The Dash Point Pirate

James Manke: This one weird trick will improve your Greenland rolls!

James Manke: This one weird trick will improve your Greenland rolls! from Andrew Elizaga on Vimeo.

Greenland-style paddling instructor James Manke is the founder of the website All Things Qajaq. He teaches at sea kayaking symposiums and events throughout the world, and along with paddler James Roberts, represented Canada to compete in the 2014 National Greenland Kayaking Championships. James Manke won gold in the Greenland rolling competition and 5 silver medals in other traditional kayaking disciplines. He is an active member of West Coast Canadian ocean kayaking group, The Hurricane Riders. We interviewed James at the 2015 Pacific Paddling Symposium.

Paddling out of Pedder Bay, Vancouver Island. Photo © Katya Palladina

Andrew: What was going on today at PPS?

James: Today was Coaches Day. It was all about getting out there, sharing with and inspiring fellow instructors, which I found very rewarding. One of the things I found very interesting was all the different games that some of these coaches are utilizing and playing. They’re quite clever, actually. Some of the other things that I picked up, and one of the things I do often in rolling, is that I talk a lot about a “load-drive concept”. When we implemented that into strokes and all the different techniques that are out there, it was amazing to find out that the load-drive concept is actually used though all the skill sets in kayaking, along with other sports. It’s very valuable to have a Coaches Day like this at the beginning of a symposium, simply because you can bounce ideas off other instructors. It’s just really rewarding as an instructor to have that as an experience.

Andrew: What will you be teaching this weekend?

James: I’ll be focusing on teaching Greenland rolling, primarily in the pool, and a lot of beginner rolling, some intermediate, and a little bit of advanced. Then on Sunday I’ll be teaching out in the actual currents, out in Race Rocks. We’re going to be doing a Greenland rolling clinic out in the currents, which is the next step after learning your roll. It’s kind of exciting because it’s the first time that’s happened here at PPS, so I’m pretty excited about that on Sunday.

Andrew: So how did you first get into Greenland rolling?

James: Interestingly enough, I got into Greenland rolling from a fear of the water. I was afraid of the water, and it all started when I was a young child. I actually got attacked by a loon when I was 11 years old. I was in a belly boat, and I was kicking backwards, coming around this pier and fly fishing. I kicked into a loon’s nest, and that was a big mistake. It was either the mother or the father, and it swarmed me, and came at me, then it decided to go under the water and it attacked me that way. It became quite an experience! I got out of the water, and never went in to the water until my late 20s, and when I did it was pools primarily. I wouldn’t step foot in a lake, because there are loons in a lake. And the ocean? Heck, no! I mean, if there are loons in a lake, what’s in the ocean, right? There was no chance of me even going in the ocean. I was quite terrified of the water.

When I picked up kayaking and discovered rolling I thought, Hey, this could be a great way for me to overcome that fear of the water. So I picked up on that, and it did help. It started to help me overcome that fear. I discovered that the more that I understood it and that the more rolls I learned, the more confident I became. I went from being completely afraid of the water to, all of a sudden, now I’m playing in the biggest water — paddling Skookumchuck rapids, and that sort of thing. I’ve been down the Grand Canyon. It just sort of all exploded from, started from, a fear of the water. Learning to roll really added a whole lot of confidence to my paddling. So that’s basically my story and how I started — a little bizarre, but that’s where I was.

Andrew: Can you comment about the difference between standard kayak paddles and Greenland paddles?

James: I personally use both paddles. I like “Euroblades” as much as I do like Greenland blades, and I’ll try to be as diverse as I can with both paddles. In the future I’d like to grab a wing paddle and start to blend that into the mix. I’m not so much a purist when it comes to Greenland paddling. I’m more about the blending of the skills. I think that there’s a lot of value from traditional kayaking that modern day kayakers can pick up, so that’s more what I promote rather than being the purist of Greenland, or being one-sided about a Greenland paddle. I think there’s value in all blades, all kayaks. The more kayaks and the more paddles you know how to use, the better paddler you are. That’s the bottom line.

Traditional wooden paddles, modern gear. Photo © Katya Palladina

Andrew: About your trip to Greenland with James Roberts to compete in the National Kayaking Championships and to film the movie Greenland Bound — A Paddler’s Pilgrimage: how much do you think that experience changed you?

James: It definitely changed me. It changed me in a big way. Going into a competition, you really expect a competitive sort of feel. And when we got there it became very obvious that this was more of a celebration. It was more about a culture, and about inspiring young kids so that that cycle continues. It was really an inspirational event. It’s not so much about winning so much as it is about being there, and inspiring, and being a part of it. I think more of an American attitude toward something like that is that we are quite competitive. We do a lot of sports and we are competitive by nature. So going to an event like that, I walked in feeling that way, but had to give my head a shake, like, “Oh man, I’m here for the wrong reasons!” I really learned that the reason for being there was about kids, and about inspiring the next generation of paddlers. So there was a big message to learn when I was there.

There were some language barriers, for sure. In Greenland they speak Greenlandic. Their second language is Danish. There are a number of people who are Danish who live there, so you can use a Danish person as sort of a translator. But still, it’s pretty broken language. Someone from Denmark doesn’t really understand Greenlandic that well, but can kind of pick apart what it is.

James Roberts and I went to the judge’s booth, and we had a Danish guy with us to translate. We said, “When is our long distance race?” And from the translation that we got, he said, “Oh, you’ve got lots of time. You can go out for lunch.” So we thought, “Oh great! Thats awesome!” We take off our drysuits and put on all our camera gear, and start hiking up this mountain to go to have lunch. Well, we make it up to the top of the mountain, and it’s a good 15-20 minute haul to get to the top, and there’s nobody there! And we’re like, “No, you gotta be kidding! There’s nobody here!” So we sit around and wait. Nobody shows up for lunch. Ok, this is a little bit odd. So we walk all the way back down to the bottom of the mountain. And we’re like, “Yeah we went all the way up there for lunch but there’s nobody there.” And they’re like, “Oh, you missed your race!” So we ended up missing a race because of the translation that got lost!

It was a little frustrating, but we learned that you can’t really rely on the translations. If you want to be a part of this, you just have to stay in that area and just listen for your name. Because I know when they say, “JAMES MANKE, CANADA!”, I know that’s me. But all the other language is very hard to understand.

The interesting thing about culture and about different languages is that even if you don’t understand what they are saying, you can feel the energy. It’s very powerful. We felt that “welcomeness”. We could tell we were very accepted and welcome. And it took a couple days to warm into that.

 

Greenland Bound - A Paddler's Pilgrimage from Ontario Sea Kayak Centre on Vimeo.

 

Katya: What’s in your super-duper coach kit, as far as gear? Do you have some secret stuff in your PFD, something that you always bring?

James: I do like to hold on to a memento when I go paddling. For a long time it’s been a necklace of some sort. At one point I had a ring from my grandmother that I used to wear, but recently the memento that I’ve been wearing comes from a young guy that I mentored who lives on Salt Spring Island, and he made me a necklace. That’s now what I wear when I travel and teach. I make sure that I always have this necklace on me. He hand made that for me, so it’s just something that’s very special to me. So yeah, I do carry around a little something. I don’t have like a toolbox full of things that I might take out, because I am quite a minimalist when I go out paddling. But I do like to have something that I can sort of hang on to.

Andrew: How did you end up becoming a member of the Hurricane Riders?

James: Basically, how I became a Hurricane Rider is that a number of the Hurricane Riders are local to Victoria or Vancouver Island, and they became my peer paddlers. Since I started paddling I’ve always looked up to the best paddlers out there. I tried to tag along with them so I can learn from the best. I believe that if you want to become really good at something, you’ve got to surround yourself with people that are better than you, so that’s what I did. I hung around those guys, and eventually I just got brought on as a member. I think part of that was they saw some value in me for the skills and abilities that I have in rolling. And in reverse, they have skills and abilities in rough water that are absolutely incredible that that I can gain from. It was just a good partnership to join the team. I’m very happy to be a member and they are absolutely a blast to paddle with. A lot of times when I get out into some of those rougher conditions with other paddlers, they’re very timid and very afraid of the conditions. But when I’m out with those guys, it’s just nothing but fun — pure enjoyment and fun. And inspirational. I mean, we don’t just go out there and surf. It’s all about, OK, today we are going to do THIS! It’s always the next challenge, the next challenge. So that’s what I enjoy about the Hurricane Riders in particular. It’s a great group of paddlers to paddle with.

Andrew: What are your choice of kayaks?

James: I gotta be really careful what I say here because I’m a sponsored paddler, but I like a number of different kayaks. I am sponsored by Tahe Outdoors. One of the kayaks that they made in the past was the Tahe Greenland, and that is probably by far my favorite kayak that’s out there now. It is now made by a different manufacturer, but Zegul still has some Greenlands.

Some of the other kayaks that I really like — and if I was going to say some of the better kayaks that are on the market — are the Sterling Kayaks. Absolutely hands down. The Sterling Reflection is an excellent kayak. It’s very good in rough water, and actually rolls really well too. You can get in it a half-inch cut, and a one-inch cut. And they recently came out with the Progression which is meant for smaller paddlers. It’s cutting edge. It’s very cutting edge. The designer of the kayaks [Sterling Donalson] listens to paddlers, and that’s how the kayaks are made. So he takes all the input that he can from the paddlers and puts that into the build, and as a result makes the best products out there. So thats a little plug for Sterling!

A white Sterling Kayaks "Grand Illusion" at PPS. Photo © Katya Palladina

Andrew: How is the Progression for rolling?

James: Actually, the Progression is awesome of rolling. It’s really, really good — surprisingly good! When I rolled the Reflection, I was impressed with how it’s secondary kinda pops and finishes. With the Progression, when you do forward-finish rolls, all you gotta do is get your head up to the surface and the kayak just lifts. It’s amazing! It’s almost as if it does the roll for you. It’s a very odd feeling, actually, where it just has this incredible secondary stability and it pops. I think that has a lot to do with the rocker profile and its volume. As soon as you turn it over it just wants to lift right back up. Yeah, it rolls excellent. It’s a really good rolling kayak.

Andrew: I was wondering about that, because the conventional wisdom is that you need a really low volume kayak to do those Greenland rolls.

James: Well, you need a really low volume kayak to do some of the harder layback rolls, for example. Because you are looking to get back onto that back deck. Like a straight jacket roll, for example — good luck doing that in a touring kayak! That is something you gotta do in a very, very low volume kayak. So it really depends on the rolls and what your goals are. When we’re doing a lot of sea kayaking, the focus really isn’t on straight jacket rolls. I don’t think anyone is going to go out into the rough, get knocked over and think, “Oh, I don’t need a paddle”, and roll a kayak. We don’t really rely on the back deck that much when it comes to that.

I try to teach more forward finish rolling when it comes to the larger volume kayaks because with some tour kayaks you just can’t lie on the back deck all the way. And they become very difficult to do layback rolls in, so I find that, when that’s the case, I’ll teach the storm roll or some variation of a forward finish roll.

Andrew: Is teaching sea kayaking a full time job for you?

James: Yeah, I’m a professional kayaker. I do travel around the world, and I teach, and it's what I do full time. In the winter I supplement myself a little bit with some programming work, being an ex-programmer, just to bring in a little bit of extra income. But other than that, for about 10 months out of the year I’m a full-on sea kayak instructor. It’s my profession. This will be my third year as a professional instructor. It’s extremely rewarding. It definitely doesn’t feel like a job. And I would say probably, if it was a job, it would be the best job in the world! Hands down!

I’ve been blessed to be able to travel to lots of different spots. Japan I think was probably one of the greatest places I’ve been. Just the way they treat you there — like royalty! It’s so great! They are so kind and so accepting, and they learn incredibly well, even though there was a language barrier there, and I couldn’t speak to a lot of them. It was just a matter of getting in there, and twisting the shoulders, and doing this, and I’m almost like twisting Gumby, and they’re rolling! It was like, “Wow! These guys are really good!” Like they just picked it up really, really quick!

I think one of the reasons I am good as an instructor is because a lot of the rolls that I learned were all self-taught. I learned how to do it wrong just as well as I learned how to do it right. So if I watch someone do it wrong, I know exactly what’s going wrong. And I know exactly how you can fix that problem. It’s just a matter of being visual. I can see how someone is rolling and be able to detect incorrect things. I think a lot of that comes from being self-taught. If you are taught how to do it one way, then how do you know how to do it wrong? You don’t.

Andrew: At some point you must have gotten instruction from other coaches, the gurus of Greenland kayaking?

James: I did. Actually, at one point I hired Cheri [Perry] and Turner [Wilson] when I was learning to do forward finish hand rolls, because I was struggling with that a little bit. I didn’t really get very far with the session, but there were little nuggets of information in there that stuck with me.

Still, a lot of what I teach now with the hardest rolls, I’ve never even seen online. I’ve never been taught it, but when you watch some of the Inuit paddlers do the hardest rolls, it’s pretty obvious — some of the disconnection between the energy in the legs and the upper body, and the load-drive concept. A lot to people are just doing a “hip snap” to roll a kayak, or they are talking about lifting their leg. But they’re not really talking about what is happening to the other leg.

Andrew: What exactly is the load-drive concept?

James: So the load-drive concept is relevant to a lot of sports. It’s relevant to baseball. It’s relevant to golf — a lot of sports. Kayaking is another one. We use our legs often, and the load-drive concept is about the legs. If you are “loading” a kayak, you’re going to lift one leg and drop one leg down, and you’re putting pressure upward and downward on the kayak. So if this is the load position, than this would be the drive position — it would be the opposite.... When I roll the kayak, I’m loading the kayak up. Some of the benefits to loading the kayak is that I can get more power when I drive the kayak.

One way that I like to explain that to students is that it’s like throwing a baseball. If I threw a baseball from my shoulder and I throw it forward, I might get about 10 feet. But if I take that baseball to my shoulder and I load it up, and then I throw it, I’ll probably get about 50 feet. So I gain a tremendous amount of power by adding the load-drive concept to it.

But it can work against you, just like throwing a baseball. When you first learn to throw a baseball and your dad said, “Get it back there and throw it.” And you did this, and it just kind of fell to the ground, or went to the left or the right. It’s very much the same. The timing and the technique has still gotta be there in order to get that accurate throw. So it’s very much the same as in a kayak.

Some of the benefits again to loading the kayak up: when you are loading the kayak you can get your face closer to the surface, therefore you can reach further for leverage. It makes it easier to roll the kayak.

The load-drive concept is something that I never really learned from anybody else. I was always told about a “hip snap", or “lift the leg”, but nobody ever talked about that other leg. What is that other leg doing?

When it comes to the some of the hardest rolls, forward finish brick rolls, for example, you gotta load and drive the kayak. If you don’t, it’s gonna be almost impossible to do that roll. The load drive concept is the trick to the hardest rolls.

So I like to teach that to beginners. If you can teach a beginner the hardest technique, or the theory behind the hardest technique, and they can learn that from the beginning, then their success rate is huge. They’ll continue to roll. It’s not just take a rolling session and never roll a kayak again. They actually continue to roll because they’ve got so much power in their legs once they sort that out. So that’s the load-drive concept.

Katya: What is kayaking for you? Two sentences.

James: Kayaking for me is therapy. That’s one sentence. But it’s powerful!

Freya Fennwood prepares to compete in the 2015 Greenland National Kayaking Championships

Freya is going to Greenland from Andrew Elizaga and Katya Palladina on Vimeo.

We caught up with outdoor action photographer Freya Fennwood at the South Sound Traditional Inuit Kayak Symposium (SSTIKS) this past weekend while she was training for her upcoming trip to participate in the Greenland National Kayaking Championships. She brought along a sporty new kayak, custom-designed by her father, John Lockwood, owner and designer of Pygmy Boats, the Port Townsend manufacturer of wooden stitch-and-glue kayak kits.

After the rolling demo we sat sat down to talk with her about her preparations for Greenland. Here is the full transcript of our interview:

Andrew: What inspired you to take the trip to Greenland?

Freya: My father designed a boat specifically for me and specifically to do Greenland rolling. We came to SSTIKS actually, and Dubside was like, “You guys should go to Greenland with this boat! Freya is really good! I think she could compete and do well!”

It’s really not about doing well. It’s just a really good excuse to go take this boat there and go participate in the paddling culture, which is something that I’ve been born into and been in my whole life. To go to the birthplace of kayaking sounds like a really awesome experience, so I’m really excited to see what it’s like there, to meet the people, and participate in what they do.

Andrew: Can you tell us about what you mean about being born into the kayaking culture?

Freya: I’ve been paddling boats — in boats— since I was 18 months old. My dad designed the first kayak for me when I was 5. It was built by the time I was 6, and I paddled that. Then he designed me another boat, maybe when I was around 10, the Osprey 13. And that was my next boat, and then he didn’t really design me another boat until he designed the Freya. He decided to call this boat the Freya after me, which is pretty sweet! Can’t complain. Gotta boat named after me!

Andrew: How did your father get interested in Greenland style?

Freya: Really it’s not something he’s been into for super long. He probably picked up a Greenland paddle about 5 years ago. I remember as a little kid at kayak symposiums, seeing people with Greenland sticks and just thinking it was the silliest thing I’d ever seen. And then my dad comes up to me — he is just raving about this paddle and how it doesn’t hurt his shoulders, and how he can paddle twice as far as he could with the Euroblade. And I was like, OK, I’ll try it out. And I tried the Greenland paddle and I was like, Oh, I’m pretty young but this does actually NOT hurt my shoulders as much. I can paddle just as fast or faster, and longer with the Greenland paddle. So that kind of interest in Greenland paddling started from using the paddle first and then getting more interested in the boats.

The Pygmy boats my dad designs are definitely based off of traditional Greenland kayaks — he’d have to tell you —some big book of classic Inuit designs. His designs definitely take from that, but we’re only starting to come out with lower volume boats that are really made to do Greenland rolls really well in the past couple years.

Andrew: Tell us about your kayak. Was it designed specifically for rolling?

Freya: The Freya is really optimized to be a rolling and a kind of rock gardening play boat. We optimized it specifically for rolling, to do forward finishing rolls really well, and to do layback rolls really well. So the boat has more rocker than any other boat my dad has ever designed. It has more volume in it than a traditional, typical rolling skin-on-frame kayak, which actually helps it pop and roll up more. But it has a really low rear deck. My dad has designed this recess that is actually something that he came up with, that Pygmy has got a patent on, that really allows the back deck to be super low and then pop up to have nice volume, to have the boat flip back up. So really people are surprised when they see the boat. They think it looks really too-high volume, like, “Oh, thats probably not going to be that easy to roll.” And I’m like, “No, I’m decent at rolling but my boat is really good at rolling.”

Andrew: So you are taking the Freya to Greenland? What does it take to get a kayak over there?

Freya: We took the boat, and the shop cut it into 3 pieces. So it’s actually a three-piece take-apart kayak. We got the specs from the airlines — exactly how long the segments are allowed on the flights — and we cut the boat to those specifications. It’s bolted together at the hatches essentially.

Andrew: What kind of training have you been doing to prepare for the kayaking competition?

Freya: We’ve been thinking about potentially going for couple years and so I’ve been slowly learning. I learned how to roll about 4-5 years ago. I didn’t actually know how to roll, like as a little kid. Most of our kayaking is flat water stuff that is really close to shore. You would needn’t to use a roll.

So I learned how to roll, and then I ended up being kinda decent at it. And it was fun just to learn all these other ones. And then the possibility of going to Greenland really motivated me to learn a lot more rolls. I probably wouldn’t have learned this many rolls if there wasn’t a purpose to it. A roll generally for me is for a purpose. I learn to roll so I can go into rougher, wilder conditions. To roll in 30-some ways, the purpose for me is to go experience Greenland.

Andrew: Have you been consulting and asking for advice from some of the other people who have participated?

Freya:  I’ve talked to Dubside, and he’s taught me rolls here at SSTIKS, and has really informed us about Greenland. I was just up in Victoria with James Manke. He went and competed last year in Greenland, and he gave me a ton of information. I learned that I was supposed to preregister, and the registration was due last week! Hopefully it worked out. He contacted a person who is the head of registration, and was like, “We have this girl, Freya. She’s coming to Greenland! She really wants to participate! She had no idea there was registration that needed to be done!” So he’s been a huge help with his knowledge. But there’s a lot of information that’s hard to find.

I’ve talked to Helen Wilson, and she’s been super helpful. But there’s just a lot you don’t really know until you get there. They all say you just have to go with the flow, and go with the intention of just participating and having fun. The schedule may be two days late, so I’m just going and hoping to hang out in a beautiful place and meet other people who like to kayak.

Andrew: Do you know if there are any other international competitors going?

Freya: I have no idea if there are other international competitors. I don’t believe if there are any Canadians. I don’t know if there are any Americans. I don’t think so, so I'll find out!

 

"The Last Baidarka" Plays at the 2014 Pacific Paddling Symposium

Presenting "The Last Baidarka" at the Max Bell Auditorium at Pearson College. Photo copyright Katya Palladina.

Katya and I were invited to present our film The Last Baidarka of Prince William Sound at the 2nd Annual Pacific Paddling Symposium on Vancouver Island this past weekend. We also talked a little bit about building kayaks and showed a few slides from our paddling trips. Nigel Foster presented a slideshow and told a few stories related to his most recent book, Encounters from a Kayak: Native Peoples, Sacred Places, and Hungry Polar Bears, and my fellow Tacoman Ken Campbell presented his very interesting film, Secrets of Augustine, about the expedition to Alaska that he and Steve Weileman took to document the presence of plastic waste on the remote beaches of Augustine Island. It is the continuation of the Ikkatsu Project.

Kayaks on the boathouse dock. Photo copyright Katya Palladina.

I first heard about the Pacific Paddling Symposium after seeing pictures some of my Facebook friends posted last year.  I really wanted to attend this year, so I was totally thrilled to get an invitation from the organizers to present my film. As an introduction to the film, I took the opportunity to reminisce about my personal journey through Greenland-style, building traditional skin-on-frame kayaks, and paddling around the Pacific Northwest. Katya also talked about her own experiences, receiving her first skin-on-frame kayak as a gift from Phoxx Ekcs, and recently building her own. I was pleased by how well the presentation was received. During the next two days people would come up to us and graciously tell us how much they enjoyed it, and thank us for presenting it.

THE EARLY YEARS: Building my first Greenland kayak, fall 2004

One point I wanted to make during my presentation was that, compared to the sport of modern sea kayaking, traditional kayaking is really a very anti-consumerism, DIY counter-cultural movement -- or at least it was originally. When I got into Greenland-style about ten years ago, you had to learn how to build your own kayak and carve your own paddle, or find someone who could teach you. This was the initiation into, and an essential part of, the traditional kayaking experience. It was a way to slow down, to escape from the materialism of our toxic, fast-paced culture, a way that valued autonomy, resourcefulness, and creation over mere consumption. Boatbuilding teaches patience and persistence. When I started building my first kayak, I actually questioned whether I was even ever going to finish it at all! It sounds silly to me now, because it ultimately only took me 3 months. You could finish building one in a week in a workshop under the guidance of an instructor. And an experienced boatbuilder could probably knock one out over a weekend. Compare that to the year it typically took for the Inuit to built a kayak using hand tools, scavanged driftwood, and real seal skin.

Back in the early years of the Greenland-style movement, it was hard to find a traditional kayaking instructor outside of symposia such as SSTIKS. It was actually frowned upon within the Qajaq USA community for instructors to charge for instruction. The thinking was that we are all students, teaching and learning from each other, and no one except the Greenlanders themselves “own” the tradition and have any right to “sell” it. A few kayakers I met on the water expressed interest in exploring Greenland-style kayaking, but unfortunately had no idea where to look to even buy a traditional paddle, let alone find an instructor.

It is really amazing that Greenland-style grew so much in popularity despite the lack of readily available off-the-shelf gear and instruction. Manufacturers eventually caught on to the trend and are now selling a wide variety of wooden and carbon-fiber traditional paddles, paddle wear, and very high-end low-volume kayaks inspired by traditional Greenland design. These days you can get into Greenland-style without ever picking up a block plane or even touching anything made out of wood. I suppose it was inevitable that it would come to this, but I think approaching Greenland-style in this way totally misses the point.

Consumerism creeps its way into any popular sport. Manufacturers try to seduce people into thinking that owning high-end gear makes up for developing skills. Instructors tell us that our priority should be to develop good judgement first, then skills, then acquire good, dependable gear. The unfortunate fact remains that people are more likely to pay good money for cool stuff than instruction.

Primitive skills expert Phoxx Ekcs is the probably the most extreme example I know of the idea that skills take priority over stuff. Taking only a skin-on-frame kayak and buckskin clothes he made himself, and a few other handmade implements including a large felted wool blanket, he completed a 28-day expedition along Vancouver Island’s remote North Coast from Port Hardy to Cape Scott. He didn't take any food, water, immersion wear or even a lifejacket, and fished and foraged along the way. A trip like this necessarily has to be slow, because you spend a lot of time simply securing the basics for survival. It also doesn’t get any publicity. It is a huge contrast to high-profile expeditions that essentially race around islands as fast as possible. They seek contributions from sponsors and get attention for the benefit of sponsors. 

A kid’s kayak frame, by kayak builder Gerhart Raven. Photo copyright Katya Palladina.

Looking south down Pedder Bay. Photo copyright Andrew Elizaga

The Pearson College boathouse. Photo copyright Andrew Elizaga

On the water classes in the protected inlet. Photo copyright Katya Palladina

Only in its 2nd year, the Pacific Paddling Symposium is an amazingly popular event. This year it sold out only 26 hours after registration opened. It's no wonder, since it is held at an awesome venue. The college is right outside of Victoria, on the water on Pedder Bay. It's a small campus so everything (dorms, registration office, classrooms, auditorium, dining hall, yoga center, parking lot) is fairly close together.

Happy Hour! Chatting with James Manke, instructor and founder of the website All Things Qajaq. Photo copyright Katya Palladina.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Greenland style is big on Vancouver Island. I got to finally meet instructor James Manke, founder of All Things Qajaq, who along with James Roberts is planning to compete in the Greenland National Kayaking Championships this July. They will also be making a documentary about the experience. Of course, he was teaching Greenland rolling classes in the pool.

Participants kept their kayaks on their cars overnight in a packed parking lot. Photo copyright Andrew Elizaga

Flying my drone over the parking lot. Photo copyright Andrew Elizaga

One problem was parking. The cars were all packed in together on the lot and we were told to keep our kayaks on our cars at night. Unless you were parked in the front row, you had no way of getting out. It wasn’t a problem unless you needed to leave early to catch a ferry on Sunday. We were worried about it but the volunteers did a great job of getting the parking lot cleared after the last classes in the afternoon.

Dessert. Photo copyright Katya Palladina.

There really wasn’t any reason to leave campus because all meals (including Happy Hour drinks) were included in the package, and the cafeteria served some awesome meals. Some of the veggies came right out of the college garden. There were very good about having plenty of vegetarian/vegan options too.

Katya at Witty's Beach. Photo copyright Andrew Elizaga

Heading south toward William Head. Photo copyright Andrew Elizaga

On Saturday Katya and I signed up for the all-day coastal tour course. We loaded up all of the kayaks onto a trailer and took a shuttle to a launch site at Albert Head Lagoon, paddled south around Albert Head, stopped for lunch at a large beach called Witty’s Beach, a popular spot for teenage skimboarders and nude sunbathers. We continued southwest around William Head into Pedder Bay and took out at the Pearson College boat ramp. The view of Washington’s Olympic mountain range from the Canadian side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca is fantastic!

The coastline just outside of Pedder Bay is exposed and rocky, and the currents can move fast in Race Passage and around the Race Rocks Lighthouse and Ecological Reserve. The college director said that the students are told never to go there because it is too dangerous, but under the right conditions it apparently can be a very interesting trip, not only because of the tidal races but also because of the sea lions and elephant seals hanging out there. Unless you have a permit, you are not allowed to land on the reserve. It is possible however to explore the rocks by taking one of the regularly scheduled boat tours that go there.

Rocky shoreline around Bentinck Island. Photo copyright Katya Palladina.

Andrew in Katya's skin-on-frame kayak. Photo copyright Katya Palladina.

On Sunday Katya and I went paddling on our own outside of Pedder Bay, heading southwest toward Bentinck Island. It was an amazingly sunny, warm and calm day. I'm looking forward to spending more time in this area. Vancouver Island has so much more coastline to explore than the Puget Sound area and San Juan Islands, and so many more remote, pristine beaches.  So far I’ve only explored the Broken Group, Clayquot Sound and Johnstone Strait. There is a whole other world of kayaking up there and I feel that I’ve only scratched the surface.

A cruiseship from Seattle passes through the Strait of Juan de Fuca on its way to Alaska. Photo copyright Katya Palladina.

 

Inuit Elders And Youth Work Together To Build A Sealskin Kayak

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You get a good sense of what it must be like working with sealskin in this wonderful video. I was impressed by how elastic fresh seal skin is, and also how meat-centric the Inuit diet is. I have to question the nutritional value of seal meat. Although they point out that seal meat has 34x the iron of beef and a lot of calcium, excess iron potentiates free-radical oxidative damage and really should be avoided, especially in men, who have no way to excrete of excess iron. And despite the calcium, the Inuit population had and still has the highest hip-fracture rate in the world. This may be because sulfur-containing amino acids in animal protein leach out the calcium from bones, contributing to osteoporosis. Look here for a more detailed discussion of low-carbohydrate, meat-based ("primal", or "paleolithic") diets.

Kayak Models

A friend showed me his models of arctic kayaks yesterday.  They are antiques (19th century) made by the natives.  The construction details are incredible.  The Greenland kayak on the right has bone rubstrips pegged to the the stem and stern of the kayak.  Note the bone pegged to the edges of the paddle.  The west arctic kayak on the left looks like a Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta type.

Maligiaq Likes Meat

When I took lessons at George Gronseth’s Kayak Academy a few years ago I noticed a moldering white Hypalon-coated skin−on−frame Greenland kayak in his storage shed, and the rotting skeletal remains of an old baidarka. George regularly offers classes on Greenland paddle making and has the distinction of being the first outsider ever to train at a kayak training camp in Greenland in 1990. The year before, he had met Greenland kayaking champion John Peterson and kayak historian John Heath in a traditional kayaking event in Kodiak, Alaska. The invitation to travel to Greenland grew out of that event. 

George has some great slides of his Greenland trip, including some rare color pictures of actual seal skin kayaks. He says that it was a challenge to try to find a kayak in Greenland that would fit him. Eventually he was able to squeeze into the roomiest kayak I think by rubbing himself with seal fat and having one person pull up on the coaming of the kayak and another person lift the bow, which loosens the skin on the deck. Of course then there was the question of being able to get out. 

By the way, the water they were training in was about 32 degrees and frequently littered with icebergs. 

George tells a great story about how he was designated the chef for the end−of−training-camp barbeque, since he was the only one with barbeque experience. He set up an apparatus to roast a pig on a spit, rotating it around a scrap metal pole (found in an abandoned building on the site) and rocks to reflect the heat around the fire pit. He stuffed the inside of the pig with apples, and baked potatoes in the coals. He couldn't help being a little worried about how it would turn out, but the flesh was completely cooked and tender inside and the meal was a big success.

While on the subject of meat, I found it interesting that Maligiaq says it’s a big part of his diet; seal, whale, beef, pork −− all kinds. If you are looking for the secret to his athletic prowess maybe that's it. George says that seal meat contains vitamins that are not found in beef, namely vitamin C. That’s how the Inuit have been able to survive while eating a diet consisting entirely of meat. These days fresh fruits and vegetables have to be shipped in from Denmark. Well, maybe with climate change that will all change.  So I'm guessing it's probably impossible to be a vegan in Greenland.  You have to wonder if for genetic reasons Inuits an Inuk wouldn't simply just up and die on a vegan diet.

Rolling with Maligiaq!

I've just heard that Maligiaq Padilla, National Greenland Kayaking Champion several times over, will be in the Seattle area on October 8th-13th.  He will be giving group as well as private individual instruction along with Dubside on Greenland style paddling and rolling. The classes are sponsored through George Gronseth's Kayak Academy. Information on dates and prices can be found on their website.  This is a rare opportunity to learn Greenland paddling from an actual Greenlander and meet a kayaking legend. There are also rumors of having some of the classes up in Deception Pass. Sign up now while there's still room!

Sunday Morning TV

Warren took this awesome video of himself surfing in Cattle Pass in the San Juan Islands:

"...It's a 4.8 flood with a little wind.  More wind would of made nicer waves, these waves are about 3 feet. You could get some rides at the front of where they started to stack up. I put in at Anacortes, worked out in this chop at Davis Point for over two hours and caught the ferry back."

Caught in the Act

A neighbor sent me these pictures he took of me rolling as I paddled off into sunset the other day.  Thanks, John!

Which reminds me:  Dubside mentioned that he published an article in the December 2007 issue of Sea Kayaker magazine titled, "The Continuing Evolution of Greenland Rolling".  That was news to me since I let my subscription to Sea Kayaker expire.  So I actually stood in line with all the Christmas shoppers at REI and paid the full newstand price to get my copy.  It was well worth the read.  The article demonstrated to me that "traditional" paddling in fact changes.  For one thing, they have to make up more complicated rolls for the Greenland National Kayaking Competition as the skill level rises. 

Dubside also told me an interesting story about another article he wrote for Sea Kayaker a long time ago, about Commando Kayaking.  It was rejected the first time he submitted it, on the grounds that it seemed to advocate behavors the editors thought were of questionable legality, or at best would reflect poorly on the sea kayaking community, such as camping on private lands and sneaking out before dawn, and dragging wet folding kayaks on public buses, perhaps leaving pools of salty water in the aisles.  He rewrote and resubmitted it, but it apparently was lost in the Sea Kayaker office and ultimately forgotten.

Dubside: "The Kayaker's Best Friend"

Browsing the web I found this article by Dubside, titled "The Kayaker's Best Friend", in the Spring 2007 edition of Wavelength Magazine.  Among other things, he talks about the evils of cars and lawnmowers!