wilderness with 34 of the world’s best all-around whitewater kayaking athletes, you know it is going to be an incredible ride. Ice cream headaches not included! You’d be Happy too if You had just Kayaked THIS Rapid | FRESH, Ep. 6.”
From Epic TV.
An extra-long front-entry zipper and roomy design will make Level Six‘s Triton a favorite for broad-shouldered boaters. It’s easy to pull on and off and is seriously unrestricting.
Thanks to a casual cut, the Triton looks like a normal pair of pants, with the option to streamline the suit’s adjustable ankles.
The jean-style hip pockets make for major storage space but feel bulky when full. The zippered arm pocket has an attached inner pouch for extra safe storage.
The Triton doesn’t have a sprayskirt tunnel but pulls tight at the waist with tabs on tough elastic straps to dial in fit.
www.levelsix.com | $849.99
If you haven’t seen this movie about an epic family adventure you’re in for a treat!
Finding Farley is about a young family’s cross-Canada adventure to visit Canadian literary legend, Farley Mowat, in a most unusual way.
Rather than fly or drive the thousands of kilometers to see this aging Canadian icon, Leanne Allison, Karsten Heuer, and their two-and-a-half-year-old toddler, Zev, sent out in 2007 to paddle, walk, and sail across the prairies, barrenlands and Maritimes, stringing together the settings of many of Mowat’s stories, along the way.
Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, the resulting documentary film and narrative (to be captured in another book) will compare two views of Canada – one of the iconic Canadian author, the other of the adventuring family told, in part, through the exchange of letters between the two, culminating in a scene where, after five months of travel, the pilgrims finally meet their hero face-to-face. Get the full length version here.
Karsten Heuer, along with filmmaker wife, Leanne Allison and their two-year-old son, canoed across Canada in 2007, from Canmore, Alberta to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to visit Farley Mowat. Heuer remembers the late author in an article in the Calgary Herald:
“I first approached Farley Mowat like any aspiring writer might: I sent him a manuscript I’d been working on in the hopes he might endorse it andhelp it become a book. Not only did he oblige me, he followed up with a phonecall: “We have much to talk about,” he began. “You and your wife must come visit us on Cape Breton Island this summer.”
Nova Scotia is a long wayf rom Canmore, Alberta, but rather than drive or fly across the country, we opted to canoe and sail it, following a route that took us through the settings of many of Mowat’s books. He was 86 years old when we hatched the idea, and we saw it as a tribute to someone whose books had shaped our lives.It was also a nod to the kinds of characters he wrote about, many of whom we encountered along the way: owls on the Prairies; wolves and Inuit on Nunavut’s barrenlands; and Fin whales and Newfoundland fishermen in Cabot Strait.
The most important encounter of all, however, was when, after five months of paddling and sailing, we pulled up at Farley’s door. True to form, it wasn’t long before he and his wife Claire had us seated in the warmth of their farmhouse kitchen and were plying us with questions and drinks.”
Get the rest of the story here and see a trailer for the film that was made from the adventure, Finding Farley, here.
Kayaker Vávra Hradilek is featured in an upcoming Rapid magazine article about Wadi Adventure, a desert-surrounded whitewater park near Dubai. In this new video from Red Bull, Hradilek displays his slalom skills at on Wadi’s waters and shares how he got his start in kayaking and why it remains his primary passion.
Stay tuned to Rapidmag.com for a full feature about Wadi Adventure.
Balance, power and vision are imperative to strong, controlled boating.
This video demonstrates and explains a list of warm-ups for freestyle paddlers’ quiver of strength exercises, but they will be beneficial to every other facet of kayaking as well.
Every paddler, in any kind of kayak, can practice these warm-ups any time they hop on the water.
Chris Wing has been an instructor for as long as he has been a kayaker. He started H2o Dreams out of a desire to spur growth and reverence for paddle sports education all while providing a different spin to the presentation of familiar topics. Visit www.whitewaterdreams.com for more info or follow H2o Dreams on Facebook and Twitter.
Click for more pro tips on whitewater skills.
The 2014 Whitewater Grand Prix started at Coliseum Rapid on the Ottawa River, where some of the world’s best boaters competed in the Best Trick Contest on Gladiator wave. Read about the first stage of the competition here.
Women’s:
1st Place – Mariann Saether (NOR)
2nd Place – Adriene Levknecht (USA)
3rd Place – Nicole Mansfield (USA)
4th Place – Martina Wegman (NLD)
5th Place – Sandra Hyslop (GBR)
6th Place – Hannah Kertesz (USA)
7th Place – Lu Urwin (NZL)
Men’s:
1st Place – Nick Troutman (CAN)
2nd Place – Dane Jackson (USA)
3rd Place – Tino Specht (USA)
4th Place – Devyn Scott (CAN)
5th Place – Gerd Serrasolses (ESP)
6th Place – Rush Sturges (USA)
7th Place – Kalob Grady (CAN)
8th Place – Joel Kowalski (CAN)
9th Place – Chris Gragtmans (CAN)
10th Place – Bryan Kirk (USA)
11th Place – Casper van Kalmthout (NLD)
12th Place – Mathieu Dumoulin (FRA)
13th Place – Bren Orton (GBR)
14th Place – Leif Anderson (USA)
15th Place – Marcos Gallegos (CHL)
16th Place (tie) – Lane Jacobs (USA) / Tyler Curtis (CAN)
18th Place – Sam Ward (GBR)
19th Place (tie) – Jules Domine (FRA) / Galen Volckhausen (USA)
21st Place – Tyler Fox (CAN)
22nd Place – Jakub Nemec (CZE)
23rd Place – LP Rivest (CAN)
24th Place – Aniol Serrasolses (ESP)
25th Place – Eric Jackson (USA)
26th Place -Evan Garcia (USA)
27th Place (tie) – DNS – Ben Marr (CAN) / Juanito De Ugarte (PER)
Women’s:
1st Place: Martina Wegman (NLD)
2nd Place: Sandra Hyslop (GBR)
3rd Place: Mariann Saether (NOR)
4th Place: Nicole Mansfield (USA)
5th Place: Lu Urwin (NZL)
6th Place: Hannah Kertesz (USA)
7th Place: Adriene Levknecht (USA)
Men’s:
1st Place: Marcos Gallegos (CHL)
2nd Place: Joel Kowalski (CAN)
3rd Place: Dane Jackson (USA)
4th Place: Rush Sturges (USA)
5th Place: Bryan Kirk (USA)
6th Place: Tino Specht (USA)
7th Place: Evan Garcia (USA)
8th Place: Bren Orton (GBR)
9th Place: Tyler Fox (CAN)
10th Place: Nick Troutman (CAN)
11th Place: Jules Domine (FRA)
12th Place: Kalob Grady
13th Place: Aniol Serrasolses (ESP)
14th Place: Leif Anderson (USA)
15th Place: Sam Ward (GBR)
16th Place: Gerd Serrasolses (ESP)
17th Place: Lane Jacobs (USA)
18th Place: Galen Volckhausen (USA)
19th Place: Louis-Phillipe Rivest (CAN)
20th Place: Devyn Scott (CAN)
21st Place: Juanito de Ugarte (PER)
22nd Place: Casper van Kalmthout (NLD)
23rd Place: Tyler Curtis (CAN)
24th Place: Chris Gragtmans (CAN)
25th Place: Ian Vogel (CAN)
26th Place: Mathieu Dumoulin (FRA)
27th Place (tie): Ben Marr (DNS) Eric Jackson (DNS)
Click here to read about the second stage of the Whitewater Grand Prix.
Women’s:
1st place: Marina Wegman (NLD)
2nd place (tie): Adriene Levknecht (USA) / Mariann Saether (NOR)
4th place: Sandra Hyslop (GBR)
5th Place: Nicole Mansfield (USA)
6th Place: Lu Urwin (NZL)
7th Place: Hannah Kertesz (USA)
Men’s:
1st Place: Dane Jackson (USA)
2nd Place: Chris Gragtmans (CAN)
3rd Place: Tino Specht (USA)
4th Place: Gerd Serrasolses (ESP)
5th Place: Tyler Curtis (CAN)
6th Place: Aniol Serrasolses (ESP)
7th Place: Mathieu Dumoulin (FRA)
8th Place: Galen Volckhausen (USA)
9th Place: Rush Sturges (USA)
10th Place: Marcos Gallegos (CHL)
11th Place: Joel Kowalski (CAN)
12th Place: Bryan Kirk (USA)
13th Place: Jules Domine (FRA)
14th Place: Bren Orton (GBR)
15th Place: Evan Garcia (USA)
16th Place: Kalob Grady (CAN)
17th Place: Nick Troutman (CAN)
18th Place: Tyler Fox (CAN)
19th Place: Sam Ward (GBR)
20th Place: Devyn Scott (CAN)
21st Place: Juanito de Ugarte (PER)
22nd Place: Leif Anderson (USA)
23rd Place: Casper van Kalmthout (NLD)
24th Place: Louis-Philippe Rivest (CAN)
25th Place: Ian Vogel (CAN)
Check out photos of the athletes from the third stage here.
Women’s:
1st Place: Hannah Kertesz (USA)
2nd Place: Adriene Levknecht (USA)
3rd Place: Martina Wegman (NLD)
4th Place: Sandra Hyslop (GBR)
5th Place: Nicole Mansfield (USA)
Men’s:
1st Place: Dane O Jackson (USA)
2nd Place: Joel Kowalski (CAN)
3rd Place: Nick Troutman (CAN)
4th Place: Rush Sturges (USA)
5th Place: Devyn Scott (CAN)
6th Place: Aniol Serrasolses (ESP)
7th Place: Marcos Gallegos (CHL)
8th Place: Kalob Grady (CAN)
9th Place: Sam Ward (GBR)
10th Place: Bren Orton (GBR)
If you’ve been living under a rock rather than scraping over them, you may not know that Royalex canoes are in short supply. Manufacturer PolyOne announced last summer that it was calling it quits on the long-time favored hull material of whitewater and recreational canoes. Production of Royalex sheets ceased in March. The announcement sent the paddling community into a Royalex-boat-buying frenzy. Outfitters are bulking up their fleets while enthusiasts are buying backups of favorite models. Everyone is wondering about the future of the sport.
Jacques Chassé, owner of Esquif Canoes, thinks he has the magic bullet.
Beginning this fall, Esquif will begin replacing Royalex in its canoe line with a brand-new, in-house-made material they are calling T-Formex (see their press release here). According to Chassé, paddlers can expect the same indestructability and performance of Royalex for approximately the same price. And he claims T-Formex will be 10 percent lighter and more 20 times more abrasion resistant than Royalex.
“Seventy-five to 80 percent of our boats are now made from Royalex. We had no choice but to innovate,” says Chassé. “It’s not a secret I had been asking the manufacturer to improve their material but they weren’t interested. They’d been making Royalex for the last 35 years and there’s a lot of new plastic and new technology.”
Chassé is building a 6,000-square-foot T-Formex factory within Esquif’s existing 15,000-square-foot warehouse in southern Quebec.
“Because so many of our canoes were made from Royalex, we needed to find a material that could be used in the same molding stations in which the Royalex boats are shaped,” says Chassé. Switching to T-Formex will not require any re-tooling of this boat building operation. The same workshop will be able to produce the usual 20-25 canoes per day.
Like Royalex, T-Formex is manufactured into sheets using foam core, ABS plastic and another outer material Chassé won’t disclose. These are layered together to create a reinforced, multi-laminate sandwich that can withstand years of paddler abuse.
At the time of publication, Chassé had just recently approached other canoe manufacturers. Before going public he wanted to let them know he had a new material coming and is hoping that T-Formex will replace Royalex in their canoe lines as well.
“T-Formex is the only alternative to Royalex I know about,” says Chassé, adding that his first T-Formex prototype canoe hit the water mid-April. “I have very modest forecasts, but I’m pretty sure once the manufacturers and public see the properties of the material, everyone will step up and want to work with it. It’s the much improved material we’ve been waiting for.”
