Funderstorm Paddle Training

For most people, paddling is perhaps the most undertrained adventure racing discipline. Unfortunately, this is most certainly the case for the Funderstorm. With no boats to their name and only erratic access to bodies of water large enough to paddle in (bathtubs don't count), the Funderstorm quickly realized this season that their paddle skills were, er, underdeveloped. After a particularly frustrating paddle session at the FAR Esprit race in which their inflatable kayak refused to hold up its end of the bargain and deflated, coupled with said boat doing random donuts throughout the excruciatingly long paddle, Funderstorm decided that something needed to be done about this. So, one lovely Sunday afternoon on the Toronto harbourfront, the girls hired a paddle instructor to get some tips for proper paddling. By the end of the three hour session, the girls had a much better idea of how to assemble their paddles properly, how to use paddle sections to develop better abs, and how to paddle not only forward, but backwards as well (though this skill seems to have limited usage). Below are some photos taken at Centre Island, where Funderstorm and Ben (paddle instructor) stopped to practice a beach launch. It is the Funderstorm's hope that squabbles in the canoe are now a thing of the past, at least as far as they pertain to whose fault it is that the boat isn't going faster.