Northern Rockies Paddlefest 2008

We cruised down just south of Bigfork, Montana on saturday for the Northern Rockies Paddlefest held at Wayfarer’s State Park. It was a perfect day to be out on the water. Paddle fans of all shapes, sizes and ages came out to test the latest and greatest in paddlesports gear.

Local outfitters and paddle shops were out showing their wares and sending people out and back on any number of demos.

There was also a demonstration by Dubside, an amazing instuctior on how to roll your boat and right it. He had a Qajaasaarneq demonstration set up which he let me try and let me tell you, ... he makes it look easy.

What is Qajaasaarneq you may ask?
Qajaasaarneq is an excercise and training system performed on a double length of horizontally suspended rope. Each exercise consists of a specified position from which you must bring yourself completely around the ropes and return to the starting position. There are a total of seventy-four different moves, all with Greenlandic names and point values based on the degree of difficulty.

The Inuit, the indigenous inhabitants of arctic North America invented it over a thousand years ago. They developed these exercises for several purposes:

-To entertain one another with feats of strength during dark, frozen winters.
-To maintain the tough and demandin level of fitness required for the dangerous occupation of hunting sea mammals by kayak.
-As an on-land teaching exercise for learning to roll a kayak.

I definitely have some work to do before I will be entering any competitions.

It was a beautiful day on the water and there were smiles all along the beach!


More information on Qajaasaarneq is available at Dubside's website.


Be sure to visit Glacier Adventure for all of your Glacier National Park and surrounding area information.


see you on the water (in an upright boat I hope)


-jay






.