The Cornwall Recreational Whitewater Club

Every Friday CReW members get together in Alexandria Ontario at the Glengarry Memorial Hospital Pool to play a friendly game of 2 on 2, half court kayak polo.
The game is a lot of fun and it also teaches good balance and boat control.
This past Friday (the 25th) we had Tilly, Sean, Adam, Zachary, Sylvie and Zach in the water.
Part of each sessions is skill development and we took the time to start learning the Stern Squirt.
Not only is the stern squirt fun and can lead to all sorts of cool flatwater and moving water moves, it is also really practical to get yourself turned around fast in a game of polo (Think less vertical and more speed).
Each player was at a different point in the learning and we took a series of videos and posted them on the CReW website.
CReW Pictures and Videos: Click on any image from January 25th.
As each member practices and applies what they are learning from instruction, each other and the video review, we should see dramatic changes in their performance in no time at all!

To make the actual game a bit more demanding they played without paddles for the the first part of the evening!

They are all great kids and I am very proud to be able to paddle, play and share the adventure with them.

Robert Zwanenburg

What a great way to start 2008! Middle of winter and we get to paddle with family and friends!
After a good evening of Kayak Polo, I woke up Saturday morning expecting to be able to head out to New York State and get some board time in with Sylvie and the kids.
Funny how things work out. The week of mild weather made board conditions less than ideal but pushed the river levels to spring flood on the Raisin River (Williamstown, Ontario).
So we called up as many CReW members as we could and got them to our home by noon.
Sylvie, not being a big cold weather paddler (yet…) decided to be our shuttle so, Aime-Jean, Cheryl, Sean, Zachary and I set out for what turned into 3 hours of great times!

The raisin river does not often give us these kind of conditions but the wave (we call it the Williamstown wave) was out. It is a 4 foot standing wave and when we arrived it was in great condition. Everyone got good rides and an hour later the levels were starting to go down and the feature was starting to let us down.
Time to move down stream. As the water goes down we are treated to a series of eddy lines that make cartwheels and squirts really easy and fun.
When we got back to our home, we decided that it was deep enough to have a bit of fun an seal launch of the train bridge pillars.



Finally, a few good snow slides down the hill and into the water (Aime-Jean enjoyed a couple of blunts of the snow and into the river), then it was time for food and drinks for the group.
An mid-winter treat for kayakers who are usually confined to a pool at this time of year.

Over the coming year, visitors to our blog will bear witness to the fun that a family that paddles together can have.
Not just our family but our friends who join us at all our club events and outings.
Is there more?
Oh yeah!
CReW, which I am proud to be a part off, is dedicated to bringing whitewater kayaking to the young people of the Cornwall area and with the help of the Cornwall Youth Center and the Adventure Sports Access Group we are bringing CReW: 2008 Youth Challenge Kayak Program to the kids of the region.
The program is designed to show kids that there are many more options out the for them. All they have to do is reach out. The idea is to take kids from “I can’t”, “I won’t” and “why” to “I can”, “I will”, and “let’s do it again!”. It works and I am proud of what our volunteers have accomplished in the past and what we are planning to do in our second season of the program.

I hope you will stay tuned throughout the season and join us, if not physically then at least in spirit, while we bring new generations of paddlers to the rivers and share our passion for whitewater with kids from all walks of life.
The journey is rewarding and we are happy to be able to share it with you.

So whether you are a family looking for other families to paddle with, looking for other paddlers in easter Ontario, or just want to share our fun, welcome and see you on the river.

Robert Zwanenburg

www.cornwallwhitewater.com