| skills |
For many who watched the last two Olympics, whitewater slalom might seem extremely prohibitive, the realm of an elite few in pursuit of Olympic glory. This is a sport of titans, you might think, a sport only for those who can commit their lives to the quest of a perfect run on the perfect day. You might think is this sport for me? Is there room for a mother/father, child/parent, rodeo/recreational paddler in such a sport? The answer, for whoever you are, is yes.
Above all else, whitewater slalom is a way to have fun and to test the limits of what can be done on whitewater without pushing the envelope of survival. It can be a family sport, a way to meet people and a fun way to spend an afternoon on a low-water day, or a weekend on the best whitewater in the world. It is a way to improve skills and learn new ones.
Whitewater slalom is many things to many people--a sport where even the elite welcome you to join in. A lot of people ask, "How can slalom help me? I've never done anything like that." Slalom racers permeate the top ranks of just about any paddling discipline. Norm Bellingham, 1988 Olympic Gold medallist in flatwater, was a member of the U.S. Junior Kayak team. Eric Jackson and every other World Rodeo Championship Silver medallist since 1993 has been on a national slalom team. Nick Kimmet, the current World Extreme Champion, is training full time for a berth on the 1998 slalom team. Whether you think of slalom as training or cross-training, it can take an otherwise slow afternoon and turn it into a challenge.
Although most U.S. clubs have distanced themselves from racing, a few exceptions exist like the Nantahala Racing Club in North Carolina, The Washington Kayak Club in Seattle, and the Canoe Cruisers Association in Washington D.C. The key to getting a racing program going in a club is to get as much of the grunt work done without missing any paddling time. Following are a few hints to keep your gate-hanging time to a minimum.
Pick the Place
Pick an appropriate site to hang your practice course. The first place to look is on local rivers. Try to find something rated about Class II that empties into a calm pool. Believe it or not, the best training courses are on rapids small enough to paddle back up. The feeder canal in Washington, D.C., is a perfect example. The training course sits on a riffle, yet it has raised such slalom greats as Jon Lugbill and Davey Hearn. The added bonus to selecting a moderate training site is that, like the feeder canal, you will interest a larger cross-section of paddlers.
If you live in Topeka, Kan., or some similar place, you may have a hard time finding an appropriate spot for a course. Don't worry! Flatwater, with a few gates on it, can be as much fun as whitewater. When I was growing up in Seattle our only full-time training site was on Lake Washington, with gates strung between the highway and off-ramp overpasses of Interstate 5. You can be creative about finding training sites. Just keep in mind that gates hang from wires, so whatever site you choose should not be wider than 100 feet or so.
The Pull String
Getting the wires up can be the biggest hassle you will face. But it can also be easy. The key is getting the first "pull string" across the river and keeping it from getting tangled while you pull your wires across. For pull strings use polyester twine, which you can buy at any farm/feed store. While there, also invest in gate wire. Farmers often use slalom gate wire for electric fences; because of this it is often mislabeled at the feed store. Ask the clerk for 14-gage electric fence wire. (Many people are tempted to use 17-gage wire, which is thinner than 14-gage. Be warned that 17-gage breaks, and anything heavier than 14 is difficult to work with.)
You can get the pull string across the river any number of ways. I've tried everything from tying the string to a potato and shooting it across with a potato cannon to gilling a dead salmon with it and hefting it across. The most recommended way is to just hang on to it and paddle across. There should be at least two other people there to help: one to feed out the string and the other to take it from you on the other side. Be especially careful not to wrap the string around any body parts.
Hanging the Wires
Once you have a string across the river, put a loop in it and fasten the wire to it. Use that pull string to ferry across all of your wires by sending the same loop back and forth across the river with different gate wires attached to it. Each time you send a wire across, both ends of it should be fastened high above the river. Typically the wires should be hung at least eight feet above the highest possible river level. Try and tie both sides of the wires off so that the wire is both taught and level. Wires that aren't level and tight make course adjustments difficult.
Making Gates
Once the wires are hung you have to makes gates. Gates are essentially three parts: the 1X4 cross bar that is a little wider than 1.2 meters (the minimum gate width); and two poles that can be of varied length depending on supplies. For the two poles I often buy the longest length 1X2s I can find at the lumber yard and cut them into three sections, yielding poles between three and four feet long. The gates are put together by first tying strings from the crossbar to the poles. Usually this is done by drilling holes in the crossbar and tying off one end of the string through the holes.
The other end is tied around one end of the gate pole. Each gate pole needs to have two nails hammered halfway into one end of the pole. This way when the gate string is tied around the pole below the nails it keeps the string from sliding off the end of the pole and allows the gate to be raised and lowered by winding the pole up and down.
Hanging the Gates
Now you need to hang the gates on the wires. This is done by drilling holes opposite the holes you drilled on the crossbar. Thread a short section of wire through these holes and around the gate wire before wrapping the two ends of the wire together in a loop (you are effectively trying to sew the crossbar onto the wire). When both ends of the crossbar are securely fastened to the wire, grab the crossbar and give it a shove.
The training gates should be adjustable both across the river and up and down depending on water levels. A typical training course will have anywhere from 12 gates-- like my personal training site in Bellingham--to more than 50 gates (as the feeder canal has).
Practicing Moves
Go out as soon as you can and try a few moves in the gates. Try to figure out the fastest way to do a few moves by taking times on your wristwatch. Most athletes on the team will spend three to four workouts a week just doing 30-second gate pieces against the clock. This is a great way to focus on paddling technique without having to be fit enough to repeatedly crank out high effort runs. If you can, get some friends to come out and paddle with you. Having someone to train with can make the workout more interesting and more competitive. If you paddle with a club, put a note in the monthly bulletin that you have erected a course and plan to paddle at certain times. This can be a great way to meet people who have the same interests and may be willing to help you hang more gates. Most of all, of course, just try and have fun.
--Scott Shipley is a three-time World Cup Whitewater Slalom Champion, with his most recent title coming in 1997.
Construction Hints
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Most paddlers who travel in groups will eventually run into the
shuttle/transport dilemma, in which the number of interested paddlers exceeds
the number of vehicles available to cartop boats and still run shuttle.
The most common remedy to this dilemma is the canoe trailer. A sensible solution, far better than that ill-fated attempt to pile three canoes, two kayaks and an expendable bowman atop a Honda. A sensible solution, except most paddlers are hard pressed to part with the $1,000 or more needed to procure a manufactured canoe trailer. Manufactured canoe trailers tend to be long (up to 18 feet), tall (up to eight feet), wide (up to eight feet) and, when not hauling boats, pretty much useless for anything else (try hauling a load of mulch in a canoe trailer). What is needed is the trailer equivalent of a general purpose canoe--not too big, not too heavy, not too expensive, able to carry a few boats and some gear, and able to adequately fill a number of roles. In a boat this is called a utility canoe; in a trailer this is called...a utility trailer. Utility trailers, often called stake body trailers, come in a variety of sizes ranging from diminutive three-feet-wide by four-feet-long models up to huge, double-axle monsters that cost more than that carbon fiber tripper you've been eyeing. The most common size stake- bodies, 4' x 8' and 5' x 8', are perfect platforms for adding an inexpensive homemade boat and gear rack.
Four- by eight-foot stake body trailers are available for as little as $200 as kits from hardware/home centers or farm supply stores; add another $100 or so for a fully assembled model. They will accommodate boats up to 14 feet long (eight feet of trailer, plus three feet of tongue, plus three feet of rear overhang) and can handle boats up to 18 feet long with the addition of an extended draw bar on the towing vehicle's trailer hitch. The design shown was built on a lightweight, inexpensive 4' x 8' stake body trailer and will accommodate up to three canoes or five kayaks while providing 32 cubic feet of side-saddle storage for paddles, PFDs and other gear. This design allows boats to continue to be cartopped on a van or truck while towing additional boats on the trailer.
Manufactured canoe trailers typically rack boats side-by-side, up to five high. In a side-by-side configuration adequate space must be kept free between the front of the boats and the back of the vehicle to allow the rig to corner without crunching boat to bumper. This explains the 18-foot overall length of many manufactured trailers. The design shown here racks longer boats in the center of the trailer, permitting the two center boats to be placed within inches of the rear of the vehicle. Placing the two center boats further forward also creates better weight displacement on the trailer (trailers should be trimmed just the opposite of a canoe, with the front slightly heavier to keep proper weight on the tongue). Trim weight can be adjusted by simply placing heavier gear (cases of cheap beer work well) towards the front of the side-saddle gear storage hatches.
The 4' x 8' design shown here can be constructed using a circular saw, drill and a minimum amount of lumber and hardware (two 2x4xl0's, eight 2x4x8's, two sheets of half-inch plywood and a handful of nuts, bolts, brackets and screws). Save a tree--before beginning construction contemplate that naked trailer for a while, measure the dimensions of the boats and gear you might want to carry and, if you are planning to cartop boats while towing the trailer, hitch the trailer up to your vehicle and measure the necessary vertical clearance.
Need to haul a couple of "wide rides?" Simply bolt on two removable 2x4 extensions to the top. Need to haul that load of mulch? Attach front and rear panels to the open center compartment and you've got an additional 40 cubic feet of cargo space. Need secure storage for that long cross country trip? Install hinged top covers to the storage compartments and add a lock and hasp. Innovate. Customize. Design a frame specific for your needs, or build multiple drop-in frames for different hull and gear configurations. Let's see, with a block and tackle and a couple of pulleys I could suspend a variety of frames from the garage ceiling and lower them as needed into the stake pockets of the trailer with the canoes and gear already loaded. Hmmmm...never have to pack or unpack again...