A summer of warm water, sandy beaches and perfect waves sounds like most people’s ideal, well this is what you can find if you head to the Ottawa Valley for the season! The past few months I’ve been working as a kayak instructor/raft-guide/summer camp carer/shuttle driver/dining room worker/whatever else they want me to do so I can afford to spend a few months living in a beautiful little cabin in the most idyllic spot on this classic river.
The Ottawa is famed for its world-class freestyle waves and the best come in at high levels due to spring meltwater. Unfortunately, I arrived a little late from Peru to catch the really high water but was in perfect time for 3 weeks of the famous Mini-Bus wave. I went almost every day to this wave whilst it was in, often for 5 hours in a day (I didn’t have much else to do at the time). I managed to try some new tricks I’d never done before such as flashbacks and a few attempts at airscrews, which didn’t go terribly, as well as working on perfecting older tricks and just working on timing and control on a big wave. Huge thanks to Lou and Graham for putting up with me in a spare trailer for these weeks, and giving me the best possible start to the summer.
The Ottawa is famed for its world-class freestyle waves and the best come in at high levels due to spring meltwater. Unfortunately, I arrived a little late from Peru to catch the really high water but was in perfect time for 3 weeks of the famous Mini-Bus wave. I went almost every day to this wave whilst it was in, often for 5 hours in a day (I didn’t have much else to do at the time). I managed to try some new tricks I’d never done before such as flashbacks and a few attempts at airscrews, which didn’t go terribly, as well as working on perfecting older tricks and just working on timing and control on a big wave. Huge thanks to Lou and Graham for putting up with me in a spare trailer for these weeks, and giving me the best possible start to the summer.
Literally the day ‘Bussy’ dropped out I started Guide Training with Wilderness Tours. Whilst I have dabbled in rafting over the years I always steered away from it as I found many raft guides, after spending a whole day on the river, were less incensed to go kayaking afterwards and I didn’t want this to happen to me. However, on the Ottawa where it’s so easy to paddle this isn’t such an issue and many guides will head to the local playspots to relax after work (don’t even have to worry about shuttles)!
After guide training I moved in to my cabin in Keenerville and started my post as Keener Programme (a 3 week long kayaking summer camp for teenagers) Weekend Co-ordinator. Basically I looked after the kids on weekends and tried to keep them out of trouble as much as possible. The Keener Programme is a great initiative to develop young kayakers both as athletes and as people and more information about the programme is available here: http://www.wildernesstours.com/adventures/kayaking/teen-keeners/. Throughout the week I was to work for the normal kayak school taking a variety of children, teenagers and adults of different experience and ability levels and try to improve their skills.
After guide training I moved in to my cabin in Keenerville and started my post as Keener Programme (a 3 week long kayaking summer camp for teenagers) Weekend Co-ordinator. Basically I looked after the kids on weekends and tried to keep them out of trouble as much as possible. The Keener Programme is a great initiative to develop young kayakers both as athletes and as people and more information about the programme is available here: http://www.wildernesstours.com/adventures/kayaking/teen-keeners/. Throughout the week I was to work for the normal kayak school taking a variety of children, teenagers and adults of different experience and ability levels and try to improve their skills.
The summer flew by with great company, I met some great people from my fellow staff members at Wilderness Tours, people who lived locally or worked for one of the other rafting companies and other adventurers who were drawn to the valley for the same reasons I was. I loved getting to paddle with such a variety of people and the best thing about the Ottawa is that paddlers with ranging skill levels can all have fun on the same features thus eliminating the segregation of different ability levels as often happens in kayaking meccas. All too soon the worlds were upon us and I had to take a break from surfing the Garburator wave to make room for the crowds who had arrived from all over the world. This reminded me why I never really did get in to freestyle kayaking a) my mum would never drive me to go playboating as a kid and b) I couldn’t stand to wait forever in the eddy to get my chance to surf (luckily at the Tees Barrage a busy eddy was 3 people)! c) Freestyle kayaking in the UK can be miserably cold…not a problem on the Ottawa. The worlds were a great event and I learnt loads by watching, speaking with and paddling with kayakers much more knowledgeable and skillful than myself. For my full take on the Worlds see previous blog post.
After the worlds the Valley emptied and peace returned to the Garburator eddy. Work was also starting to calm down and there was lots of free time to enjoy everything this beautiful place has to offer. There’s nothing like a great surf session washed down with a pint of your favourite (mine’s the Midnight Stout) brew at the local Whitewater Brewery with friends. Even though the air temperature started to cool down in September the water was still warm and the levels still good.
The time to leave came around so fast but soon it was time to sell my trusty Sunfire, clean up my cabin, say goodbyes and get on a plane. It was a fantastic summer but now it’s time to head to Austria for the next adventure….The Adidas Sickline World Championships.
The time to leave came around so fast but soon it was time to sell my trusty Sunfire, clean up my cabin, say goodbyes and get on a plane. It was a fantastic summer but now it’s time to head to Austria for the next adventure….The Adidas Sickline World Championships.