Paddle Smarter, Not Harder: Women’s Skills Workshop

This course is all about helping grow the women who have recently started in our sport and for those whomay have been paddling for a while but have never had outstanding formal instruction. The women who
did this course last year absolutely loved it! The class emphasizes the ways in which women can use
proper technique, better balance, and a supportive learning environment to develop and enhance skill
development. Learn how small women can keep up with the big boys, or even leave them in the dust.
Explore ways of using your body to facilitate assisted and self-rescues, and see how a lower center of
gravity can be a huge advantage in some aspects of paddling. This is all about paddling smarter, not
harder.

The classes on both days will be on flat, calm water on the Chesapeake Bay.

On Saturday, the focus will be on strokes. It will start with a review of the basics, and emphasize
effective use of the body to get the maximum performance with minimum effort. Don’t worry about
being the slowest paddler in a group, we will spend a lot of time on the forward stroke making keeping up
easier. Then we will work on boat control with grace and finesse. This will include standard sweep
strokes, draw strokes, and blending strokes for efficient, elegant, and precise maneuvers. We will finish
with support strokes, bracing and sculling. These strokes can increase your confidence in rougher water
by giving you more stability. While it sounds very serious, be prepared for fun, games and lots of laughs,
no pressure.

Sunday will be all about Recovery, Reentry and Rescues. The focus is on different ways to perform self
and assisted rescues. The class will start with a review of the basics, then we will work on different
aspects of a rescue starting with boat maneuvering, using your body to effectively perform an assisted
rescue, climbing back into a kayak using a variety of techniques, plus a few more scenarios. There will
be more fun, more games and more laughs.

As a bonus, we will be staying in two apartments at the wonderful Wachapreague Inn on the Virginia
Eastern Shore. Staying together gives us more opportunity to talk about paddling trips, skills and just
have fun together. The cost will likely be around $50 per night for a shared room.
There will be two more advanced groups of paddlers staying (and playing) nearby, so you’ll have an
opportunity to interact with them and watch them work on more advanced skills in bouncier water.