By Sheila Levie
Photography by Tim Burris and Bruce Kemp
Some musings on the directions that life can take us, especially on the water, along with my deepest thanks to the instructors (especially Tim and Robyn).
Sheila Levie
I first encountered paddle sports at a scout camp in the fifth grade, sharing an ancient aluminum tandem canoe with a grumpy tentmate and finding out that cooperation, while a worthy ideal, was not going to be a reality in a group of preteen girls. This soured my view of paddle sports for years, until I had to opportunity to try kayaking, and I relearned the joys of heading out on the water on a beautiful day.
After a somewhat rocky start involving many encounters with banks, poison ivy, green briar and poorly positioned trees, I was able to gain more ability to actually direct my new craft, though I had some suspicions that it was just taking me along for the ride some days. I was still much slower and clumsier than my fellows, and was hard pressed to last for the entire trip each week. Despite this, I must confess that I was enjoying the challenge overall, and learned that canoeing and kayaking truly had very different vibes. Several of my regular paddling friends had participated in the FreeStyle workshops in previous years, and, seeing with amusement my stubborn struggles, suggested that “working smarter not harder” would allow increased enjoyment. Figuring there was nothing to lose, the Argosy and I headed over to Medford for a long weekend.
The accommodations were comfortable, and being in the bunkhouse and sharing meals in the dining hall allowed me to meet many new people with widely variable backgrounds and abilities, all of whom were happy to share a weekend on the water with fellow enthusiasts. I had a great time learning about backgrounds and home waters of people from Canada to southern Virginia. My bunkhouse-mate and instructor, Robyn, had a background in teaching, and we had a thoughtful discussion about learning styles, which came in handy later in the weekend.
The on-water instruction started with a focus on fine tuning the forward stroke while warming up for the weekend. After a couple of hours, Manon’s suggestions on stroke adjustments and addition of a mild heel had already significantly improved our tracking success. The next day, as we rotated instructors and practiced new techniques, I figured out that many small pieces of knowledge from whitewater and sea kayaking were being built into new ways to finely control FreeStyle canoe maneuvers. Despite a brisk breeze building through the day, the canoe was already cooperating better with my wishes. Later in the day, in the less structured practice sessions, Tim kindly added many thoughtful critiques and adjustments to the new skills that helped adapt them to my physical limitations. Book learning turned into practical demonstrations of exactly what would happen with weight shifts that had never occurred to me. Suddenly my boat and I were actually working cooperatively, rather than wrestling at cross purposes.
The final day, in the Pines to apply our new skills in the “real world”, we faced unusually high water levels courtesy of the remnants of Hurricane Michael. My group gathered at Goshen Pond, an area that I had never visited before, despite living in the area for almost 25 years. We had a blast zipping around submerged trees and around hummocks of marsh grass and blueberry bushes, and dancing in and out of the main currents. Amazingly, despite unusually high water levels, no one went for a swim. The next several weekends, I headed out to my favorite local river and found that (a) I remembered and could slowly execute the new maneuvers more smoothly, and (b) suddenly the river banks and trees stopped jumping into my way, and (c) I could paddle for longer with much less fatigue and pain. The Argosy and I have now come to a new level of partnership and communication, and I can now paddle in more demanding conditions than ever before. I even got compliments on my new boat control from people who have been canoeing the Pineland rivers for decades!
Many thanks to all of you who made the Functional Freestyle Workshop happen. I can now agree that it is well described as “obedience training for your canoe”, and plan to attend again in the future for some further fine-tuning.
With particular thanks for the patience of the instructors, and their willingness to adjust their teaching style to the learning styles and physical limitations of their students. Did you know you guys must have swapped out my boat for a very well behaved one?