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Four New 3*'s and one VERY safe canoeist!


Gillian

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Congrats to Walter, Kevin, Jason, and Galen on their successful 3* assessment! And congrats to me for my Canoe Safety (and Galen too).

Today the 5 of us under the watchful eye of John Carmody and Billy went to Chebacco for the 3* assessment. I was lucky enough to train with these guys and in fact do the assessment as well although for me what it was really about was learning what to work on and what I can potentially do with that baby blue Explorer of mine :)

The morning started at Walters house of homemade pancakes . . . when Kevin and I walked in, all I heard was Walter shout up the stairs . . . . . "Billy, Jason time for breakfast" Really enough said there . . . Billy and Jason came down in their footie pajamas and the day began . . .

After everyone arrived we headed over to the lake and started our day. We did a review of some strokes and expectations and then paddled over to a beach to start off. We spent the first half of the day doing braces and turns and everyone did quite a bit of rolling (except me but I got some great pointers). When I finally "committed" to the paddle for a high brace I went right over and came up laughing . . . John suggested video to which Billy raised his eyes at me, I made a flip comment, Jason turned red, John grumbled about keeping the conversation to paddling to which I commented that I was most certainly including paddling in my video :) I think I sent Kev paddling away laughing but I think I got a date with Walter out of it :)

We stopped for lunch at the beach and went over the verbal portion of the test which everyone did well and then back out to do the remainder of the assessment including the dreaded (by me) backwards figure eight. Later in the day, Kevin asked why he saw me give Billy the ummmm universal sign of "the bird" and I relayed to him that while attempting a backwards figure 8 and unsuccessfully making the transition to the opposite edge, Billy who was watching me called out "NICE CIRCLE GILLIAN" Yah, right back atchya Billy :)

Galen and I got to complete the Canoe Safety Test which invoveld a couple hand of gods, scoop rescues, all in and the others played around with rescues as well. I remember seeing Kevin and Walter upside down next to each other at what started out as a paddle presentation rescue and ended up as Kevin and Walter sharing some quality time under tha water . . .

After a slow, wet, paddle back John as promised finished with Galen and me by having us tow by bow and stern a paddler . . . . our victim was Jason - it brough back memories of us trying to tow each other in 25 knot winds a few months ago and was just as funny this time but much easier. After that we had our individual de-briefings and I got my Canoe Safety and those guys deservedly got their stars!!!

Much thanks to Billy and John for a fantastic day, individual attention, and as always with this group a lot of laughter and fun.

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> all I heard was Walter shout

>up the stairs

Walter shouting? Seems implausible.

>Billy and Jason came down in

>their footie pajamas

And you did not post pictures?

In any event, congrats to all and to all a good night...oh..nevermind.

Ed Lawson

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G, wonderful trip report and hilarious as usual;)

Paddling is about mutual support (some people often forgot this fact) in the learning process so I want to congratulate Gilly and Galen on thier CST and Walter, Jason and Galen on their ***. Well done!

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Yes, we have some very fine paddlers out there. Time to start working on those 4*'s. Thank you for letting me take part in your assessment. Congratulations on a job well done!

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