Dave's Paddling trip in Canada

My Paddling trip in Canada was AWESOME! I had forgotten that there was so much fresh water in that country. the pictures below are of low water levels... there is more water there now than a WA river in flood!
It was great to be able to paddle three different rivers; the Main and Middle channels of the Ottawa River, the Gatineau River and the Pettawawa river, all in one week and have a different paddling experience on each one of them.

This is a rapid called 'right suicide' on the Pettawawa river. A small river by Canadian standards but nice technical creek style paddling. Short, quick, rocky drops and ledges with safe pools at the bottom. A good line was preferable so that some of the holes/stoppers wouldn't recirculate you around for 5 minutes, but if you got off line and trashed, you could rest easy that it would let you go.

'Right Suicide again, from the bottom'







I'm not sure if this wave had a name, but the rapid set was known as 'Le Lucifer' or 'The devil'. The Gatineau river in Quebec is a seldom paddled river and the day that myself, my instructor Tom (in the photo) and the other participant Aaron paddled it, we were the only three boaters on the river! Amazing to think that we had the whole river to ourselves, but also scary to think that if something happened it would be a long wait until help came. Most of the features on the Gatineau are 'catch on the fly' type play spots. No eddies to bring you back up to the top, so if you miss it... better luck next time.


Having a lunch break at one of the biggest and scariest rapids on the Gatineau 'L'Haute Tension' or 'High Tension' named after the electrical high tension lines that cut across the river right above the rapid. The hole you see just in front of me looks mild from this viewpoint, but it is a mega huge keeper hole. The intruction from Tom was, "You must miss that hole, and don't get sucked into the one of the left either". Thankfully I hit the line perfect and rode over the train of 10ft standing waves!

I took the opportunity in the long flatwater sections each day to practice two things. One my back deck roll, usefull for a quick roll in shallow water or while in a play feature to theoretically stay on the feature; and the other my bow stall. This is day 4, when i was finally able to balance for more than a few seconds. Although not tremedously usefull, this trick looks impressive to the uninitiated and is the foundation for many of the very trendy and spectacular arial and loop manuvares. Next up, the front loop (basically a forward summersault in a kayak).
Thanks to Esprit Rafting, www.whitewater.ca , and my intructor Tom for a great week. I highly recomend the experience