The First Lady of Hvammsvik

Photo: Mike Killoran — The First Lady of Hvammsvik

On the open Atlantic Ocean just north of Reykjavik, Iceland, the world’s most northern capital city, the shriek of a blow horn launches a dozen kayaks into a paddling frenzy. I’m by far the slowest paddler. My kayak bounces feverishly like a floating cork on monster waves. Huge cresting walls of water roll toward me and I plunge into deep troughs. I watch the landmarks on my right and barely creep forward against a frigid North Atlantic wind.

In July, 2002, I visited Iceland for the first time and had the unexpected honour of breaking into the male-dominated paddling scene in the small fishing town of Isafjordur. There, I met the singular Halldor Sveinbjornsson, Iceland’s de facto ambassador of kayaking. He encouraged me to return to Iceland later in the year to compete in the prestigious Hvammsvik marathon. He even offered to loan me a sleek Italian “Sardinia Qajaq” and began calling me the “First Lady”—because, he explained, I’d be the first woman to race the 42 kilometres from Reykjavik to Hvammsvik.

Usually I paddle only because I love to be immersed in nature. I paddle to escape my daily city life, to keep my body and mind healthy and for the excitement of exploring and travelling. I’m creatively inspired by the places I visit and by the beauty of my surroundings. Whether paddling for an hour, a day, or a week, I feel renewed, revitalized. To paddle for speed and recognition, racing 42 kilometres almost nonstop, is something com- pletely different, and suddenly I wonder what I’m doing here, and if I’ll make it.

Sea kayaking became popular in Iceland about a decade later than in North America. Only in the last five or six years has Iceland seen a dramatic increase in the number of paddlers. Halldor Sveinbjornsson has made a significant contribution to this growth. Halldor and Hvammsvik marathon race organizer Petur Gislason helped import the first mass-produced sea kayaks to Iceland by the container load from England and Italy. Now there are likely over a thousand sea kayakers with their own boats in Iceland. Not bad for an island with a total population of 287,000.

Halldor’s list of paddling achievements is almost as long as the coast of the Westfjords where he lives and paddles. This charismatic, middle-aged family man is a printer and photogra- pher, half-owner of the local print shop and newspaper in Isafjordur. When he’s not working, the level-four BCU paddler is busy promoting paddling, introducing it into the local high school curriculum, teaching rolling clinics in the local pool, and training up-and-coming marathoners like Sveinbjorn Kristjansson, a lanky 19-year-old who won the Hvammsvik race in 2001 and 2002.

THE OPPORTUNITY TO BECOME FIRST LADY

In March, 2002, I replied to an Internet invitation to join a local Icelandic paddling group on a trip to the Westfjords’ Hornstrandir coast, a wild and intricate network of fjords that comprises 10 percent of Iceland’s landmass but 50 percent of its shoreline.

Halldor, who posted the invitation, probably assumed that an American male would respond, not a determined Canadian female. The news that a woman would join their trip sent quite a buzz through the local paddling group.

Halldor, himself the 2000 Hvammsvik winner, had assembled the equivalent of Iceland’s Olympic sea kayaking team for the trip in Hornstrandir. The boys included Halldor’s racing protege Sveinbjorn Kristjansson, who became the Icelandic marathon champion in his first year of paddling; marathon contender Baldur Petursson, who instructs for “Kayakklubburinn,” the Icelandic kayak club in Reykjavik; the formidable Gummi (Gudmundar) Breiddal, a natural athlete who mountain biked across the vast interior Icelandic desert; and Sig. Petur Hilmarsson, a four-star BCU paddler who is truly as strong as a Viking. None of these men had paddled any extensive distance with a woman.

“My friends are a little bit afraid to have a woman in the group, but I’m not,” said Halldor, trying to allay my concerns about being the only woman. Halldor remarked that the group would eventually have to let women join.

It took much strong, energetic paddling to prove myself and be accepted into the group. My reward was the invitation to the Hvammsvik marathon. This was testament to Halldor’s openness to making the sport less gender-biased. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to become “First Lady.”

About 14 kilometres into the race, we round Kjalarnes, a cliff of basalt at the mouth of a fjord called Hvalfjordur. Ahead, the fjord’s outgo- ing tide meets the incoming seas over a shallow, rocky reef, creating a taunting barricade of two-metre standing waves. Out of twelve kayakers competing, including myself, the token female, seven paddlers are ahead of me, two have quit and two have already capsized in the rough water and are flagging down the rescue Zodiac.

“I’m not going through that! No way!” I wave my paddle to the Zodiac for assistance. I flop into the boat like a hooked fish and my kayak is pulled in.

Back on the beach, I meet Halldor, who has also stopped racing. A herniated disk—a furniture-moving injury from earlier in the season—has made paddling in the rough conditions too painful for him. A sense of failure presses heavily on me. I decide I can’t drop out after coming this far, and I ask organizer Petur Gislason for permission to continue. He agrees and Halldor offers to finish the race with me.

We are in the sheltered fjord now. With the rough conditions of the open ocean behind me, my confidence soars. Halldor’s kayak slices effortlessly through the water beside me and I focus on keeping up with a steady, rhythmical cadence.

The outcome of the marathon seems less important now as it feels like a day paddle with a good friend. The afternoon sun highlights the verdant mountains and the shore’s tidy farms. Kittiwakes and gulls fly overhead within a couple of metres. An elegant male Harlequin duck swims within a metre of Halldor’s boat and, at one point, two groups of puffins fly across my bow.

When the end in Hvammsvik comes into view, a satin-smooth sheet of water spreads before us for the first time today, framed by the towering basalt columns of the shore.

Sveinbjorn, Baldur, Gummi and Petur have finished number one, two, three and four respectively, and they wait on the shore to cheer our arrival. The race officials have already removed the finish markers. We are last to drag our boats ashore, a couple of hours behind the winners with a time of 6:42. Halldor’s 2000 race record of 4:32 stands firm, and now he jokes that he can boast the fastest and the slowest record times.

AN ALMOST MARATHON

In a barn at the race’s finish in Hvammsvik, the dozen racers and their families feast on grilled lamb. Petur Gislason recognizes my “almost marathon” and presents me with a lovely gold medal bearing the image a sea kayaker.

Following the banquet, I soak away my fatigue in one of Iceland’s natural hotsprings. I’m disappointed with my lack of courage to paddle through the race’s roughest section, but satisfied with what I did accomplish.

After I return to Canada, I hear that the water conditions were worse than anything in the race’s four-year history. Considering this, Porsteinn Gudmundsson, president of Kayakklubburinn, has ruled that anyone who skipped the rough-water section will still be credited with a valid finish.

First Lady of Hvammsvik: Maybe Halldor’s nickname for me was correct after all.

Wendy Killoran is an educator and avid paddler from London, Ontario. She plans to return to Iceland this summer to further explore the Westfjords under the midnight sun.

This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2003 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Adventure Kayak’s print and digital editions here.

The Time Is Right For A Sea Kayaking Guides’ Guild

illustration of a sea kayaking guide accepting money for his services — Guides earn about $150 a day, or $100 a day less than the equivalent in the backcountry skiing or fly fishing industries. | Feature illustration: Scott Van de Sande

Sea kayak guiding and instruction are currently controlled by the Sea Kayak Guides Association of British Columbia, the Canadian Association of Sea Kayak Guides and the Canadian Recreational Canoeing Association. These organizations, while claiming to represent guides and instructors, tend to serve the interests of outfitters and kayak schools, or worse, their own bureaucratic ends. No organization serves the guides’ and instructors’ interests, and as a result, the industry is now subsidized by the low fees paid to its employees. Until this is corrected, the sea kayak guiding/instructional industry will remain in its present adolescent phase, with employers fishing from a pool of cheap, enthusiastic beginners at the cost of experience. It is time that guides and instructors got together to establish a guild, like a union, to ensure fair pay and grassroots control.

a group of young women learning to be paddling guides gathered under a tarp

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Why the time is right for a sea kayaking guides’ guild

As I see it, there are three parties with legitimate interests: the guides and instructors, the clients, and the outfitters and schools. All three of these principal players stand to benefit from having properly paid and equipped professionals and all will benefit from having a truly effective guild for guides and instructors.

Guides will clearly benefit by an increase in pay, enabling them to live at the same standard as their peers. Guides earn about $150 a day, or $100 a day for an assistant—$100 a day less than the equivalent in the backcountry skiing or fly fishing industries. Sea kayak guides frequently work 16-hour days and are on call for 24 hours, responsible for safety, medical emergencies, and even cooking. They must undergo costly sea kayak training and upgrading (approved or supplied by one of the controlling organizations) and maintain current advanced wilderness first aid certification. They are also required to provide and maintain their own personal equipment, including VHF radio and a medical kit. Paid adequately, guides won’t need to leave sea kayaking and get a “real job” in order to save money for their own business or to support a family.

Clients will then have a better chance of getting a professional and experienced guide or instructor. The client will pay more for the service, but that is fair so long as they get good value and can see that they are getting good value. If the guides’ guild works closely with owners, prices can be raised gradually and openly in a way that does not throw the market into shock. Once clients understand the issues, few will begrudge the extra cost associated with a superior service.

[ Plan your next guided sea kayaking adventure with the Paddling Trip Guide ]

Relationships between a guides’ guild and employers need not disintegrate into a classical them and us confrontation. The outfitting and instruction companies will benefit from a guild because they will have a satisfied, professional team of long-term employees. They will eventually find they are making more money since profit is usually figured as a percentage of gross income. It is in everyone’s interest to have an experienced, reliable workforce. By extending the industry vision beyond the tooth and claw scramble for clients where the cheapest equates with most desirable, confrontation between the guild and the employers can be avoided.

New guild would give guides a fresh start

You might argue that guides should take control of one of the existing organizations, but each has its own baggage and is doing a reasonable job of serving the interests of the outfitters and schools. The CRCA, many say, has no business being involved with the sea kayak industry at all. Better to leave the existing organizations in the corner sniping at each other.

a paddler's deeply suntanned feet in black and white

Still Happy To Be Here

The new guild will only offer full voting rights to guides and instructors who are not regular employers—reducing the risk of conflict of interest. Its mission should be to serve the interests of sea kayak guides and instructors, not outfitters or schools, while specifying that all three parties at the table have to come out winners. As well as dealing with wages, the guild will become involved with the technical and business education of its members. In this respect it will act like a trade association promoting both professionalism of guides and instructors as well as the growth of the sea kayaking industry.

Sea kayaking jobs provide seasonal work that appeals to youth and, as we know, there is an endless supply of youth. They’re born every day, and the community colleges are pumping out hopeful, idealistic ecotourism graduates who will work for peanuts just to go sea kayaking. But once the blush of youthful enthusiasm has passed, our professional guides leave the industry for real jobs and take their experience with them. By ensuring that guiding provides a proper living to a mature individual, a guides’ guild will help the sea kayaking industry grow up.

John Dowd, author of the book Sea Kayaking, is one of the founders of the sea kayaking industry and has been recognized as one of the 12 most influential people in North American paddlesports.

Cover of the Early Summer 2003 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine This article was first published in the Early Summer 2003 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

Guides earn about $150 a day, or $100 a day less than the equivalent in the backcountry skiing or fly fishing industries. | Feature illustration: Scott Van de Sande

Right Question, Wrong Crowd

He’d walked up to the right crowd with the wrong question: “What kayak should I buy?”

He might as well have wandered into a Turkish rug shop and asked what broadloom should he buy; or stood at the entrance to a county fall fair midway and screamed, “What game should I play?” Standing with me was a kayak company sales representative, a kayak instructor and a well-travelled wilderness guide.

person holding a magnifying glass up to a computer screen with eBay website

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Right question, wrong crowd

He had a pair of black Vuarnets hanging on a string, was wearing an alligator golf shirt, and carried a plastic bag stretching at the handles with travel brochures, catalogues, beef jerky and a pound of maple fudge stuffed inside. I knew this was going to be good, so I pulled up a piece of trade show carpet and sat down to enjoy the show.

“Well,” started the sales rep while the others waited their turn, “you’ll want a quality-built kayak. Buying a kayak is like buying family jewellery…you want Kevlar…and you’d be looking at $4,600….”

“Yes, but what about these…,” he tried before the instructor took over.

“You’ll want a boat that will perform all 45 fundamental strokes and 34 essential self rescues. You are familiar with the stirrup re-entry aren’t you?”

With a blank stare he looked my way. I shrugged. The instructor went on about outside tilt reducing the effective footprint and semi-hard chines versus more traditional “V” hulls.

By now his bag of shwag was on the floor at his ankles and he was leaning against a rack of paddles. Between nodding in uncomprehending agreement, he’d glance at his watch and catch glimpses of the hang gliding video playing in the next booth.

[ Browse the widest selection of boats and gear in the Paddling Buyer’s Guide ]

“Oh yes,” said the wilderness guide (it was his turn). “We used those boats exclusively when we headed up Belcher Channel on our circumnavigation of Devon Island six years ago. Talk about a well-behaved bow in confused seas—will you be coming to my slide show at four?” Not waiting for the answer, the three of them burst into debating the reintroduction of traditional kayak building to the Inuit peoples.

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I was amazed this guy listened for so long. Despite the industry’s best attempts to baffle him with design jargon, exotic strokes and epic tales of misadventure, the appeal of kayaking was too strong. Winter gives us time to read enough to be experts and embellish our paddling stories, but guys like this are examples of what kayaking is really about, putting your butt in a seat and a paddle in your hand and getting on the water.

Finally he turned to me and asked again, “What kayak should I buy?” He was pointing to two recreational kayaks resting on the carpet beside us. I told him I thought the blue was nice.

“You’re right.” He pulled a gold card from the front right pocket of his khakis, grabbed a paddle from the rack he was leaning against and handed them to the sales rep, “Excuse me. I’ll take the blue one and this here paddle.”

Cover of the Early Summer 2003 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine This article was first published in the Early Summer 2003 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

The blue one looks nice. | Feature photo: Jamie McCaffrey/Flickr

Boat Review: Raven Works’ Nemesis

Photo: Rapid Staff — Boat Review: Raven Works' Nemesis

With Dagger scaling back their whitewater canoe division, there’s a gap in the market for smaller start-up companies like Raven Works, which began building boats in 2000 and makes the 17’ Nemesis (16’11”) tandem whitewater tripping boat.

Design

Most whitewater tripping boats are a compromise between efficiency on the flats and manoeuvrabity and dryness in the rapids. Lakewater tripping canoes have sharp lines that offer efficiency but the resulting low volume usually leaves whitewater paddlers crashing through waves rather than riding over them. Whitewater boats sacrifice speed with blunt, voluminous ends for buoyancy. Nemesis designer Skip Izon set out to combine the best of both.

The bottom section of the Nemesis’ bow and stern has the sharp lines of a touring canoe. Above that the hull flares radically. The idea is to give the boat a waterline profile that’s sharp for speed in lakewater, while the flare sheds water from the bow and stern. Izon also gave the Nemesis an asymmetrical hull, which adds straight-ahead speed but means it’s not intended to be spun around and paddled solo from the bow seat.

The hull

We took a prototype of the Nemesis on a four-day trip down the Petawawa River and found that not only was it great on the lake sections, but the rocker—four inches at the bow and two inches at the stern—was enough to let it snap in and out of eddies. With plenty of tumblehome at the paddling positions, the boat felt narrow and it was easy to plant quality strokes.

But we weren’t convinced that our Nemesis- in-progress fit its billing as a big water tripping boat. Other paddlers could see the water shedding off the bow flare as designed to but there just wasn’t enough boat above the water to keep us dry.

A quick phone call after our trip saw us set up with a much deeper and drier production model. Izon had added almost five inches to the depth for a full 21 inches in the bow, 15.5 in the centre and 20 in the stern, ensuring a dry ride.

The interior

One result of the Nemesis’ chisel-sharp entry lines is the notable lack of interior volume in the bottom of the bow and stern. If you’re packing flotation this isn’t an issue, but if you need the space for gear, your drybags better be long and narrow. Bow paddlers used to ample legroom have to get used to the tapered bow.

The webbing seats are bolted to aluminum hanger brackets rather than ash spindles, a durable system unlikely to break or rot. The aluminum flexes, allowing the seat to shift side-to- side. The seats are set quite low and can easily be raised for tall and big-footed paddlers by inserting wood spacers between the seat and the bracket. There is plenty of room mid-ship for tripping gear although you’ll have to re-drill the vinyl-covered aluminum gunwales and move the thwarts to accommodate four blue barrels, if that’s your system.

No compromise

Unless you’re fortunate enough to paddle exclusively continuous mountain rivers, choosing a whitewater expedition boat has always meant choosing between flatwater efficiency and whitewater performance. What sets the Nemesis apart is its hull shape designed to eliminate the compromise.

Specs

Length: 16’11”
Width: max 38”, waterline 33.75”
Depth: bow 21”, centre 15.5”, stern 20”
Rocker: bow 4”, stern 2.5”
Shape: asymmetrical, buoyancy 53% aft
Recommended capacity: designed 400-700 lbs, max 1,200 lbs
Weight: 75 lbs in Royalex
MSRP: $1,095 USD / $1,725 CAD

This article first appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine. For more great boat reviews, subscribe to Rapid’s print and digital editions here.

Editorial: Wake Up and Roll the Yoke

Stories

Ten miles off the tarmac approaching Winnipeg I peered from my tiny emergency exit window at country roads, schools and farms bordering the winding Red River. It seemed we’d been gliding forever, sinking ever so slowly from the grey, overcast sky.

Close enough to the ground to recognize kids playing tag at recess, in the cockpit our pilot takes an elbow to the shoulder from a nervous copilot. Snapping out of it he rolls the yoke to the right, dipping the wing of the silver pterodactyl. Passengers’ sleeping heads jerk back on their flabby necks. Now on line, the pilot levels, flares, chirps the wheels down still slightly sideways on the cold runway and finishes his otherwise perfect flight.

In the realm of air travel and the pilot’s career this offline approach will go completely unnoticed, but some jackass two rows back couldn’t help from commenting: “What kind of pilot can’t hit Winnipeg? Christ, you can line it up from Michigan!”

First of all, there’s a place for arrogant loudmouths like this guy—First Class—but it seems his company didn’t think as much of him as he does. Secondly, I thought, this guy doesn’t paddle. If he did paddle he’d know the mesmerizing feeling of floating above your line, the stillness of flatwater and how big the world feels around you. He’d know about the lack of urgency floating in the dark, felty water before it accelerates into a glassy tongue.Like our pilot he’d know how his sense of speed is dulled by the lack of perspective. He’d also know how a winter of five months of snow-covered landscape can slow the metabolic rate, cover paddling gear in dust, and make a game of checkers last until it is almost too late.

Luckily the Earth spins on a slightly drunken axis, and around this time of year the sun pours more light and heat on the north side of the equator. Snow melts, birds chirp, rivers flood and jackasses rake the sand in their horseshoe pits.We know spring is coming.You can even see it coming from Michigan.Yet we need to roll our yokes and make some last minute seasonal adjustments before our rubber hits the tarmac and we make the pilgrimage from our snowy winter caves to our river lives.

Replace the gasket on your drytop, carve out some foam from your hip pads, revarnish the blade of your tripping paddle—where are my pogies?—and fibreglass the crack in your slalom boat. The long cold flight I call winter is over. Wake up and paddle.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine.

Big Trip, Small Boat: Outfitting Yourself For An Expedition

Expedition paddling is about the journey. It is immersing yourself in an untouched, inaccessible wilderness to experience some incredibly beautiful places. Once you find yourself getting fired up over topo maps, wondering what excitement lurks in a particular drainage and needing to find out, the next step is outfitting yourself for the journey. Every kayak trip you’ll come up with a few new outfitting ideas and once you have your system dialed, there will be no stopping the inquisitive explorer within you.

Woman wearing PFD, helmet, sprayskirt and drysuit. She is holding a kayak paddle in one hand, and a whitewater kayak in the other. She is standing in front of a waterfall.

Q&A With Expedition Kayaker Nouria Newman

Big trip, small boat: Outfitting yourself for an expedition

1 Estimating time

If the river has been paddled before, try to find magazine articles, guidebook descriptions, firsthand knowledge and photographs of the expedition you plan to tackle. If little or no information is available, a lot can be determined from topographic maps.

Calculate distances and gradients, breaking the run down by the kilometre or mile and contour interval to estimate the duration of the trip. As a rough guideline, estimate travel speeds at five kilometres per hour for gradients less than 100 feet per mile (fpm), two km/h for steeper sections of 100–150 fpm and for intervals over 150 fpm, anticipate portages and add time accordingly. Be conservative. Aim to paddle four to six hours per day. This will give you time to dry camping gear by the fire in the morning and to dry paddling gear in the afternoon. If the weather dictates, you can always pick up the pace.

Knowing how many days you’ll be on the river allows you to select your kayak, sleeping system, menu and cooking system and packing strategy.

2 Boat selection

Kayak selection will depend on the difficulty of the run, river character, gradient and volume, length of trip and climate. Most likely, you’ll be paddling a creek boat to ensure that there’s enough room for all of your gear. For less difficult rivers, larger volume expedition boats will allow you to travel with a few more camp comforts.

Regardless of your selection, your kayak will paddle differently when it’s loaded. The boat that you love for your roadside paddling adventures may sit too low in the water once you add 40 pounds of overnight gear. Your favorite creek boat’s usually forgiving stern may start to grab, or even squirt, on eddy lines. The added weight will make boofs more effort, quick direction changes more challenging and technical paddling a half-grade more difficult.

creek boater paddles down a narrow whitewater river surrounded by vibrant green trees

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Your kayak’s lower position in the water will exaggerate its tracking tendencies. As a result, you may be happier in a kayak with more rocker than you might normally enjoy. I typically paddle a Perception Java, but for longer, more gear-intensive multi-day expeditions, I may pull out the larger-volume Phat. For my weight of 145 pounds, I find that the Phat actually paddles better when loaded, with the extra weight and hull displacement taming its spin-on-a-dime nature and improving its hole-punching abilities. Experiment for yourself!

A high back deck, with removable backband, is crucial for allowing easy access for packing gear into the stern of your kayak. Adequate space in front of your bulkhead is also important to ensure that your loaded kayak is balanced. If necessary, shift your seat forward to help adjust the trim of your kayak.

Kayaks such as the Prijon Embudo and Eskimo Salto that don’t require structural pillars are certainly easier to pack gear into. Extra room tends to get filled with more stuff, so be careful—especially if you anticipate any long, arduous portages. Think twice about removing pillars to make additional room for your gear. For one expedition, I removed the stern pillar from a Pyranha Micro 240 only to realize that it served a major role in stabilizing the seat laterally. Five or six big drops later, my seat had split in two.

Increase the available packing space by customizing your boat. Cut out access panels in your pillar and/or bulkhead to create storage compartments. Build a shelf under your front deck. Carve a hole in your hip pad for your Leatherman or toothbrush. Use a hole-saw to lighten the weight of your outfitting components, but again, consider structural integrity. Rig up a shoulder pad or backpack harness for long portages. Be creative.

[ Paddling Buyer’s Guide: View all creek boats ]

3 Sleeping gear

Volume is usually the critical factor when selecting sleeping gear. You’re not going to be able to bring a tent unless you are on a longer, easier trip in a big boat. You’ll have to settle for some low-volume combination of sleeping bag, mattress and tarp or bivouac sack.

The debate over down versus synthetic sleeping bags is quite simple. Down is better when cold temperatures are expected since you definitely won’t be able to fit a winter-weight synthetic bag in your kayak. But remember that a wet down bag spells trouble.

Various colors of sleeping pads stacked on top of one another

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Research what type of campsites can be expected. Will you find open, sandy beaches or have to make do with a rocky ledge in a tight canyon? Hardcore expedition paddlers will use their paddling gear to sleep on. You’ll probably appreciate the extra comfort of an ultralight sleeping pad which rolls down to the size of a football and should be easy to fit in your boat. Although I’ve seen it done, a closed-cell blue foamy will take up too much space.

If mosquitoes or blackflies are anticipated, a bivy sack complete with mesh inner liner is your best bet. For rain protection, the bivy sack will also do the trick, but torrential downpours are definitely better spent under a lightweight tarp. The tarp is also indispensable for cooking or time spent hanging out in the rain. Quite likely, if it’s a solid rain, you’ll just want to keep on paddling. Better yet, check the extended weather forecast—if you can’t postpone your trip until better weather, you may want to bring a tarp and bivy sack.

expedition paddler loads kayaks onto a bush plane — Planes… | Photo: Steve Whittall

two men load a whitewater kayak onto a train in Northern Ontario — Trains… | Photo: Tyler Curtis

a group of whitewater kayaks sit at the roadside near a bus on the Tamur River in Nepal — …And automobiles. | Photo: Dunbar Hardy

4 Food and cooking equipment

Is a stove absolutely necessary, or can you get by cooking on an open fire with a single pot? For northern trips, firewood may not even be an option. If there is a source of wood, you’ll probably want a fire simply for warmth or drying gear. Bring waterproof matches or a lighter and some type of fire starter (tea light candles work well) to dry out kindling and get even the wettest of wood going.

Plan a typical backpacking-style menu of dehydrated meals, pasta or rice, instant oatmeal for breakfast and dried fruit. On shorter trips, limiting yourself to dehydrated food isn’t really necessary. If you’re Clay Wright, just buy six or seven Big Macs, squish them into a small Tupperware container and you’re ready to go.

Organize your food into meals and/or days for longer trips. Ensure easy access to snacks and your lunch—you don’t want to pull your boat apart every time you’re hungry. Where possible, prep your food at home. And don’t forget your water filter if water quality issues are a concern. A Nalgene bottle with filter attachment is a great combination.

5 Rescue gear

Whether paddling for the day or on a multi-day self-supported expedition, a throw bag, wrap kit, whistle, river knife and first aid kit are essential tools for every kayaker. As with all rescue pre-planning efforts, you need to prepare yourself and your team for the worst-case scenario. Brainstorm the “what ifs” that pertain to your trip and come up with a plan, as a group, to deal with each of these potential situations.

The big difference between multi-day expeditions and day-trip paddling is the increased consequence of any problem. Carrying a breakdown paddle, for example, is absolutely necessary if the alternative to being able to continue paddling is a 100-kilometre hike. Note that a four-piece breakdown may be required for today’s shorter kayaks.

[ Paddling Buyer’s Guide: View all safety & rescue gear ]

Consider some method for patching boats while on the river. As a minimum, wrap some duct tape around the shaft of your paddle. Willie Kern carried—and ended up using—roofing material to patch a cracked kayak on his 2001 Stikine Expedition. A Leatherman and basic tools may also be invaluable. Make sure you have a multi-head screwdriver and wrench to fit every nut and bolt on your boat. And don’t forget your headlamp.

River Rescue Essentials: Build Your Own Super Compact Rescue Kit

Does the river require that you bring specialized climbing gear? A wrap kit of webbing slings, prussiks, carabiners and spectra throw-bag is an absolute minimum. Know how to build a harness out of webbing, rappel and belay and practice basic climbing skills.

Finally, consider the communication requirements of your team. Can a cell phone be of any use? If not, a satellite phone can be rented for the duration of your expedition and is worth every penny. Consider radio communications within your party and research all useful frequencies for contacting outside parties.

6 Clothing

Obviously your clothing requirements will depend on the local climate, extended forecast and typical water temperature. It’s easier to pack for a multi-day trip in California or Costa Rica than for northern or alpine rivers. In any event, consider both paddling and camp gear, trying to combine these if possible. In colder climates, a full Gore-Tex drysuit with camp clothes underneath greatly reduces the amount of clothing you need to bring. For camp, a hooded down jacket provides the most warmth for the least volume. But if you bring down, be anal about keeping it dry. And bring a toque, eh!

[ Paddling Buyer’s Guide: View all apparel ]

Don’t bother with rain gear—a tarp is much more versatile. Keep your river gear on if it’s raining. Wear sturdy river shoes that you are comfortable making basic rock-climbing moves in. If you lose your boat or gear, you may be hiking out a long way. As a treat, bring some comfortable camp shoes or sandals to give your feet a break.

7 Drybags

Make sure the drybags you intend to use fit in your boat and fit all of your gear before you head off to the river. Do a dry run of your packing strategy at home. Tapered drybags are great for taking full advantage of the potential packing space in your kayak. A cheap alternative to drybags are plastic Ziploc bags, but double them up and only include items that you can afford to get slightly wet.

Pointing at a map while planning a kayak expedition

5 Steps To Plan An Epic Whitewater Kayak Expedition

For cameras or video gear, Pelican cases are great, but may be difficult to pack. You may be able to cut them into the foam of a rear pillar. Many paddlers keep cameras in cases or bags between their legs for quick, easy access. Make sure you can still get in and out of your boat.

8 Packing your boat

It’s always easier to pack the stern, so the challenge is to get enough weight forward to balance the trim of your kayak. To get gear forward of the bulkhead, it’s easier to pack in multiple small bags, rather than one larger drybag. I double-Ziploc food items and slide them past my bulkhead individually. To ensure that these smaller items can’t slide out, I glue a thin foam barricade to the bulkhead.

If you have long legs, you might have to remove all the foam from the bulkhead to create more packing space. In any event, work out some system to pack your heaviest items up front, within the pillar or bulkhead, or right behind your seat. Adjust your packing strategy as you go through food supplies to keep your boat balanced.

Expedition kayaking is all about exploring and finding magical places that would be impossible to access without paddling. It’s our big reward for a few hard knocks and a lot of persistence in becoming competent whitewater boaters. These special places are ours alone, reserved for paddlers only.

Cover of the Spring 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine This article was first published in the Spring 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

Marsayandi River, Nepal: Five miles and uphill both ways. | Feature photo: Dunbar Hardy

Expedition Planning: Romancing the Thin Blue Line

Stories

David Lech, Ottawa ON: Planning a self-supported kayak trip you struggle to leave behind the comforts of home yet discover on the river that you possess absolutely everything you need.The minimal gear and food that you are able to take actually reinforces the vastness of the land- scape, the power of the water, the vagaries of weather and the foolishness of your ambi- tion and pride. Most of all, wherever you may explore, expedition kayaking teaches you to rely on yourself.

Derek Endress, Whitehorse YT: I look up at Ken standing at the put-in for the Alsek River, gear and food strewn around us. We are just outside of Kluane National Park in Haines Junction, Yukon. He just smiles when I tell him I can’t fit everything into his Dancer. On two days notice I bor- rowed his spare boat for a 12-day unsupported trip to look at the notorious Turnback Canyon. Ken looks at me, “Hey, you could wear the backpack you have to get your gear around the eight-mile walk on Tweedsmuir Glacier.” Great idea Ken.

Heading down the Dezadeash River into the Kaskawalsh then the Alsek, the first day, of many, goes by with our narrow displacement-hull sterns underwater.Smiling at each other paddling our plastic barges with an additional 20 pounds on our backs, I keep asking him, “Where is the first Class IV rapid?”

Scott MacGregor, Quadeville ON: Expedition kayaking is canoe tripping with two blades and no cappuccino maker.

Stuart Smith, Squamish BC: During solo kayak expeditions, the challenge is recognizing or approaching your limits, be they physical limits—portaging across a range of mountains, paddling a difficult rapid, or dealing with adverse conditions—or mental limits—maintaining the focus needed to do days of hard whitewater, dealing with the intensity of remote and isolated areas where there is no assistance, and the challenge of learning self sufficiency in unknown or changing conditions.

When paddling with a group you add group dynamics.The challenges are not only your own personal tests, but also those of the other group members. The rewards are often greater as the shared experience creates kindred bonds which last the rest of your life.

As with most truly moving experiences the rewards and satisfaction are proportional to the efforts, and oftentimes to the risks. To grow I find myself needing to explore beyond known bounds.

Steve Whittall, Whistler BC: Expedition kayaking represents the ultimate paddling experience, combining the exhilaration of whitewater with a grander notion of river travel and exploration. Running a tough drop three days into a week-long expedition feels very different than paddling roadside. The team’s combined paddling skills allow you to explore with confidence, unravelling the mysteries posed by a few winding blue lines on the topo map. And in the end, whether or not you choose to run the big line is almost irrelevant.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine.

Lock 19: Fast, Powerful….Sketchy

Stories

It’s cold outside and there’s six inches of snow on the ground. I drive past Little Lake in Peterborough and see the majority of the lake covered with ice and snow—all except for a small snaking cur- rent running straight through the middle. This little current is the Otonabee River and it’s heading toward Lock 19—the fastest, the most powerful and quite possibly the most intimidating freestyle play spot I have ever been to.

The Otonabee River is part of the Trent Severn Waterway, a collection of lakes, canals and rivers all joined by locks connecting Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario. At Lock 19 in the south end of Peterborough, there is a 125-metre-wide dam with a series of six gates, each about 15 metres wide, divided by thick concrete walls. The water held back by the dam creates Little Lake, but when the early spring melt spills into Little Lake, stop logs are pulled from the dam and the Lock 19 play spot is formed.

When Lock 19 is up, it’s probably the best winter/early spring play spot you could dream of in Ontario. At its best it’s a fast, glassy, green wave with a huge foam pile on top, and two very tiny green tongues at each side against the con- crete walls. At ideal levels, this urban wave-hole is a cross between Right Side Horseshoe and the Garburator, Ottawa River’s two most dynamic features. At other levels it’s a longboater’s front surfing dream wave.

Getting to the wave is half the challenge. You put in above and paddle down the lake past the DANGER signs and under the cables that read “NO BOATING/NO SWIMMING.” As the water rapidly speeds up, you float through the gate, pass through the dam, fall into the foam pile and—wham!—your boat is spit out like a watermelon seed back upstream, onto the wave. Stable in a front surf, a few fears might loom in your icy-but-fully-conscious mind: carving across and slamming into one of the concrete dam abutments or wathunking, hitting your head on a grocery cart or other piece of urban refuse. Once your hands are sore and cold muscles exhausted, the key to getting off this ride is using the green water rush- ing downstream beside the concrete abutments.

Lock 19 is not beginner friendly. You need to scout the dam to ensure there is enough water to make it deep enough and there is a tongue to flush you through.

Even playing in a good section is sketchy with massive boils and squirrelly eddy lines. The thin eddies are formed by the three-foot-wide stone pillars between the sluices, and the sluice next door might be a dam keeper-hole instead of a world-class play spot. A swim would be long, and very cold. You have to float down the river 150 metres, past the lock walls, before you have a chance to drag yourself up on shore.

The Trent Severn is closed now for the winter. The water levels upstream are high and anytime, we hope, they should be releasing water. You won’t find Lock 19 water levels posted on the Parks Canada website—the problem is it’s illegal to paddle in the dam. But the folks in charge don’t patrol it. For the time being this seems to be a “use at your own risk and accept responsibility for your own actions” type situation.

Keep in mind this is a residential area and the neighbours do not welcome nudity. Do us a favour and bring a towel.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine.

Skills: Winter Ramp Trick

Skills

A winter ramp is the latest and greatest park-and-huck idea to prove Crazy Carpets are old school. Building a ramp allows you to launch airtime and float your own corkscrew, barrel roll or double kicky, and numerous crash-and-burns. The possibilities for new ramp tricks are endless. The “whale tail” (shown here) takes aggressive body rotation, a backstroke for aerial rotation and spare time for hang time.

When building your ramp, the most important choice is location, location, location. This means choosing a good area with water depth for landing or crashing, area for the ramp and elevation for runway height and speed. Start by creating a pile of snow to mould your ramp (kicker) and in-run. You want a large pile of snow as it will settle and you have to shape and water it to make it solid. You don’t want your ramp to send you straight up, so build the ramp with a long transi- tion and not too steep. This will help send you out and over the water with speed and distance.

1Line your boat up at the top of the ramp

Line your boat up at the top of the ramp and buckle your helmet. Push off to start the in-run with speed. Focusing on your takeoff zone at the end of the ramp, and not the bow of your boat, will keep your boat on line (running straight) and ready your timing for the initiation stroke.

As you approach the takeoff, shift some body weight back and start edging your boat toward the side where you’ll be plant- ing your paddle.

2 Wind up your torso

When the bow of your boat leaves the end of the ramp, wind up your torso (rotating your head and shoulders in the direction of desired rotation) and plant your paddle blade as a smash stroke.

3

As your boat begins to take air, sit your weight forward and use a backstroke off the end of the ramp to push your bow down with your stomach muscles and knees. This will allow you to unwind your torso and throw your hips over your head, like a wave wheel.

4 Slow your rotation

Once you are fully aired out (free from the snow), your torso should be finished rotating and in the neutral body position. Slow your rotation by pushing on your bulkhead to push the bow of your boat away from you. Now is the time to look over your shoulder and spot your landing.

5 Make sure your weight is forward

As you crash land, make sure your weight is forward and your boat isn’t completely flat. A slight edge to accept the landing helps absorb the impact on your back.

Tips

Hurling yourself in your kayak off a jump and into the water may not provide the soft landing you think it would.
Be prepared to take some impact. Keep your shoulders tucked in and try not to land flat hull to the water.
Use water to firm the snow on the ramp and make sure it’s level. Bumps or uneven slope in the ramp can throw you off course. Stay straight on the approach. Use rudders if needed.
Start with just a straight launch then build to aerial moves.
Use enough speed to land in the water.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine.

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Photos: Ruth Gordon

The Well-Read Alchemist

“A few springs ago, the idea came to me that my life would have been totally different had it not been for my association with this river.” – Hugh MacLennan, Seven Rivers of Canada

While not yet recognized as a separate scientific discipline, River Alchemy does have its fair share of ardent practitioners, and with that its own culture, words, and ideas. It has been practiced for centuries by those who use paddles, fishing rods, watercolours, or those who just like to get their feet wet. Accumulated knowledge has been passed on via apprenticeship and folk tales, only rarely making it into anything as formal as a published book. Yet some River Alchemy texts do appear—books of words that identify the greater powers manifesting themselves in moving water, and books about what it is we “get” from being around rivers.

I picked up a 1994 edition of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn before a fall river trip. Two weeks to run the Green River’s Desolation Canyon, a section that normally takes five days, leaves lots of time for hiking side canyons, eating extrava- gant one-pot meals, and reading. Each evening we would bundle-up in down and fleece, pull out the book, stare up at the stars, and read to each other by the fire.

Twain’s 1885 granddaddy of all river books has created more river quotes than any other: “…by-and-by it got sort of lonesome, and so I went and set on the bank and listened to the currents washing along, and counted the stars and drift-logs and rafts that come down, and then went to bed; there ain’t no better way to put in time when you are lonesome.”

And the favourite of raft guides: “We said there warn’t no home like on a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.”

A coming-of-age novel dealing with slavery and the stultifying effects of “civi- lized” society, Huckleberry Finn has another message, one about rivers, paths, free- dom and choice. Cloaked in descriptions of the Mississippi and Huck’s log raft, the analogy is clear to those who spend time near water: growing up, traveling the stream of one’s life, learning, seeing the world for what it is, and seeking one’s own path.

Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha doesn’t sound like a good book. Judging it by the cover I managed to leave this book unread even though we “studied” it in high school. Years later, I discovered that Siddhartha is a River Alchemist’s text through and through, a story of one man’s search for happiness. The search leads to the river and a ferryman who offers to be a guide. After wandering around aimlessly for many years, Siddhartha accepts the help, but is told to look into the river to find what he is looking for: “‘It is a beautiful river,’ he said to his companion. ‘Yes’ said the ferry- man, ‘It is a very beautiful river. I love it above everything. I have often listened to it, gazed at it and I have always learned something from it. One can learn much from a river.’”

Hugh MacLennan’s Seven Rivers of Canada is now long out of print and can only be found in libraries or used book stores. Seven Rivers is based on a series of articles that appeared in Maclean’s magazine in the late 1950s and represents a time when society was just about to launch into the technology revolution. While not as heavy as Twain or Hesse, MacLennan uses rivers to identify who we are and the things we feel as Canadians. MacLennan paints our past on a screen, captures the elusive idea of Canada’s vast spaces, and anchors the streams that run through our lives. While a journalist by trade, MacLennan writes beyond the facts and hints at some greater ideas:

“I wanted to think like a river even though a river doesn’t think. Because every river on this earth, some of them against incredible obstacles, ultimately finds its way through the labyrinth to the universal sea.”

MacLennan identified in 1961 that Canadians were moving away from our rivers. Time has proven him correct, I fear.

Of all River Alchemists, Barry Lopez is the poet, and his River Notes is so profound and descriptive it drips with water in the reading. His swirling eddies draw the reader in, move them downstream, and delicately and surprisingly drop them with his famous single-sentence endings: “It is to the thought of the river’s bank that I most frequently return…and their disappearance here on the beach as the river enters the ocean. It occurs to me that at the very end the river is suddenly abandoned, that just before it’s finished the edges disappear completely, that in this moment a whole life is revealed.”

Lopez’s short stories are an exploration of the fine details of rivers and an exploration of the human soul.

There are some books that can be read over and over, and The River Why by David James Duncan is one I’ve been through a dozen times. While there are thou- sands of cheesy books attempting to address the “big question” in life, this book speaks to River People: “I couldn’t trade the trail…for a straight and narrow way—not when water’s ways, meandering and free flowing, had always been my love.” This is a story about a goofy fly fisherman who goes on a quest to fish every day of his life. He becomes a hermit, goes a little insane, gets it back together and falls in love. Proving, however, that River Alchemists find important things in unlikely places (such as fly fishing love novels), Duncan clearly writes the answer to the aforementioned big question. I’m not going to tell you what it is.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of Rapid Magazine.