Olympic
Kayak Training, Downtown Ottawa Bill Maloney 9/18/2004 |
Right in downtown Ottawa is this sluiceway of fast water emerging from a hydroelectric plant. Dixon Kenner tells me it is a former spillway for the lumber and paper industry that used to line both shores of the Ottawa river. Up and down the channel are red and white or green and white gates hanging from cables that the Canadian Olympic Kayaking Team uses for training. The kayakers are given directions on which gates determined their route. Then they were off to do that route 3 different times, heading down stream and returning to the start paddling against the current. These guys seemed really good.