[Paddlewise] Maine Canoe Symposium rehash(long)

This past weekend I went to the Maine Canoe Symposium on Moose Pond in
Bridgeton Maine at camp winona.  The symposium used to be run by LL Bean but 
it's now run by volunteers.  The "quartermaster" is one of my occaisional 
canoeing partners.

Friday some of the pro staff was available for private lessons.  

We arrived friday night and pitched our tent on the ball field, a quick
walk from one of the bathrooms.  There were about 30 tents scattered
around the edge of the field.  We went down to the mess hall to check in
and sign up for one seminar, you can only sign up for 1 seminar friday night,
that gives everyone a chance to at least get a first selection.  I signed up
for a solo freestyle clinic and my wife signed up for a Hit and Switch class.
Our 3 year old son got signed up for the kids program.

Friday evenings presentation was a bunch of home movies of Allagash river
trips that were taken in about 1953 with a 16mm windup camera.  Warren 
Cochran was the presenter, he's the owner of the Allagash River Trips guide
service.  Warrens father was also a guide and he did most of the filming.
I didn't stay for much of the presentation as it was getting late and I was
taking care of our son.

Saturday's schedule started out with an on water introduction of the pro
staff with a small exhibition of their specialty.  Mike Wolfertz 
demonstrated double paddle technique in what looked to be one of Bart 
Hauthaways boats (a Rushton inspired design).  He was followed by Warren 
Cochran in a touring canoe.  Then Becky Mason demonstrating traditional 
solo technique in a Chestnut.  Caleb Davis was to follow but he came to
the top of the area and said "I'm not going to try and follow that", a 
sentiment I agreed with.  Becky Mason marvelous paddler.  Caleb was going 
to be teaching paddle making and traditional solo technique.  I now had to
head off to drop off a couple of boats for the hit and switch classes.
I missed Harry Rock (modern poling), Kevin S.(?) whitewater and 
traditional poling, Jim and Lisa Lisius (hit and switch), Karen Knight, 
Jackie Pepe, Tom MacKenzie (freestyle), Jim Bowman (sailing).  I know I'm 
missing a couple of others.

I watched our 3 year old with the 9 to 10:30 kids program.  About 20 kids 
all surprisingly well behaved and working well together.  Several of the
older kids "adopted" our son and helped him join in, without any 
adult prompting.

At 11 was my solo freestyle clinic.  There were 3 students and 2 instructors.
Karen Knight is the current US champion and was one of the instructors, 
ahh to be that graceful in a boat.  Freestyle canoeing is basically smooth
graceful paddling skills practiced on quietwater.  The woman in our class
determined she needed more practice going straight than turning so she 
kept heading away from us.  We attempted to learn an Axle(onside turn onside
paddle, high positioned paddle), a Christie (onside turn, onside paddle, 
low position paddle), palm rolls, a post (offside turn, offside paddle high
position).  We tried all of the above going both forward and backward.  That
pretty much ate up the 75 minute clinic.  After the clinic I borrowed Jackie
Pepe's wood canvas loon canoe.  I attempted to do a post (paddle forward 
paddling on the left, lean the boat right and do a static pry against
the left side to initiate a right turn), it didn't work out so well.  I was
told I hardly made a splash as I flipped over.

I had dad duty for the afternoon so we tromped around quickly visiting 
seminars, the tandem touring(Beebee and John Meader) was quite popular as 
was the paddle and style selection (Shawn Burke).  The kids were busy making
nature pictures and later canoe lessons.  We also took Aidan (our son) out
for a half hour canoe trip.  My wife was a little unnerved about me letting
him put both arms into the water and move around behind her.  The only time
I stopped Aidan was when he asked about dipping his head into the lake, as
we were paddling.

I forgot to mention that at nearly every clinic time there were 
introductory canoe lessons being put on.

During the afternoon my wife had a hit and switch class with the 
Lisiuses.  I'm still not sure why she took that class since we supplied a 
couple of the boats and paddles, but whatever...

After a tasty dinner (the winona staff makes great meals), the freestyle
contingent put on a small demonstration.  Jackie Pepe went over each move
and had Tom MacKenzie, Karen Knight and another woman demonstrate.  Jackie
said she used to only have Karen demonstrate but since most people can't
relate to Karen she had 2 other demonstrators.  After the technique 
demonstration Karen did a freestyle routine, that included a couple full
gimbles (lean the canoe over, insert the canoe paddle fully under the
water and spin it like a helicopter blade, so that the canoe spins in 
circles) and another move where karen did a split on one gunwale with
her back arched up over the other gunwale while doing a "high brace" on
the other side of the boat.  Basically she did a backbend over her boat
while maintaining a high brace to carve a circle with the boat...  
Karen's solo routine was followed by a tandem routine, with Karen and 
Jackie.  Another impressive routine.

Immediately after the presentation someone came up to me and bought the
canoe I was selling for a friend ($300 for a 27 lbs, 1984 Wabash Valley 
Deamon, an underbuilt racing canoe).  So I successfully sold 2 boats in 2 
days.  I sold my bell magic to the friend I sold the wabash valley boat for.
Time to go shoppin'... 

Saturday night there was a feature presentation (which I missed completely)
followed by a campfire.  Aidan was overtired so we all went to bed at
about 8:30, umm, we were just trying to coax him to sleep.  yeah thats it.

At about 1 in the morning the wind picked up.  Stuff was blowing around
the campsite and the tents were shaking some.  I thought to myself that I
hadn't tied down my boats (2 USCA marathon flatwater boats) so I got up 
and toddled down to where they were.  On the way past the mess hall I saw 
a wonderful sight.  There were 20 to 30 luna moths seeking shelter from 
the wind behind the building.  I think my previous lifetime total was 3 
luna moth sightings.  The boats were fine, I snugged them down and went 
back to the tent, the next day I found out that Jim Lisius had gone down 
at 2 in the morning and tied all the boats together.  I had just snugged 
them down out of the wind.

The wind was still blowing hard sunday morning.  Windy enough that several
sessions became land only sessions.

Sunday I attended a "Body Centered paddling" session by Warren Cochran that 
was rather interesting.  Linking paddling technique with Tai Chi ;-)  I can
attempt to go over it if anyone is interested, at a minimum I have the 
handout...  

Before the session I asked Warren if he sold canoe poles, he had a couple 
with him and had donated one as a door prize.  He said he didn't but 
explained to me the materials (1 1/8" aluminum .058 thickness, plugged with
delrin plugs and a soft metal stud for grip).

The final event of the weekend was closing ceremonies with door prizes.  This
year they had about 50 door prizes.  The door prizes included gift 
certificates, hats, golf umbrellas, back packs, umbrellas, and a vial of 
bear grease.  The bear grease (some chocolate, flint, 2 ermine tails, 
and corn nuts) were donated by a man in Voyager attire who went by the 
name of Turtle when he was in costume. 

Our 3 year old won a golf umbrella and I lucked out and got the final
prize of the day a modern canoe pole.  I was so psyched I no longer have
to borrow one and don't need to find supplies to build my own.  Although
I did locate a guy in California who makes a take apart pole.

If anyone is interested the Maine Canoe Symposium is held the second weekend
after Memorial day every year (assuming they can reserve camp winona), this
year the event was a week early.

kirk
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