"Paddle Placement and Turn Initiation"

The RRCC has never placed a huge premium on actual canoeing skills, whether as a membership requirement, or a developmental goal for longtime participants.

As long as everything is tied down, then the sheer enjoyment of seeing your colleagues plowing headlong into a mudbank on a sharp turn (Sorry Kirly, that one was on me), or maybe taking a bit too casually a fallen tree extending halfway across a mild riffle (Thanks for building me that fire, guys), a mishap has always been seen as its own reward and well worth the mild inconvenience. That's why they invented dry-bags, and why we own so many of them.

But to every thing, turn, J-stroke, turn, there is a season, and the time has come for some goal-setting on canoe skills.

To that end, and for your visual delectation, here is the great Marc Ornstein's performance in the Freestyle Canoeing Mid-West Regionals. The Deadspin sports website's viewing instructions cannot be improved upon.:

"Skip to 1:20, turn the volume up to a sufficient, yet not
excessive level, and watch Marc Ornstein's canoe glide across
the lake like a waterborne gazelle on a half-dose of Ambien.

Let the tender majesty that is freestyle canoeing
guide you into the warm night."

Eyegasm.