Tim Gallaway
Tim Gallaway is an ACA L4, Coastal Kayaking Instructor and Greenland kayaking expert. Check out his website Kayaking to the Sea.
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Learning the Greenland-style Storm Roll Part 2: The Kayak Roll
This is part two of Learning the Greenland-style Storm Roll. Before reading this start with part one of Learning the Greenland-style Roll. The Storm Roll Now let’s bring all of the pieces of the puzzle together. This time we’re going to capsize and bring the paddle around under the boat with us. The set up is just like a standard layback roll. And right up until you start moving the paddle to initiate coming out of the water the position is exactly the same. So for the first style of the roll we’re going to capsize, set up into the position we were just in doing the last few progressions.…
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Learning the Greenland-style Storm Roll Part 1: The Foundations
Being a Greenland-style kayaker I take great pride in my ability to roll. I’ve spent many hours practicing and honing tiny details to make my rolls smooth, graceful, and quiet. And I am not alone. There are tons of us out there. We are a bit of an odd bunch, even amongst kayakers, because we’ll get together and not actually go anywhere. We just gear up, paddle out a ways into deepish water, roll and then head back in. We call that a really great day on the water. We really work hard on getting better on our rolls. It’s mainly for fun but there is a use for having…
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Soo to Hessel: The Curse of the Last Day
As cheesy as it sounds, you don’t have to go far from home to have an adventure. Despite the allure and romance of exploring the long expanses of wilderness in, let’s say, the South Island of New Zealand, Iceland, Patagonia, Kamchatka, or the Himalayas, there are many things worth seeing close to home. I have all of the above listed places (and many more) on my bucket list but at the moment I am unable to wander the world aimlessly by the constraining fact that I am a starving college student and kayak bum. But still the lure of adventure tempted me into a trip. I didn’t have to travel…
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THE SKELETON COAST: Paddling Lake Superior’s Desolate Southeast Shore
I’ve spent the last few summers working as a sea kayak guide for Woods and Water Ecotours in Hessel, Michigan and loved every minute of it. The long days, working with clients, teaching lessons and kayak surf sessions with the guides all added to the mystique. In the fall, reluctant to let go of my summer freedom as I went back to engineering school, I would go kayak surfing on Whitefish Bay when the gales of November would come slashing out of the north. The Big Water has a way of stripping away everything that isn’t important. It becomes just you and the Lake. Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter…
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Ninja Paddling – The Path of the Ninja Paddler
The word ‘ninja’ brings to mind silent assassins running through the forests of medieval Japan and cheesy B action movies with terrible plots and even worse special effects. The word itself has become heavily overused in modern society. People are obsessed with ninjas. Movies, cartoons, anime, and even paddling equipment makers like NRS have used the name ‘Ninja’ as a hook to draw people in, but for me the name brings to mind a special activity, something I like to call “Ninja Paddling.” Once a month at Woods & Water Ecotours we guide a moonlight kayak trip where we take clients out to watch the sunset and then to watch…
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Head North to Old Woman: A Lake Superior Kayaking Adventure
This is a guest post from sea kayaker Tim Gallway. It was a cold August morning, and I was heading for Wawa, Ontario to teach at the Greenland Symposium put on by Naturally Superior Adventures (NSA). Or at least I would have if the event hadn’t been cancelled. Due to many last minute cancellations instructors would outnumber students, so the plug was pulled. But I was still going. I was planning on spending the long weekend sleeping on beaches, playing in the surf and rock gardens around Superior Provincial Park with the other instructors that were going to do the same thing I was. One way or another I was…
