Tippecanoe (and Julie too)

In my kayaking class, I not only learned how to roll, but spent some time in a canoe.

Basically our lead coach needs to integrate canoe skills into his training program, so he used us (four of us, plus another coach) as guinea pigs for how to teach canoe skills. Picture, if you can, a large canoe, with two seats and room for four additional pasengers, in a swimming pool about 20*15 meters wide. Oh, and there are about half a dozen kayaking students blazing random trails across the pool, plus two large sea kayaks to practice the rescue techniques with.

Everyone is wearing life jackets, and we are not allowed to stand up on the floor of the 4-foot pool. We are practicing as though we are in open water. That is, open water with no current, lots of chlorine, and excellent visibility.

I worked with an English girl named Ellie. Ellie and I paddled around the pool pretty easily. The kayaking strokes that we know were developed from canoe strokes, so it isn't difficult. There isn't much room to go straight, so mostly we turn, and turn, and at one point practice a pivot, rotating in place.

Next step: capsize, and try to rescue ourselves.

We leaned over on the right, holding on to our paddles. With the boat full of water, we tried to figure out what to do. Kayaks tend to float, because they have watertight compartments and flotation material. The canoe just bobs in the water. I tried floating into the front and performing a sculling brace while Elle climbed in the back, thinking maybe we can paddle it full of water - it's been done in a kayak. We failed. We just kept diving like the Titanic.

We tried an assisted rescue with the kayaks, but I'll detail that in a bit.

The other team - Donna and Giselle - got a little coaching on how to self rescue. If a canoe is capsized, there is usualy a trapped pocket of air underneath. Ideally, the canoeists can swim underneath and talk to each other to coordinate their efforts. They rock the boat gently until they are ready to push and flip the boat over. We all understood the concept, but were unable to execute.

The assisted rescue was very involved and involved a lot of stage management. Basically, two kayaks pull up about a paddle's width apart. They reach their paddles across and hold on to the blades, forming a pole between them. The canoeists then push down on the far end of the canoe, still upside-down, and push up with the near, and the kayakers try to assist with lifting the canoe onto their paddle handles. The kayakers can then pull the canoe out of the water, using the paddles as a lever. With the canoe out of water, they can flip it and slide it back in to the water. They then keep the canoe in the water and hold tight while the canoeists climb over the kayaks and back into the canoe.

We also tried rescuing a kayak using the canoe. That was a little more tricky, and a deliberate challenge on our instructor's part. I was in charge, and while I was headed in the right direction, I didn't get it totally figured out. We also had a second kayak to help us out. I know how to to a kayak-to-kayak rescue, and an inkling on the canoe-to-kayak rescue, but the two together presented such an abundance of resources I that I didn't know what to make of them.

I ought to mention one more thing (golly, I did a lot on Saturday). I got a bad scratch on my forearm, plus a couple of little cat-like scratched, from doing a cowboy self-rescue. That's where you push down on the back of the boat and pull yourself up to slide into the cockpit. It's trick to maintain your balance, but I can do it pretty well. I think there was a rough plastic edge, or maybe a frayed cable, because something nicked me good but I didn't feel it at the time.


I love kayaking. It's my new passion.