Page 111 - RAPTC Mind, Body & Spirit

Ex Canpaddle is a type 4 expedition organised by Capt (MAA) Chris Hames RAPTC and SIO Steve Eggleston of JSMTW Indefatigable. The aim of the trip is to gain white water,
traditional poling and sailing skills and experience plus 4 and 5 star qualifications in Open Canoeing throughout the exercise.
Following the pre course boat admin and a bear awareness video, we proceeded with the White Water Safety and Rescue (WWSR) course on the Kananaskis river, a true test of nerve with the white water swimming, releasing yourself from your buoyancy aid harness strap in a live bait situation, giving us a chance to practice various rescue skills we hoped we wouldn’t need in the weeks to follow.
Following some brushing up of paddling skills, we soon moved on to the first 90km river trip, a self-sufficient canoeing and camping 4 days and 3 nights trip down the Kootenay river. A brown and a black bear had already been seen in the area so we went prepared with bear spray and a system to elevate our food supplies into the trees while camping. The water was stunning blue and as we rounded the high cliff bends of the river we saw our 1st and only spot of a brown bear lolloping on the bank side near a remote church, we desperately tried to get a camera out before we were swept downstream but failed to get a good shot before it disappeared along the wooded bankside.
We had a rest day back at camp and packed for the final 3 day and 2 night river trip on the more advanced Red Deer river. As a fairly competitive paddler, this gave me a chance to really get stuck in to some quite gnarly breaking in and breaking out skill in a tandem canoe. I teamed with Andy Hancock (RAF Offr) a talented paddler who I had paddled with previously on Ex Alpaddle in Slovenia. We started to get a bit cocky whilst surfing a big midstream wave
Sgt Webster Title Pic at Riverside
EXERCISE CANPADDLE 2017
Sgt (SI) K Webster RAPTC JSMTW (I)
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Sgt Kev Webster RAPTC and Cpl Nic Cole RE almost sunk
when we ended up sideways on to the flow, Andy had braced for a capsize but I pulled off a massive reach for a support stroke on the downstream edge, enabling us to style it out and make the tandem canoe behave like a play boat. I think we were both in stretch at this point! The main focus was generally on maintaining a ‘dry line’ (keeping the boat out of the biggest white water lines) and not losing any of your expedition camping supplies on the 3 day trip. On the exped, we were getting up in the morning, having wild camped in our hammocks and we were straight on the river, changing paddling partners each time.
On the final day of the Exped, I was paired up with Cpl Nick Cole (RE) for the final leg of Red Deer River; we were faced with a boiling
Capt (MAA) Chris Hames, SIO Eggleston and SIO Skelton Epic Mountain backdrop
Jamie Buttles Kootenay River Wild Camp Area with Axe