3 posts tagged “kayak”
There's one thing you learn from any sport dependant on nature, expect the unexpected. It started last Monday with 300 plus athletes, many from warm weather countries, waking up in tents to 20 inches of snow. For many it was the first time. Canada's rude welcome continued as they head to the waters of the mighty Ottawa River to swollen river levels, massive 25 foot waves, unbelievable holes and glacier water... again, many in shorts and light gear. Welcome to Canada eh!
The overriding factor as the training continues is the river levels. With rain, snow, sun and now more rain coming, dam managers are struggling to maintain the perfect level. At no point in their lives did they expect to spend three weeks being constantly called by panicked kayak championship organizers asking for them to "open it up a bit more", "no, wait, close it a bit", "OK, perfect". I loooove technology ;-)
The latest is that the event will be shortenned, holding the competition over a 3 day period... May 2 thru May 4 with the finals on the 4th. The good news, organizers expect levels to be at the ideal 14 feet (Ottawa river guage language... don't ask).
My plans remain the same, head out for the semis and finals, that'd be Thursday and Friday. Invite is still open to those wanting to make the pilgrimage.
After about 10 years of awareness campaigns, a bunch of trips with dignitaries of all kinds and way too much boardroom meandering, the Magpie River situation is coming to a head... the dam being build by Hydromega is about to be activated.
For those who don't know the history, I was first introduced to the Magpie River by Eric Hertz of Earth River, my partner in Chile and a long-time friend and associate. Eric runs his upper class clientele down some of the most exotic trips and has graciously taken me on his journey from a kayak standpoint. It is because of him, I've had the chance to bring our little paddling community to these great rivers. Over the last 30 years, Eric and his guides have recorded most of the first decents in the World (both commercial and expedition) and has developed very high end trips on the Futaleufu in Chile, the Yangtze in China, The Colca in Peru, the Umpana in Equador, the Po Tsangpo in Tibet as well as the Magpie River in Quebec. Sadly all these rivers are endangered. Where there's rapids, there's dams.
It was during the Great Whale river protest movement when we first met. Eric introduced me to his program of concervation by outdoor sector development and his work with Robert Kennedy Jr and a bunch of other key spokespersons. From there on in, their role continued to be public education, litigation within the general public, and I began to get involved by bringing awareness to these rivers to the kayaking world. I ran trips on some of these rivers (Futa and Colca), wrote articles, and brought some of the paddling world's great personalities to these rivers as witnesses and helped push for these endangered rivers towards becoming paddling destinations. We produced films, booked clients and helped locals build resort businesses.
The Magpie was a very challenging scenerio. The business environment there included mining, daming, forestry and some tourism. The tourism sector were not loud enough and had never tried to mix in with the economic environment enough... result, the damming and forestry companies ran roughshod over them as they pleased. The Hertz, Kennedy and McBeath mix was not working there as walls were very high between the sides... we filmed, wrote and protested, no avail. What finally worked was comprimise.
ECO Quebec became a new player in this fray. They had over 15,000 member organizations and NO idea of their potential power. I keynoted at one of their congresses and quickly formed a workgroup. I asked the entire 4K + audience to raise their hands if they had ever sat on a town council or committee... very few hands raised... mayor?... No hands raised. Truth is well demonstrated here in Mississippi Mills, if you want to effect change, you need to be part of the decision making process. Our protests on the Magpie didn't work because all we did was agrivate and force the dam builders and townships to draw lines in the sand. The little group at ECO Quebec developed a new strategy of education and compromise. And it worked.
They got 3 ECO members onto the Economic Development committee in all three townships involved in the dam project. We sat with them and, with the help of the Canadian Tourism ministry, presented statistics and a business plan for the river. The plan included one dam, instead of 4, and a grant from the government for 200K towards the development of adventure tourism and the provision that they release enough water during paddling season as to not effect the Magpie river experience at all.
Compromise.
We are raising more money for the Quebec Rivers Foundation as we try the same model elsewhere in Northern Quebec... so feel free to buy the Long Live a Free Magpie video HERE. The film won the National Paddling Film Fest (US) and stars your's truely as well as Steve Fisher, Tyler Curtis, Brendan Mark, Jose Rodrigues and many other Champs. View trailer .
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
