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2013 RIDEAU CANAL CANOE BRIGADE


REPORT:


IN AUGUST 2013, 65 paddlers from across Canada (from Victoria, B.C. in the West to Margaret’s Bay, N.S. to the East), with a few American guests, gathered to paddle the Rideau Canal by big canoe over nine days. We began with a breakfast at the Rideau Acres campground just outside of Kingston on August 6 and finished with a departure breakfast on August 16 in the Ottawa Municipal Camp-


ground of Corkstown. Along the way, the communities of Seeley’s Bay, New- boro and Smith Falls were kind enough to feed us suppers. We also enjoyed two brigade-wide potluck suppers. But we did not travel so far just for


the fine food! Some years ago during the late fall snow-bound meetings of the Canadian Recreational Canoe As- sociation (precursor to Paddle Canada) in Merrickville, I vowed to return to


Rescuers in Danger


IT WAS ONLY THE FIRST WEEK into my one-year sabbatical, and as a newly trained Paddle Canada Inter- mediate Moving Water Instructor, I had many paddling plans for the year ahead. So, imagine my surprise when I found myself in need of medical atten- tion on the first day of a whitewater rescue technician program. On a cool September morning our eclectic group came together to become certified in whitewater rescue. I’d been paddling an open boat since my univer- sity days, but when I started taking my kids along I knew it was time to brush up on the rescue techniques I’d learned and practiced over the last 25 years. When I was originally trained in


whitewater rescue, the techniques involved boat rescues and proficiency with a throw bag. These days, similar curriculum is covered, but techniques go further. Some whitewater rescue in-


structors are training people to dive into the open, often head first. Sometimes divers are tethered by their throw bags, sometimes they aren’t. These techniques can be found in action-packed demo videos featuring rescuers shallow diving with their heads up into whitewater to extract victims. We started diving into the river dem-


onstrating our self-rescue ability in the early afternoon. It was fun, exhilarating and adventurous. I felt almost heroic, swimming with lifejacket, helmet and wetsuit through the water I normally paddled. My strokes and strength were in top form. The first sign of danger occurred when one of the other guys in the course hit his tailbone on a ledge. He was shocked and a little shaken. We were all encouraged to get out farther into the main flow of the river. Hours later, we were still diving and jumping into the river to rescue a vari-


ety of victims who were cooperative or uncooperative, calm or panicky. Some- times we were tethered to shore with throw bags, sometimes we weren’t. In the late afternoon, I dove in at


about the same place that we had been using all afternoon and hit a rock with my thigh. In the hospital, it was determined that I had badly torn one of my quadriceps muscles. After more tests, a fractured femur was ruled out. I was shocked, in an immense amount of pain and coming to terms with the fact that I was in for a very long re- covery. Six to eight weeks of recovery and pricey physio treatments were not what I hoped for during my year off. —Oliver Horn Read the rest of Oliver Horn’s story at


www.paddlecanada.com/kanawa where it is reproduced in full. Paddle Canada does not offer any rescue-specific curriculum.


explore the history of the area and to paddle the canal in warmer times. I planned to involve many folks, including Laverne Thompson (a sev- enth generation descendant of David Thompson) and James Raffan of the Canadian Canoe Museum. Laverne and I scouted the route in 2012 to find ap- propriate campsites. Sixty-five paddlers and support crews and vehicles cannot just squat anywhere along the route. The communities along the Rideau Canal, its lockmasters and the folks at Parks Canada were all very supportive. Outfitters from Gatineau and Sorel, Quebec, came through with six of the big canoes. Prior to and during the Brigade, Paddle Canada Big Canoe Instructor Darin Zandee trained new paddlers and Big Canoe Leaders. This contributed to both the safety of the Brigade, and to our goal of helping to spread the Big Canoe gospel! The Brigade was a paddling, social


and financial success. Donations were made to the Canadian Canoe Museum and to the Bill Mason Scholarship Fund. Money was also set aside as seed funding for future brigades. —Mark Lund (Brigade Chief) Go to the Paddling News page at


www.paddlecanada.com for more photos and links.


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