Paddle Camp

I've been meaning to post about my time at Paddle Camp since I went on the May long weekend - and am finally getting around to it. So.. Paddle Camp is just what it sounds like - a camp where you paddle, canoes in my case... It was four intense days of being on the water, from 7:00am to 9:00pm, with breaks for meals, and that's about it. Paddle Camp was established originally to provide training for camps in the area that have canoeing as part of their summer program, and has now also been opened up to the public for people who just want to learn to improve their skills. It is co-run by Paddle Manitoba & Manitoba Pioneer Camp, and held at Manitoba Pioneer Camp, on Shoal Lake just across the Ontario border.

I guess I should start with the reason why I would want to go to a paddle camp. One reason is that I love canoeing, and love the art of it; I get a great pleasure out of watching someone paddle gracefully through the water, heeled over so that the gunwale is almost touching the water, the canoe responding effortlessly to each paddle stroke. I love watching that, and watching that makes me want to improve my skills to that same level. A second reason is that it has helped to get me involved outside of my own life, in a community of people where I can hopefully have some impact on others in some meaningful way; people outside of the church who need friends that can be Christ to them. A third reason is that it is a first step in reaching a future dream/desire that I have had for sometime - that is, using my passion for the outdoors in some kind of ministry/outdoor educational sort of program. (This needs to be explained in a separate post of its own, hopefully it will follow shortly.)

So, that's why I went, now for what I did.

The training is based on the Paddle Canada program; I was signed up to learn "Flatwater Skills A-D", and wasn't sure where I would fit in as most of my paddling prior to the camp had been on my own. It was a bit nerve-wracking - you know how when you enter into a new group of people for a specific purpose, and you're not sure how you compare to their skill level... I was quickly reassured by the friendliness of the group that it wouldn't matter much how I paddled.

The first thing we did on Friday morning at 7:30 was practicing canoe-over-canoe rescues... very important to know how to get back in a canoe in deep water. However - I should mention the ice had only been completely out of the lake for 5 days, and to practice these rescues meant that you had to also practice being rescued. So the routine went like this: you and your partner tip the canoe, and allow your body to adjust to the water while you wait for the rescue canoe to get 'T'd up to your upside down canoe. Then you swim to one end of the rescue canoe and hold on to the gunwales, while one of the rescuers reach down, break the air-lock on your canoe, lift it up and onto their canoe, flip it over and slide it back into the water. You & your partner then swim between the canoes and very ungracefully clamber aboard as the rescuers try to brace their canoe and your canoe to keep from swamping. Then, since both people in the rescue canoe need to practice rescuing, you again tip your canoe, re-adjust to the water, and repeat the procedure. Now, since you're not cold enough, you paddle into the shallow water and tip again, drag your canoe out of the water, empty it, both of you climb back in and show that you are ready to paddle, and then you are allowed to put the canoe away, and run to get dry clothes on. It was quite an experience- amazing how by the 3rd dumping your brain starts to get foggy, and your muscles just don't respond like they should. It definitely has given me a healthy respect for cold water.

So that was the start to the weekend; the rest of the weekend we spent working on solo & tandem manoeuvres: forward & reverse straight lines (try paddling solo in a straight reverse line for 25m - that's a pain!) forward & reverse stops, pivots, circles, side displacement, & landings. Side displacement & landings were the most fun - side displacement required keeping your bow within a couple inches of the dock, moving sideways along the dock, while keeping your boat perpendicular to the dock. Landings involved paddling at a fairly high speed straight towards the dock, waiting until your bow was within a couple inches of the dock, then planting your paddle so that you finish up with your canoe parallel to the dock, your centre thwart within a 1m mark painted on the dock, and close enough so that you can reach out and touch it. Done smoothly it is so much fun, but when you misjudge distance or speed or paddle pitch, you get a somewhat sudden stop :)

Monday afternoon was another highlight - a 'slalom rodeo' where we put together a bit of everything we had learned, and worked our way through a course. It started off with 2 instructors demonstrating, not at a very fast speed but you could tell they were efficient and knew what they were doing. Then the first couple boats went, these people were fairly new to paddling, and were happy just to make it through the course. Then one pair made it through faster than the instructors, and it turned into a race. So my partner and I got in our canoe and started doing a bit of practicing, and then hit the gate with a bit of speed going. We powered through and got the top time, and since we were the last canoe we thought we had the title... until the instructors got back in and decided to show us how it was really done. They were absolutely flying through the course, when the bow paddler reached out with a strong cross-bow draw, and you could see his face change to surprise as they went over - he had over reached himself... So they pulled themselves out of the water giving each other heck for the swamping, but not giving up yet - they did it again, but much slower because they were cold from the water. They still managed to beat us by 4 seconds, but not like they would have the first round.

Watching the Slalom Course

This is the 2 instructors on their second attempt - unfortunately I didn't pull the camera out until after they dumped the first time...

Then all of the instructors got into a Voyageur canoe and ran the course - that was something to watch - pretty impressive... see this video.

And that was the weekend - I learned a ton, got some sore muscles, and really enjoyed myself. I managed to check off all of the required manoeuvres to get my 'Flatwater Canoeing D Skills' badge - Jenn says it reminds her of the badges she would get in Pioneer girls. Next year I hope to get my Flatwater Instructor's level - check this link out to see where that lands me on the Paddle Canada totem pole :) http://paddlingcanada.com/programs/canoeing/canoe_chart.php

Since then I have been getting a bit more involved with Paddle Manitoba - helping out at the local Paddlefest - an event to get people involved with paddling - I even taught a couple clinics - taking people out in canoes and teaching very basic paddling skills... it's a lot of fun!

Birthday thank you's are in order!!!

Thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts!!

From Mom and Dad Janzen!

From Jessie!

From Mom and Dad Wall, Rachel, and David and Caralee!

Few More...

Central Park.

Subway at 1am...

Queen's Botanical Garden.

At PS1 (art gallery) - there was a mirror on the roof that as it turned you moved up and down.

On the ferry to Staten Island - we were going to go over there for dinner, but there's nothing there.....and everything was closed at 10:30pm!! So we ferried back in hunt of dinner in Manhattan....we found a 24hr. dinner and ate dinner at 12pm!!! Yum...waffles!

Subway station. We spent a lot of time here. Waiting for trains. Catching wrong trains. And getting very confused between uptown and downtown.

Bryant Park - my 2nd favorite!

At the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) - you could actually take pictures of the art - and I saw THE Starry Night, and some Andy Wharol, Mondrian, Rothko, Wesselmann, Oldenberg, etc. Some awesome art - and I generally don't like galleries but the ones in NY have given me a whole new look on life!

Paley Park - my #1 favorite!

And that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed New York!!

New York, New York!!

Some New York wonders!!


Near Ground Zero. Some cool sculpture.

Along Battery Park. Very neat installation.

Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan.

Columbus Circle.

Brooklyn Bridge.

Entrance to Prospect Park.

Irish Potato Famine Monument. There was a roof garden on top of this overlooking the water and New Jersey.

Gifts....

Thanks mom and dad for the wonderful gifts from afar!! We love them!! (For those of you who don't know, they just came back from being in the Mediterranean for 3 weeks - 10 of which were on a cruise!) YEA for vacations!

Cellphones...

Ok, so this past Sunday the service that we attended was interrupted twice by cell-phones going off. Our pastor Gerry has in the past made no bones about the fact that he hates cell-phone disruption, and cheerfully urges everyone in the congregation to boo when it does happen (which people have no problem doing). So.... in that spirit, he sent out an email with this attachment, and the title of the email was "Don't you just wish this would happen on occassion!"

Dan making bread....Gramps would be so proud!

Some light reading - first version of my practicum proposal

Statement of Purpose and Background

What is a prison landscape? A first impression might lead one to think of the areas surrounding the outside of the institution, where beautiful landscape works have already been designed using various plants and landscape structures. However, for the purpose of this study, a prison landscape is the exterior space found within the penal complex. It is the inner courtyard where often only a bare piece of grass is found, or the exercise grounds that consist only of a plane of asphalt or concrete. These spaces of static depression are what draw a designer to consider the purpose and advantages of creating dynamic landscape spaces, and the impact such spaces could have on inmate restitution.
Catherine Sneed, the founder of “The Garden Project”, operates a program for inmates in horticultural prison gardens in San Francisco (Van Cleef, 2002). The Garden Project is a program for current and transitioning inmates to gain practical skills, an increased self-esteem, and hope for the future through hands-on gardening experience. “Statistics show 75 percent of participants [in the Garden Project] do not return to jail and that compares to the state, as a whole, where two-thirds of offenders released end up back in jail” (http://www. californiaheartland.org). Kaplan’s (1982) studies also reveal a change in behaviour by finding “that prisoners who have even a view of trees from cells are less violent than those who don’t”. This is further verified by Tracy Penner and Illene Pevec (2004) who state that being “close to nature also promotes good mental and physical health.” These results are sought after in the development of prison landscapes; however, an educational program does not necessarily need to be introduced to provide the opportunity for inmates to participate in outdoor living and receive the benefits that nature can provide for the restoration of the mind, body, and soul.
My proposed research investigates the theory that humans have an innate attraction and desire to be in the natural environment and in turn, how these environments can alter emotions, attitudes and behaviour. A built or natural formed landscape has a sense of freedom and fluidity. This freedom expresses itself in the movement of the trees as wind passes through its leaves, as the water from the lake laps against the shore, as the sound of birds pass through the air. Providing landscapes in prisons allows inmates to have something to identify with upon release; it becomes a touchstone that they can return to in times of distress or when in need of solitude. The study of prison landscapes is being investigated because I believe that every human being has the right to be in contact with nature whether through visual or interactive stimuli and by providing this contact, the goal is to restore hope, self-esteem, motivation, and relationships, thereby decreasing their risk to society.
An important precedent to the development of prison landscapes is the “Peace Garden at Western Correctional Institution”. Here, the garden design incorporates many elements in which both inmates and staff can participate in and experience moments of reflection and meditation. For example, the ‘Well of Unspoken Truths’ allows inmates to record their thoughts on paper and toss them into the well without fear of these words being used against them (Rich, 2004). Other design elements of the garden include the ‘Tree of Renewal’, and the ‘Sundial of Transformation’, which are found within a labyrinthine garden. My goal is to develop a prison landscape that models the design language that is similar to the “Peace Garden at Western Correctional Institution”, but that also results in behavioural and attitudinal changes similar to those witnessed in Sneed’s Garden Project. Drawing from case studies of other prison landscapes, as well as work done in horticultural therapy, environmental criminology, and environmental psychology, I hope to develop a year-round comprehensive landscape design that reflects the needs of women inmates in the new correctional facility in Manitoba while taking into consideration the local culture, architectural and social history, and ethnicity.
Some of the foreseen limitations to this work include the possibility of being unable to conduct interviews with inmates due to security issues. Access to site plans and layout of new prison grounds may also prove difficult to obtain, nonetheless I believe this study can still be beneficial to the academic community by providing greater insight into the conditions of prisons, and how designers can respond to create a new wave of healing gardens.

Methodology

My initial analysis will begin with a survey (quantitative research) to the general populace regarding the need and benefits of natural landscapes, parks, etc. This survey will also inquire about key attributes that make up an enjoyable green space. The data collected from the survey will help direct the interviews and substantiate my claims that inmates deserve beautified landscapes. Qualitative research methods, particularly interviews (individual or group), will then be employed to gather information from inmates and staff as to what they desire for a landscape space and how they could heal and benefit from its creation. Case studies of other institutional and therapeutic landscapes will also be used to support the interventions and theory of my proposal.
Both the survey and interview will require the approval from the ethics board, therefore I should construct my questions in advance in order to submit them for approval. The results from my research will dictate the design elements of the prison landscape and will respond particularly to the inmates and staff of the institution.

Schedule

Proposed date of graduation: October 2009
With this graduation date, I will need to have my first draft of my final practicum to my committee members no later than the end of June 2009. Throughout this process I hope to meet with my committee about once every two months to discuss my findings and gather feedback. I would like to meet with my advisor (chair) on a monthly basis in order to keep a steady pace in completing the necessary tasks. As previously noted, my survey and interview questions will need to pass through ethics, therefore I want to have them prepared and submitted early this summer in order to conduct the survey early this fall. Although these dates appear to be approaching fast they are the current goal I have set out for myself, nonetheless many variables can affect my progress.
My immediate plan is to do a preliminary presentation by the end of summer and hopefully do a reading course as well that will help me become acquainted with the literature and to aid in the development of the first section of my practicum. With three courses outstanding as of fall 2008, the availability to work on my practicum, cannot be determined at this time.

Output

The outcomes of this practicum will take the form of a written text document that is situated within a historical context relating to past prison landscapes and therapeutic designs for healing. A design intervention, complete with plans, sections, elevations, perspectives, collages, etc. will be produced and included in the final output. In the collection of data, there may be other opportunities to represent data in creative and responsive ways that will help develop a framework for the design intervention.

Committee

Committee members are unknown at this time. I hope to procure members who wish to actively engage in this topic of prison landscapes and who acknowledge the benefits of healing dangerous members of society.

A little animated?

So.. another work related post from Dan... we are always looking at different software that could give us better renderings/walkthrus - so I recently downloaded a trial version of 3DS Max, which is used for a lot of animation, computer games, advertisements etc. It's a hugely powerful program, so I have just started playing with it to see what I can produce. Definitely nothing high quality so far, but it's fun, and I thought it would be interesting to show. So here you go.

Interesting?

For all those of you who can't understand why traffic stops for no reason... here ya go...