Weekly Kayak News, May 9, 2013

Photo: Courtesy Big Chop — Weekly Kayak News, May 9, 2013

Vancouver Summer Paddle Series Kicks Off

The Big Chop Summer Paddle Series is a 10 race series based out of Vanier Park in Vancouver, BC. Since the first race launched in 2007, the series has grown to become one of the largest multi-boat paddle races in Canada. The Big Chop is open to SUP, surfskies, outriggers, kayaks and canoes, and the emphasis is on fun and inclusivity with a hint of friendly competition. Line up on the start line under the Burrard Street Bridge with the setting sun in your face and the warm summer breeze on your back. After paddling the scenic course at your own pace, be sure to stay for a cold drink, hotdogs and for the chance to win draw prizes. The first race kicks off tonight, Thursday May 9, and the series continues every second Thursday to mid-September. New this year, the final race will be held on a Saturday (September 14) and be called the “Super Chop”—the distances will be longer (3, 7 and 15 kilometers) and the post-race party will include a BBQ, live band, beer and prize giveaway. Organizers are expecting 300 paddlers on the start line, making the Super Chop the largest multi-boat paddle race in Canada. Additional race details and registration links can be found at www.bigchop.ca.

Danny Mongno to Join Team Kokatat

Kokatat has a long history of sponsoring some of paddling’s most influential and iconic athletes. In May, the brand welcomes paddling instructor and Werner ambassador Danny Mongno to Team Kokatat. Mongno has been heavily involved in paddlesports since his introduction to kayaking at the age of 18. Now 40, he is a full-time Werner Paddles employee and travels the world teaching clinics that help athletes improve their paddling skills. Mongno’s industry experience adds another level of expertise and capabilities to Kokatat’s athlete program. “We’re excited to have Danny on our team and representing us at all the kayaking events he attends throughout the year,” says Jeff Turner, Sales and Design Manager with Kokatat. To learn more about Mongno and Kokatat’s complete roster of athletes and ambassadors, visit www.kokatat.com/team.

Bamboo… Miracle Material

It seems like you can find just about anything made from bamboo these days, from sports bras, paddles and bicycles, to furniture and flooring. Two cool new products made from this versatile, renewable material are Grass Racks‘ sport racks and SOLO Eyewear’s polarized Noliawood sunglasses.

Since launching in November 2012, Grassracks is ready to release its second round of products in time for summer. These Malvern, PA-based board sport enthusiasts have designed a new line of bamboo racks that cater to storing and displaying bikes, boards and skis. But we think they’d look even better draped with paddles! Meanwhile, San Diego-based SOLO Eyewear plans to debut a polarized collection, featuring SOLO’s signature bamboo arms, this May. Like all of SOLO’s collections, the polarized line is handcrafted and made with recycled bamboo.

Daily Photo: Back in the Habit

Photo: Virginia Marshall — Daily Photo: Back in the Habit

Depending where you are in this watery world, you may already be enduring it, or you may have been spared…for now. Pull out your mesh hats, jackets and pants with elasticized ankles—they’re here, and they’re hungry for your blood.

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Daily Photo: Water Catcher

Photo: K Pyette — Daily Photo: Water Catcher

Fetching water in the early morning in Wabakimi Provincial Park.

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Profile: Ben Marr

This profile originally appeared in Rapid magazine.

Ben Marr was just nine years old when his dad bought him his first boat—a Perception Dancer. Four years later, he was rolling, cartwheeling and splitwheeling a Perception Jib and sitting down with Rapid publisher Scott MacGregor for a Q&A about the Jib in our Summer 2000 issue (“Small People, Small Boats,” page 32).

“I’ve had a long, gradual learning curve,” says Marr, now 24, about his road to becoming one of the world’s top big wave riders. “The Madawaska River trained me and my old man for the Ottawa River’s Middle Channel, and the Middle Channel trained us for the Main. I went from weekend warrior to summer resident.”

An invitation to the 2011 Whitewater Grand Prix gave him the chance to compete against an international who’s who of sponsored paddlers. Marr finished first in all three of the event’s freestyle stages and second overall.

It seems surprising, then, that Marr didn’t attend the recent Freestyle World Championships in Plattling, Germany. “I didn’t try out for the team,” he says. “Wave surfing and competition hole riding are completely different. You wouldn’t see me do well there.”

Behind his modesty is a preference for pushing limits on bigger features rather than smaller, more technical championship venues.

“Everyone was turned on by the Grand Prix,” he says, recognizing the impact that the much-hyped competition promised the whitewater community and his own career. “The format served my style way more than traditional freestyle competition.”

Still, Marr focuses more on having a good time than anything else. Case in point, his signature mullet. “It turns out the boys in the ‘80s were onto something,” he kids. “It’s a hit at parties and a great way to keep hair out of your face.”

He also still spends time on the river with family. This past March, he ran the Ottawa in a tandem kayak with his 83-year-old grandmother.

“My Dad took Gran down the Ottawa in a canoe once. After a flip resulting in a swim, my dad was no longer allowed to put her in such peril—my aunt’s rules. But Gran was keen for another go so I told her I would be happy to bring her down and we wouldn’t have to tell. She was stoked.”

With his performance at the Grand Prix and an international paddling resume that includes surfing many of the world’s most intimidating big waves, Marr seems a shoe- in for big time sponsorship. But pro circuit recognition has so far been elusive. “I would love to get my hands on some sponsorship dollars,” he says. “I would go on way more paddling trips and spend time focusing on racing.”

This article originally appeared in Rapid, Summer/Fall 2011. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.

Daily Photo: Bewitched

03224d1fcb0108937e9b07deb18cf473_XL — Photo: Lee Gilbert

While out exploring the beach in Green’s Harbour, Newfoundland, Lee Gilbert discovered this gnarled branch framing a view of House Cove. ” I called it the ‘witch’s hand’ due to recovering from ankle reconstruction and my legs were dead tired by the time I walked this small section of remote beach!” says Gilbert, who blogs about his kayaking adventures at A Whole Bunch of Ings.com.

How To Canoe Self-Rescue On A Solo Whitewater Trip

Woman paddling yellow canoe solo through rapids — Your remote expedition survival tool. | Photo: Destination Ontario

On remote expeditions, your canoe is your number one survival tool. Losing it is not an option. When traveling solo on whitewater expeditions, the only self-rescue gear I have is 100 feet of rope (one 70-foot throw bag plus the painter rope) attached to the canoe and to me.

Man paddling canoe solo with rope attached to the back of his PFD. — Eric demonstrating his self rescue setup. | Photo: Eric Leclair

If I flip, this setup frees my hands to swim hard and reach shore quickly with enough slack to hold my canoe in a dynamic way.

[ Paddling Trip Guide: View canoeing skills and instructional clinics ]

I clip into the rope via a quick-release belt on my PFD. Of course, it’s potentially very dangerous to swim attached to 100 feet of rope—it can snag on rocks and other obstructions, pinning you in the current—but in continuous, high-volume rapids with no recovery pools, this method may be the only option to retrieve your boat.

I only use this solo canoe self rescue technique when the risk posed by losing my boat outweighs the risk of swimming with the rope.

Using this technique has saved my life. Traveling solo on the Nahanni in a September snowfall, I flipped in Wrigley Whirlpool, a nasty rapid that took me by surprise 5 km upstream of its indicated location on my map.

[ Also read: Parallel Canoe Rescue Technique ]

I had just enough rope to swim to shore before the line shuddered with the load of the canoe. With the strong current, swimming my fully loaded canoe to shore would have taken far more time than I had in the icy water.

This article was originally published in Rapid‘s Summer/Fall 2010 issue. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions here, or browse the archives here.

Your remote expedition survival tool. | Photo: Destination Ontario

Lost And Found: Lessons Learned From Getting Lost On Trip

There’s a difference between being lost and not knowing your whereabouts. Throughout my wilderness travels I’ve succumbed to the second more than the first. On river trips I’ve been totally mystified on which twist or turn of the river I was propelling myself around. I’ve crossed countless lakes, clueless of which bay I was drifting across. I’ve wandered off more portage trails than I care to admit. I even once guided a film crew to the wrong access point on a familiar river—how embarrassing!

How Drones Are Revolutionizing The Search For Missing Paddlers

Lost and found: Lessons learned from getting lost on trip

Fortunately, being totally lost has been rare. But it has happened. And when it does, the anxiety factor increases dramatically. They say not to panic but when you are truly lost it’s hard not to run through the woods in a cold sweat, waving your arms around, screaming, “I’m going to die! I’m going to die!” at the top of your lungs. At least for me anyway.

He who walks with wolves will learn to howl

My worst case was during a solo trip down the Missinaibi River in my early twenties. It was on an early morning drift when I noticed a lone wolf lapping up water along the bank. As I snapped open my camera box, the wolf took flight into the thick boreal forest. Keyed up from the sighting, I beached my canoe and ran through the bush in hopes of catching up to the animal and capturing it on film.

Ten minutes into the chase I realized the wolf was long gone and I hadn’t a clue where I was. My compass and map, of course, were sitting on the deck of my canoe. Suddenly, each jack pine surrounding me looked identical to the next, the mosquito population seemed to increase considerably and the forest became deafeningly silent. Yes, I began to panic. Who wouldn’t?

My days as a Boy Scout didn’t help much. I retained little from our meetings at the community church every second week, except that moss grows on the north side of the tree. Apparently, it doesn’t. Moss was growing on all sides of the trees where I was standing.

Looking to life’s great teacher: television

In my youth we didn’t have television shows like Survivor Man or Man vs. Wild. I gathered my woods lore through shows like Grizzly Adams and Gentle Ben.

“Shortcuts make long delays.”—Pippin to Frodo Baggins, authorities on the subject. | Photo: istockphoto.com/ ninjaMonkeyStudio

8 Things You Don’t Know About Getting Lost, But Should

It was an old episode of The Forest Rangers that saved me. I recalled Joe Two Rivers telling the gang that you can deduce direction from the sun. I remembered that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Since it was early morning and the wolf was sighted on the west bank of the river, I figured that if I walked toward the rising sun, I would eventually get back to the river. I did. And there to greet me was the wolf standing a few feet from my canoe.

This time, when I unsnapped my camera box and the animal dashed into the woods again, I decided to stay put. I jumped back into my canoe and spent the rest of the day being slightly unsure of my whereabouts, but not lost.

[ Paddling Buyer’s Guide: View all canoe tripping accessories ]

Fun fact: Although Kevin Callan is known for his longtime Butt End column in Canoeroots, his debut article was published in the second issue of Rapid in the spring of 1999. His Butt End column kicked off in the Spring 2006 issue of Canoeroots.

Cover of the 2023 Paddling Buyer’s Guide This article was first published in the Summer/Fall 2011 issue of Canoeroots Magazine and was republished in the 2023 Paddling Buyer’s Guide. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

Someone tell Kevin the river is behind him and the correct direction is “down.” | Feature photo: Kevin Callan

Flushed: Adding Death to the Equation

Stories

Photo: Tyler Fox — Whitewater worst-case scenario

Usually we don’t have to defend our reasons for paddling because it is so obvious to us why we do it, but a funeral is different. Some time ago a friend of mine went to a funeral for a young man who had been a fellow kayaker. The man had been caught on a log on a difficult run, trapped, and drowned in his kayak. My friend tried to say a few words about him. He found himself talking about how much the man enjoyed kayaking, how he celebrated his time on the river and how much fun he had there.

He thought he’d done a good job explaining, until afterwards several members of the family cornered him and challenged him in an attempt to understand their grief.

How could taking such risks be worth it when it ended this way—a smart 22-year-old with his whole life ahead of him, gone, drowned doing something for fun?

My friend struggled for answers, and slipped into clichés, “At least he died doing what he loved.” At which the mother broke down in tears and said, “I miss my son. Dying isn’t loving.”

Tongue-tied and embarrassed, my friend did the best he could, but later confided to me, “They kept asking questions and I didn’t know what to say. Looking at the mother, I said all the things we normally do but it sounded stupid with her standing there crying.”

When somebody dies paddling, the entire house of cards—the laughter, exhilaration, friendships and good times—suddenly collapses. We’re left with a feeling of pain that is utterly foreign to everything that seems so special about the sport.

We need to try to find answers and dump the clichés in the trash where they belong. Clichés are thoughtless denials whose purpose is to save us from facing the disconnect between what we want to believe and the death that is staring at us. Statements like “that’s the price of pushing the envelope” beg a lot of questions: Why is this envelope so important that its price is death?

I don’t hear many answers on any of today’s blogs or videos. If someone thinks that this cliché is an answer, then he should try it out on the mother of a friend who has died. Hopefully before the words escape his lips, he’ll realize how dumb the statement really is.

We choose to go on the river of our own free will; we don’t have to be there. We aren’t saving our family or waging war against an evil empire. We aren’t doing anything that has value in the outside world. However, we are doing something that can have huge personal value, suffuse our lives with energy and challenge and beauty. But little of that is expressed in the usual reasons that people give, and it certainly isn’t expressed in any cliché I’ve ever heard.

Please, from now on if you hear somebody saying  a cheap, unthinking cliché, ask him what he really means. Demand an answer. If we’ve got our finger on the pulse of this wondrous thing called a river, and if we are going to go places where death is a possibility, then we need to think more deeply about why we’re there. Because when you add death into the equation, the answers change.

Doug Ammons has been a world-class kayaker for 25 years, and is a PhD in psychology, musician and martial artist. He was recently named “one of the ten greatest adventurers since 1900” by Outside magazine for his audacious class V solo expeditions.

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

Daily Photo: Paradise is…

cb1c367cf984f0ad2cae4fa928f517fc_XL — Photo: Grand Velas Riviera Maya

Crystal clear Caribbean waters in Riviera Maya, Quintana Roo, on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Where is your paddling paradise? Share your photos and comments below, on Adventure Kayak’s Facebook page, or send to [email protected].

This photo was taken by Flickr user Grand Velas Riviera Maya and is licensed under Creative Commons.

Pelican Premium

Photo: bertknot / Flickr — Pelican Premium

Long-time, affordable recreational kayak manufacuturer Pelican International, based out of Laval, Quebec, has just released a new Premium line of kayaks for Spring 2013. The new Premium kayaks are designed for paddlers who are willing to invest a little more in their kayak, without breaking the bank.

Pelican’s new Premium models offer higher performance hull designs, premium components and features and are made from a new polyethylene RAM-X Premium material. A special additive on the deck creates a glossy finish for a higher-end look, without sacrificing bombproof durability.

Premium sit-in models include:

Escape 100X and 120X:

Adjustable foot pegs
Stern hinged quick lock hatch with storage pouch
Cockpit table with day hatch and bottle holder
Adjustable padded backrest with seat cushion
Elastic bungee cords in bow and stern
Knee pads

Liberty 100X

Adjustable foot pegs
Bow and stern quick-lock hatch with stern storage pouch
Cockpit table with molded-in compartment day hatch and bottle holder
Adjustable padded backrest with seat cushion
Elastic bungee cord in bow
Knee pads

Premium sit-on-top models include:

Strike 100X and 120X:

Molded footrests
Paddle tie-down
Adjustable padded backrest and seat cushion
Stern storage platform with bungee cords
Front, rear and side carrying handles
Six pad eyes

More information can be found at www.pelicansport.com

Image courtesy Flickr / bertknot