View topic - Peace Region + Kamloops WW community?

Seems like I'm going to have some time on my hands this summer yet my partner will be working. I'm moving to Kamloops next year and was thinking I would look into getting a solo play boat to get back into WW paddling then. But since I want to paddle and my girlfriend is working I might look at getting a solo boat now. I can walk down to the Peace River from my place. Not that there's any WW on it I could get out for fitness. My only concern is not meeting people once I move to Kamloops.

What kind of paddling community is there in Kamloops?

Anyone in the Peace Region? (Hudson's Hope)

I don't know anything about the Peace, but being in Kamloops could put you in touch with some paddlers.

It's not Kamloops-based, but check out the Beaver Canoe Cub in Vancouver. They are a big club for ww canoeing. They go every year to paddle the Nicola, Adams, and other rivers in the area. The Nicola has some great canoeing runs! Check out the Beaver's River Week, though you'll need to introduce yourself to the leader first and be patient with building trust to join some of the runs. Nicola, Coldwater, Spius Creek out of Merritt and then Similkameen and Tulameen in the Princeton area. Great rivers.

There is also a training & tripping company in the Shuswap area, I think it's Element Adventures.

Starting with those obvious organizations will start putting you in touch with friends of friends etc.

In Kamloops I think the university (TRU?) has a good outdoor program with ww canoeing, so there should be people to find in town too.

http://beavercanoeclub.org/

https://www.elementsadventures.com/

Getting tuned up with practice now seems like a good idea. Kent Ford just made these videos available for download:

Drill Time: Learn to accelerate with amazing speed and precision, carve to eliminate correction strokes that slow the boat, and lock onto surf waves for long rides every time! Drills are the foundation for improving in any sport,and canoeing is no exception. Knowing what to practice and how all adds up to more fun on the river.
https://performancevideo.com/drill-time/

Solo Playboating: Inspiring instructional video packed with information for open canoeists. Basic strokework is carefully presented. Advanced stroke techniques, as well as bracing and rolling are demonstrated and explained. World Champion Kent Ford unlocks the secrets of fun surfing and easy playing. Features many great paddlers on the American, Ocoee, Gauley and Nantahala Rivers.
https://performancevideo.com/solo-playboating/

Cheers, P.

_________________
Learning to paddle is like learning a language:
It's easy to learn the basics, but will you be understood in a strong wind?

BB,
I hsave been arranging a Voyageur Canoe Brigade on the Peace River- now postponed until 2021- so I am aware of some paddlers in the Fort St John area though there doesn't seem to be an organized club. There is also a significant number of paddlers out of Peace River.
The closest organized group seems to be the Grand Prairie Canoe Club.
https://www.grandeprairiecanoeclub.org/
They organize trips and gear etc.

Cheers!
Bruce

If you have the time, you could also go the other way and check out the Slave River PaddleFest in Ft Smith sometime!

P.

_________________
Learning to paddle is like learning a language:
It's easy to learn the basics, but will you be understood in a strong wind?

Perhaps the club in PG would be the best resource for you?

They put out a good guidebook on central BC ww not too long ago.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/297571726611/about/

P.

_________________
Learning to paddle is like learning a language:
It's easy to learn the basics, but will you be understood in a strong wind?

Yes TRU has a good program going for sure. I'll look into those groups and those videos as well


That would be cool. I think there a decent amount of different racing going on in Kamloops as well that I want to get into to stay in shape.




That paddle fest looks like it would be a cool trip. Not likely to happen this year though. I'll get in touch with the PG group for sure!

Kamloops most certainly has a whtewater community. I recently joined a facebook group (the name escapes me, but it's something like "BC Canoeing") and they've got lots of posts about the Thompson and Adams rivers. If you can't find the group, search for a guy named Rankin Florence and you'll find all the groups you need to know about in BC. Actually, are you the guy that posted in that group looking for Peace area paddlers?

Grande Prairie canoe club is the closest club I know of. I don't think they did any BC trips last year. We used to do the Murray but had two capsizes 2 years in a row and they don't want to do it any more. I say we aim for more capsizes, not fewer. Grande Prairie has a kayak club too, Wapiti Whitewater Kayakers, that can get you better whitewater advice than you'll get from me. I haven't explored enough yet, even though I've been here over a decade.

When they let a lot of water out of the dam (usually hot days in the summer when the air conditioners need the power down south), there is a good wave at Alwin Holland park that I bet you could park and play on, as you've got the calm water around Teapot Island to paddle back up in. I'd like to try that some day. Dinosaur and Williston Reservoirs and the outlet of Moberly Lake get pretty wavy with the right wind. Laura P. on this forum was asking about the Sikanni last yeat and it's somewhere that I'd like more intel on too. Sukunka has some falls you could huck off of, if you're into that sort of thing. There is a canyon on the BC side of the Wapiti that someone from the GP kayak club wrote up. Not an open canoe trip though.

Also forgot to mention Ben Brochu, a packrafter from south of Grande Prairie that adventures between Tumbler Ridge and Jasper (and beyond). He has a youtube channel named "Mountain Springs".

Yeah I was on BC Canoeing asking about people up here.

haha agreed! Going for a swim is fine. But organizing a trip and having people show up who may be expecting you to be their guide is a different story.

Are you talking about the ledges just below Peace Canyon Dam? I was going to go check them out tomorrow.

The wave in the background of this picture is at a ledge just upstream of Alwin Holland Park.


That is from this site, with which I am in no way affiliated:
https://flyguys.net/fishing-reports/alwin-holland-park-peace-river-fly-fishing-report

Some days those ledges will be high and dry, other days (less frequently) they'll be submerged.

You can use Streetview to check it out too (they mounted the camera to a jet boat), but the wave wasn't great that day. Wish I had noted the water level when the wave is good.

I was wrong, the wave was decent the day they took the Streetview shots. You can see the coordinates in the lower right of the attachment.

It was a high water day then, and all the upstream ledges are submerged. It might have been be too high that day, as I think the wave gets a big bigger than this.