How to Improve Your White Water Paddling . . . Paddle

The most important exercise that you can do to improve your white water paddling is to get out and paddle. Even if you train on flat water, your white water paddling will improve.

Most weekends I pop down to Erindale Park for a hour or so of training. There are stone blocks in the river that allow me to work on my eddy turns and balance. There is even a great hole there where two flows come together to create some interesting eddy lines and a challenging surf. Paddling in the hole does wonders for my balance (as does fear of falling into the Credit with its bacteria and rebar).

I try to routinely spend time flat water paddling to improve my strokes. If we are away at a lake for the weekend, I'll take my C-1 along and spend an hour each day paddling, as well as getting some exercise and fresh air. Correctly executed strokes make every difference when you get into white water.

I used to drive to Waterloo once a week to work with a client there. On the way home, I'd take some side roads and paddle in a quiet stretch of a river where some local paddlers had hung gates below the bridge. Even though the current was minimal, it gave me the opportunity to improve my strokes, balance and reaction. Eddy turn are more difficult in flat / quiet water, than in current, since there is less pull against your paddle to balance on.

On the March 23/24 weekend, I paddled in the 44th annual Credit River races - both downriver and slalom. The next weekend, with the river up from the rain, I paddled the Credit from my house down to Erindale Park. The are lots of opportunities to surf, front ferry, and eddy turn, as well as for paddling upstream for aerobic exercise.

The past two weekends, I have paddled from my house down to Erindale park on both Saturday and Sunday. This past weekend the water was up and there were lots of opportunities for surfing (including a couple of holes that I wasn't prepared to paddle while alone). I even saw 4 deer swimming across the Credit.

If you are in the Mississauga Road and Eglinton Ave. area of Mississauga, give me a yell and we'll paddle together. The Credit is shallow and the eddies are small, so C-1s and kayaks are much better than 16' canoes. If you want to try a C-1 or OC-1, I have a variety that you are welcome to try.

By the way, there is a great new C-1 paddling video out called "We Designed 'em". It features Canada's Mark Scriver and Joe Langman and includes footage of the used OC-1 that I bought from Mark.

Good paddling;
Garry Almond