[Paddlewise] kayaker drowns

This is a report from the Ottawa Citizen (Canada) describing an
unfortunate occurance this weekend in Ottawa.

John



 Monday 8 February 1999

 Outdoor filmmaker drowns
 kayaking

 Frantic efforts fail to free award-winning
 artist trapped under ice

 Jake Rupert
 The Ottawa Citizen 

 An award-winning outdoor adventure
 filmmaker from the Ottawa Valley died
 yesterday doing what she loved to do. 

 Lynn Clark, 35, of Foresters Falls, about 100
 kilometres west of Ottawa, was in a kayak on
 an open stretch of rapids on the Ottawa River
 in Westmeath Township near Beachburg at 3
 p.m. She was getting ready to film two other
 kayakers when her vessel overturned. 

 Ms. Clark floated out of her kayak and the swift current took her down
 the rapids, then under the ice at the bottom of the run. 

 The two other kayakers got help, and, for 40 minutes, several people
 with ice picks, an axe and a chainsaw frantically searched for her
under
 the ice. 

 When she was found, she was rushed by ambulance to Pembroke
 General Hospital, but could not be revived. 

 Ms. Clark began making films in the mid-1980s and quickly made a
 name for herself. She is best known for her films of people
 rock-climbing, bungee-jumping and, particularly, kayaking, all of which
 were made in her home studio, Greenhouse Productions. 

 In 1995, her documentary Drowning Horses: An Alternative Rodeo,
 beat more than 80 films to win the People's Choice Award at the 1995
 Waterwalker Film Festival, held in the Ottawa area. 

 In 1994, I Really Wanna Know, a 31Ú2-minute movie about
 whitewater rafting shot on the Ottawa River near her home, won a
 special jury prize at the Banff International Festival of Mountain
Films. It
 took one of only seven prizes awarded at the festival, which featured
 more than 300 films. 

 Ms. Clark's main 1996 project, Kayaks and Coconuts, a breathtaking
 account of kayaking adventures from Ottawa to South America and
 back, was one of 25 works chosen from 180 entries in the Banff
 International Festival of Mountain Films for The Best of Banff
collection
 that year. 

 Her winning film toured internationally, with 700 screenings worldwide. 

 News of her death swept through the area's diving community yesterday.
 "She started out on the Ottawa River, and her filmmaking took her all
 around the world," said Peter Nor, 28, of Ottawa. 

 "But she always came back home. She was really a pivotal member of
 our community. She'll be missed by a lot of people." 

 "She was a true artist," said Mark Scriver, 37, also of Ottawa. "She
had
 an eye and a talent that made her films reach everybody." 

 Both said it is not unusual for kayakers to paddle rapids in the
winter.
 Ms. Clark had done so many times before. 

 While adventure films were Ms. Clark's passion, they weren't her bread
 and butter. She worked primarily on promotion and instruction videos
 for outdoor training facilities and local companies such as Arnprior's
 Boeing operation. Her work has also been featured on the Women's
 Television Network. 

 An autopsy will be performed today. Police are treating her death as
 accidental. No one else was injured.
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