Deep Cove Kayak Centre’s paddling school organized a weekend workshop for women and along with Coast Outdoors’s support the weekend was a success! There were 24 women participating, 4 women coaches and the support from the beach staff and Bob’s boat driving for the “wash n wave” paddling session. Check out Bob’s recap of the weekend and photos from Viviane Nishikiori (Coast Outdoors co-manager) If you missed out this year we will remind you for next year-stay tuned!
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Women on Water Surfski Workshop or #wowsurfski happened this past weekend in Deep Cove, BC Canada
Organized by the team at Deep Cove Kayak and Coast Outdoors we brought together some all-star coaches and a pile (24) of enthusiastic paddlers. Coaches Tamlyn Böhm, Sally Wallick, Heather Nelson and Ana Swetish brought their energy and their A-game and a toolbox of teaching tips for forward stroke, rough water survival skills, remount and rescue, and wash n wave riding fun.
There were a mix of surfski newbies, vets, recent sea kayak crossovers, sprint k-1 paddlers, avid racers and wanna-bee downwinders. Paddlers came from Vancouver Island, Washington State, Bellingham, Seattle, Port Townsend, Kelowna, Vancouver and from our community Deep Cove.
We kicked off the weekend with a Wine and Cheese Social, hosted by Coast Outdoors. Saturday morning coffee was served prior to the morning forward stroke session and at lunch paddlers took themselves to one of the many Deep Cove restaurants. After lunch the team climbed into wetsuits to practice remounts and rescue. We couldn’t ask for better weather with two days of glorious sunshine. The day was capped of with a group dinner at The Raven Pub, where a group of male spouses formed a support group on the sidelines. Video action from the activities that day were featured on the pub TV screens.
Sunday morning coffee was in demand (pub nights can do that to ya!) and many paddlers commented on their good sleeps and were ready for day 2 on the water. Another beautiful day in Spectacular Deep Cove, coaches put the participants to work re-enforcing core paddling skills. After lunch the much-anticipated afternoon wash n wave riding session was a big hit!  Deep Cove is a glorified lake and is no Millers Run so, we took advantage of our motorboat and afternoon motorboat traffic waves and gathered the participants and off we went. It was a sight to witness 24 women surfski paddlers swarming unsuspecting motorboats. Runs were caught, wipe-outs happened, remounts were performed, and smiles grew. After the session the electricity in the are was tangible! Hugs were exchanged among new friends and a great weekend was had by all.
Bob Putnam