Forward Forever

Skills

Photo: Paul Villecourt — Forward Forever

The steady, hypnotic rhythm of stroking your canoe toward a distant shore eases the tension in your mind. Now, how to rid yourself of the tension in your back, shoulders and wrists! Effective forward stroke technique can lessen the strain on your body so you can paddle all day and not even feel it.

Let’s start by breaking down your stroke into the large and small muscles doing the work. Use your larger abdominal and back muscles for the heavy work of moving the canoe forward, and assign your arms to tuning the position of the paddle for a relaxed catch and recovery.

Remember, we don’t so much as pull our paddle through the water as anchor our blade and drive our torso and the canoe forward. Efficient propulsion comes from gently rotating your hips—sort of like rocking a baby in your arms but with a twist toward your paddling side. Keep your butt planted on the seat and alternately pivot your hips forward and back to drive the canoe forward. Bend your arms and turn your shoulders to complement this movement and guide the paddle from recov- ery through to the beginning of a new stroke.

At the start of each new stroke, stiffen your wrists and arms to minimize their effort.

As the stroke progresses, lower your top hand and shoulder and drive the stroke with the smooth rotation of your abdominal and back muscles. Avoid overworking your arms and shoulders; keep the paddle close to the gunwale and relax your grip on the paddle shaft.

Consider the sit and switch technique when fighting winds, or when you want some extra speed while traveling a straight course. Sit and switch balances your effort on both sides of the canoe and eliminates the muscle fatigue that comes from steering with correction strokes.

For best results, synchronize your strokes with your partner, shorten your stroke length so the paddle doesn’t pass your hip, and keep an upright posture. Switch after six to eight strokes or when the canoe begins to veer off course.

Paddle selection can also lesson fatigue and strain on your arms and shoulders.

A narrow, long blade—like the ottertail—is a great choice for distance paddling. For sit and switch, a shorter bent shaft paddle works best.

Whoever said “no pain, no gain” was certainly no canoeist. Efficient forward strokes allow you to set your sights on a distant shore and feel great when you get there.

This article on the forward canoe stroke was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine. This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Stay Sharp

Skills

It’s simple to sharpen a knife, making it both easier and safer to use. This method works with any non-serrated blade.

SHARPENING TOOLS

You’ll need a medium-grit and a fine-grit whetstone. A coarse grit stone is only necessary if the knife is badly nicked or very dull. The quality of the abrasive is more important than whether the stone is natural or synthetic. Use water to lubricate diamond stones and cutting oil or WD-40 on natural stones. For safety, your stones should be at least six inches long.

PROCEDURE

1. Dip the blade of your knife in boiling water for about 30 seconds to make it easier to sharpen.

2. Begin with the coarse stone. Raise the back of the blade about 15 degrees and cut into the stone.

To sharpen Scandinavian-style blades, do not use a 15-degree angle. Instead, hold the beveled portion of the edge flat against the stone.

3. Hone one edge until a burr appears on the opposite side—you can feel it with a finger. Then hone the other side until a burr appears. Switch to the fine stone and continue sharpen- ing, alternating sides every few strokes until the burrs are gone. Maintain a film of oil to float away steel particles that may otherwise clog the pores of the stone. Clean the stone by wiping off the surface and applying clean oil frequently to keep suspended grit from dulling the sharpened edge.

4. Check for blade sharpness. A knife is considered sharp if it will shave hair from the back of your hand. A less barbaric method is to shine a bright light on the edge. You should see no flat spots or inconsistencies.

Grit clogs the pores of sharpening stones and they become smoother over time. You’ll prolong their life if you occasionally boil them out. Simply submerge your stone in a pot of boiling water with a few drops of detergent added and let it soak for a few minutes.

Butcher’s steels do not sharpen a knife; they merely realign the microscopic teeth of the edge. A steel is handy for touching up a knife—it’s simply a coarse version of a leather strop—but it can’t take the place of a genuine whetstone.

Cliff Jacobson is a wilderness guide, Eagle Scout and the author of Expedition Canoeing.

This article on knife sharpening was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Captive Canoemaker

Stories

Photo: Adrian Myers — Captive Canoemaker

“The lake was ours,” wrote Konstantin Schwartz in his diary, recalling the moment he and a comrade paddled out of the reedy shallows and into the gently rippled expanse of Whitewater Lake in the Manitoba wilderness. Many canoeists alone on a secluded lake have probably experienced a similar feeling.

Unteroffizier Schwartz and his companion weren’t alone, however, or free. They were German prisoners of war held in a labor camp at Whitewater Lake in the backcountry of the Riding Mountain National Park, southwestern Manitoba, from 1943-45. Most were Afrika Korps captured in Egypt after the Second Battle of El-Alamein in late 1942.

The craft paddled by Schwartz was one of an unknown number of dugout canoes built by the PoWs in their spare time. The Germans were free to canoe the isolated lake and occasionally broke away for several hours to visit Ukrainian farmers they’d befriended. Permanent escape was all but a geographical impossibility. The handcrafted canoes may have been hypothetical getaway vessels, but even if the prisoners paddled and portaged for weeks, they’d still be in the center of an enemy continent.

This rare canoeing chapter of the Second World War might have been lost if not for the recent efforts of Stanford University Archeology PhD candidate Adrian Myers. The Vancouver-born scholar has just wrapped up three years of fieldwork at Whitewater Lake and is currently cataloging and analyzing his findings. His study focus is on the PoW camp as a whole, but the canoes have proved to be a diverting sidelight.

Myers and his team uncovered six Prisoner of War-built canoes in various states of preservation.

“This was a labor detachment sent to Riding Mountain National Park for the purpose of logging. So as the prisoners came across trees that were big enough, they set them aside for recreational use,” says Myers, who has identified the canoemakers’ likely tools: a bow saw, axes, chisels, hammers and knives. Mature fir, spruce, or poplar trees logged from the surrounding forests probably provided the raw material.

In addition to the canoes identified in situ and two preserved at Fort Dauphin Museum, more probably existed. “The historical documentation mentions a flotilla,” says Myers. “They might’ve made 20 or 30.”

How did the prisoners know how to make canoes? This is a question that Myers is still looking to answer; he admits that he doesn’t have hard proof but an oral account he came across suggests the presence of a magazine at the camp.

“Could someone with no knowledge of boats just carve a canoe? Would it float and go where you wanted it to go, or not? We looked closely at the canoe in the Fort Dauphin Museum and it’s a sailing canoe with hardware—either someone knew how to do it from before the war, or they had a magazine in the camp with a picture or instructions.” Myers is hoping to unearth a publication from the period to verify the oral account. Until then, German engineering will have to be explanation enough.

Ned Morgan is a writer and editor living a short portage away from Georgian Bay, Ontario.

This article on dug out canoes was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Tumblehome: Imagining Reality

Stories

Photo: from the collection of Don Starkell — Tumblehome: Imagining Reality

Don Starkell and I are talking in Winnipeg, as we do from time to time. He is poking my chest with the stubs of his amputated, once-frostbitten fingers.

“Never,” he growls. “I never wore a PFD on my trips because I didn’t want any false sense of security. It’s hard enough paddling coastal waters and all the hazards they present, without having to worry about a false sense of security.”

That was Don; opinionated, inspiring, accomplished…different. With his passing earlier this year from cancer, we lost a genuine paddling legend.

Don’s passion—his obsession—saw him through two particularly epic journeys in an impressive lifetime paddling resumé.

His 19,603-kilometer jaunt with sons Dana and Jeff from Winnipeg, Manitoba, to the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records.

His shorter yet fiercely ambitious three-year kayak romp from Churchill, Manitoba, to just short of Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories (he was frozen in just a few kilometers from his goal) very nearly landed him in the morgue.

Don’s journeys added two timeless books to the paddling canon. Paddle to the Amazon (1987) and Paddle to the Arctic (1995) are must-reads for any paddler looking for inspiration.

Don’s story is finding new life in 2012. In March, there was an online reunion of all of the principals involved in the Paddle to the Amazon odyssey, except Don, in a live webcast hosted by filmmaker Chris Forde. Forde didn’t hear about Paddle to the Amazon until some time after the book was published, but one read was all it took for the Toronto documentarian to begin an 11-year journey to bring the Starkells’ achievement back into public consciousness. Forde is in the process of creating a multi-layered, interactive film and website that will inspire budding adventurers for years to come.

What is it about Don Starkell that makes his life story so compelling?

For me, it is that he acted on what he believed in and drew us all along with him. More importantly, in imagining the canoe as a vessel in which to travel a north-south axis, he added a rich international complexity and diversity to the east-west fur trade axis that we all know and love. But Don did more than that.

He is one of those rare individuals who dared to imagine and to commit everything to following through. In the opening sequence of Forde’s film, Don is speaking. “I love the word imagination,” he says to the camera. “…dreams are only dreams. Imagination flowing in action is reality.”

James Raffan sneaks into the storage facility at the Canadian Canoe Museum to walk past the Starkells’ Amazon canoe, Orellana, to remind himself that anything is possible.

This article on Don Starkell was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

Blueways Here to Stay

Trips

Photo: flickr.com/jfl1066 — Blueways Here to Stay

Water trails, blueways, canoe routes… whatever you call them, designated routes with facilities for paddlers are cropping up on waterways across the country. Presently, there are more than 150 water trails throughout the U.S. alone, with more in the works. Last year, as part of the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated two rivers in each state for blueway status, giving local groups direct access to federal planning resources.

Powell Forest Canoe Route

BRITISH COLUMBIA

What’s a former timber town to do when the logging industry goes away? On B.C.’s Sunshine Coast, residents and ex loggers in Powell River have taken the future into their own hands, redeveloping their forest and lake system for the benefit of canoe enthusiasts everywhere. This five-day, 57-kilometer water trail traces a semi-circle through eight lakes, featuring soaring mountain scenery, lush coastal forest, well-equipped campsites and five portages en route.

Jefferson River Water Trail

MONTANA

Two hundred and seven years ago, while on expedition to map the West and reach the Pacific, Meriweather Lewis and Wil- liam Clark paddled dugout canoes up the Jefferson with a crew of 31 aided by a 16-year-old Shoshone female tracker/translator named Sacagawea. Today, members of the Lewis and Clark Heritage Foundation are working to develop a six-day canoe trail on the Jeff from Twin Bridges to Three Forks at the Missouri River headwaters, passing through the Tobacco Root Mountains en route. At pres- ent, primitive camping is permitted on gravel bars below the high water mark.

Root River Water Trail

MINNESOTA

The 80-mile Root River Water Trail runs from Preston on the South Branch to the Lower Mississippi Wildlife Refuge. Attractive campsites along the way make it easy to enjoy a relaxing multi-day trip with opportunities to stop and explore a variety of riverside villages. The route is also flanked by a paved bike path for its entire length, making a paddle and pedal trip a fun and environmentally friendly shuttle option.

Thousand Islands Water Trail

ONTARIO

Rumrunners used the back bays and hid- den channels of the lower St. Lawrence River islands to hide from the law during U.S. prohibition. Now, those same hiding places are part of the 1000 Islands Water Trail. The trail’s nine short routes are accessible for day tripping, or link them together for an extended paddle between Brockville and the historic fort city of Kingston. Combine sections six through eight for a terrific weekend trip, staying at scenic St. Lawrence Islands National Park campsites, seeing the Ironsides heron colony, stopping off at Boldt Castle and viewing the petroglyphs at Tar Island.

Delaware River Water Trail

NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY and PENNSYLVANIA

The Delaware River stretches 326 miles from the Catskill Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. The upper section is a Blue Ribbon trout stream and provides some challenging whitewater, with public access and private camping facilities from Hancock to Port Jervis. The middle section from Milford through to Kittatinny passes through the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area with facilities for paddlers and campers.

This article on water trails was published in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine. This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

The Ultimate Canyon Rig

Stories

Photo: Virginia Marshall — The Ultimate Canyon Rig

After my first canyon trip on the Green River’s Gates of Lodore last summer, I was hooked. This feature story began quite shamelessly self-serving. I wanted to set up the Rapid team with a killer raft rig in case any of us got the call from a friend with an open spot on a permit. Then I realized, if I’m this intrigued and excited about multi-day canyon trips and dream of the Grand Canyon, most of you probably do too.

I enlisted the help of Rapid columnist and long-time southwestern river guide, Jeff Jackson. After weeks of mail ordering from Rapid ’s partners AIRE, NRS, Sawyer, Wa- tershed and Yeti, we finally found ourselves at the put-in of our local river on a cool, cloudy spring day building our ultimate canyon rig. In this story, we share why we chose what we did, how we put it all together and what we learned along the way.

THE RAFT

The base of our ultimate canyon rig is the raft itself. We chose the AIRE 15.6R ($4,353). At just under 16 feet long, it’s large enough for multi-day trips, but still reasonable on smaller rivers. We won’t be racing or running big drops so a traditional shape and full-sized, round (that’s what the R stands for) tubes will provide a stable and dry ride. For us, this is a family raft and gear boat for raft-supported kayak trips. We ordered three thwarts for seats ($228 each), so we can also paddle-guide it. AIRE boats are light, beautifully finished and come with the best warranty in the business— if we wreck in the next 10 years, AIRE fixes it. We picked orange because it’s bright and it’s the only color not used by the rafting companies around home. Dan, Rapid Media TV’s cameraman, already calls it Punkin. I prefer Jack.

THE FRAME

When it came to the raft frame, we first considered a boutique-built custom job, but settled on something more modular. Being 2,000 miles from the Colorado, Green and Salmon, we needed the option to break the frame down for travel.

We may stern rig this boat with thwarts at the front for the neighborhood kids, and on longer trips we may add another dry box or cooler. The modular NRS frames allow for incredible versatility. You buy the frame in pieces, starting with the outer rails, and then add crossbars (88” side rails with six 66” crossbars, $517) to hang gear. AIRE provides blueprints of their rafts with dimensions that determine length and width of the frame and sizing of the dry box and cooler. Generally, it is best to go as big as the raft will allow.

THE OARS

Most people buy one nice set of oars and one set of cheap spares to be lashed to the boat and hopefully never used. After ordering our nice set of 9.5-foot
Cataract SGG oar shafts ($277.90/pair) and Cataract Magnum seven-inch blades ($143.90/pair), we received a call from the new owner of Sawyer Paddles and Oars. Peter Newport was keen to send us a set of 9.5-foot Sawyer SquareTop Dynelite oars ($729.96/pair), the most beautiful we’ve ever seen.

The SquareTop name comes from the oversized section of Douglas fir above the rope wrap that acts like a built-in counter balance. Despite the added strength of a sexy carbon fiber braid wrap, we’ll be saving these babies for deepwater rivers and hanging on the wall in the office.

CARGO

We started with the Cambridge Welding aluminum dry box ($393) that we sourced directly from AIRE. The box is 15.5”x15.5”x40” and drops perfectly between our raft tubes with an inch to spare on each side. We liked that the box comes standard with custom welded brackets so it hangs from two crossbars.

We chose Yeti’s Tundra 110 ($449.99) as our cooler, 110 being the volume in quarts. Our raft has the width to accommodate a Tundra 120 or 125, but the 110 was spe- cially designed for rafting. Yeti worked with guides to design a cooler that fits in standard aluminum frames and nests so that the frame doesn’t bump the latches and you don’t bump your knuckles when opening the lid. As far as we’re concerned, Yeti builds the most rugged coolers on the market. If we were running
an 18-day trip in the Grand Canyon we’d mount a second 110.

Duffels offer better accessibility and who needs backpack straps to carry gear 25 yards up the beach? We ordered a couple Water- shed 105-litre Colorado duffels ($149.95 each) for personal gear. As a day deck bag for hiking shoes, sunscreen and other fiddly bits, we ordered the large Watershed Tramp Mesh Duffel ($69.95), although we could have gotten away with their smaller MD ($54.95). We’ll stuff the rest of the camping gear in less expensive dry backpack-style NRS Bill’s Bags ($69.96 to $94.95).

THE BUILD

Building the frame begins with setting the outer rails in place and lying the crossbars roughly where you think they will go.

The first big decision is where to set our NRS eight-inch-tall oar stands ($94.95/pair). We centered the oar stands on the frame— the neutral position for a gear boat. If we were to have a crew of bow paddlers, we’d move our rowing position back.

Instead of a guide seat, we opted to use our dry box with a one-inch foam pad ($69) we sourced from AIRE. Jeff told us that our seat should be set so that when you pull on the oars your butt is not rolling off the back, and when you push hard on the oars you are not sliding off the front. The position of your foot rail depends on the length of your legs. After a test run, I realized I needed to come forward on the seat to get closer to the oar stands due to my short torso. I had to push the NRS custom foot bar ($134.95) forward to give me more leg extension. Once you find the right spot, either leave the frame assembled, or mark it with a Sharpie to remember the perfect spot.

The placement of the foot bar dictates the position of the forward box, in our case the Yeti cooler. We sandwiched the Yeti between two crossbars and slung it using an NRS adjustable cooler mount ($74.95).

On a custom fabricated frame, builders use aluminum checker plate to create gear or walking platforms along the length of the frame. NRS uses modular side rail racks ($69.95 each) made of marine-grade plywood topped with a no-slip protective surface. These running boards make moving about the raft easier and safer.

Ahead of the cooler, we had room to rig an NRS Campsite Counter ($245). Talk about a multi-tasking piece of gear. It’s a folding camp table, a bench in the raft and could be used as a makeshift backboard. Under the table we hung a small NRS cargo net (without straps $54.95), forming a hammock-like storage area for smaller items and bags.

In the stern, behind the dry box, we slung a large NRS cargo platform ($54.95) that hangs like a trampoline and acts as a suspended floor. This is where we’ll pile the bigger dry bags, strapped down or covered with a cargo net.

Making sure the frame was still centered front-to-back and side-to-side, we ratcheted it tight and prepared the straps. To lash the frame to the raft, we chose beefier 1.5-inch NRS HD straps ($7.00–$11.40 each). We used clove hitches to prevent slipping and so the straps remain on the frame when it is removed. We positioned the buckles so the direction of pull to tighten is toward the center of the boat. This allows us to tighten the frame on the water from inside the raft. Once the frame is secure, we used our K- Pump 40 hand pump ($160) to hard blow the raft, further tightening the frame.

For the Cataract oars, we sourced NRS Atomic aluminum oarlocks ($74.95/pair) fastened using stainless springs and wash- ers ($6.95/set) and, instead of split rings, we ordered fancy lynch pins ($1.50 each). We chose threaded Sawyer Cobra Scull Lock oarlocks ($59.99 each) to use with the Sawyer SquareTops. We double-checked that both sets of oars can be used in both types of locks and we ordered a spare of each.

The one-piece Sawyers come ready to go pre-roped and with rubber oar stops. Our Cataract SGGs took a little more setting up.

First, we installed the molded oar sleeves ($14.95 each), which protect the oar shafts when rubbing against the oarlocks. Then we slipped on the large plastic oar stops ($29.95/ pair). We put on the NRS oar tethers ($39.95/pair), which are leashes for the oars in case we blow them out of the oarlocks, and snapped on the Cataract Magnum blades. Sitting in the guide position, we measured up the oars. After one day on the water, I figured that I wanted my hands closer together. I reset the oars, leaving just enough room for my thumb knuckles to pass by one another. Finally, we added a set of Cataract counterweights ($69.95/pair), making the oars feel almost weightless. What a difference these will make on a long trip.

Before our test run, we hung our spare oars with NRS oar keepers ($19.95/pair). We installed our NRS bow line and flip lines, and clipped in our throw bag. The rest of the gear we’ll test on our first real multi-day in our ultimate canyon rig.

RULES OF RIGGING

If you open it, close it. If you loosen it, tighten it.
Pad sharp edges to protect you and the boat.
Run straps through items rather than just over them.
As much as possible, strap items individually. If one strap blows it will not compromise the load.
Rig to flip.

KEEP STUFF OFF THE FLOOR

As a general rule, suspend all gear from your frame because:

The floor needs to flex and bend over waves.
This shares the load along the full length of the raft.
It gives the floor room to move if scrubbed or wrapped on rocks
You want to avoid abrasion between cargo and the floor.

STRAP MANAGEMENT

Mount the buckles so that you can tighten the straps from your guiding position.
Keep your working areas free of excess and dangling straps.
No straps dangling longer than your palm.
Wet the straps. When rigged wet, they will shrink and tighten as they dry throughout the day.
Pack a pair of pliers to pull straps tighter or free jammed cams.

CONTACTS

AIRE / NRS / Sawyer / Watershed / Yeti

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Rapid Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Rapid’s print and digital editions here.

Skills: Sliding

Skills

Flying over smooth bedrock with whitewater all around is paddling’s equivalent to powder skiing and is something that every boater should experience. As appealing as this high-speed application of our sport is, there are a number of things to consider and skills to develop before accelerating off the horizonline.

Generally, the best runnable slides are found in areas with high concentrations of granite—think the Sierra Nevada, Canadian Shield and the Southeastern U.S. Granite is the smoothest rock for your plastic boat to slide over, and the most forgiving if you end up sliding on something other than your hull.

When considering a slide, examine the surrounding rock. Most of the time, the characteristics of this rock will give you a good idea of the abrasiveness of the slide. Another clue is how violent the water is as it flows over the rock—explosions and rooster tails indicate underwater obstacles.

As you scout, ask yourself, how steep is the slide? The steeper and longer it is, the faster you will be going and the larger and deeper the landing pool needs to be. Also, pick out your ideal exit from the drop. You can work your way upstream and piece together your line from there. If one piece of the puzzle doesn’t fit, you can always seal launch halfway down. Finally, pick out any hazards that may exist in the slide. These include holes, piton rocks or curlers that can flip you in the shallow water.

It is important to be tuned in to the rocker profile and edges of your boat. You want to know that you can make it over rooster tails and ridges rather than pitoning, and that you won’t trip up on your edges. In general, creek boats with rounded edges are most forgiving on slides.

TIPS TO REMEMBER WHEN SLIDING

Be aggressive and try to drive your boat slightly faster than the water. Keep your boat on line and going straight with a combination of rudders and powerful forward sweeps. An active blade in the water is critical to minimize sideways sliding, spinouts or worse. Don’t ever find yourself with your blades in the air!

Have a plan B and C when running slides. This is a team effort, and often involves setting throw bags at holes and being ready for the worst case scenario, paddler unconsciousness.

Your primary goal is to stay upright and aggressive. In the event of a flip, roll as quickly as possible using any means necessary. Wear elbow pads so you can shield your face. A full-face helmet is also a wise investment.

Chris Gragtmans is a two-time Green Race Ironman Champion and Team Dagger athlete.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2012 issue of Rapid Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Rapid’s print and digital editions here.

Skills: 3 Greenland Rolls You Need to Know

Skills

All photos this page: Geoff Murray — Skills: 3 Greenland Rolls You Need to Know

Greenland rolling has its origins in the deep survival skills of Inuit hunters plying frigid Arctic seas. The ability to recover from any capsize, in any conditions, was a matter of necessity.

While there are some 35 different Greenland rolls, most are variations of a handful of fundamental rolls. You may want to know these more esoteric options for those occasions when, for example, you’ve had your fingers chomped by a vicious leopard seal (crook-of- the-arm roll) or become ensnared in your harpoon line (straightjacket roll).

But in our experience, mastering just three rolls—the standard Greenland roll, reverse sweep roll and storm roll—will empower you to recover from any capsize where you keep hold of your paddle.

Standard Greenland Roll

The Standard Greenland roll is the easiest of the three rolls to learn. Performed with an extended paddle for added leverage and flotation, it can be done slowly, giving you more time to think. Once dialed, it can be executed with your hands in a normal paddling position. This roll is the foundation for all other aft finishing rolls.

Demonstration of standard Greenland roll

Extend your paddle, gripping the blade shoulder-width apart. Rotate, hold the paddle alongside your kayak and tuck tightly forward to this side. Capsize and hold the tuck.
Pause and let the paddle float to the surface. Maintaining your tuck, move your pivot hand—the hand closest to the stern of the boat—to your pivot shoulder. This hand is like the center of a clock, it anchors to the pivot shoulder and stays with that shoulder throughout the roll. The pivot hand also sets your blade angle, so be patient with your sweep until it is in place. Now your body is ready to uncoil.
Uncoil your body, rotating onto your back just as you would float on your back while swimming. Engage your core muscles to get your shoulders parallel to the surface. The back float is key— utilizing the natural buoyancy of your body, it allows you to gain support from the water to leverage the kayak upright. As you uncoil, keep your pivot hand at the pivot shoulder and open that hip while driving up with your water (or lower) leg. The sweep shoulder moves up toward your sweep hand, finally meeting on the surface. Resist the urge to pull downward as you sweep.
To finish the roll, arch your back, drop your head back deeply into the water and continue to drive up with your water leg. Engage your abdominals and lift your body out of the water onto the back deck. At this point, both of your hands are facing palms up at your shoulders and the paddle is perpendicular to the kayak.

Reverse Sweep Roll

The reverse sweep roll starts with your body rotated and arching back, and finishes with your chest tucked forward over the front deck. The roll is essentially the opposite of the standard Greenland roll; while you again use an extended paddle and your body’s natural ability to float, you move the blade in the opposite direction and float face down. This roll is useful anytime you find yourself capsized to the back deck, as often happens while surfing or if you’ve just blown your standard Greenland roll.

Demonstrating reverse sweep Greenland-style roll

Extend the paddle, holding it with hands shoulder-width apart and palms facing upward. Rotate your body, look- ing back toward the stern, and place the extended paddle tip beyond the opposite gunwale.
When you’re ready to capsize, archback and use your core muscles to maintain this position with the paddle tip pinned to the gunwale. After capsizing, pause here with the top of your head sticking out of the water, close to your stern gunwale. The extended paddle tip should be out of the water, on the same side of the kayak as your head. Extend your pivot hand, on the other tip, straight down underneath your body. Bend your sweep arm and hold this hand close to your forehead without weighting the paddle. Arch your back— think cow pose in yoga—with both shoulders horizontal to the surface.
Sweep forward with your body, face down and shoulders horizontal, keeping the pivot hand below you and the sweep hand near your forehead. As you sweep toward the bow—body and blade in concert—drive up with your water leg.
Continue until your head, torso, and paddle are 90 degrees to the kayak, and then transfer the weight from your pivot hand to your sweep hand. Straighten that arm, pushing your sweep hand away from your face and driving the sweep blade down. Rounding your back—think cat pose in yoga—drive your head down with the paddle. Continue engaging your water leg.
At this point the kayak should be mostly upright and your head and sweep hand deep in the water. To finish, pull the paddle inward across your lap with even pressure on both hands, and bring your body over the front deck.

Storm Roll

Greenland-style storm roll

The storm roll is the best rough water roll. It requires minimal set-up and is very quick. Use it to paddle out through heavy surf—you start and end tucked forward so your head stays protected the whole time. As soon as you finish the roll, you are looking forward and in position to paddle quickly or roll again if needed.

Hold the paddle with your hands in regular paddling posi- tion. Rotate, tuck forward and reach both hands as far over the side of your kayak as possible, pressing the paddle faces to the hull as you capsize. Maintain your tuck with your face looking at the sky and continue reaching both hands around the bottom of your kayak. Push the paddle past the chine, toward the keel.
Your stern hand is now your push hand. This hand pushes down and forward along the kayak, using the hull to set an effective sweeping blade angle. The push hand moves from behind your hip at set-up to the foredeck at the finish, pressing the paddle hard to the kayak the whole time. Your forward hand is your sweep hand—as you push with your stern hand, you pull with your sweep hand. Don’t weight this hand; just sweep it along the surface.
As soon as you start to sweep, drive up hard with your lower leg. Don’t put any pressure on the other leg—if you find your- self engaging this leg, take it off the foot support or drive it into the bottom of the kayak. As your sweeping blade reaches perpendicular to the kayak, rotate your head to face down at the opposite gunwale, keeping your shoulders parallel to the surface.
The sweep ends just past 90 degrees with your body tucked tightly to the front deck. If your sweep angle isn’t quite right, you may need to add a pry or low brace at the end of your roll.

Cheri Perry and Turner Wilson are featured in a brand new instructional DVD, This is the Roll. Get it at cackletv.com.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.

Everything I Needed To Know, I Learned At Greenland Camp

Stories

All photos: Virginia Marshall — Everything I Needed to Know, I Learned at Greenland Camp

From our perch in the lifeguard tower over- looking Camp Tamarack’s private lake, the hard-chined, low volume kayaks bobbing in the shallows are too numerous to count.

“How many this year?” I ask James Roberts, co-owner of Parry Sound-based Learn to Kayak and organizer of the second annual Ontario Greenland Camp (OGC). Roberts pulls his eye away from his camera viewfinder and runs a hand through his unruly hair, crunching the numbers. “Sixty-five, plus instructors,” he replies—30 percent more than the previous year. Healthy numbers for a new event in a region not generally recognized for its zealous participation in ancient Arctic traditions.

Greenland-style on the rise

Since Adventure Kayak last took an in-depth look at Greenland-style paddling in 2006, traditional gatherings have been on the rise. Bringing a bit of Greenland to Ontario’s lake country was a no-brainer for Roberts and business partner and fiancée, Dympna Hayes.

“We put Greenland paddles in all our students’ hands on every course we teach,” says Hayes. “It’s easier to learn rolling with a stick, and a lot of our clients now carry one as an inexpensive spare paddle.”

The clincher came when Roberts and Hayes attended a 10-day, build-your-own-kayak workshop with Kayak Ways gurus Cheri Perry and Turner Wilson. The couples agreed on a date for the very first OGC the following September.

“We found an authentic Muskoka sum- mer camp where we could host the event after the kids go back to school,” says Hayes. “It’s more casual, more fun—we wanted it to feel like adults going to camp.”

Already, OGC has all the hallmarks of a memorable camp experience: terrific leaders, aprés-paddle campfire parties, all-you-can-eat-buffets and at least one bizarre or mildly harrowing initiation endured by some of the participants and shared with an appreciative audience. At last year’s event, the lewd, wildly imaginative scribbles on the rafters of the camp cabins aroused only a little less titilation among the clatch of middle-aged paddlers than they doubtless had among their eighth-grade authors.

In 2011, Roberts and Hayes fly in jet-setting Greenland champion, Maligiaq Padilla, from Alaska to round out the instructor team. I’m looking forward to meeting the famous Greenlander, but I almost lose my chance after he manages to miss his flight in Anchorage and is forced to connect through Phoenix and Buffalo. Thanks to some heroic, over-the-phone guidance from Roberts, Padilla somehow arrives in time for Saturday morning classes.

Padilla is at once worldy and disarmingly naïve. At lunch—over a plate of fries, watermelon and ketchup mopped up with white bread—he tells me about the delicious pizzas and tiny coffees in Italy, the peculiar toilets in the Land of the Rising Sun (he’s been to Japan five times) and his Japanese students’ affinity for consuming huge quantities of beer just before a rolling lesson. Later, at a rope gymnastics demonstration, the champion cracks jokes with the crowd when the ropes pinch in sensitive places.

People Greenland-style kayaking

“It’s the rapid progression and sense of achievement that gets kayakers hooked on Greenland paddling.”

Ontario Greenland Camp students benefit from Roberts and Hayes’ meticulous organization, Padilla’s spontaneous instruction style and Perry and Wilson’s carefully crafted progressions. “The quality of the instruction is incredibly high,” says Roberts, “Cheri and Turner can get anyone rolling.”

By the end of the weekend, of the roughly 50 percent of participants who have never rolled before, most are developing a reliable standard Greenland roll. The more advanced students are storm, shotgun, norsaq and hand rolling.

On Sunday afternoon, I squeeze into one of Wilson’s skin-on-frame kayaks. It’s my first real foray in a hand-built Greenland kayak, and the difference is astonishing. Within minutes, I am able to perform rolls and braces that have eluded me for years.

Hayes says it’s this rapid progression and sense of achievement that gets kayakers hooked on Greenland paddling—and Greenland Camp. She and Roberts are expecting up to 80 participants this year, with many arriving from the northeastern states.

“It inspires paddlers to develop more advanced skills and it’s just a lot of fun,” says Hayes. “Plus, the camp has promised real coffee this year!” No word yet on re-painting the cabins.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.

Rock the Boat: Inside the Circle

Stories

Illustration: Lorenzo Del Bianco — Rock the Boat: Inside the Circle

My partner says I have a circle fixation. He points to my favorite foods: cookies, pineapple rings, M&Ms, microwave egg McMuffins and bowls of children’s cereal.

Okay, I admit, I took hula-hooping classes to stay paddling fit last winter and I’d rather exercise after work on my backyard trampoline than go for a run around the block. I prefer gathering with friends around a campfire rather than at a coffee table. I love everything about my cat, but what held my gaze in the crowded shelter filled with frenzied felines and the close smell of ammonia, was the roundness of her face.

Lately, I’ve been noticing a circular attraction with kayaking as well.

Case in point, have you ever been to a kayaking event where the group did not—at some point, or more likely, at several points— throughout the day or weekend convene in a circle? On land, before the skills clinic or tour, we circle around to stretch, warm up, plan and practice key stroke dynamics. Later, on the water, we again gather round to debrief, discuss and admire each other’s Kevlar and Gore-Tex.

Even our most prized skill sets are based on the coming-back-to-the-start path of the circle. A kayak roll inscribes a circle through air and water, our head tracing the circumference and our body forming the radius like the hand of a clock. And certainly we’ve all spent consider- able energies focusing on the concept drilled into paddling students by their instructors: rotation, rotation, rotation.

What’s in a shape, you may be wondering? Different sports have different geometries, informed by their respective environments. Whitewater boaters take their cues from the confined, linear spaces of river valleys; lining up along the riverbank in the narrow shelter of eddies. Skiers stand shoulder to shoulder at the precipice’s brink, studying the intricacies and fall lines of the only direction afforded them—down.

A sea kayaker’s environment is fundamentally different. The wide expanses of open coast or labyrinthine archipelagos offer endless possibilities, infinite directions. Perhaps the circle is our attempt to contain some of this, to lasso it with our mastery and equipment. How else to explain the kayaker’s fixation with circumnavigating things? Or perhaps it is rooted in the origins of our craft, of the small bands of hunters pursuing their leviathan prey with only hand-thrown harpoons and teamwork.

Or maybe, as one of my fellow hula-hoopers—a middle-aged woman wearing flowing, hand-sewn skirts and braids in her waist- length silver hair—exclaimed after a particularly moving session, “It just feels so good to be inside the circle!”

Whatever the case, across oceans and years, the circle simply seems to make sense. If you don’t feel like joining, please, have a cracker (not a Ritz) and keep your derisions to yourself. We are not “circle jerks” and—apologies to Huey Lewis fans—it’s not hip to be square.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.

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