1 post tagged “almonte”
The Ottawa Valley is ripe with opportunity if you're a whitewater wannabe. We have three of the best paddling instructional groups in the World here... and NO this isn't a hype... Claudia and Dirk at MKC are litterally pioneers and leaders in this field world wide, Joe Kowalski is singlehandly responsible for the current state of freestyle today and Liquid Skills has some of the biggest names in paddlesports on their shores daily!
In Almonte, well, you've got me. After years of workin' for Wilderness Tours and helping building Liquid Skills I took some time to grow an IT business, but now am back with what I like to call the MM paddling club. I've taken about 10 friends down the Ottawa and have at least 7 of them bugging me to go paddle each week (summer of course). This summer I want to grow the group.
So how does it start:
- Well lets head to the beach! We spend a weekend at either Almonte beach or River run or Wilderness Tours and I teach ya how to do the basics with the kayak.
- Hitting a current. Once we are all happy in our boats and know the basic rescue techniques, we hit the rapids, usually the bottom of a rapid, and do some more work on skills. Again about a day.
- Then we run a rapid. Mooo ha ha ... reality is, this is a lot easier than the first two steps! We run a simple class II rapid and have a blast seeing how boats feel through waves. Swimming is always a potential, but, truth be told... SWIMMING IN WHITEWATER IS FUN! Moreover, the Ottawa River is the safest place due to the depth of the water.
- You're ready to run. After a bit of play at the bottom of rapids, running a few times, we are ready to head to the Middle Channel, a peaceful section of the Ottawa with about 5 REALLY easy sections to run. You'll have a blast and I gaurantee you'll be hooked.
- Now you can buy your gear!
So what do you think? I will be announcing a program soon, complete with pricing. Let me know if you're interested by sending me an email... Email me
