Last year, I had the privilege of being invited to shadow the kayaking courses at the Women on Water Paddling Festival.  It was great fun and I learned so much. When I was asked to come back again this year, to teach basic kayaking, I agreed wholeheartedly and couldn’t wait for the event to arrive.

I left off in Part 1 with the sun setting on Saturday.  This post begins on Sunday with a whole new day of fun and adventure waiting to be had!

We were blessed with another gorgeous day on Sunday.  I got up feeling somewhat refreshed and very sore from the workout the day before.  Since getting my concussion in January, I have not done much paddling and my arms and shoulders felt the burn, along with my quads from the performance I did on stage as Beyonce.  It was a good burn though.  I had a wonderful breakfast with some new friends and then headed out to find my group for the day.

On the way I ran into the lovely Dympna Hayes, from Ontario Sea Kayak and she was kind enough to do a quick interview with me which will be in the video. I also got a quick pic with Jenn who is an independent distributor of SeneGence  and also donated to the silent auction.  You can find info on her products here.

Before starting the days lessons, we got everyone together for the annual Wow group photo.  That is a lot of wild women!!!

Today I was working with Heather Stewart who is awesome. Heather also managed Flow Yoga and Taijifit.  The session is called Kayak Balance, Play and Self Rescues and was going to be so much fun.  My friend Sue also ended up in this session for the morning, so that would be more fun.

We gathered together and found out what everyones’ experience was kayaking so we would know how much or little they knew.  Once everyone had a kayak and the proper gear, we hit the water.

Everyone was encouraged to get out of their kayaks, sit on top of them, straddle them, and go from each end of the boat and back to the cockpit.  It was a lot of fun and I got a cool little video of Sue kissing her bow.  Some people fell off their kayaks, so I spent quite a bit of time doing assisted rescues and didn’t get a lot of photos.

We did self rescues and then finished off the session.  We had another yummy meal made by the awesome staff at Camp Tapawingo, and then headed back out in the afternoon for another session of the same type with a whole new group.

Heather performed a move called piano keys, which was pretty cool. We rafted up, meaning we all put our kayaks together side by side, each holding the others. She got out of her boat and walked along the bow of each of the kayaks and jumped off the end into the water.  It was super impressive and one of the ladies in the class got a video of it, which will also be in the video version of this post.

Sadly the weekend was almost over.  I said goodbyes to many new friends as they eventually gathered up their belongings, packed their vehicles and headed back to where they’d come from.

I helped everyone I was able to, loading kayaks onto trailers, carrying bags and taking photos for people of their new friendships.  When everyone was all packed up and I was no longer needed, I got into my car and headed home to rest from yet another,  wonderful wild women weekend.

After I left Wow, I headed to get a bite to eat and grab a blizzard from DQ as I had wanted ice cream after Friday’s dinner but as I was in a drysuit all weekend, well, it was a good choice to pass on that.  Since the weekend on the water was done and I was heading home, I decided to indulge.  I drove home afterwards and as I was unpacking,  my colitis kicked in and it was not too happy about the blizzard. I raced to get into the house and hurriedly shut my car doors but unfortunately, my head did not get out of the way fast enough and I hit my head on the car door, very very hard.  OMG!

I ran inside to use the washroom and started to cry. I knew right away I had another concussion and I was totally mortified.  I finished unpacking and went to bed and worked only one hour each morning that following week and then stayed offline otherwise. I took all the things, and then some,  and did everything I could and luckily it went away in only a few weeks.  This is the reason this post is so late and that I have not been out adventuring like I normally do, however, I am 100% back now and ready to get out there and explore and do my thing!   I just went to Algonquin this past weekend and will be heading out as much as possible for the rest of the year, so stay tuned!  Lots of great trips coming your way!  Thank you for your patience and support while I healed from both concussions. I appreciate it more than I can say!  And if you get one, please contact me, I will tell you all I can to help you get better as quickly as possible.   Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post!

I hope you enjoyed the post and check out the video.  If you have any questions, comments or just want to say hello, please leave a message.  Thanks for checking out my post!

Camper Christina