N.S. Marathon Canoe Home Page - Chebucto Community Net

To round out the volunteers, I contacted Dusan Soudek from Canoe/Kayak Nova Scotia. On top ofproviding boats and very experienced volunteers, they brought along brochures and safety material andlots of paddling stories. As well, Meghan Watkinson from the Canadian Coast Guard sent along boxes ofall the safety brochures that they had, including colouring books for kids.The TAO crew brought regular canoes andthose little playboats, which were a big hit.These boats got the most use, as just aboutanyone can enjoy these even if they've neverpaddled a boat before. The Sprint andMarathon boats take a bit of "attitude" to getstarted in and I think we were all surprised atjust how many people volunteered to get intoboats that would be pretty unstable and thatthe chances of getting soaked were veryhigh.I have a few memories that stick out fromthese sessions. I think that anyone who hasa passion for a sport enjoys trying to share that experience with anyone who is interested. As thesessions went on over the 3 weeks, a lot of the volunteers were the same people and you could tell thatthey were enjoying themselves. We had a little "event" going on and the response was very positive. I juststarted paddling 3 years ago and I enjoy it so much that I really liked the opportunity to share that joy.Now, it was pretty obviousthat the kids would enjoythemselves. That's whatkids do. Our job is to letthem experience as muchas they can. Whetherthese sessions will helpgenerate any futurepaddlers will never beknown. But they had funand for some it was abrand-new experience.We also talked quite afew adults into boats. Youcould tell that some ofthem were nervous, while others were just very keen to get into any type of boat. When I started atBanook, the Masters coach (Archie MacGlashen) used to regale us with paddling war stories while we sataround drinking Timmie's coffee after a hard weight workout. He said something once that really stuckwith me. He said that his job as a Masters coach was to "open doors that we had already closed". It's agood point. The whole world of paddling has been sitting there all my life, and until I was introduced to akayak, I didn't know what I was missing. Again, whether these sessions actually get anyone paddling isnot the point. We provided the experience, and it was fun for everyone.