Moving Water Strokes on Flat Water
by Martin W.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Well, after expecting the 10 or so folks who signed up for this basic workshop for becoming acquainted with moving your boat sideways, I was surprised at the number of folks that actually showed up - 27. As a result I was happy to have several of our more experienced members come and help out with the event.

Normally we have most of our workshops at Green Turtle Pond, but the "road" if one can call that obstacle course of a road - was barricaded off, so we held it at Monksville instead. After unloading all the boats, we had a shore-side talk about the various strokes one can use to propel one's boat sideways - a very important concept in moving water. Various audio-visual props were presented to convey the paddling techniques and strokes. Our resident Free-Style guru - Robyn, showed the group some in-the-water paddling moves and Jim and myself managed to do some animated high jinks of what happens if one hits an immovable object with one's person in a boat.

After the shore show, the group got into their boats and practiced draws, prys, sculling draws and sideslips around an obstacle course set up.

I hope those in attendance came away with a little better idea of basic moving water strokes - ready for actual moving water.

Again, I'd like to thank Robyn, Al, and Jim for their effort and help an this workshop. Without folks like these volunteering to lend their time and knowledge, the club couldn't make workshops as these available to the membership.

Martin