Huli Happens - A lesson in leaning

The Fraser River might have been a little chilly and icky, but some conditions just don't stop us paddlers! Take this weekend, for instance: we had our final regatta in Kelowna and while Saturday was gorgeous, Sunday was treacherous with 2 foot swells-- and we paddled anyways. We accept that dragon boating, canoeing, kayaking, and doing dishes are all water sports.

The Fort Langley Canoe Club just bought an OC6 (an Outrigger Canoe that seats 6 paddlers), and we have all been excited about paddling Hawaiian style in the Bedford Channel. An OC6 is a much skinnier canoe with a beam on one side and consequently has a propensity to flip, or "huli". So in order to have permission to take this new toy out, we must attend a huli clinic.

The anatomy of an Outrigger Canoe:

Yesterday, we portaged the OC6 down a few blocks and launched it into the river. We stood in the rain while we learned the what's-its and who's-thats of the vessel and then we piled into the canoe and paddled out to the middle of the river to huli and recover. Brrr! We leaned to the right, grabbed the left gunwal, and over we went! Seat 1 collects the paddles, seats 2 and 5 straddle the bottom of the boat, seats 3 and 4 hang onto the ama while 2 and 5 flip their legs around and stand on the mukus. They reach over the gunwal and grab the iakos and as 3 & 4 give the ama a push, the weight redistributes, the ama flips around and hits the water with a loud THWACK, and Bob's your uncle. We climbed in, we bailed, and paddled like hell. Just to make sure we had the technique down, we rinsed and repeated 4 times. OK, it was a shivering good time! Exhilarating! Some of us couldn't get enough of it! In fact, I hope to catch the next clinic just so that I can do it again! I plan on having my personal photographer, Krista, there to document it.

To learn more about Outrigger Canoes and hulis visit Pogue Sports Canoe Club. There are pictures of the huli, and the canoe in the pictures is identical to the one that we flipped.