Rushton and Wikle found a keen partner in David Wells, owner of local sea kayaking outfitter
Naturally Superior Adventures and 2012 Gales host, Rock Island Lodge. Situated at the mouth of the mighty Michipicoten River, Rock Island is wreathed in the often-turbid waters of one of the lake’s largest tributaries. Here, three-mile-per-hour currents collide with autumn swells reaching 10 feet or more, born from the longest fetch on Superior—nearly 350 miles to Duluth. The site promised just the sort of ocean-like exposure and challenging conditions the organizers wanted to showcase when they invited their coastal comrades to the Inland Sea. “We often feel like second-class citizens because we’re on freshwater,” Wikle says, “But the Michip-
icoten has enough current to create tidal race conditions. That’s the Lake Superior we want to show off, especially to paddlers from the coast.” Along with Franklin and Body Boat Blade partner Leon Sommé, headline instructors at Gales 2012
included Wales’ Nick Cunliffe, Halifax’s Christopher Lockyer, BCU senior coach Scott Fairty and around-Ireland paddler Sam Crowley. “These are the leaders in our community,” says Wells. “Of course we have something to prove.”
Michipicoten is a long drive from anywhere. I roll down the narrow causeway onto Rock Island at dusk after a full day behind the wheel. Beyond my passenger window the surf dumps explosively on the steep gravel of Government Beach. Out the driver’s side, even the sheltered bay just inside the river mouth is tossed with whitecaps. I drive past a line of tents clinging tenuously to the beach, park behind a windbreak of twisted cedar, throw my sleeping bag in the back of my van and fall into dreams of being blown out to sea on a Therm-a-Rest. I’m grateful for a slow start the following morning. Gale-force winds have stymied the morning
workshops and the final evaluations for the score of participants who signed up for a pre-symposium coaching week. After four days of drilling, they gather in the lodge around the warmth of a roaring fire, content to merely watch a frenzy of white horses galloping across Michipicoten Bay as the wind tosses horizontal sheets of rain against the windowpanes. Conversation circles from the weather, the schedule and the best gear to anxieties about their im-
pending assessment. Inevitably, there’s some light-hearted jesting. “Are you ready for the night naviga- tion exercise tonight?” Steve asks Tammy as 11-foot breakers thunder up the river mouth. Without missing a beat, Tammy retorts, “What kind of flowers do you want at your funeral?” A petite woman in her late sixties, Tammy took up paddling after retirement and is now a sea kayak-
ing junkie. She drives all over the East to train with many of the sport’s best coaches. After eight days of Gales, she’s heading down to Georgia’s Tybee Island for a week of Greenland-style instruction, and then pushing into South Carolina for several days of private coaching with Scotland’s Gordon Brown. Tammy’s paddling knowledge now extends well beyond strokes and rescues; she can also tell you the strengths and weaknesses of a regular who’s who of top kayaking brass. It’s the calibre of the instructor roster, she tells me, that drew her to Gales. The event brings together
instructors from BCU, ACA and Paddle Canada doctrines, allowing participants to sample the field. “It’s wonderful to be exposed to so many different instructional styles,” Tammy says. She describes BCU coaching week lead, Nick Cunliffe, as “an amazing instructor with really helpful feedback,” a senti- ment echoed by many of the other Gales students about their respective coaches. Okay, so it’s a privilege to be under the wing of such accomplished paddlers and teachers. But as we
gather on the rocks at the river mouth to watch Cunliffe and Sam Crowley, owner of Michigan-based Sea Kayak Specialists, poke their bows into a 40-knot s’wester, I wonder if part of the attraction is in witnessing the masters made mortal. As Cunliffe and Crowley edge further and further into the crashing waves, Steve calls a play-by-play
commentary: “Oh, Sam is out of his boat!” he yells when Crowley pushes too far and is caught between an avalanching set and the steep face of surf-washed beach. Moments later, he’s crowing, “Now I don’t feel so bad!” as a soggy Crowley staggers ashore sans kayak.
70 ADVENTURE KAYAK | SPRING 2013
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