Practicing a kayak roll is an essential skill for experienced paddlers and those that may be the occasional weekend warrior. At the beginning of every paddling season it is highly recommended to spend time in varying water conditions and practice this kayaking skill. Roll troubleshooting was my first attempt at an instructional video, and it was one I was told countless times to avoid doing as this subject always seems to be up for great debate.
As instructors, I think we typically overcomplicate this skill for the student. We only have a certain capacity for information, especially when stressed, so I looked to keep our approach as simple as possible. This video proved to be ideal for those with some previous roll practice, although I have found beginners to respond just as well. (Click here for kayak rolling tips to help beginners and children.)
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.
Come meet publisher Scott MacGregor and KA Web Editor Ben Duchesney and talk all things kayak fishing.
Kayak Angler and Rapid Media will be exhibiting at The Jersey Paddler’s Paddlesport Show, the largest canoe, kayak and standup paddling show on the East Coast. Come meet publisher Scott MacGregor and KA Web Editor Ben Duchesney and talk all things kayak fishing.
Paddlesport 2014 includes events such as the Reel Paddling Film Festival on Friday night. Throughout the weekend, see and learn about paddling and gear from top industry experts at a variety of informative and entertaining seminars and pool demonstrations about kayaking and stand up paddling. From novice to expert, whether you attend to learn or to buy, don’t miss the chance to take advantage of professional advice and great show pricing.
The Garden State Exhibit Center, in Somerset, NJ is a 70,000 square foot expo center, making Paddlesport the biggest show on the East Coast. It is conveniently located off of I-287 Exit 10, a 45-minute drive from Manhattan, one hour from Center City Philadelphia, and within easy reach of the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike.”
“It was a dark and rainy old day in the Kaimai Ranges of NZ yesterday but the whitewater was red hot. Here are a few shots from the Tuakopai and Mangakorengarenga Rivers shot 100% on the GoPro Hero3+ in 720p at 120fps.”
Northwest paddlers still mourning the loss of the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium—the Port Townsend, Washington, event that evaporated in 2010 after a 26-year run—take heart. This April 12-13, 2014, the nearby community of Port Angeles will host the inaugeral Port Angeles Kayak & Film Festival.
“We are so pleased to bring an event of this caliber to Port Angeles,” says Tammi Hinkle, owner of Adventures Through Kayaking, one of three local businesses that are sponsoring the festival. “We hope to introduce a lot of new paddlers to the sport, to help seasoned paddlers learn new skills, to entertain, and to come back and do it all again next year!”
Nine experts specializing in all genres of kayaking and SUP will gather in Port Angeles to offer two days of on-the-water instruction. “It’s one-of-a-kind,” continues Hinkle, “no other event in the country highlights and promotes all classes of paddling.” Designed for novice to expert level paddlers, classes ranging from introductory sea kayaking and SUP to rolling to debacle deterrent and much more will be offered at Hollywood Beach, Crescent Beach, Freshwater Bay, and the Feiro Marine Life Center on Saturday April 12 from 9:00 a.m. –5:00 p.m. and on Sunday April 13 from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Advance registration is highly recommended.
Experienced paddlers can test their sea kayaking finesse during a Skills and Obstacle Race at Hollywood Beach. Balance and rescue techniques will be equally challenged, and efforts rewarded with a $100 prize package for the winner. The fun begins at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday April 12.
All festival-goers can also test drive various kayaks at the Demo Beach on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Learn firsthand about all the different designs and materials, and make the most of this opportunity to demo many different kayaks and accessories in one place. Special pricing will be available throughout the festival.
A corresponding outdoor film festival featuring adventure kayaking expeditions in scenic locations around the world will take place on Saturday, April 12 from 4:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at Studio Bob’s in Port Angeles. Titles to be screened include Bhutan: The Last Shangri-La; the Of Souls+Water series; Wildwater; and Mountain Mind Collective, which was filmed on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.
Followin the film festival, paddlers can enjoy keynote speaker and Port Angeles resident Chris Duff’s presentation on his many adventure kayaking expeditions, including an 8,000-mile solo trip around the eastern third of the US and Canada, as well as solo circumnavigations of Great Britain, Ireland and New Zealand. Duff presents Saturday April 12 from 7:30 p.m.– 9:30 p.m. at Port Angeles’ Red Lion Hotel. Event Registration is available online, by phone or in person. Visit www.portangeleskayakandfilm.com to learn more and register. Beach, race entry and festival passes are just $10 each. Or get an all-inclusive pass, good for an unlimited number of classes and entry to the film festival, keynote presentation and Demo Beach, for $100.00.
“The group is eager to get back to paddling and tackles the much anticipated Rio Hoyo del Aire. The challenges of exploration and first descents is risky gamble, but the team is betting on a big payoff. On a trip to the local market, the team attempts to assimilate into the culture and blend in, with sombreros, ponchos and fake mustaches.”
In the utter darkness of midnight, stage lighting blinded Blair Trotman as he launched a Wave Sport Recon off the edge of the visible earth, plunging into the abyss 60 feet below the lip of Sutherland Falls. Then, from behind a pile of high-end camera equipment, someone told Trotman it was time for take two. And then three.
“Blair was an absolute trooper and hit the falls three times that night to ensure we got the shots we were looking for,” says Steve Shannon, who snapped this photo while tagging along on a video shoot for Dark Water, a short film by Kelsey Thompson.
The lights, dragged to the river by a crew of Revelstoke locals, gave the falls a different feel than the sunlight that lit Trotman’s practice runs earlier that day. It was hardly enough for Shannon to capture the midnight descent.
“This was primarily a shoot for Kelsey, so I was limited to shooting with the available light from his filming lights. This was extremely challenging, as you don’t need as bright of lights for shooting video as you do for capturing still images. I had to push my equipment to the absolute limits.”
He joined Trotman in the water for a moment, though not on purpose. “There were a lot of extra people milling around, getting in the way of shots and making things fairly difficult,” says Shannon. “I ended up exploring alternate angles by paddling to the other side of Blanket Creek…let’s just say I got a little wet.”
Around 1 a.m., as one of the most unique shoots of his career was wrapping up, Shannon grabbed this shot of Trotman, standing below the falls “eyeing up the monster in the dark he had just destroyed.” EMMA DRUDGE
This article was first published in the Spring 2014 issue of Rapid Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.
It was somewhere along the nearly dry creek bed I was dragging up that I decided I really liked Souris River’s Quetico 17 Canoe.
Souris River Quetico 17 Canoe Specs
Length: 17’3” Width at gunwales: 35” Depth at bow: 20” Depth at center: 13.5” Depth at stern: 20” Weight: 44 lbs (Kevlar), 42 lbs (Carbon-Tec) MSRP: $2,995 to $3,345
We’d been on the water for eight hours, were 10 portages in and had just spent the last two miles battling a headwind. This creek was supposed to be the easy part—a straight, albeit thin, blue line on the map.
As we weaved through a maze of bulrushes and reeds under a darkening August sky, it was the kind of moment where you might start to think dark thoughts. Instead, I was impressed. This canoe was light, it was maneuverable and it felt durable. Each time we bottomed out we forged ahead on foot, pushing and pulling. Through sucking clay, over river rock and even into a hornet’s nest, the boat never so much as creaked in complaint.
At the end of that purgatory of marshland, I knew I’d found a canoe I could trip with again.
The Souris River Quetico 17 Canoe is designed to handle everything a tripper can throw at it. Its long waterline keeps it tracking straight and makes good time on big lakes. Thanks to two inches of rocker, it’s surprisingly maneuverable for a 17-foot boat, even in narrow, twisting creeks.
“Designers are quick to say that there’s no one design that does everything, but the Quetico series comes close to doing everything really well,” says Keith Robinson, designer and co-owner of manufacturer Souris River Canoes.
In designing the Quetico series, which also includes a 16-foot and 18.5-foot model, Robinson was inspired by the timeless Prospector and mimicked its water-cutting entry lines. However, the Quetico has more tumblehome than the classic design, as well as a flatter hull, making it stable enough that I felt comfortable standing up in it.
We picked up our loaner from Killarney Outfitters and immediately noticed it had enough space for a route far longer than our five days. It’s also noticeably lighter than many boats its size and, at just 44 pounds, only the three-kilometer portage en route seemed particularly arduous.
The translucent quality of the hull is unique to Souris River, a result of their Woven Color technology, which creates the boats’ bright color. Instead of paint and its additional weight, manufacturing begins with a colored polyester cloth. Combined with several layers of epoxy resin, Kevlar and glass, it makes for a very tough hull.
Founded in 1985 on the banks of the Souris River in Manitoba, the Robinsons moved their young company in the early ‘90s to Atikokan, situated on the northern edge of Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario. Back then, Souris River was producing a meager 35 canoes per year. Now they send almost 500 canoes across North America each year.
The Quetico 17 Canoe is one of their most popular models, says Robinson. Given its can-do attitude, it’s no wonder why.
“For sale: used Valley Qajariaq. Good condition. Some spider cracking. $1,600.”
Like pets, we choose boats that resemble us, and how we see ourselves. In my case: tall, skinny, serious, slow-twitch for long distances, but with idiosyncrasies—design quirks and bit of a playful side.
Follow these intuitions and they can guide us to a perfect fit. Ignore them at our peril. Some things are inevitable, and we inevitably orbit back to them.
Buying the Q-boat felt like this, like coming home.
I’ve had a few such reckonings in my life. One led me to love. Another to a career. And most recently, back to kayaking—another kind of love.
When I first met my wife I found her irresistible. But she was like a kayak with poor primary stability that I lacked the experience to handle. I couldn’t think straight. One day after I first met her, I was so distracted I cut both of my thumbs in two separate kitchen accidents. Later that same day, I got pulled over for an illegal U-turn and the cop asked about my two bandaged thumbs. “It’s just not your day,” he surmised, and let me off with a warning.
I was overwhelmed and broke off the relationship. A couple of years later, she showed up in my life again and we became good friends. We were out kayaking when she looked at me and said maybe it was time our friendship “evolved.”
We evolved into marriage. The best choice ever, though it felt more like destiny. The certainty that old people tell you about when you’re young: “You’ll just know.”
Careers are like that too. Some things just fit. Sitting at a desk was never for me. So at age 38, I was writing an exam with 3,000 other hopefuls, trying for a spot on the city fire department. It was another case of coming back to what I really wanted, instead of what I thought I should do—better late than never.
Kayaks carry that same you’ll-know-it-when-you-feel-it certainty. Before you even begin shopping for a kayak, some kind of boat will be calling out to you. The salesperson may be saying one thing, the boat on the rack will be telling you its own story. Follow your impulses—they are connected to a deeper self-wisdom. There may be no water nearby, but if you crave a kayak, buy one and it will take you where you need to go.
How else does a boy who grew up next to the highway in an inland city end up becoming a sea kayaker? On a family vacation to Cape Cod, I saw a sea kayak on the wall of a tourist shop. The hatches for weeks’ worth of gear, and the limitless ocean across the dunes, called to me. The hull’s sleek curving lines traced the arc of my deepest longings.
In that instant, I put it all together and understood the pos- sibilities, the predetermination of my growing up, moving to the ocean, buying the longest, fastest, most capacious boat I could find. Fumbling, tipping, learning to paddle. Heading out for weeks on end. Spending 80 days kayaking a remote rainforest coast. Working for this magazine.
Then we bought a house in the city and had two kids. I started selling my kayaks to pay bills, especially the expedition ones I never paddled anymore.
Last year, I wrote about how kayaking didn’t fit with my life anymore (Rock the Boat, Summer/Fall 2013). What use was this sport that had no practical place in our wacked-out modern lives? I thought I was through.
HOMECOMING | PHOTO: RYAN CREARY
AN EMOTIONAL DECISION, NOT A LOGICAL ONE
This is what I’m thinking about as I drive home with the gear swap ad crumpled on the passenger seat and the Q-boat on my roof: we can’t escape who we are. Even when that undeniable truth doesn’t seem to make any sense. I saw that ad and just knew. I drove across town—allegedly just to “check it out”— with the exact asking price in crisp hundreds in my pocket and the roof rack on the car. The seller said he’d had other inquiries, but was waiting for the right person, someone who would appreciate it.
So my backyard is full of boats again. I orbited away from kayaking but now I’m back. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been out surfing while the kids are in school.
My wife didn’t get it when I arrived home with my new purchase.
“Why did you buy another sea kayak?” she asked in disbelief, “You never go kayaking. This isn’t a logical decision, it’s an emotional one.”
As if any other decision could have been possible, or true.
I brought her outside to look at it. She helped me lift it off the roof onto the grass.
“Isn’t it a beautiful thing?” I asked, beaming.
She looked at its long narrow form, at my boyish grin, and shook her head.
“Well, it does look like your type of kayak.”
Waterlines columnist Tim Shuff is a former editor at Adventure Kayak and embraces both the playful and serious sides of paddling.
This article originally appeared in Adventure Kayak, Spring 2014.
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“The OC-1 waterfall record has stood for over 20 years. Steve Frazier’s descent of Elk Falls was unchallenged, until Canadian Jim Coffey fired up Cascada Truchas in Mexico.
In this episode of Cross Strokin’, limits are pushed, bars are raised, stouts are dropped, and fun is had as Cheeks, Jim, Nathan, and Martin fire up Rio de Oro, Roadside Alseseca, and Cascada Truchas.”
“Labrador Passage, grew out of a fascination I had with older ways of canoe travel and with the explorers who carried heavy gear and who wore clothing most of us would consider wholly inappropriate to use in the wilderness. I knew I wanted to make a film about a canoe journey where people used equipment that was made out of non-synthetic material—like they used 100 years ago.”—Filmmaker, Peter Marshall
This article was first published in the Spring 2014 issue of Rapid Magazine. 
This article originally appeared in Adventure Kayak, Spring 2014.