SUNDRE – The local waterways might be largely frozen over, but that hasn’t stopped members of the Sundre Paddling Club from hopping into their canoes and kayaks to fine tune their technique.
The group, whose members range in age from the single digits to seniors, gathers every Friday night at the Sundre & District Aquaplex indoor pool and fitness centre, providing the more experienced members an opportunity to keep their skills sharp while also keeping a welcoming door open to new paddlers.
“It’s more of a drop-in for the club members,” said Sheldon Valentine, president. “And if there’s anybody that’s interested, we always take them under our wing and help them get going.”
Valentine said the only caveat is for anyone who’s interested in joining for a night to contact a member of the club in advance to ensure equipment is on hand.
“It’s just to make sure that we’ve got the right boats,” he said, adding the club boasts a repertoire of smaller to larger watercraft to accommodate a variety of body shapes as a person’s size determines what kind of boat to use.
Now afloat for several decades, the club has been around for quite a long time and is doing really well with a core group of members who are “pretty gung ho,” he said.
Fledgling paddlers who following an introduction to the group might be interested in joining, must become official club members for insurance purposes, he said, adding dues are very reasonable and for a family runs an annual tab of $125 that includes all of the equipment involved – for example boats, paddles, and skirts – except for swim wear, he said.
While the wintertime does tend to slow down the club’s activity, pandemic-related complications had like so many other organizations previously brought the group to a grinding halt.
“We never had winter kayaking for a few years, to do with COVID and a few other things,” said Valentine, adding he last year began the endeavour to revive winter lessons.
Since then, he said the club went from having just a few members who could roll back to the surface, to having the majority of the class capable of performing the potentially life-saving skill that for some rookies can be particularly intimidating. Others, meanwhile, seem to have a knack for it.
“It’s so hard to get certain people to figure out how to roll because they don’t like being upside down in the water,” he said. “And the next person, it’s funny; they’ll have really good spatial orientation and then they’ll roll up right away once they do it.”
Also initially challenging for those who have yet to build up the muscle memory, is slipping out of an upturned kayak’s skirt. In a controlled setting such as an indoor pool, it’s much safer to make what’s known as a wet exit, he said.
“That’s when you’ve got the skirt on and you’re upside down; you got to remember how to pull the skirt off and get out of the boat,” he said, adding that can be a particularly tricky skill for some people to remain calm with as they practise and learn.
“It’s not real dangerous, it’s just (some) people freak out,” he said. “A lot of times, it’s just the nerves.”
Learning to make a wet exit in a controlled setting is important so a person knows what to do in the event a natural obstacle in a river pins the kayak upside down.
“A lot of times you’ll be able to roll in the pool, but in the river you won’t (always) be able to,” he said, adding that’s when someone will have to make a hasty escape.
Transitioning from a pool to a flowing river can also be a bit nerve racking, especially for a person who for the first time is experiencing the full force of a current combined with the cold water, he said, adding that’s just part of the natural learning curve.
But for now, the club will continue to meet weekly at the Aquaplex until the ice melts and the water levels increase.
“We usually wait for a little bit of the (ice and snow pack) to start melting and bring the river up a little bit, then we go out,” he said.
“Last year was really good; we went out to the (Red Deer) river quite a bit,” he said.
“That’s our main area,” he added, citing the convenience of the waterway’s proximity.
The warmer months naturally get busier with the group getting together on Wednesday evenings to either run a section of the Red Deer or sometimes practise in the ponds immediately west of Range Road 60 south of Highway 584.
“In the summers, we got a really good group,” he said. “We have a lot of fun together.”
There are a few sections of the Red Deer River the group regularly frequents, including the Mad Mile past Coal Camp as well as the Upper Red more toward the former Mountain Aire Lodge where there are more bends in the river, he said.
“And then there is the beginner run we kind of call it, or the learning run, which is from the Sundre Airport down to the Sundre bridge,” he said, adding that represents a roughly three-hour trip.
“It just gets everybody used to currents,” he said, adding that’s a seven-letter word that can easily make a paddler panic, especially those who are less experienced.
“(The current) plays so different with the boat once you get into the river.”
While some members canoe, the club largely does whitewater kayaking but has also been diving into what’s known as play boating, which he described as a sort of freestyle approach to the sport that involves using smaller, roughly 1.8-metre (six-foot) long boats to do tricks in the waves. A typical kayak’s length is usually in the vicinity of 2.5 metres (eight feet) long, he said.
And once in a while, the club even makes plans to check out other rivers, including a section of the lower Kananaskis that was designed specifically for kayaks and built to be able to accommodate international events. Every year, it gets adjusted a bit, he said.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said, adding there are more than two dozen different features within the span of roughly a mile.
Anyone who is interested in learning more about the club is welcome to call Valentine at 403-638-8558. Alternatively, visit the club’s website – www.sundrepaddlingclub.com – as well as social media pages for more information.
