Ever since 1997 I’ve been paddling big canoes on the ocean waters around my most recent hometown of Gibsons, British Columbia. I’ve lived here in retirement since 2002. I hope to continue both retirement and paddling for many years to come. I paddle in Voyageur style canoes that hold up to 13 paddlers, as well as west coast, ocean-going First Nations designed canoes of equal size. Most of my paddling hours however are spent in outrigger canoes, like the ones you’d see if you visited Hawaii. We have a Paddle Club here in Gibsons and access to many different styles of canoes.
We paddle on the Salish Sea in any weather that’s not dangerous, twelve months of the year. Wind and below freezing temperatures can keep us off the water a few times each winter. Our paddle routine really is a physical, spiritual, emotional and social exercise each and every time we do it. Somehow, life just isn’t complete without a recent paddle, and one planned for the near future.
And, so it was one day I wasn’t able to go out with my crew for the morning paddle. I went down to see them off, but it’s always with a sense of “something missing” when I can’t join in. I knew their course that day. They’d be heading out through the waters we know as “The Gap” and heading for the Secret Beach area. It was a fine morning with calm seas and their hour and a half time on the water would be rewarding in so many ways.
I didn’t tell them I was going there as they left, but I’d be waiting for them as they passed below me plying the waters of “The Gap”. Only a few minutes later I was standing on the Bluff here in Gibsons positioned on the rocks high above the approaching canoe. I could hear them before I could see them. “Hut”came the call every 15 strokes or so and the crew would change sides of the canoe in their paddle stroke like some fantastic slight of hand magic trick. “Hut”, there it was again as they paddled below me, not knowing I was checking out their progress with a bit of envy as I watched from above.
I took the photograph that morning that became this simple painting. Called “Through the Gap” is speaks of those hundreds, perhaps over a thousand days I’ve paddled these waters. It speaks of the serenity, the beauty and the solitude one finds in these beautiful sleek canoes.
Perhaps you see yourself in the canoe below me while I watch from the vantage point of my rocky perch. If not, consider it, come to Gibsons and try it one day. There’s always a seat in the canoe waiting for you, and we’ll take you out “Through the Gap”
