Paddling the Gorge

Every Friday morning in Victoria, Marilyn and Ken Tomlinson lead their teams, Senior’s Moment and the Friday Flyers, on a paddle down the Gorge Waterway. They uncover their 45-foot [13.7 m] outrigger canoes while the teams laugh and joke as they lift the boats into the shallow water and guide them to the dock. Once all six team members are seated comfortably in each boat, they take off from the shore. The teams dip their paddles into the water in perfect synchronicity. On a calm morning, the waves behind the canoe are the only disruption on an otherwise sheer sheet of water. Ripples glide off the stern of the boats as the teams paddle toward the Portage Inlet.

Outrigging is a worldwide sport that requires teamwork and can be practised by all ages and abilities. Unlike rowing, paddlers in an outrigger sit facing the bow of the canoe. The person in the sixth, or last, seat of the canoe is responsible for steering, while the person in the first seat sets the pace of the strokes. Originating in Southeast Asia, outrigger canoes are stabilized by an outrigger float, which is attached to the hull by two spars. Leaning too far to one side can result in the boat accidentally capsizing. As such, each member of Senior’s Moment and the Friday Flyers must feel comfortable righting a capsized canoe, which can be a wet but necessary process.

“A huli is when the boat accidentally tips over. We practise it every two years. Everybody has to do one, and each seat has its own job. I’m a seat one, so I go to the bow and keep the bow in line and gather the paddles. The stern does the same thing, and it rights in no time,” says Marilyn.
“It takes organization,” says teammate Pat Thomson. Her seat is in the middle of the canoe, so she is responsible for going over the hull.

“Accidental hulis are rare but we have to be prepared,” says Marilyn. “It’s a very high hull, and very narrow. It won’t go left, but if everyone leaned right, it would go right over. The phrase is, ‘don’t lean right.’ When we reach out for garbage, whoever is reaching out, tells everyone to lean left. That’s to counterbalance.”

Senior’s Moment was formed in 2000, and, like the Friday Flyers, is a recreational team. Five of the six members of Senior’s Moment have paddled together since the beginning. They are made up of teammates Muriel Johnson, Peggy MacDonald, June Price, Ken and Marilyn Tomlinson, and spares Pat Thomson and Anne Marie Meunier. The Friday Flyers, on the other hand, formed a few years later. Recently, the team has been made up of Jenny Cutler, Louise Johnston, Odette Ouellet, Wendy Clapp, Marjorie Helland, Karen Dumais and her spare, Tom McPherson. Both teams have a long list of spares that are always eager to participate.

Although the teams used to race in Victoria, they’re now content to enjoy the scenery and wildlife around town. The Gorge, with its colourful flowers and rich variety of birdlife, offers the teams plenty to admire as they paddle. At times, the teams will meet up a half hour earlier and paddle to the Inner Harbour, but it can be difficult to schedule, as such a large group of people is bound to have other commitments.

“If you want to go down to the Inner Harbour, or up some of the creeks, an hour-and-a-half is not too long of a time, so we switched it to two hours, but we’ve crept back to an hour-and-a-half again,” says Ken.

In April, the teams host Wake up the Gorge, a sprint race that attracts paddlers from all over British Columbia. Many of the Friday morning paddlers also take part in other paddling programs such as dragon boating, canoeing, kayaking and the voyageur canoes and, this summer, the paddlers will repair and paint their two outrigger canoes. Every March, the voyageur canoes from their club paddle to Port Angeles and back as a fundraiser for Camp Shawnigan, and many outrigger paddlers take part. They practise for two months and are accompanied by naval reserves and coast guards.

“There are some years when the weather and water are too rough and they have to paddle the Gorge waterway instead, which is always a disappointment,” says Marilyn.

Tides can also pose some difficulty for longer trips.
“The problem with the Gorge-Tillicum Bridge is the flow of the tide will be three or four hours different than the tide table. You have to make sure you know what’s happening because when the tide stops rising on the other side of the bridge, it’s still flooding over here,” says Ken. “Sometimes when we’ve done the paddle to Port Angeles, you expect that the tide will be different when you get back, because you leave at 6:30 in the morning and get back at 6 at night. Quite often, when we get back, we have to get out of the boats to get them back.”

Because outrigging is a year-long sport, the Friday Flyers and Senior’s Moment only break for Christmas, when the weather is poor, or there is ice on Portage Inlet. In fact, the majority of outrigging is done from September to June.

As a sport, outrigging can be tailored to a wide variety of ages and abilities. With many hands to help transport the boat from land to water, the load is lightened. Competitive teams practise for speed and sprint racing, while recreational teams paddle as a way of enjoying the outdoors and fresh air and to keep fit.

“Paddling is a sport that you can carry on with, and you adapt to your various aches and pains,” says Linda Thomson.
The paddlers agree, though, the friendship is the best part of being on the team.
Anne Marie, who spares for Senior’s Moment, says, “I’m pretty much needed every week. There’s a great camaraderie around this group, they’re really great people. Everybody helps everybody.”
Pat agrees. “I got into outrigger through a member who was on the team, who I met through work. Eventually, we shared a seat because he couldn’t come every week. I like the experience and the friendship. Oh, and I love paddling, too.”

By Candice Schultz

JULY 2009 SENIOR LIVING VANCOUVER ISLAND

Follow the Puck

Doug MacCormack followed hockey to British Columbia in 1967 and, 32 years later, the videographer and recreational hockey player says he found his dream – on and off the rink.

Doug grew up in Nova Scotia playing his favourite sport with nine siblings on the rink in their backyard. An avid Montreal Canadiens fan, he played Junior A hockey in Cape Breton, and remembers how he and his father started their own team.

“My father and I were sitting at the table one day and we decided, ‘Wow we have enough players for a junior team,’” Doug recalls. “We formed the junior team, and won the Nova Scotia title. The next year, the team won the Maritime title. A couple of years ago, the World Juniors were in Cape Breton and Halifax, and to think back that we started the team. They had a team from that point on.”

In 1963, after high school, Doug got a job at a CBC-affiliated TV station in Sydney as a cameraman. Back then television was black and white. They had one channel, and the only choice was to turn it on or off. At the time, the cameras the station used were from New York, and were as big as cars. It took four men to lift them from the pedestals, and videotapes didn’t exist, so everything, including the commercials, was live.

“In those days, to work at the TV station in Cape Breton, was a really big deal,” says Doug.
One night, after Doug had been working at the TV station for about four years, he heard an announcement that Vancouver was getting an NHL team – the future Canucks. “I’m going to Vancouver,” Doug said to the other cameraman.

That year, Doug said goodbye to the TV station and his family, and hitchhiked across the country en route to Vancouver. He spent time at the world’s fair, Montreal, worked in Banff, and experienced the hippie movement in San Francisco before landing on the West Coast of British Columbia.

Doug joined the CBC in 1967, only, this time, he wasn’t a cameraman. In a time of cutbacks, layoffs, and an enormous focus on the world’s fair, the only job open was the mailboy. Doug took the position and used it as an opportunity to get to know everyone at the station while delivering the mail. When more jobs opened up the next year, Doug was hired on as a cameraman.

When the Canucks joined the NHL in 1970, the first portable camera was available at the TV station. At the time, most people shot in film, but Doug had access to new technology with both indoor and outdoor capabilities.

“It had a backpack, and I looked like the man on the moon,” Doug laughs. “It was the only portable in Western Canada, so I got to go to all of the major sporting events, and I had to shoot the Canucks every night for highlights.”

Over the course of 10 years, Doug covered about 500 games, including the Russia-Canada series in 1972. For Hockey Night in Canada, he filmed between the benches.

“Looking back, out of 10 kids in the family, I was the only one who didn’t graduate from university. When I left Sydney, my father thought I would come home, and was giving up a good job. One night, during the game, when I was between the benches, the Montreal Canadiens were playing cross the country, and the announcer said, ‘There’s Doug MacCormack. I’m sure his father’s back home watching from his chair in Cape Breton.’ After that, my father thought I had made it,” says Doug.

While it was a thrill to cover games, Doug enjoyed attending practices more than anything. A favourite memory comes from Edmonton Oiler practices, when Glen Anderson’s mother came to the rink with salmon sandwiches, which the team would eat afterwards.
“I would pay $100 to go to a practice, but not to go to a game,” says Doug. “The job took you inside – inside a player’s life, to watch them practise, and the way they did things, and who was in charge.”

In 1976, television news switched from film to video. Doug had the first ENG (Electronic News Gathering) camera in B.C., so news became a priority over sports. Where film had to be developed over the course of hours or even a day, video was instant, which suited news broadcasts.

“When a big story happened, they would go for the video camera because it was instant, and you could have it on the national feed as well,” says Doug.

While there were many highlights in Doug’s career, there were also sad moments. On March 24, 1989, Doug was one of the first cameramen on the scene of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He rode on the premier’s Lear jet, which flew above the scene on the way in. Doug describes it as a big black ring around the boat.

“It was like Mother Earth was shot,” he says. “The next day, the wind was howling from the northwest, and it picked up the oil like drifting snow in Edmonton.”

When Doug thinks about capturing moments on video, whether it’s sports, news or nature, his biggest advice is not to fear it or be overwhelmed with the situation. He thinks back to the riot in Vancouver, in 1994, after the Canucks lost to the New York Rangers in Game 7.

“You get there, and you’re going for the guy who’s throwing rocks through the window… You follow the puck, you get the moment.”

Now 65, Doug is slowly winding down from his career in the television business. He still works occasionally, and covered the B.C. election in May.

“The business is very addictive,” he says. “Every day, I’d go to work and not know where I was going.”

These days, he plays more hockey. Three times a week, he hits the rink with a group of men his age. They have no referees, but form teams and go to tournaments. Last year, Doug played more hockey than he did when he played in the juniors.

“When I’m driving to the hockey rink, I feel like a little kid,” he says. “When you’re on the rink, nothing else enters your mind.”

Much like videography, for Doug, it’s about following the puck and capturing the moment.

By Candice Schultz

JULY 2009 SENIOR LIVING VANCOUVER ISLAND