I have been to many events in my life and it seems like no matter how many new ones I attend, there are plenty of personal firsts out there. This years Whitewater School on the Mulberry River outside of Ozark, Arkansas was a first for me. 350 paddlers descended on “Round the Bend” Campground for a weekend of instruction and fun. Joe Ball and Jenny told me about it and convinced me to come. I didn’t know anything about it before. Go figure. I promised KC that I would take him to the opening of “Guardians of the Galaxy 3” on Friday night in Little Rock on the way so we got there around midnight on Friday night. Saturday morning I found the President of the Club, Gordon Kumpuris, cooking up eggs, sausage, and toast for 350 people. There were a ton of Volunteers helping with the event, but my guess is that Gordon had the most hours in getting this thing to run so smoothly.
I was not on the schedule to teach as I was impromptu, the way I like it. I announced two classes- one from 10-12 and one from 12-2 on Saturday and had a good crew show up. We did “EJ’s Strokes and Concepts” in the morning and then “EJ’s Rolling and Bracing” in the afternoon. It was a super fun group of paddlers for both sessions. Lots of the information people were seeing for the first time. “Best practices” for kayaking isn’t easy to come by it seems, or at least not as easy as it should be. I think I’ll have to work on that some more.
The river was lower than normal for this time of year, so only a small surf wave, mild eddy lines, and shallow flatwater were available at my little section of river at the the Cemetery. It was a perfect classroom.
Weather was amazing, water the perfect temp, and attitudes were all smiles. What else can you ask for?
Well, one more thing- Joe Ball, Jenny, and Chloe were there and Joe gave KC and I Chloe’s little trailer to sleep in and had it all set up.
I brought three kayaks. One Ringer, one Rebound, and one Tyr. All three stayed in Arkansas. Debbie got the Rebound, Jeff got the Tyr, and Ryan got the Ringer. It was fun seeing the reaction by the members of the Arkansas Canoe Club to the Apex Carbon Fiber kayaks for the first time. The quality is easy to see, and the weight is easy to feel without even putting it them the water. I do need to get the other sizes into production as medium sized boats are not for everyone. We need the smalls and larges out, and then Extra small and extra large. That is the EJ way- a boat for everyone. Starting over with a new brand and making all of the sizes takes time. If you remember back in 2004 with JK I only had the Fun1 in April. Then the 2 Fun, then the Fun, finally the 4 fun and Super fun but it took a year to get the molds all ready. Not to mention the other models. So please be patient as I get the other sizes done at Nelo.
Oh yea, I ended up teaching a third class from 3-5:30 or so. Had Boris from Maine there for a playboating clinic- ended up being a one on one. We focused on getting vertical, linking ends, stern stalls, bow stalls, etc.. Super fun.
On Sunday I taught two classes and they were loaded, overloaded, and super loaded. 20 people in a session or so. I had two sets of twin girls ages 11 and 14 or so, as well as Gordon the club president, who I talked into bailing on his work duties and going kayaking. He would have worked all weekend and not paddled without me forcefully talking him into it.
In those classes I did a bunch of rolling with folks, but with 20 people the one on one time isn’t much. However, I got a few people hand rolling, offside rolling, plain old rolling for the first time, etc. Some I only got to phase 2 and never got back to them as we ran out of time. I got to teach a 290 pound big dude in a Remix XP who never tried rolling and got him rolling in about 10 minutes. It is always scary putting your reputation on the line when you have a big guy like that as they are not always the most intuitive rollers and when the muscle it, whew! I also teach out of my kayak, not standing in the water, and was in my Rebound, so not a lot of volume to hold up 290 pounds if he didn’t follow along with my instruction. But, he did, and my track record is still intact after 30 years of “you can roll in 15 minutes or your money back guarantee” program.
After wrapping up on the water, it was time to get to Columbus for freestyle training. I drove KC to Birmingham, AL where I met Kristine for Lunch at PF Changs and she took KC home and I kept going.
Yesterday I paddled with Hunter Katich (world champion junior men’s 2013) and Gavin Barker (Team UK) for my first training session at 12,800 cfs- FUN!
If it jacks up like that again- I am going to bring my Ringer down as well and do a few kick flips- If you like Kick flips, The Ringer will blow your mind with the speed, dry bow, progressive rocker, planing hull at the very bow for max lift, and lightweight it LAUNCHES!
See you on the water!
All photos are by David Lewis. I started to do a post from the weekend and realized that I didn’t take any photos! I do have GoPro footage but will look at that another time.
Thanks for the photos David! Below are some more from the weekend.
🙂
EJ
