Midwest FreeStyle Symposium
 

Especially for canoe people - the Midwest FreeStyle Symposium will take place on Sept. 10,11,12 in Peninsula, Ohio. This is the weekend after Labor Day. Lessons in FreeStyle paddling, which emphasizes precise and efficient paddle placement and motion, combined with weight shifts on the part of the paddler, to produce exceptionally fluid handling of a canoe. Think of it as ?obedience classes for your canoe? - and think of it as achance to improve your own paddling skills immeasurably.

For many of us who paddle solo canoes in particular, there is a subtle but very persistent awareness which underscores nearly every paddling experience - that is the simple, quiet Joy in just feeling the boat move through the water under you in the ways in which it naturally wants to move. That Joy is increased as you learn more about how you can facilitate, enhance, and make use of that movement - learning how to speak to the boat with your blade, your weight shifts, your heeling; but also in learning how to listen when the canoe speaks to you, which of course is what it?s doing when it responds not only to your actions, but also to other forces - current, wind - which are acting upon it. Among many other things, paddling is an on-going conversation between you and the canoe about moving through the water right here, right now. FreeStyle instruction is all about learning how to be an effective and efficient communicator, and a Good Listener as well. It?s about learning how to hold up your end of that conversation.

Registration forms are available on-line at www.freestylecanoeing.com Note that registration deadline is August 15.