This is something...I think?

[Butch Crain]

http://deadspin.com/5808624/let-the-maj ... -the-night" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

not sure what though. Half time at boatball?

[c8mb]

I think that's Bayou DeView

[Richard]

Butch, I clicked on it. Saw Marc Ornstein paddle, then clicked on one of the other YouTube videos . . . then another. Two hours later . . .

Thank you for sharing. I bought my Wenonah Prospector because I wanted to paddle like that. Canadian Freestyle.

We take our paddling skills for granted. When you see someone who doesn't know how to get a canoe to go in a straight line or a newbie comments how good a paddler you are, you realize you have somehow advanced from the newbie stage and that what you now do without thought took time to develop.

Then you see something like this and realize there is still a long way to go.

[Eric Esche]

It is really something. I'm no great shakes in an open, but I've come a ways from where I started because I had folks with skills and talent like this to emulate when I was starting out who also ran whitewater everyday, and as they would say, it all comes back to good basic paddleing skills and honeing the edges of the envelope with practice, the more, the better. I get away with much of what I paddle now with overweight canoes, because I had great friends who worked with me regularly both in tandem and solo canoes.

Going to schools like the ACC rec and whitewater schools or off to other schools in other states LIke NOC is a great way to get concentrated practice at an accelerated pace, but you can work on these skills on almost any creek or river with someone to critique you until you get to the point where you can feel every nuance. It can be work at first, but it is worth the investment and you do not have to "work" at it every second on every trip on the water.

If you think you are having fun now, wait until you get to where these folks are. It just keeps getting better. You will hit plateaus in skill level, but go back to the honing and practice and you can still progress at almost any age. I find myself getting complacent and sloppy and then I see something like this and want to go back to learning again.

Thanks for the post. Got a book on freestyle and a great book by Gary and Joanie Mcguffin (Paddle Your Own Canoe) if anyone needs to borrow a book on the basics.

Eric Esche

[Butch Crain]

truth be known, the thing I really like about my rec kayak is that it takes almost no skills to get downriver.

Mr. Ornstein obviously has put in some serious hours on his thing.

[BEubanks]

Several years ago we had an evening demo of this at Rendezvous. Lights and music if I recall (or maybe I'm just imagining that). Really great to see such precision paddling.

[Cowper]

I tend to respect anyone who is at the "top of their game" in their chosen sub-discipline, and clearly this guy is.