Preparation

Contents

• Gear
• Technique
• Fitness

Gear

Below is a check-list of items we need to have. The list is divided into shared team equipment and personal gear.

Items marked with * are required by the race rules or Canadian federal regulations. Those marked with ** are recommended by the race committee.

Team Equipment

The following table lists equipment shared by the team. Most of the important items we already own (the provider's name is shown below), or have arranged or plan to obtain in Canada (marked by the label Canada). However, there are a few items of gear we are still lacking, and if possible should avoid buying (marked ???). If you can offer the team use of any of these items, please let me know. In particular, I need people to volunteer to bring their new ME tents which should be arriving soon.

We need to be careful that we don't over-equip the team because many of us insist on bringing our own versions of the same bit of kit, of which the team only needs one. I want to be quite strict about this: we are going to struggle to be within our airline weight allowance as it is. So if you have a piece of team equipment that you particularly want to provide, but which is assigned to someone else, please tell me and I'll reassign it to you rather than take any more than we need.

Similarly, if you are down to bring something that you can't provide or if there's any other gear you think we need as a team, please tell me.

Team Equipment by provider

The following rearranges the above information by provider to give a quick checklist, broken down by person, of what team gear they should bring and highlights what we're still lacking.

Personal Equipment

The following is a check-list for what we each need to be equipped with. It's not hard and fast, but rather is intended as a guide. The underlying principle is that we should each have 2 outfits—ideally one for warm weather and a second for cold weather. And not much else. Since the race rules demand that we carry a spare set of clothing with us at all time, we can wear one set and carry the other in a drybag.

Except for passports etc, anything you don't have, you can get in MEC in Calgary where it will probably be cheaper than in Britain. There's also a small amount of potential for sharing a couple of less crucial items and making do.

The flight maximum baggage allowance is 2 pieces totalling up to 20kg. To aid fitting everything into the van in Canada and so that each person can carry their own bags alone, please can everyone fit all their gear into 1 check-in bag and 1 item of hand luggage. And given that we will have much more stuff (like paddles and lifejackets!) to bring back, I'd advise everyone to be under 15kg on the flight out.

Please have a trial pack—don't leave it to the night before we leave. You'll notice very early on how difficult it is to fit everything in. There are lots of little ways you can trim back: don't take duplicates (1 fleece only, 1 long-sleeved shirt only, 2 t-shirts only etc.); think about holding off on any more purchases you have to make until we get to Canada (things will be cheaper there—and for the return trip we can post the bulky but light stuff home); try to accept that you may have to use the same clothes for canoeing and for around town; we could get away with sharing a few items like torches and snip ourselves mini-towels?.

Lot of miscellaneous consumable stuff, like toiletries, can be bought in Canada. We're going to be there for 4 weeks, so there's plenty of time to work through the tubes of toothpaste we buy.

Shoes are always tricky to pack. They are bulky and difficult to fit in as they're usually an afterthought. Perhaps you could wear an old pair of trainers on the plane (which you'll use for canoeing) and buy a nice pair of town shoes in Canada. At the end, bin the trainers (they won't be good for much else) and wear your good shoes home? But don't sacrifice important stuff. Everyone should have or intend to get everything on the personal list (or functional equivelants.) So, no excuses: squeeze that kilt in!

The burden of the shared team gear needs to be spread evenly amongst everyone. There's a lot of stuff there and it's unfair to expect a few individuals to sacrifice their personal luggage allowance for it all. For example, Alistair's pipes will take up his whole handluggage allowance, Sian's gift bags are going to weigh a ton, and Fiona's sat phone will also be surprisingly heavy. So I'd like to distribute team gear before we leave. If possible, some can be distributed at the final weekend meet. The remainder can be distributed at the airport, so please can everyone leave a large space in the top of your bag.

Paddling Day Bag

Each paddler in the canoe will be responsible for their personal day kit which should be contained within a small drybag. Between the team, we have enough small drybags for everyone (we've got 7 15L or 25L bags coming from ME alone, so I ask anyone who has spares to offer them to team mates.) The race rules demand a minimum of the following personal stuff to be carried every day:

• Rain gear
• Change of clothes (min. shirt and long trousers)
• Water bottle or cup

Please note the necessity of being able to produce a spare pair of long trousers every day you are paddling, and let this inform your gear choices. For example, from the check-list above, on cool days you could wear your fleece trousers and carry your lightweight trousers as spare, and vice versa on warm days. But you do need two pairs of trousers (your waterproofs don't count as you've got to carry rain gear as well.)

Technique

Overview

Paddling long distances requires a technique that maximizes efficiency and minimizes stress on muscles, tendons and joints. Endurance is the name of this game and the paddling style that best lends itself to this kind of undertaking is quite different to that adopted by most folks enjoying a leisurely day out on the river, negotiating a few rapids and having a wee blether.

Though it's often called the marathon stroke, this is a misnomer as it's useful for far more than endurance race events such as the SCCQ and has been around since long before X-treme sports events. Look at the paintings of the voyageurs—anyone who has paddled very long distances will have found themselves adopting a stroke very similar to this. Experience shows it to be the best all-purpose paddling style—you'll move faster and more efficiently and be able to keep going for longer and longer. Yup, it's Viagra for canoers.

Paddling as a team

Before talking about the technicalities of putting the paddle in the water, there are a couple of other issues that, though obvious, should be mentioned and are probably more important to going quickly than the stroke style itself.

Paddle in synch

Firstly, it is very important the all the paddlers in the canoe (whether in tandems or voyageur canoes) are paddling in synch. Exactly in synch. If everyone applies power at the same time, the boat stays stable (not rocking from side to side) which greatly improves its glide through the water. The bow paddler (the person at the front of the canoe) sets the pace and everyone follows from their lead. Watch the paddler-in-front's upper hand rather than their paddle blade to keep the rhythm. (If you watch the blade, you'll tend to be slightly behind their stroke.)

Maintain a high stroke rate

Secondly: the all important stroke rate. It is far better to apply lots of small amounts of power than fewer big efforts. Between each stroke, while the boat is gliding, it noticeably slows down. You need to minimise the time between strokes to keep the canoe's momentum high. But more significantly, paddling with a faster stroke rate puts much less strain on your muscles and tendons as you don't have to pull as hard to keep the same speed. Though it seems a little counter-intuitive, when you're paddling long days, day after day, it is far more sustainable to paddle with a fast stroke rate!

We should be aiming to paddle with a stroke rate no lower than 50 strokes per minute. This is much less ambitious than it sounds, and is utterly achievable even by inexperienced paddlers.

The bow paddler

Because of these two aims, the most important position in the canoe is that of the bow paddler. Setting and sustaining a good stroke rate over the many hours of a canoeing day is very difficult, and since they won't see their team-mates all day, it can be a lonely place. The bow paddler has a much greater responsibility for the team's speed than anyone else in the canoe.

Learning

One problem with the marathon stroke is that it doesn't scale down well. In other words, it feels very forced and unnatural at a slow stroke rate and canoe pace. On the other hand, even complete beginners tend to catch on to it very quickly, with little instruction, when paddling fast. It's at speed and when you're putting in a bit of effort that it intuitively falls into place and feels right.

The stroke

Stage 1: The catch

• Your paddle blade should enter the water near your feet, assuming your legs are stretched forward. See figure 1.
• Your upper hand should be at or slightly above your head, but in line with the centre of your head.
• The paddle should be angled slightly forward and slightly out to one side. If you aim to put your paddle in vertically, you'll probably get it about right!
• You should be able to see through the angle formed between your upper arm, your fist and the paddle shaft. See figure 2. If you're paddling in synch, you should also be able to see through the upside-down "V" of the paddler on the same side in front of you.
• Your lower arm should be only slightly bent, and your upper arm a little more so.

Stage 2: The stroke

• Your two arms and the paddle shaft form a triangle. Keep this triangle locked by avoiding the temptation to change the bend in your elbows. See figure 3.
• The act of paddling now becomes a downwards rotation of this triangle by pivoting your arms at your shoulders and using a slight twist of your upper body, lowering your paddle-side shoulder. Again, don't change the angle of your elbows.
• So, plunge the paddle downwards, dipping forward very slightly (if it helps) to apply some of your body weight onto the triangular unit. Force is applied by pushing down the length of the shaft of the paddle, not pulling the paddle perpendicularly to it. As your arms rotate, the paddle face applies a strong driving force against the water. If you insist on pulling with your lower arm by bending it tightly at the elbow, I take no responsibility if your biceps explode in under half an hour.
• Imagine a rod passing down through the centre of your head, your torso, your bum and on through the canoe seat. This rod is allowed to rotate, but shouldn't move back/forward or side to side. I.e. twist, don't duck. Like a vertical paddle, aim for this and you'll probably get it about right.
• Put on the power as soon as the paddle goes in. Really bury it. This is where your effort really counts.

Stage 3: The release

• As soon as the paddle shaft comes level with your hip, it's time to get it out. See figure 4. Any more power you apply will be wasted lifting water (which pulls the boat down deeper, slowing it down.) That's not good!

The switch

Paddling for too long on one side will lead to a build up of lactic acid on one of your shoulders and arms. Though it might not feel like much of an issue early in the day, if you repeatedly stay too long on one side, a lethargy will creep in (so your paddle rate will slow) and you'll be really sore by the end of the day. And the day after will be worse.

The only way around this is to switch sides very frequently. If you are paddling hard, you should start to feel that you want to switch every 50 strokes or so, i.e. about once a minute. So every paddler will have to be ambidextrous. Most people prefer paddling on one side or the other, but too bad!

But switching sides in a voyageur canoe is a much more complicated procedure than in a tandem canoe. Because the 25ft boats are much wider, all but the bow and stern (front and back) paddlers will need to slide a long way across their seats to the other side. This is potentially dangerous as, with everyone moving simultaneously, the boat can become quite unstable. There's nothing for it other than copious amounts of practice. So we'll have to wait until we get to Canada to perfect this.

For now, here's a short video clip (by Warren Long) of one team demonstrating their switching technique. It's only 4 seconds long, it's in quicktime format, and is 2MB big so may be more appropriate for those not on dial-up.

Click here to watch the switching clip. You will need Apple's Quicktime installed on your computer to view it.

Steering

Big voyageur canoes track very well. That means they hold a straight course without too much intervention from the stern paddler (who is responsible for steering.) But nonetheless, after a short while, they do drift off course and some form of correction is needed by the stern paddler. There are two ways to do this:

1. Correction stroke: the traditional technique is for the stern paddler to take a stroke out to perform a pry or draw to push or pull the tail of the canoe to keep the boat on line every 5th to 10th stroke.
2. Switching: alternatively, the stern paddler can, independently from the other paddlers, switch sides to compensate for any deviation the boat is beginning to make from the desired line.

We'll experiment with both and see what works best for us (probably a combination of the two.)

For 98 percent of the time, the sternsman will be solely responsible for the steering. However, there are two days in the race itinerary (stage 1: The La Loche River, and stage 15: The South Weir) where the canoe will need to be manouvered more dexterously than the stern paddler alone can manage. On the La Loche River, there is a long section of very tight meandering bends through marsh and muskeg followed by sections of minor rapids. The South Weir, one of the most beautiful sections of the whole route, is almost one long continuous, gentle, shallow rapid with many submerged and exposed rocks. On these days, and in some of the other days' interspersed rapids, the sternsman will frequently need the assistance of the bow paddler to manouver the nose of the canoe.

Fitness

All the people on the team are moderately fit. We don't need to be superlatively toned to compete in this race, but, competition aside, our individual enjoyment will be hugely increased if we can each get a bit fitter between now and our departure. This doesn't mean running marathons every day and eating cabbage soup, but a few weeks of healthy diet and frequent excercise will make our time in Canada much more fun.

I'm no dietition/fitness-coach, but from experience would recommend a balanced selection of the following activites:

• Aerobic Training: Whatever gets you huffing and puffing will help you lose weight and clear out your lungs in preparation to inhale the clean Northern Saskatchewan air. E.g. Jogging.
• Strength Training: Canoeing uses predominantly upper-body muscles (shoulders and arms.) Any activity which makes these bits of your body ache must be good for you! E.g. weights, press-ups, pull-ups (can anyone actually do these?)
• Endurance Training: This is, perhaps, the most important but under-valued element of preparation. Canoeing is easy, but canoeing for eight hours is not (even with a few breaks.) The key to success has as much to do with mental attitude as physical aptitude. Any activity which has you working for many hours at a time and makes you feel, not sore, but physically and mentally drained is good for this. E.g. hill-walking, digging garden trenches, farming.
• Combination Training: There are quite a few activities which combine all of the above, in varying proportions. E.g. swimming (especially front-crawl—it uses very similar muscles to canoeing,) rowing (ergo machines are good,) long-distance cycling, and of course, canoeing!