Women’s Whitewater Weekend & Community Paddle

Prerequisites: none – Have you been curious about kayaking and want to give it a test run?  This course is a great option to try whitewater kayaking and join other women paddlers learning it for the first time, too.  After introducing you to the sport of kayaking and to your equipment, we get our first taste of paddling in a pond. We start by teaching you to safely exit the kayak when upside down. Then we move on to learning basic strokes, including sweep strokes, forward strokes, draws, and braces. Once everyone is comfortable in their boats, we head to moving water where we introduce river maneuvers such as the eddy turn, peel out, and ferry.

The second day is key to strengthening the lessons from the first day, and we’ll add to those lessons with more information on the compound paddling strokes with more time to practice them. You’ll have more river time, too!  Once you get a second day of paddling in, you’ll have a great foundation to continue on with this incredible sport, and you may even have some new friends to learn with.

Prerequisites: Beginner kayak clinic– Learn from the best female instructors. Personalized instruction in a supportive environment makes this clinic a little extra special. Push your paddling skills with this intermediate clinic so you can feel stronger and more confident on the water. Learn about stroke timing, placement, and efficiency. Hone in on your paddling biomechanics. Feel more confident and controlled in Class II whitewater.  Once you have two more days of instruction, you’ll have a great foundation to continue on with this incredible sport, and you may even have some new friends to learn with.

This clinic takes a hands-on, in-the-water approach to teaching river rescue and safety skills. Specific skills covered include aggressive swimming, wading rescues, rescuing a foot entrapment victim, unpinning boats, using tag lines, using a rescue lifejacket, and using mechanical advantage in rescue and recovery. Our emphasis is on judgment and managing river rescue situations, as well as rescue techniques that can be performed with a minimum of equipment.

For those interested in being prepared to handle a river rescue, our River Rescue 2 Day Skills Course is based on a curriculum developed by the American Canoe Association and is designed to teach both river rescue techniques and preventative river-running strategies to reduce river users risk in all river craft.

Our emphasis is on judgment and managing river rescue situations, as well as river rescue techniques that can be performed with a minimum of equipment. This course combines classroom and shoreline time with practical hands-on in the water instruction and scenario practice. Participants should have some familiarity with whitewater.

People who self identify as a woman and want to learn aspects of whitewater paddling.  Our minimum age for these clinics is 14.

While some of the flatwater areas we use are quite warm in June, July, and August, the Deerfield River is always cool, regardless of the time of year or air temperature. When packing your paddling clothes, please plan accordingly, especially if you are coming early or late in the season (April, May, September, and October). Our clinics will run rain or shine.

Wear items such as:

• Synthetic long underwear, garments made of polypropylene, Capilene, or some polyester/spandex blend
• Fleece or wool socks
• Bathing suit
• Fleece or wool jacket/sweater (early/late season or if you tend to chill easily)

Other items to bring:

• Sunscreen
• Sunglasses
• Retaining strap for glasses
• Nose plugs
• Towel
• Required medications
• Extra money for snacks, T-shirts, or coin-operated showers

Zoar Outdoor will provide:

• boat
• wetsuit
• paddle jacket
• booties
• life jacket
• helmet
• paddle
• sprayskirt

If you own your own equipment, we suggest you use it in the clinic to get used to its quirks.

We provide a catered picnic-style lunch on all our clinics.

The following statement is required by state law: “Before placing your order, please inform your server if a person in your party has a food allergy.”

We do not use nuts in our food, but can not guarantee that the ingredients in our meals do not contain nuts or other food allergens. If you have food allergies or other special dietary needs, we strongly suggest you bring your own bag lunch in non-glass containers and we will pack it with the other lunches on your trip. Please inform our office at 800 532-7483 or [email protected] if you intend to do this.