2008 Youth Challenge Kayak Program

Another day has gone by and we find ourselves back on the water in Cornwall.
Sylvie, Cheryl, Emily and I were greeted by a group of 8 enthusiastic kids.
Daylan, Brandon, Kyle, Sean, Justin, Melanie and Maude were ready to go and so we wated no time on our arrival and got them geared up.
1st thing on the agenda: Stretching. Sylvie is a natural for this and after 10 minutes of stretching we visited the next point of discussion:
Food and Drink. On the water (as in any physical activity) we need to remain hydrated. What works best for this? Fresh drinking water. And for the necessary energies we presented multi grain bars and fruit. Keeping a multi grain bar in your life jacket pocket along with a bottle of water will go a long way to get you through your paddling excursions. Spare food at he take out will complete the formula.
A risk with packaged foods is garbage. So, we reminded everyone of the need to carry out whatever you carry in. This was reinforced at the end of the evening when it was time to pick up the garbage left on the site.
Well after all this talk it was time to get on the water.
Again the group was split and after some hard paddle drills I took the more advance group across the St-Lawrence to challenge the stronger current. Every one did well. Maude learned the importance of edge control and the force of the eddy line. This was followed by an impromptu lesson in river rescues and getting back in a boat on the water. she did very well and was back in her boat in no time at all. The eddy lines below the international bridge on are accompanied by some serious whirlpools (really great if you are looking for some down time) and Maude popped in and out of view several times before she could be rescued. It was an important experience that ended very well and I am proud of her. She stood up to her fear, faced it, gave in to it and at the end pushed the fear back. That is a big deal.
when we joined up with Sylvie’s group we started to work on bomb proofing the roll.
The progress was astounding! Those who could roll were learning to hand roll and those that could not roll were suddenly rolling. Yes, that is right: Sean can roll, Justin can roll and I am expecting that Kyle will be right behind them in the weeks to come! Who hoo!

What struck me the most on Wednesday was the complete change of attitude from the previous night. My kids were back!!! They were courteous to each other and the volunteers, as well as helpful and fun.
They worked together to accomplish their goals for the day and they made it all happen for each other.
The best part was the sounds of laughter on the water as they learned and played together.
Sweet!
At the end of the evening we were happy to see a collection of smiling faces and supper attitudes so we were pleased to be able to offer each of them a CReW hoodie. (We received the sweater order that morning).
Sorry but I did not take any pictures. We will make sure that some pics are taken next week.
Next week we will visit nutrition in some more detail as well as river rescues and then more fun!

I am looking forward to next week and seeing the whole group on the water again.

See you soon,

Robert Zwanenburg

www.cornwallwhitewater.com