Preaching paddling safety

Avalon Dragon Boat ladies

Today Avalon Dragon Boating, Tumblehome Canoe Club and Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador (KNL) partnered to put off a boating safety day. It was a beautiful sunny day with little wind and warm temperatures, perfect for the occasion. In fact, better weather couldn't have been ordered.

The day started off with a Dragon Boat demonstration, followed by a kayak rescue demonstration by KNL and a canoe safety demo by Tumblehome. A lot of time and effort were put into the day by representatives of the 3 clubs and it was gratifying that a lot of people showed up to take advantage of the opportunity to practice paddling safety.

The Dragon Boat was built by the Dragon boaters themselves; all are cancer surivours. I wanted to get a shot of them in action and it happenned they just came barrelling by me as I floated in my kayak. It was a majestic sight.

I got a chance to paddle the boat and sat next to Alice who explained the mechanics of paddling such a large boat. It was an honour ladies to share Safety Day with you. Live strong!

Brian and Sue preparing for stirup rescue

Brian, Sue, Peter and I represented KNL at Safety Day with a demonstration of various kayak rescues. Other club members were on hand representing KNL by watching over people who were trying a kayak for the first time.

Peter did the play-by-play as Brian, Sue and I worked through Peter's scripted list of rescues. Starting with a low brace and a roll, we moved through Inuit bow rescue, Inuit paddle over the boats rescue, T rescue, assisted re-entry over my bow and the stirup rescue above. We finished with scramble rescues and a paddle float rescue.

Brian, Sue and I had practiced the last 3 days and it was good to see it go off without a hitch. Especially with an audience looking on; there was pressure to perform. Thanks Brian and Sue, it was fun working with you on this.

New paddlers trying out a kayak

I think there were more people trying out boats over the day than there were KNL members. That was a good sign because we wanted to reach these people. The numbers are not in yet but there were many people who took advantage of the chance to try a kayak.

Michael visiting from Quebec

Fellow kayak blogger Michael from Quebec visited us on our Safety Day. That doesn't happen very often - my getting a picture of a fellow kayaker whose blog I read, for my own blog. I think he's escaping the cold and rainy weather of Quebec *lol*.

Hopefully Stan and I will have a paddle with you while you're here Michael.