Spring Trip 2010
Saturday, April 24th, 2010 by Juraj Kobzik
top row (left to right) : Simon DeNure, Mitch Broughton, Ben Fraser, Ronnie Farrell, Brandon Fasan, Will Poelstra, James Heard, Allesha Mullen, Cheryl McGregor, Peter Mazereeuw bottom row (left to right): Martin Cayouette, Kevin Charland, Laine Shaw, Meagan Potter, Alana Speranzini, Conor Smith, Juraj Kobzik, Matt Tasson, Billy Harris.
The club this past Thursday the 22nd headed out the Ottawa River with 9 new paddlers who had learnt their rolls over the winter. It seemed we had chosen the only day where it wasn’t sunny and 20 degrees for the week, the day was started off being overcast, cold and windy with a bit of snow that made an appearance in Arnprior. Temperatures luckily warmed up a tad bit and the sun did make an appearance periodically. Jamie, Mat, Brandon, Lani, and I grouped up with Ben’s group of guys and with our sense of adventure and optimism that came from everyone in Ben’s group running a solid line Mccoy’s, we decided we’d take on the Main Channel for better or for worse. The day progressed with people practicing surfing at pushbutton, and swimming through a couple of the rapids. One of my favourite memories was running Butcher’s Knife and the team of beginners following behind Ben but each one was progressively more and more further over to the right. Eventually to the point where the last few people ended up going directly into Chopping Block. Might sound pretty mean, but I thought it was quite funny watch people paddle into the hole kinda like lemmings. while the temperature could have been a bit warmer, especially since we had a team of beginners with us, but the day was more than successful. We got 9 new people introduced to whitewater and severe hypothermia was avoided!
April 24th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
i found a big bruise on the side of my face from when i went over on that rock on lower no-name and i’ve got a few mashed up fingers from it too. my first battle scars, i’m very proud
you guys did an awesome job of making otherwise terrifying things be quite manageable and less intimidating. like meagan said, i didn’t fear for my life NEARLY a much as i was expecting to. i’m not sure how i feel about that, as it means i might have to do completely insane things to really get my adrenaline flowing. eek! however you guys may be responsible for fostering a new addiction in me :S look out, here comes soon to be master paddler laine!
i thought having so many of you guys looking out for us was pretty awesome, really made me feel safe. even if something went wrong, it would only be a second before someone was there to help. and little pointers from a few different people gives you more to go on too, different points of view and stuff. different experiences and approaches to draw from. and i did think it was pretty sweet to have all the girls together. it would have been cool to hear the instructions given to the guys too, to be exposed to both. but ya, it was neat as a chick to have a group and instructors who catered to women paddling and gave us woman specific advice, especially if it’s as different as they say for us. and billy was awesome, i was really impressed that he picked up on the fact that i don’t learn things by being told, only by feeling it for myself. the fact that he picked up on that right away and put me in his boat to show me what he was trying to explain was pretty awesome.
on the things that could maybe be done better for next year… maybe just a bit more organization. when the trip was planned and money collected, the deal was a bus ride up, gear rental, the day’s lesson and a meal for the $70… then it turned into a car pool and lesson only. i know some of the drivers ended up spending more in gas than their share and a lot of us didn’t really know what was going on and just sort of went with things. but it was totally worth it and i think we all had an awesome time, so it all turned out great
i think an overnight trip would have been sweet too, although i’m sure there are god reasons why it wasn’t this time.
Thanks for an awesome trip guys!
April 24th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
I had a lot of fun. The nerves were definitely pretty high in the beginning but we went through everything slowly and built out way up which was perfect. Nothing was really as terrifying as we though it was going to be. Billy was an awesome guide, Martin was a lot of help, but it was great to have someone like Cheryl there, in order to hear from a fellow woman paddler, because as much as we hate to admit it sometimes we just can’t muscle our way through things like the men can. Overall, it was good day and it helped boost my confidence.
Just remember, ‘stay cool bitch’, ‘don’t overthink just do!’, and ‘loose hips saves ships!’
Thanks again,
Meagan