Midwest Mountaineering Paddling Event at Lake Nokomis

Oddly, the first times I paddled in Minnesota were on fast moving water, the Vermilion, at the very end of the Echo Trail and stretches of the St.Louis. This was in a 16 ft. Coleman with big float bags and knee straps, an old hockey helmet to protect my bean. Thanks to Bobby Jorissen and his buddy, I received an excellent introduction to paddling sports.

But since then, it has been mostly flat water, which is more forgiving. So it should be no surprise that ever since I started thinking about doing a river trip this year, instead of the traditional BWCA trip, I felt I needed to brush up on my canoeing skills. I was surprised to find how difficult it is to find any type of canoe skills class. I got lucky with Midwest Mountaineering, which, at its spring paddling event offered some clinics. I tried to sign up twice, the first time the guy I talked to thought I was a little early. The second time, the person on the other end of the phone line relented and started a sign-up sheet, entering James and me on the first line for Efficient Tandem Canoe Paddling, taught by none less than Mike Cichanowski, founder and owner of Wenonah Canoe. I had a chance to paddle a few of their models as rentals in the Boundary Waters and was always happy with their products and impressed with the light weight of their Kevlar canoes.

An hour is not a lot of time, especially if you have an expanse of water and canoe teams of varying skill levels. After telling us a little about himself, his company and his product, he told us the focus of the class: paddling straight, meaning stroke coordination between bow and stern paddler WITHOUT too many corrective moves like the J-stroke, and turning quickly and efficiently, using draw strokes coordinated between bow and stern men.

Mike circled from canoe to cane and gave admonitions on improper strokes and advice on how to do it right. James is an ace at the draw stroke but he has a hard time properly paddling. I think he'll have to when we need to need some whitewater on the Manigotagan.


Like with my recent swim class and x-country ski class, I found the effort quite worthwhile. It's ok to work from a manual or by trial and error but a little expert advice, drills and repetition do wonders.

Added bonuses:

• got to put on the Yakima rack on the new car (Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix). The Q-Clips work much better on the Vibe than they did on the Mazda5 (different Q-Clips are needed for the different cars!)
• got to try out the Gallyan Woodsman III/Bell Northwind. I found out that it not only looked like new but also performed like new. No leaks or anything like that. Furthermore, someone else had the Bell-branded Northwind, they almost were identical. Trim was a little nicer-looking on the Northwind, but performance-wise, I doubt there'd be a difference.