Quinn's Quips

Where has the time flown?

Posted on May 20, 2014 by susiequinn

I think about my blog a lot; have taken photos and jotted down ideas intending to blog about them. Then somehow the time (and inclination) slips by, and I realize it’s been more than a year since I posted anything.
A spam comment has prompted me to return, sheepish at my lack of effort.
Travelling has been a big theme for me in the past couple of months. I have hosted the Flat Mark Twins from Wenatchee, Washington as part of a Flat Stanley School Project (more on that in an upcoming post—really), travelled to the Comox Valley a number of times, Campbell River with my friend Lisa for Fibre Fest, and most recently to Camp Gilwell for Girl Guide camp
I realized that I miss camping at this particular Boy Scout camp, north of the Comox Valley; I feel so fortunate to have shared it with some of my Girl Guides, at a camp hosted by my former unit in Courtenay. Not only did I get to camp in a tent for three nights, but I went digging for fossils on the Puntledge River courtesy of the Courtenay Museum and Pat Trask, who was recently lauded by his paleontological peers for all the work he has done in the field in the past couple of decades. I had the opportunity to pick up a bow and arrow again for the first time in years (and am sporting a nice purple bruise on the inside of my elbow, thanks to the fact they only had a right-handed bow and I shoot left), but more importantly enjoyed watching the Guides try the sport for the first time.
In a really short time, I am going back to Nova Scotia to visit my sister and her family, and am looking forward to the Maritimes again. I am proud to say my sister is graduating with her nursing degree from the University of New Brunswick, and I am going to her graduation.
On the way home I will stop in Ottawa to visit various other relatives for a week. I love our nation’s capital, and not just because my favourite uncle happens to live there.
Later this summer, I hope to visit my first Canadian territory, the Yukon, with my Ranger group, for a brief taste of the north.
I will endeavour to share some of these experiences sooner than later. Now that I’ve put it in writing and put it out there in the blogosphere, the pressure is on to make it so!
Until then, may I share three of my favourite blogs, all written by friends. One feeds my psyche (http://www.inspirationowl.com/), one feeds my inner (and completely inept) foodie (http://www.patentandthepantry.com/) and one feeds my love of (other people’s) adventure (http://2lovecycling.com/).
Enjoy!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Communing with nature

Posted on April 1, 2013 by susiequinn

Cyril walks along a path along the valley floor in Fossli Provincial Park.

There are so many hidden gems on Vancouver Island, and particularly the Alberni Valley that I have yet to discover. One of them was Fossli Provincial Park.
After a friend posted some photos on Facebook from the park, I decided it was time to find it.
Cyril and I set out on a Sunday morning to find the trailhead. Fossli is not one of those provincial parks with a nice paved road and huge signage. It’s a 52-hectare pocket of west coast rainforest, accessible by boat or logging road on the back side of Sproat Lake (the north side of Stirling Arm).
Pioneer Alfred Dennis Faber settled 1,270 acres of property when he came to the Sproat Lake area, fellow Alberni Valley pioneer George Bird wrote in his book, Tse-ees-tah: One Man in a Boat. Fossli Park lies in a smaller tract of land he acquired about half a mile away from his property; he cleared about 10 acres and grew hay and potatoes.
Faber liked this tract of land because of the small waterfall found further inland. He named it Fossli, which means “waterfall in the valley” in his native Norwegian (Faber came from the Eidfjord region of Norway).

The waterfall in Fossli Park can be seen over my right shoulder.

Eventually, Armour and Helen Ford owned the property. In 1973 they donated the property to the Province of British Columbia to be used as a park. At the end of the trail the terrain opens onto a beach on Stirling Arm, but we didn’t make it that far. Sandy McRuer, a retired Port Alberni outdoor adventure tour operator, wrote in a post about Fossli in 2008 that the foundations to the Fords’ home are still visible just above the beach, and a plaque commemorating their donation of land to the government is located there too.

The drive to find the trailhead was just as much an adventure as hiking the 2.5-kilometre trail was. The “trailhead” is a wooden post with “Fossli Trail” carved vertically into the post, located just past the 4 km signpost on Stirling Arm Main. The potholes on the road were legendary, leading Cyril to mutter, “It’s just like driving the streets of Montreal.”

This post is the trailhead, just past the 4 km mark on Stirling Arm Main.

The trail is well defined, and well marked. We parked at the top and walked down the rocky road to a suspension bridge, which BC Parks rebuilt in 2008 after many complaints, including those from Sandy McRuer. The bridge crosses St. Andrew’s Creek, which feeds into Stirling Arm.

The other side of the suspension bridge at Fossli Park. No trolls under this bridge — just rushing water from St. Andrew’s Creek.

Once we crossed the bridge, we descended into the river valley. We took one path that ended with several trees over it, and we weren’t sure where it went so we turned back. If we had continued past the trees we would have come out at the beach.

We followed the sound of the water until we came out on the rocky shore of the creek.

A visual reward. The trail opens up into a view of the creek bed.

Green moss and a longer exposure give a softness to the water that rushes over the rocks in St. Andrew’s Creek.

After that kind of a pause, the trip back up the slope wasn’t so bad. Really. And there were some amusing parts to our trip, too. Like the colourful butterfly, species unknown, that alighted on the gravel in front of me as we started our hike.

Can anyone tell me what kind of butterfly or moth this is?

And this was an unforgettable discovery, too!

Someone was having some fun (it’s not mine, honest)!

I’m glad I can now add Fossli Provincial Park to my ever-growing list of experiences. Truly a gem, not hidden anymore.

A great experience with a patient partner. He waits for the slowpoke with the camera.

If you’re interested in going, here is a link to the park from the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District (you can download a brochure with directions and a map): http://www.acrd.bc.ca/cms.asp?wpID=221

And here is a link to Sandy McRuer’s blog post about the park from 2008: http://vancouverislandnaturetours.com/fossli-provincial-park-a-forgotten-jewel.php

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alberni Valley, Alfred Faber, Fossli Provincial Park, Sproat Lake, Stirling Arm, Vancouver Island | Leave a comment

A glass half full kind of gal

Posted on March 12, 2013 by susiequinn

My 2013 jar is chock-full of positivity. How about yours?

Sometime in December I saw a post going around Facebook that really resonated with me. There was a photo of a mason jar full of scraps of paper; the caption said: “This January, why not start the year with an empty jar and fill it with notes about good things that happen. Then, on New Year’s Eve, empty it and see what awesome stuff happened that year.”
After a couple of decades in the newspaper business I tend to be cynical and skeptical about a lot of things. I am lousy at keeping a journal, even on a holiday, and I don’t subscribe to New Year’s resolutions.
I thought starting a “positive thoughts” jar would be a stellar way to greet 2013. My goal was to write a positive thought per day, but not beat myself up if I missed a day. Or three.
I grabbed a mason jar from my bookshelf that I had been saving for sand collected from various trips. I decided not to decorate it, but leave the glass clear so I could see the jar filling with notes as inspiration. I cut up small pieces of blank paper and placed them with a pen beside the jar, and have left it on my kitchen table in plain view. No excuses for “forgetting” to write a positive thought, because it’s right there.
(I appreciate my husband’s tolerance of my jar of positive thoughts on the kitchen table; I am a piler, and he puts up with a lot.)
I found another post (gotta love Facebook for inspiration) that says “think positive & positive things will happen”; I printed it, cut it out and glued it to the top of my jar as a reminder. I have another, as well: “Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day.”
How true. Take, for instance, the day that started when I stepped in cat feces, tracking it halfway across the upstairs hallway before realizing what it was.
That was just before the second migraine in two days set in, behind my eyeballs, with a heavy workload to look forward to.
The final straw was discovering, after an extremely long shift, that a page I had designed a week earlier had been accidentally overwritten. I really thought I’d had my first day without finding one positive, redeeming thing happening.

I dragged myself into bed, first picking up a random magazine so I could read for a few minutes and relax before turning off the light. There, in big pink letters on the front cover, were the words, “Make today happier”.

I laughed and laughed! Suddenly, cat poop, headaches and missing pages seemed so inconsequential. I had found my silver lining.

I’m not sure where this project will take me over the next few months, but I’m looking forward to it. I’m already learning something: I’m finding my happiest most positive moments outside of the office. It’s helping to underline something I so easily forget in the throes of deadlines, that while my career is still fulfilling after all these years, work isn’t everything.

I will leave you with another Facebook post, this one from my sister Lori’s wall:

“Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words.

Keep your words positive, because your words become your behaviour.

Keep your behaviour positive, because your behaviour becomes your habits.

Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your values.

Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

I’ve already added this saying to my jar of positive thoughts.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Inspiration, Journal, Life, lifestyle | 1 Comment

The wild blue yonder

Posted on October 9, 2012 by susiequinn

What better way to celebrate a birthday/ Thanksgiving weekend than with a flight in a small plane?

We’ve enjoyed a prolonged summer here on the left coast, and that precipitated Cyril saying on Saturday that we should book the flying club plane and go for a flight.

Although I earned my private pilot’s licence in 1999 and my commercial licence in 2001, I haven’t done much flying in the past few years. Life, work, finances and sometimes weather have gotten in the way.

We joined the local flying club this year (thank you, Gina), and purchased a block of time on the club plane. Cyril flies every day in his job as a flight instructor, but doesn’t often fly for pleasure. On Oct. 7 we booked the plane, called Gina and asked if she wanted to come with us, and I became reacquainted with a Cessna 172.

I admit I was extremely rusty. But it’s kind of like riding a bicycle: you never really forget. During flight training you repeat things over and over again, until they become automatic. Things like the pre-flight walk-around, or the downwind check. Setting up the plane for takeoff or landing.

I’m extremely fortunate to have a husband who is a flight instructor, and also a check pilot for the flying club!

We took off from CBS8 (Port Alberni Regional Airport) and flew toward Comox Glacier, to the northwest. We were high enough, and the clouds were non-existent, that we could see Tofino to the west, and Powell River to the east, all the way to the Coast Mountain Range on B.C.’s mainland coast. We landed at CAH3, the Courtenay Airpark, for a visit before returning home.

It is a feeling like to no other when the wheels leave the runway and the plane becomes airborne. The higher you go, the more you look down upon a live map: mountains and rivers leap off the navigational paper, cities are no longer a dot on the map but have homes and roads and farms and schools and shopping centres.

Comox Glacier from about 7,500 feet.

Mount Washington Alpine Resort, without a lick of snow.

Comox Peninsula, with Goose Spit and HMCS Quadra sea cadet training facility in the foreground.

I remember one of the first flights I took following my solo, I looked down and saw the wheel of the plane. It wasn’t moving. When you have spent many years driving on a road, it’s a disconcerting feeling at first. Then you think of the freedom.

Wheels over Royston, BC.

Yes, it was a blue sky day over Vancouver Island. One for the memory books.

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Halfway to 90 and loving it

Posted on October 9, 2012 by susiequinn

When I was a kid, I loved the a.a. milne poem, Now We Are Six:
When I was one,
I had just begun.
When I was two,
I was nearly new.
When I was three,
I was hardly me.
When I was four,
I was not much more.
When I was five,
I was just alive.
But now I am six,
I’m as clever as clever.
So I think I’ll be six
now and forever.

This week I turned 45—as my good friend LIsa said, I’m halfway to 90 now. And while I’ve grown up a little since I was six, I like to think I’m not finished yet.
I heard American actor Ben Affleck say in a talk show interview that he turned 40 this year and is “halfway to death”. I prefer to think of it as midway through life.
I have always approached my milestone birthdays with happiness, never with trepidation. It’s the same with this birthday.
I have always believed that life is what you make of it. Are there some decisions I have made that I’d like to take back? Perhaps. Have I made mistakes? Definitely. But I chalk them up to learning experiences and move on.

Enjoying dinner with my husband Cyril at The Breakwater restaurant at the Kingfisher Oceanside Inn, Royston, BC

While the body bruises a little easier and heals a little slower now, I am still having as much fun as I was in my 20s. I have accomplished a lot and done things that not many others can say, such as flying with the Snowbirds, flying in a CF-18 fighter jet, jumping out of an airplane at 10,000 feet (with a Canadian Forces Skyhawk strapped firmly to my back!), earning my pilot’s licence after spending so much time in the passenger seat of various aircraft, and more.

At 43, I learned to play hockey.

Following a “learn to play hockey” session at the AV Multiplex in 2011.

At 44, I helped write a book (a historical “then and now” book celebrating Port Alberni’s centennial)…

My one and only book signing at the Capitol Theatre. Thanks to Charmead Schella for the photo.

…and learned how to knit (for the second time).

Current project on the needles: a dishcloth.

What’s in store for me now that I’m 45? I haven’t a clue. But I’m looking forward to finding out!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged a.a. milne, aviation, Ben Affleck, birthdays, flying, hockey | 1 Comment

The 19th hole: look up, look way up

Posted on September 27, 2012 by susiequinn

The moon rises over Mt. Arrowsmith, as seen from one of the fairways at The Hollies Golf Club.

I golfed nine holes for the first time in 13 or 14 years. It was an invitation from the Wednesday night ladies at The Hollies Golf Club in Port Alberni, and it was one I couldn’t refuse.
Fortunately, they’re good sports. They partnered me up with another journalist who had minimal golfing experience as well. We shared our shots and managed to get around the course before dark. It was good fun and good exercise.

Walking into the clubhouse, things got really interesting. I glanced up at something fluttering, and discovered the ceiling was covered in scorecards and five-dollar bills.

The ceiing at The Hollies, covered in scorecards and fivers, is a conversation piece.

Here’s the story: Hollies owner Patrick Little was golfing in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories last summer on a dream trip his wife Jackie Little had bought for him. Yellowknife Golf Club was pretty much the only place in Canada Patrick had not golfed.

The golf course is unique in that it has sand fairways and artificial turf greens. Golfers are given a small piece of carpet for teeing off, Patrick related. And the clubhouse is covered in golfers’ names: the ceiling, walls, other surfaces.

Patrick said he walked into that clubhouse and thought, “wow, this is something I want to have at The Hollies.”

Someone suggested to him that he pin money to his ceiling, not just autographs. He laughed. But some of his regular golfers took him seriously when he returned home and told them about the Yellowknife clubhouse.

Gail Bridge was the first one to pin her scorecard and a fiver on the ceiling. The second, says Patrick, was Mick Jagger’s bodyguard, who apparently played a week’s worth of golf at The Hollies.

It took off from there. Names in black are male golfers, names in red are ladies and names in blue are businesses (the Golf Channel is up there too). There are scorecards signed by visitors from Barcelona, Spain, Hobart, Tasmania, New Zealand, Newcastle, UK, Whitehorse, Yukon, Invermere, BC and many from hometown golfers. The odd foreign bill is tacked around the ceiling fan as well.

The ceiling fivers are more than a social gimmick: Patrick Little offers people the opportunity to post their scorecard on the ceiling when they buy their green fees. He also offers them a free round for the fiver.

It’s a win-win, he says: it’s a conversation starter and golfers often bring a friend when they redeem their free round.

He’s not sure what he’ll do with the money, but he’s certainly having fun collecting scorecards and swapping stories.

Incidentally, I don’t know what happened to my scorecard. But I’m thinking of going back, if only to see if Mick Jagger’s bodyguard returns.

The golf course backs onto a farm, so we had a single fan in the gallery. My golf mates looked for an apple tree to give the horse a treat while I looked for my shot in the rough.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged golf, Hollies Golf Club, Jackie Little, Mt. Arrowsmith, Yellowknife | 2 Comments

Storm warning

Posted on September 7, 2012 by susiequinn

Something I never got used to when I lived and worked southern Alberta were the storms.
In the winter, we’d get a snowstorm followed by a warm chinook wind; the temperature could range 20 degrees in one day. I didn’t mind the snow or the warmth separately, but when the temperature rose that much it melted everything, then flash-froze it later that night, creating a slick skating rink in the puddles. I don’t know how many times I slid right through the stop sign at the end of the parking lot access at the Medicine Hat News the first winter I lived in Medicine Hat.
Sitting in the press box at Athletic Park and covering the Hat Blue Jays was interesting during hailstorms. The roof on the press box was tin, and the hail made a horrendous noise.

The roof over the press box at Athletic Park was tin and made a heck of a noise during a hailstorm. Despite a new coat of paint, the press box (left, with windows shuttered) and scorekeepers’ booth look the same as they did 20 years ago.

The worst storm I ever saw pass through, I watched approach the city as I was pitching during a women’s slo-pitch game. I didn’t normally pitch, but we weren’t exactly a premier team, and had exhausted our other resources so the task fell to me.
I watched the sky behind the backstop turn various colours, like a bruise forming over the horizon. The wind picked up. When the hail started falling, I didn’t even wait for the umpire to call time, I made a run for the dugout.

When I was in Calgary for the Va’a World Outrigger Sprint Championships in August, I was crossing my fingers that we wouldn’t get hit with one of the rain and hailstorms the region was famous for. We avoided a big storm early in the week, although highway overpass signs were blowing away in the strong winds in Red Deer.
But our luck ran out the second-to-last afternoon. The clouds started forming over Glenmore Reservoir; the wind picked up. It began spitting a little bit of rain. Paddlers put on jackets and sat underneath trees, as those who were waiting for their races to begin hoped that they would be able to finish before the storm broke.

Ominous storm clouds gather over the Glenmore Reservoir in Calgary.

Judy, Erin and Sheila find a tree for shelter when the rain starts. Then decide with the thunder and lightning, it’s probably not a good idea to stay under the tree!

Suddenly, it got really dark despite being 3 p.m. The wind kicked up so hard people were having a hard time standing upright. There was lightning, and a couple of cracks of thunder. The sky opened and the rain pounded the pavement, running in a river down the hill toward the reservoir.

It rained so hard the water was running down the pavement in little rivers.

There was a race on the water and the storm gave paddlers extra incentive to finish up. Volunteers raced to secure tents, restore power and help people take cover. The doors to the boat shed were opened to allow people huddled under the building’s overhang to take refuge.

Members of the men’s team from Petaluma, Calif., take refuge in the boat shed after their race was cancelled.

The wind blew all the course markers askew, forcing organizers to cancel the event for the day with just three events left (including that of the men from Petaluma, Calif., who some of the Canadian women had befriended).

Within an hour the temperature had dropped from 23 degrees Celsius at the Calgary International Airport (where official temperatures are recorded) to 11 degrees. Soon enough, the wind blew the clouds further east, and sucker holes of blue sky peeked through the rain.

Ninety minutes later, except for the deserted race site, you’d never have known a storm had blown through.

Yep, a typical prairie storm. Thought I’d left them behind.

(Stay tuned for more blog posts from the Va’a World Outrigger Sprint championships, including more video of Mom’s races and the much-anticipated post from Rapa Nui’s cultural night performance!)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 2012 Va'a Outrigger World Sprints, Medicine Hat, Petaluma, prairie storms | Leave a comment

A poignant farewell

Posted on August 18, 2012 by susiequinn

After so many days of highs for the Va’a Outrigger World Sprint Championships in Calgary, the final day of the event at the Glenmore Reservoir would serve as a reminder of how tight-knit the paddling community is.

The day dawned gray and cold, but gave way to blue skies and sunshine by noon. Half an hour later, time stopped. A member of one of Hawaii’s masters 70s men’s team collapsed in his boat during a race. Although his teammates quickly powered to the dock, and the man sitting in front of him gave the man immediate medical attention, he did not survive.

Hawaii’s team members sang a beautiful send-off song as they gathered around a tree close to the secure paddlers’ check-in, above the docks, where the emergency vehicles were parked. Then another member asked paddlers from other countries to line the access road leading up from the docks and hoist their paddles in the air when the vehicle carrying the man’s body went by. For more than an hour, nearly 1,300 paddlers lined the road waiting for the moment. And all that time, the site was silent.

A woman from Team Hawaii addressed the crowd, confirming that a teammate had died, and sharing some of his background with everyone. She said his family and teammates would want the event to continue, in the spirit of the sport that the man love.

Charles Villierme, president of the International Va’a Federation (IVF), make a tearful speech, expressing his condolences and assuring the masters-70 racers, or kupunas, that their new category would continue at future Va’a world championships.

Paddlers from Rapa Nui performed their own send-off for their fallen paddling comrade. The teams from Aotearoa in New Zealand performed a haka as their tribute.

When the van carrying the man’s body finally left the site, every paddler lined the access road and hoisted their paddles. First Nations drummers sang as Team Hawaii followed the van through Glenmore Reservoir’s park. A lone bagpiper played Amazing Grace, and tears flowed.

It was a most beautiful send-off for a man who died doing what he loved.

After a three-hour delay, the racing resumed at the wishes of the man’s family. The medal ceremony was carried out in the dark, and the va’a torch was passed to Brazil, who will host the world sprints in 2014.

Nearly 1,300 paddlers, including those from New Zealand performing a ceremonial haka, line the access road waiting for the van carrying a fallen comrade’s body to leave the dock at Glenmore Reservoir. The man died of a heart attack in the middle of a masters-70 men’s race.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged glenmore reservoir | Leave a comment

Golden hat trick

Posted on August 15, 2012 by susiequinn

Judy Quinn displays the two gold medals she picked up at the medal ceremony.

My mother loves hats. She owns an assortment of “paddling” baseball caps, from tech material to neoprene, to regular old ball caps. She inherited my dad’s collection, too.
But I’m willing to bet her most coveted hat is one she picked up this week: a hat trick of gold medals at the 2012 Va’a Outrigger World Sprint championships in Calgary.
Canada 1 outdistanced three other competitors to capture gold in the Masters 70s women’s 1,000- metre (3,280 feet) sprints Tuesday afternoon at Glenmore Reservoir.

Pat talks to Canada 1 in a pre-race meeting following warm-up.

“These are the most fun races of all,” coach Pat Pawlette told the over-70s as they warmed up. All 12 paddlers, representing both of Canada’s teams, stretched, ran and visualized winning before heading separately down to the waiting area.
“This is what we’ve been waiting for,” Pat said. “We’ve been practicing for this for months…Everybody’s done this a million times. Just go for it.”
Canada 1 assembled under a shady tree near the Calgary Canoe Club building, hydrating (a paddling term for drinking some water) and staying out of the sun before they were called to the paddlers’ check-in.
Today, the race course was backwards: teams started from where the finish line had been yesterday. Flags were brought in to the 250-metre (820-foot) mark so teams could cut around them. Boats were permitted to knock into the flag stand, but if the flag itself hit the water, that team would be disqualified.

The distance meant teams had to make three turns. The sun was glaring off the reservoir’s surface, making it difficult to clearly see the whole course from the sidelines.

A member of the Hawaiian team blows the conch horn to acknowledge the Masters 70 women from the Keauhou canoe club in Kona.

Canada 1 loads into their boat in preparation for their final race of the 2012 Va’a Outrigger World Sprint championships at the Calgary Canoe Club.

The teams lined up with Canada 2 in one lane, Hawaii in the next, Canada 1 in Lane 3 and Hawaii in Lane 2, closest to shore. Canada 1 is strong in this event, and Pat is an accomplished steersperson. Canada 1 lagged back slightly when they made their first turn. They made up the distance and inched into the lead until their second turn. They were still neck and neck going into the third and final turn, but Canada 1 turned on the jets and powered through the remaining quarter of a race to cross the finish buoys first.

http://youtu.be/A8C7z_Pq20E

Canada 1 finished the race with a time of 6:38.24. Keauhou 2 came in second with a time of 6:43.79. Keauhou finished third for the bronze medal with a time of 7:19.25, and Canada 2 finished fourth in 7:30.80.

Mom accepts congratulations from other members of Team Canada following her race.

This third race didn’t have the same desperate intensity as the second gold medal event for the Masters 70s women, and maybe Pat’s advice rubbed in. Canada 1 looked like they knew what they were doing because they did: they practiced and practiced to get it right. They had some fun while they were at it.

The medal ceremony was to take place following the last race. I’ve never seen so many shivering champions; an extreme cold front had moved in, dumping rain and a thunderstorm on the site and postponing the final four races.

The lunch tent was packed with athletes and spectators, some garbed in winter toques and fleece jackets from the souvenir store, as volunteers scrambled to turn power back on in the area, sort the medals and flags and get ready.

Five of the six members of Canada 1 kupunas show off their gold medals for the V6 500-metre event held Monday.

Canada 1 waves from the gold medal podium after receiving their second medal of the day.

Judy Quinn sports her second of three gold medals earned at the 2012 Va’a Outrigger World Sprint Championships.

Judy Quinn and her teammates receive their second medals of the day, for winning the 1000-metre sprint.

Judy Quinn and her daughter Susie, following the final medal ceremony for the Masters 70s kupunas.

Mom and her team ascended the gold medal winners’ podium twice today; once for yesterday’s 500m sprint victory, and another for the 1000 m sprints.

Tomorrow, racing wraps up with a closing ceremony. Then it’s onto a plane, heading home to Vancouver, with one thought in mind: Brazil’s world championships are only two years away.

Holomua!

Brazil will host the Outrigger World Sprints in 2014, and some of the paddlers from Canada are already contemplating going.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 2012 Va'a Outrigger World Sprints, False Creek, judy quinn, kupunas, outrigger, sports | 3 Comments

History repeats itself

Posted on August 14, 2012 by susiequinn

Canada 1, including Judy Quinn, backs away from the dock in preparation for the Masters Women Over-70s final.

I cried; I admit it.
I spent years covering sporting events both minor and major, so the journalist in me wants to cover the 2012 Va’a Outrigger World Sprint championships like I would any other event. FInd the awesome stories, like the volunteers who have busted their butts to put this event on, or the young Aussie gold medallist who only started paddling 18 months ago because he was in a bullying situation, the Italians and their adopted New Zealand coach, or the adaptive paddlers who hoist themselves out of their boats and into their wheelchairs when they’re finished their competition.
But my mom is one of the 1,288 paddlers—one of 250 Canadians, one of 12 kapunas (over 70s women) or one of 24 if you count the Hawaiian teams that came to Calgary for this event.
So when mom’s team raced in the V6 Masters 70s final today, I cried. And I screamed. And I hugged her hard and told her how proud I am of her, and how much I loved her.
And I won’t apologize for the favouritism.
Mom and her Canada 1 boat won a second gold medal at this world event today. Eight years ago, she didn’t even paddle, and now she’s a world champion twice over.

The women raced at 12:30 p.m., four boats in all: two from Canada and two from Hawaii. Since this was again a new age category for the world sprint championships, their medal race—they didn’t have enough teams to run heats—was a history maker the minute the paddlers loaded into their boats at the dock and backed their way into Glenmore Reservoir to go to the starting line.

I was cooking on the pavement lining the top of the rocky shoreline, feeling guilty because I had left my lucky Canada hat back at the tent. I got both cameras ready to go, and videotaped the race (I’ll load it another time—it’s late and takes too long).

The announcer, from New Zealand, referred to the race as the “clash of the titans”.

Canada 2 started the race strong, and was actually ahead of Canada 1 at one point. At the halfway point, Canada 1 started pulling hard, and overtook Canada 2 and one of the Hawaiian boats to take the lead. Incredibly, they kept opening the gap.

By this time several Canadian paddlers on the sidelines were screaming. Me too. One hundred metres later, when it was evident Canada 1 was going to win the gold medal, the tears began to flow. Canada 1 looked so strong, they were giving their all. Once they crossed the finish line, the paddlers all collapsed forward in unison, exhausted; lungs burning, hearts pounding, spit long dried on their tongues, and faces grinning.

I could see mom raise her paddle in victory. Canada 1 finished the race in a time of 2:52.04. Keauhou 2 from Kona, Hawaii, finished second in the 500-metre (1,640 feet) course with a time of 2:58.07. Only six seconds’ difference, but a lifetime if you’re the boat that is behind.

Keauhou finished third in a time of 3:07.08 and Canada 2 finished fourth with a time of 3:15.69.

When they came up the ramp, and out of the secure paddlers’ area, teammates and competitors alike formed another paddle arch to congratulate them.

Mom makes her way through a paddle arch after winning her second gold medal with her Over-70s V6 team.

There is another special person with a vital role in this story, Canada’s kapunas’ coach, Pat. Mom met Pat through dragon boating at False Creek in Vancouver, BC, and Pat enticed her to try outrigger canoeing. They discovered they were born two days apart—mom is older by two days—in the same hospital in Ottawa, Ont.

Mom and her coach, Pat, discovered that they were born in the same hospital in Ottawa, two days apart. Mom is older.

I learned that Pat was also instrumental in persuading Va’a organizers that they needed an over-70s category at the world sprints. She’s waited eight years for this to happen, and so far it’s been a golden performance.

The medal ceremony takes place on Tuesday.

The kapunas race one final time, Tuesday afternoon in the 1,000-metre (3,280 feet or 0.62 miles) race. The course will be shorter, only 250 metres (820 feet), but the teams must make three sharp turns and do four lengths of the course. The same four teams are competing against each other, so it should be a barnburner. I can hardly wait.

Mom found this feather when she was sitting on the ground doing warm-up stretches. She tucked it into the velcro strap of her sandal for good luck. Feathers are a talisman for her, reminding her of my late father. It was almost like he was there watching her.

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