The Cornwall Recreational Whitewater Club

Padlding time is here. The rivers have been open for a while and now we play.

Last Saturday (April 18) Cheryl, Zachary and I (Emily was sick and Sylvie volunteered to stay back with her….) headed out to Ottawa to spend the day at the wall (Champlain) on the Ottawa River.
The forecast was sketchy but when we got there the sun showed up and the water level was good!

We brought our play boats and spent a good part of the day working out the kinks for next weeks Level 6 Rodeo. Cheryl is consistently getting on and spinning, Zachary is throwing nice loops and I nailed a few good blunts and a loop. Who hoo. We were joined by Martin and his friends from CUKC (Simon and Dave).

We also brought out the duos. At first there was some hesitation when we asked if people wanted to give it a go. But once they were out there the tone changed. We had baslt. DUO’s ROCK. I think you will hear that a lot this year!!!

Simon and Cheryl got top mention with a couple spins and huge smiles.

Here is a link to a video Cheryl put together: DUO’s ROCK!

At the end of the day everyone had a blast and I think we have converted Simon. (He liked the outfitting. Something about ” like a Cadillac “!!!

You can check out the pic here: click here!!!

The comes Sunday:
Every year in the Raisin River Conservation Authority puts on an event called the Raisin River Race. (2009 weas the 37th Race!). This is 35 KM of mostly fast moving but flatwater. There are usually 3 sections of class 2 rapids to keep it interesting. This year, the water is low so the race started 10 km downstream. But the weather was great and 187 boats entered!
Sylvie and I volunteer as the sweepers. (Safety boats that pull out those who need it and encourage the stragglers to keep going!).
Chery raced with Emily in the yellow duo. They added 2 toy monkeys to the boat and called it the banana. GO BANANA!!!
Zachary and Sean Hakvoort raced in the purple dua and Adam and Zachary Hakvoort each raced in single whitewater boats…
Times ranged from 2 hours 19 minutes to 3 hours 40 minutes. (The duos are fast with good paddlers and there is nothing you can do to speed up a creek boat on flatwater.)
But everyone had fun and the exercise alone was worth the effort.

You can check out the pic here: click here!!

All in all it was another great day.

And now (today) I am on vacation!

Tomorrow I am guiding a group from southern Ontarion down the Petite Nation River. This is a great river for new paddlers and still offers a few challenges to the more experience (in the canyon section).
(More on this coming soon)

This weekend is the Level 6 Rodeo. This should be awesome. we are bringing the Dus and with Billy and Carly Harris and their Duos we will put on a small tandem rodeo. Stay tuned!