3 Rivers Whitewater Rendezvous

This past weekend saw many from the Alberta paddling community attend the Pinch-o-Crow Creekers 10th annual whitewater rendezvous. With 3 days of excellent weather and food it is no wonder that we all forget the May Long Weekend Snofest to join Chuck Lee and his gang of southern paddlers for so many river runs and terrific beginner lessons.

I found myself helping Chuck and many others as we piled 30 or so new paddlers into kayaks. With +30 degree weather it was inevitable they would paddle all three days and join the rest of us whitewater addicted paddlers.

Of course my truck would be the center of attention and the topic of many discussions...the poor ol' boat slugger earned its keep this past weekend. Not known for its human traveling capacity, the boats that travelled with it felt safe on the 2001 Nissan. With 360,000 km of road experience, these boats would make it to the river safely! Now for the getting down the river part....it has been mentioned that Chuck has about 360 years of paddling experience...so we are safe!

Once again, thank you so much to Chuck Lee and the many others including Matt and Joanne Cole, Dave Saganiuk, Janet Elder and the many others who basically hook lined and sinkered us into thinking paddling is about waking up to a 5 star breakfast and having a river run all organized!

The Season Begins!

Its been a while since I've last posted. I'll promise this year to keep up on the blogging... Yesterday, Tuesday May 6 we had our first TAK session of many. For more information on TAK visit the AWA website. The Kananaskis River was off and the parents wouldn't allow for any school to be missed so I met up with Peter and Brad to paddle the mighty Ghost Dam to Power Plant run on the Bow. We opted for some leadership training. Yes that's right, I've been encouraged to run a new program this year..."training others to put me out of a job in a few years"! It was piloted last year for its inauguration in 2008.

We started the session with throwbag and boat rescue scenarios. As I swam and swam I realized my drysuit had a hole in it; either that or I have one of those new funky kind that have that special wet feel on the inside....but really they are dry!

Seeing as how this was the start of the season the boys were a little slow towing me, the swimmer, into shore. Haget my ugliest child, pictured above to the right, wasted no time telling them to hurry up! Once done the swimming scenarios and the boys had been given feedback from my dogs, we headed down the river where I presented them with an injured paddler scenario. I have to say, I was looked after quite well and they got me off the river safely. Even my dogs would have been proud. I guess Haget's feedback really helped!