Gold At Eight Months Pregnant

Photo: Courtesy Emily Jackson — Emily Jackson on the podium at the Payette River Games

While some women slow down towards the end of their pregnancy, others stay on the fast track, refusing to let pregnancy slow them down.

Such is the case with 23-year-old Emily Jackson, who has been continuing to tear up the freestyle circuit over the last nine months. Jackson, who has spent a lifetime kayaking and competing under the watchful eye of father, and founder of Jackson Kayaks, Eric Jackson, said the decision to continue paddling while pregnant was a no-brainer.

“Kayaking while pregnant gave me such a break from walking around being hot, sweaty and sore on my feet,” Jackson says. “It’s fun, it’s active and it’s addicting. It was my break during the day that I looked forward to.”

While some may think that playboating while pregnant poses a serious risk to mother and baby, in Jackson’s case it was just the opposite. By paddling almost daily throughout her entire pregnancy, she was able to keep active, as well as keep her body and muscles conditioned.

“Doctors say not to stop something and start back up during pregnancy, that’s when you can injure yourself,” she says. “I was very careful and conscious of everything I did when I paddled pregnant. I never paddled fatigued and only trained for an hour at the very most”.

Even though her body changed as her pregnancy progressed, Jackson says her paddling style and combat roll essentially stayed the same, which she attributes to the fact that she has always used a back deck roll. Setting up for combinations on the wave, and trying to quash her competitive nature, however, proved to be slightly more difficult.

“Mentally, it was hard as I am a competitive person,” she claims. “Unless I was set up just right, I couldn’t jerk my body around to make it do what I wanted. So I took a lot of time setting up a few easy moves and just focused on being fluid and smooth from move to move.” With the goal of not having any goals, Jackson found herself happy just to be on the water, regardless of whether she was able to throw a trick or not, and had no real intention of placing well at events. Regardless, she found herself at the top of the podium when she competed at the Payette River Games in late June.

“I was eight months pregnant, I didn’t care what the results were,” says Jackson. “I think a big part of the win has to do with having relaxing, stress-free and super-happy sessions on the water.”

With her baby due in mid July, Emily doesn’t see herself or husband, Nick Troutman, slowing down anytime soon. Having grown up in a unique environment, it’s not surprising to hear what she’s most looking forward to about being a mom.

“If anything, my life is about to get even crazier,” she says. “I grew up with so many unique life experiences that what I look forward to the most is doing the same with my kid.”

River Alchemy: Over The Top

Stories

Photo: Steve Rogers — Hazardous paddling?

“Expectation, consequence and normal seem to have been—or are being—redefined,” I wrote in a recent column (“The New Normal,” Alchemy, Rapid Summer/Fall 2011). I was attempting to articulate a change in perspective in the paddling world: New rungs have been added to the paddling ladder.

“Right on, bro,” was the tone of the feedback I heard, typically through aspiring paddlers’ helmet cam footage. If I came off as self-congratulatory, it was accidental. What I left unsaid is that this is not the first time this has happened. We need to learn from the past.

PART 1: Rewind to 1975. Kayaking was climbing out of infancy and the fiberglass, club-based, slalom scene was booming. And then, in the midst of a New England class II slalom event, a dumped paddler attempted to stand up in the current. The paddler drowned in front of hundreds of bewildered spectators. It is recognized as the first foot entrapment in our sport and more followed within months. But it took the drowning of expert paddler Bob Taylor in 1978 (rock sieve, Gauley) and the famous Walt Blackadar in 1979 (strainer, S. Fork Payette) to really shake up the then small paddling community. Even good paddlers, it turns out, can be killed.

PART 2: 1997. Kayaking was hardly recognizable compared to its ‘70s roots. Flat hulls were the new big thing, cartwheels ruled, the Perception 3D and Wave Sport Godzilla were radical. Paddling was expanding outwards in all directions. There was a sense of euphoria and invincibility. And then, within weeks of each other, Chuck Kern and Rich Weiss were killed running class V+ drops. They were giants of the sport. The wind was knocked out the sails of paddling’s top end, and that year’s World Rodeo Championships on the Ottawa River was a subdued affair. For the first time—but not the last—it included a memorial service.

PART 3: 2011. Young ripper Steve Forster and elder statesman (and Liquidlogic Kayaks investor) Boyce Greer both drown after taking beatings in serious holes. No collective gasp. An abnormally long list of whitewater fatalities piles up over the summer. Dozens and dozens of close calls involve people paddling way over their heads. No reaction. I count nine spinal injuries or large bone fractures. Nothing.

Is this collective non-reaction because we don’t know how to respond, some kind of groupthink, or have we sadly become immune to the risk in our sport? Is this part of the new normal?

You see, the 1970s entrapments spawned the river rescue movement, which created throw bags and a philosophy of group safety. In 1997, a philosophical discussion ensued among the entire paddling community. Up to that point, “real” paddlers believed they needed to use their playboats to run everything. The discussion re-focused creek boating as a separate discipline.

So how should we react this time?

Normal is redefined on a cyclical basis and each time there is a rebound effect. When rungs are added to the ladder, everyone feels obligated to move up a couple of steps. By following their role models, paddlers are pulled into more risk simply because it seems like the thing to do. Eventually, people realize they have strayed beyond their limits and give up trying to follow the leaders on the bleeding edge of the sport. This is a positive thing.

Maybe I was wrong. Perhaps the tragic events of 2011 will make 2012 the year we realize the top end of our sport has become something else, and that this is not normal.

Perhaps new rungs have not been added. Perhaps there is a new ladder all together. I’m going to break the news to you: helmet cams do not prepare you to climb it, they only capture your poor judgment in high definition.

Jeff Jackson is a professor of Outdoor Adventure at Algonquin College in Pembroke, Ontario, and is the co-author of Managing Risk: Systems Planning for Outdoor Adventure Programs, published by Direct Bearing Inc.

This article originally appeared in Rapid, Spring 2012. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.

Kennedy Paddles in the Yukon

Photo: Courtesy Canadian River Expedition — Robert Kennedy paddle

Robert Kennedy, Jr. and his family are set to travel to the Yukon later this summer to paddle the Alsek River.

The Alsek flows through Kluane National Park, which contains the world’s largest non-polar ice cap and is home to Mount Kennedy—named for the former president, John F. Kennedy.

In 1965 the president’s brother (Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s father) climbed the 4,300-meter (14,000’) summit. The Kennedy family’s weeklong rafting expedition on the Aslek is the first visit to the Yukon by the Kennedys since 1965. The trip will be run by local outfitter Neil Hartling of Nahanni River Adventures and Canadian River Expeditions.

Kennedy is an environmental lawyer and founder of the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental group that monitors and defends rivers in the U.S., Canada and other countries around the world.

Prior to embarking on his river trip, Kennedy will give public presentation at the Yukon Arts Centre in Whitehorse on Wednesday, August 7 at 8 p.m., titled “Our Environmental Destiny.”

Kennedy is known for his powerful and eloquent presentations that call for increased commitment to preserving the integrity of our environment.

Tickets available through all YAC outlets and tickets are $20.

Visit Canadian River Expedition’s blog for more information.

Daily Photo: Canoe Flower

Photo: bcgrote — Canoe sculpture in Vegas

“This great artwork is in front of Vdara at City Center, Las Vegas. It looks like a Bird of Paradise flower, but is made of old canoes! Entrancing!” says the photographer.

This photo is was taken by Flickr user bcgrote and licensed under Creative Commons. Want to see your photo here? Send to [email protected] with subject line Daily Photo.

Daily Photo: Dawn

What’s your favorite time of day to get on the water?

This photo is was taken by Flickr user sybarite48 and licensed under Creative Commons. Want to see your photo here? Send to [email protected] with subject line Daily Photo.

Daily Photo: Great, Except…

A lovely, quiet canoe camp at south end of Loch Suaineabhal—but infested with sheep ticks!

This photo is was taken by Calum McRoberts and licensed under Creative Commons. Want to see your photo here? Send to [email protected] with subject line Daily Photo.

Daily Photo: Almost Ready

Almost ready to get on the water in Départ Port Martin, Langon.

This photo is was taken by Flickr user sybarite48 and licensed under Creative Commons. Want to see your photo here? Send to [email protected] with subject line Daily Photo.

Daily Photo: Spirit of Haida Gwaii

“The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, The Jade Canoe,” bronze sculpture by Bill Reid, celebrates the important of the canoe. You can view the scuplture at the Vancouver Airport in Richmond, British Columbia.

This photo is was taken by D. Gordon E. Robertson and licensed under Creative Commons. Want to see your photo here? Send to [email protected] with subject line Daily Photo.

Stroke Style for Short Canoes

Skills

In the past decade short solo canoes have bobbed into the whitewater scene. Now, short and long solo boats share the river in about equal numbers, and we expect to see four new sub-10- foot canoes hitting the rivers this year. Paddlers are attracted to these canoes because they are responsive, lightweight and well suited for technical rapids and popular low-volume creeks. They offer canoeists something different and are simply fun to paddle, once you figure them out.

Short canoes require adjustments in paddling style to maximize the performance of their unique hull features. Sure, these tricks work in long boats too, but the response time of a short canoe is almost instantaneous, and the effort required to accelerate and pivot is so much less than in longer and heavier boats.

Short canoes tend to be slower and have less glide, so you will want to reduce the use of speed-sapping friction strokes like the stern pry and J-stroke. Instead, paddle by carving an inside circle and use bow control strokes to adjust your direction while maintaining forward momentum. This will allow you to focus on dodging rocks and driving your canoe through converging currents.

Use the slower hull speed of the short canoe to your advantage. Cruise through a rapid at a relaxed pace, then when you need to manoeuvre, accelerate using on- or off-side forward strokes. These canoes are so responsive that simply adding one efficient correction stroke will completely change your direction. Anticipate this using the opposing forward or cross forward stroke to finish the move.

Playing with stroke length can help too.

A long stroke tends to turn short canoes. Why? Think about your traditional stroke with lots of torso rotation and reach. In many of these short boats you’d be engaging your paddle literally at the bow of the canoe—a long way from its sensitive pivot point at your hips.

Short strokes produce straighter paths and allow a quicker stroke rate. Typically most people paddle a Rival something like this: Long forward stroke—glide—stern correction—recovery—long forward stroke—glide—stern correction. However, an Esquif Spanish Fly is more like: Stroke— stroke—stroke—off-side forward stroke—stroke— stroke. With so little glide, if you need to get somewhere, you need to be always driving these little boats forward.

Some view short canoes as less stable than comfortable-feeling traditional solo canoes, when in fact, they are just more responsive to tilt.

The ease of tilting can actually keep you more stable because you can engage the boat’s edge by using leg and hip movement within your outfitting, and avoid risky body leans more commonly used in large canoes.

In short canoes you can easily use outside edge control for lightning fast pivot turns. By gently pressing down the outside leg to engage the outside edge, you can hold spectacular and dynamic draws to manoeuvre the tightest turns and mid-stream changes in direction. With your body held vertically throughout a turn you are less likely to capsize as the smaller and lighter boat can be securely gripped through good outfitting.

Low volume rapids filled with rocks, waves and slot moves are the playgrounds for which short canoes are made. Adapting paddling skills to short canoes is new and different and will expand your horizons of fun and excitement on the river.

Andrew Westwood is an open canoe instructor at the Madawaska Kanu Centre, member of Team Esquif and author of The Essential Guide to Canoeing. www.westwoodoutdoors.ca

This article originally appeared in Rapid, Early Summer 2010. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.

Sweet Protection Strutter Helmet Review

Photo: www.sweetprotection.com — Sweet Protection Strutter Helmet

A review of the Sweet Protection Strutter from Adventure Kayak magazine.

Strutter

Water Helmet

Let’s face it, sea kayakers don’t strap on helmets that often, and when we do we want to look really, really cool. The Strutter looks as cool as it sounds, and it’s made with carbon fiber-reinforced thermoplastic to protect your noggin from the jagged rocks beneath that wave you were looking so cool surfing.

www.sweetprotection.com • $199

This article originally appeared in Adventure Kayak, Spring 2013. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.