Some were making their first splash in the sport. Others were experienced paddlers. All benefited from a weekend clinic conducted by Mary Jane Abbott and Rick Brine.
Abbott, executive director of CanoeKayak B.C., and Brine, owner of Prince George's Backwater Paddling, shared their collective knowledge with more than a dozen youngsters Saturday afternoon off the shores of Cottonwood Island Park. Abbott, from Maple Ridge, brought racing kayaks with her and showed participants how to make them move with some zip. Brine, meanwhile, gave lessons in the proper use of considerably more stable river kayaks.
Abbott was here as part of a road trip across the province. Her goal was to expose newcomers to the joys of kayaking and also to work with those who have ambitions of competing in the 2012 B.C. Summer Games in Surrey.
"This is the first year that we've done it," Abbott said of the tour, which will also make stops in Burns Lake, Nelson, Pemberton, Kelowna and Surrey. "We're hoping that it will be successful and well-received by different communities. We're working with parks and rec departments in some communities and I think next year we'll try to come back here for a week and work with PacificSport and try and get the kids an opportunity to paddle for a week before they go to the B.C. Games."
Abbott said eight paddlers from this region will have the chance to qualify for the Games.
Brine, a certified CanoeKayak B.C. instructor, saw the four-hour session as a success in all ways.
"It was good," he said. "The kids had a good time. Some kids loved it and others realized it wasn't their cup of tea but that's normal."
Most of Saturday's paddlers started out with Brine and his more stable crafts and, later in the day, took Abbott's racing vessels out for test drives.
"The racing boats are very long and narrow but the drawback of that, which kids discovered, is they're very unstable, very tippy," Brine said with a chuckle. "That's the tradeoff and that's what they had to discover. They had to have the knack for keeping their balance. That's why they were in my riverboats first. We did that as a transition."
