June 26: National Canoe Day in Canada

Happy Canoe Day! (I want to be in one of those boats! Looks like fun!)

"In 2007, the canoe was named one of the Seven Wonders of Canada via a CBC Radio feature in which over 1 million votes were cast. In celebration of this, the Canadian Canoe Museum founded National Canoe Day"

Source: National Canoe Day website

Prone to Trouble ?

I usually avoid double post my blog but this one is so specific to my paddling that I decide to post on Newbie Paddler anyway. (The original post is on my 365 project Day 174.) 

My story today starts here!

"I thought talking to a stranger about Thai food, Japanese food, travel, Arizona, cars and dogs for over an hour while waiting for my car to be serviced would be a highlight of my day. (I didn't have a chance to know her name but she was a very nice lady who recognized my super long Thai last name called by the staff at the service. She's working for a government and used to live in Arizona and Japan. And she was in Thailand over two weeks for her vacation not long time ago.)

Anyway...Nope! The highlight of my day was my paddling at Lake Anne Plaza. I hope my little comic strips telling my story pretty clearly!

Happy ending with all the boats safely returned and were securely tied to the dock.

I'll post photos from today paddling some time soon!"

*2012/06/22 Photos are up! Just click here.

The summary - Image from My 365 Day 174

Let's see some of the photos!

Paddling on a stormy day

A bit nervous but it's also fun.

If you're lucky, you could run into geese xing.

...umm the boat...there

Happy paddling and don't get into trouble!

The Rappahannock River, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Note: More photos available on my photo main page.

If you read my previously blog, you probably wonder why I was here in Fredericksburg, Virginia, instead of my friend's new vacation home and the Adventure Sport Center near Swallow Falls in Maryland. Well, the trip got canceled at the last minute. My friend had a family issue to deal with. I am so okay with it. A family always comes first. It's tough to be a parent. And somehow it worked out beautifully for me because I had a chance to be at the American Canoe Association's Celebrate the Rapp festival in Federicksburg on Saturday and paddled on the Rappahannock River for the first time. (So no worry, Karen! We'll do it next time.)

The City Dock

So I convinced and nagged my other friend, Christine, to go to the festival with me and I agreed to see Yanni Concert at Wolf Trap with her in return.  Hey that's a spirit of compromise!  (It's an amazing concert by the way.) So here we go. One of the most fun weekend. Just like an old saying, "it's not about destination. it's about whom you travel with". I think it's so true!

A lovely house near the City Dock

We arrived around 10:30 and helped cleaning up the City Dock right away. It's done within about an hour. The parking lot was the worst. We almost screamed when we saw people started smoking when we left. The cigarette company should pay for the clean up, seriously. The area wasn't big but we picked up almost 2,000 cigarette butts according to the volunteer leader whom we ran into later that day. 

Along the road

The back of an art gallery

The pump house and the bridge over the river

I like the fact that you can access the river and see it almost at any point along Sophia Street. I didn't have a chance to explore the real downtown area but I'll try next time.

View of the railroad bridge over the Rappahannock River from the boat

Under the railroad bridge

A sketch I made later while waiting for the movie festival to start
for my 365 Day161

And here is a painting of the bridge for my 365 Day163

Such a lovely sky we had today

So now we're here for the festival.  there were a bunch of vendors, food, craft etc. The highlighted activities were the river clean-up, free 45-min paddling lessons for kayaking, canoeing and stand-up paddle (SUP), the historical river tour and Reel Paddling Film Festival which showcased nine best paddling films of year 2012. (I wrote about the film festival on the previous post. They were great! Don't forget to check it out. It's a must.) 

The festival was a bit smaller than I thought and some volunteers were not quite informed about the activities. I ended up walking around a lot between the city dock and the festival but I got to experience the town along the riverside a bit better (and took a lot of photos so who cares!). 

Based on my experience you don't need to sign up anything online for next year. Maybe with an exception of stand-up paddling class which was very popular and maybe the river tour because they had to have a boat for you. But do it early, not the night before or your name won't make it onto the list. My friend name wasn't on the SUP class.

Our guide who has been here for over 25 years

Our tour group

Paddling time! We had about 12 people at the tour group. Mr. Greg Mertz of US Park Service was our guide. The tour was about visiting the sites during Civil War. I learnt about what happened, where it took place and what the pontoon looked like! Now I want to read more about Civil War. This was a 2-hour-long tour at $5. (Oh my! It's 10 times more expensive here and we're just an hour away! Unfortunately the tour was just for this event.) 

A view during the tour. (Trust me I was listening!)

The reflection and the shadow at the boat ramp

My fav photo!

I am jealous! The boat ramps were pretty busy. 
There were boats in and out all the time.

I was caught taking a photo of their canoe.
They said I should take a photo of them instead
because they were a better view. Ha ha.
(Hope you see my post! :) )

People here were so friendly and relaxed. The pace of the town is much much slower than the city which was very nice. A lot of fishing, paddling, boating and unfortunately smoking.

After a great and relaxing dinner at Brock's Riverside Grill near the railroad bridge we strolled down back to the festival and decided to just relax at the dock while the sun was setting. Not much to say. The views were just simply lovely.

View from a dock at the park

Another favorite shot

Our dangling feet

The movie screen with a perfect auditorium-seating-like sloped area
right in front of the river.

Aww here was the best part, 2-hour-long Reel Paddling Film Festival, you just have to read about it on my previous post. I can't fit it in here! It's too good. I wish there were more people sticking around. They should show this in Reston or DC. There must be a lawn somewhere here. We have thousands of paddlers. They could make a lot more money from us. I definitely go again if they come to the area.

The last shot of the day

So that's the end. We left the town around 11 pm. Driving on I-95 was scary but we drove slowly, kept chatting and sang songs out loud to stay awake. I guess you can tell we had great time. I hope you have a chance to be here in the near future.


Until next paddling~


Note: More photos available on my photo main page.
Note 2: I am so sorry about the typo for the town name!

Reel Paddling Film Festival

Wow...I had never thought the films about paddling could be this good. 


Reel Paddling Film Festival showcases the best paddling films under the following categories around the world. 

Film Categories

• Best Sea Kayaking Film

• Best Canoeing Film

• Best Whitewater Film

• Best Kayak Fishing Film

• Best Documentary Paddling Film

• Best Adventure Travel Paddling Film

• Best Instructional Paddling Film

• Best Short Paddling Film

• Best Environmental Paddling Film

• NEW Best Stand-up Paddling Film

So what is so good about these films that I got up at 6 am, before going to work, to write about ? 

These films are made by people who passionate about paddling. Passionate enough to hold a paddle and a video camera with them onto the water just to share what they experience to the rest of the world. Every second on the films you can see their true love toward this sport. Some are more adventurous, more calm, more funny, more creative or more quirky than others. Just like other type of films.

However the ones that move me most are the environmental documentary paddling films. When you paddle, you are exposed to the real body of water on earth. You see it, touch it, smell it, even taste it, travel through it, through its history and its path. You are being in it. The very same water that the other livings on this planet dwell on. You experience the reality of our natural water resource, not the dressed-up tap water or the bottled water that are delivered right to us to where we live which basically blinds us that everything is fine out there.  

I was lucky to watch all nine 2012 Best Films at the ACA's Celebrate the Rapp festival. (Read about it from my post here.) You can find the complete list with the links to the film website and the details by clicking here. All was great. But my favorite would be... 

The Pipedream Project 
Director and Producer: Ryan Vandecasteyen & Faroe Des Roches 
Seeking to oppose a $5.5-billion pipeline project that would introduce crude oil tankers to the North Coast of British Columbia, three kayakers embark on an epic two-month kayak expedition along the length of the B.C. coast.


Chasing Water 
Director and Producer: Pete McBride
Pete McBride grew up on a ranch in Western Colorado, a child of the Colorado River. After a life spent visiting other countries to tell stories as a National Geographicphotojournalist, in 2008 Pete decided to follow the water from his family’s ranch to see where it ends up. This is the story of Pete’s journey, and a story about the lifeblood of the American West.


Wild Water 
Director: Anson Fogel
Producer: Forge Motion Pictures
WildWater is a journey into the places only river runners can go. It’s a visually stunning feast for the senses, and an expedition into new ideas. We wanted to communicate the essence of whitewater and put its soul on film. After thousands of hours of effort, borrowing Hollywood film tools and techniques, WildWater brings new images to kayaking and adventure cinema.


Bugs 4 Life 
Director and Producer: David Hartman
Follow Matt and Dave as they pursue their Riverbugging dream all over central northeastern Ontario.
(This one is hilarious but they shouldn't have thrown their junk on the ground or the river!)

Can't stand my writing anymore ? Check out the trailers of these films on Reel Paddling Film Festival's website or YouTube. 


Please do it now. I am begging you. : )

Another Kayak Lesson at Lake Audubon, Reston, VA

Lake Audubon

I took another kayak class with CKAPCO again today. It's a lesson stepping up from a beginner class. There were about 6 students but we got 3 instructors! The ratio was awesome because when we broke into small groups to practice every two students got one instructor. If you did something wrong, it could be corrected right away.

We got into the physics of a kayak and paddling in the beginning then did a lot of reviewing and refining several strokes. The fun part was combining edging with series of regular strokes to make the boat do whatever you wanted. I loved when the boat just glided through the water most. (Loved paddling in number 8 pattern too!) I learnt this from the previous class so it felt nice to revisit this again.

The boats used in the class. (I used the yellow one.)

More boats used in the class.

The leftover boats.

The highlight was probably the rolling. It was fun to be in the water but it's really a tough lesson for me. Getting myself into the upside-down kayak was very difficult. In order to roll I needed to get back into the upside-down boat completely. I couldn't do it. I ended up with wet exits (getting out of the boat completely) and climbed back onto it twice instead. I found out later that my feet needed to brace against the footrest to make it easier to push myself into the boat. Then kept my thighs against the cockpit and then I should be able to snap the hip to roll myself back up.

Oh, well that's easy to say.

A photo of my boat (and me somewhere underneath) taken by my instructor

My 365 Day 154

Practice Practice Practice (I can hear my instructor's voice in my head. And Mike, you'd better not post that photo of me in the water! : P)

Anyway, it's a great day to be on the water. Got educated along with some good sore, bruises on my thighs, sun tan patterns on both feet (since my water shoes have gaps between the straps) and was completely wet from head to toe. Now I am so ready to go to bed. (It's 7 pm.) 

You can use kayaks as an owning.

The Lunch Table.

Lake Audubon in Fall (You can check out more photos from my photo page from last year.)

If you're interested in paddling here, you need to bring your own boat. There is no boat rental at this lake due to staff shortage which is unfortunate because it's a beautiful lake and Lake Anne is getting a little bit too small for me. :) The boat ramp is on Twin Branches Road near the swimming pool.

Next week my friend is taking me to Swallow Falls, Maryland, where there is a man-made whitewater facility.  I've never had a whitewater lesson nor ever wanted to do. (I am pretty slow if you must know.) But I am going to give it a try. Brrr. I'll let you know how it goes.

Until then. :)