By Mary Fairchild What could be better than kayaking the Apostle Islands? Yup–having Nigel Dennis join you. In order to get better acquainted with rough water this year, I started to look for opportunities to get familiar with whitewater kayaking. This past week, I opted to get out on Wisconsin’s Wolf River and follow Scott Berry, another expert in kayaking, for a couple of days on…
Tag: Whitewater
World Kayak Hometown Throwdown: Two Brothers, Three Floyds, Five Guys
By Mary Fairchild (Ryan M. Duffy, Adrian Oritz; Flickr Pictures here..) This past weekend my husband and I traveled to South Bend, Indiana for a little business and… whitewater. I took my first whitewater class in January with the Chicago Whitewater Association. Recently, a note on the club’s message board, “Paddle, Party, and Play,” announced that there was a World Kayak…
Boat Registration in Illinois: What’s Whitewater Got to do With It?
(Chicago Whitewater Association “Intro to Whitewater” at Harper College, February 2011 with Bob Menard; picture by Heidi Haas.) When it comes to non-motorized boats, only Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, Iowa (boats over 15′), Minnesota (boats over 9′), and Pennsylvania require registration fees. After non-motorized boat users complained in droves, the registration fees in Alaska were eventually dropped from…
Geneva Kayak Center and Yorkville: Catching Waves and Whitewater in the Midwest
By Mary Fairchild Menominee River, Piers Gorge, Spring of 2010; CFS 3000. The Fox River Valley in Yorkville, Illinois, is expected to attract paddlers from throughout the Midwest as well as become an area for paddling instructors as a year-round teaching environment at the first whitewater park in the area. Ryan Rushton, L4 longboat training on the Menominee…