I am lucky enough to belong to a few paddling groups, Banook and NS Marathon Canoe. Both groups are interested in trying to attract public attention to their sports, so when Banook was looking for someone to run some public awareness paddling sessions as part of the Club's 100th anniversary, I signed up.

The sessions were held for 3 consecutive Thursday evenings in July, leading up to Banook's big 100th anniversary party on Natal day weekend. The weather held, the parking was OK and we had crowds show up that kept us busy for the entire session. We averaged about 20 volunteers for each session and we needed them all, as we had 30-35 people show up each Thursday. We had a few times where all the boats were out and there were people waiting to get into something, but I think we kept everyone who showed up as involved as they wanted to be.

Banook gave me a small budget for promotions, posters, t-shirts and pins, plus access to the Club facilities, including sprint canoes and kayaks. The Banook Masters would also provide some well-experienced volunteers, as they are continually putting on annual clinics to try and attract former paddlers back into the fold or convince mature, otherwise sane, recreational paddlers into tippy boats that flip you into the drink more times than is considered humorous.

NS Marathon Canoe is a small, feisty, passionate group. Basically, we like to spend time on the water. And since lakes are only so big and practices can run from 1-3 hours, you either do many loops of the lake or get into portaging, meaning hoisting the canoe up out of the water and hiking it to the next lake, only to repeat the process on the way back. Oddly enough, many people see this as sheer lunacy, especially when they find out that marathon boats will also flip you into the water if you're not careful.

TAO (the Adventure Outfitters) is a commercial sports outfitter store and their staff is very experienced and more than happy to spend a few evenings trying to introduce the public to the sport of paddling. They sell recreational canoe and kayaks as well as those very spinny play boats.

To round out the volunteers, I contacted Dusan Soudek from Canoe/Kayak Nova Scotia. On top of providing boats and very experienced volunteers, they brought along brochures and safety material and lots of paddling stories. As well, Meghan Watkinson from the Canadian Coast Guard sent along boxes of all the safety brochures that they had, including colouring books for kids.

The TAO crew brought regular canoes and those little playboats, which were a big hit. These boats got the most use, as just about anyone can enjoy these even if they've never paddled a boat before. The Sprint and Marathon boats take a bit of "attitude" to get started in and I think we were all surprised at just how many people volunteered to get into boats that would be pretty unstable and that the chances of getting soaked were very high.

I have a few memories that stick out from these sessions. I think that anyone who has a passion for a sport enjoys trying to share that experience with anyone who is interested. As the sessions went on over the 3 weeks, a lot of the volunteers were the same people and you could tell that they were enjoying themselves. We had a little "event" going on and the response was very positive. I just started paddling 3 years ago and I enjoy it so much that I really liked the opportunity to share that joy.

Now, it was pretty obvious that the kids would enjoy themselves. That's what kids do. Our job is to let them experience as much as they can. Whether these sessions will help generate any future paddlers will never be known. But they had fun and for some it was a brand-new experience.

We also talked quite a few adults into boats. You could tell that some of them were nervous, while others were just very keen to get into any type of boat. When I started at Banook, the Masters coach (Archie MacGlashen) used to regale us with paddling war stories while we sat around drinking Timmie's coffee after a hard weight workout. He said something once that really stuck with me. He said that his job as a Masters coach was to "open doors that we had already closed". It's a good point. The whole world of paddling has been sitting there all my life, and until I was introduced to a kayak, I didn't know what I was missing. Again, whether these sessions actually get anyone paddling is not the point. We provided the experience, and it was fun for everyone.

My favourite memory from these sessions happened near the end of the second session. The weather was gorgeous, everyone was in a good mood and quite a few people were in the Sprint and Marathon boats. Then some of the volunteers started getting in the tippy boats and next thing you know, people are lined up to get into the C1's, which no one can keep up for more than a minute or so, yet people just keep trying. It's like we were all kids again. Falling in was part of the fun!

This summer, Marathon Canoe will be holding public paddling sessions on Lake Banook every Tuesday evening at 6:30, starting in late June. As well, Banook usually puts on some sessions to try and attract new Masters paddlers and TAO tries to put on a few sessions so that people can try out a boat that they might buy. Whether we all get together for some combined sessions is yet to be seen. Insurance can be a deciding factor in these types of events. Last year, Banook sponsored the sessions, so we sort of piggy-backed on their insurance.

All I know is that I had a lot of fun and I'm pretty sure a lot of other people did too, so it was all worth it.