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Instructor Highlight- Hollie Noble

ashleymcewan — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:56:44 +0000

Hollie hearts kayaking!! Few other sports give us the rare opportunity to experience the beautiful places and people of our world like kayaking. Whether creeking, racing, playing or just paddling flatwater, she’s happy to be on the water, loving life!

Hollie’s liquid adventure began years ago in a recreational boat, but after several years of thinking “those whitewater kayakers are crazy”, she finally decided to try it out. (For most of us this moment usually comes after paddling a long stretch of shallow, flatwater in a raft!) Since she already had a passion for the outdoors, water, and adventure, whitewater kayaking seemed like the perfect fusion of the things she loved.

Nearly a decade ago, she met Tom and began to hone her whitewater skills (a.k.a. “polish the nub”) and teach for Liquid Adventures. After following Tom down several rivers in the States, Canada and Mexico, Hollie started racing and really getting to know the water. When she wasn’t racing, she was teaching!! It didn’t take long for her to discover that she LOVES teaching people how to paddle. She learns so much from teaching…plus, how could she keep this much fun to herself?!

Kayaking for Hollie is like life. Her students often hear her say “it’s 99% belief that you can make it…the rest is moving forward and getting up when you flip.”

Favorite Tom McEwan phrases: “Do I know you?” or “How ‘bout we try this?”

All-time Favorite River(s): Jatate and Salto River (MX), Upper Yough (MD), New River (WV).

Favorite Things to do out of the boat: Everything from Acting to Zumba!!

Brett discovers Mexico Kayaking

tommcewan — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:24:12 +0000

I just started whitewater paddling this year, and come December, I missed the water and was looking for pool rolling sessions. A friend of said that she had good experiences with Liquid Adventures Kayaking School, so I went to their website to register for a class. Looking around, I saw this Mexico trip. It sounded like fun — a group of like-minded folks hanging out with a knowledgeable (bilingual) guide in parts of Mexico that I would never get to otherwise (not Cancun). The site even advertised that there would be a bit of instruction involved. Sweet. Though, admittedly, it took about a month or so of thinking I was absolutely crazy before I gave in. I am really glad I did. Keep clicking for the whole story…

Drysuit Care Continued

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 19:10:20 +0000

Here is a little follow up to our entry back earlier in the winter on Drysuit Care and Maintenance. I recently got back from trip to Chile and when I got home I discovered that my drytops had arrived back from getting new gaskets. As I was unpacking from the trip I thought it prudent to pre-stretch the new gaskets before had to teach at Dickerson the next weekend also the Potomac was at 10 ft and it pays to not have a neck so tight it is hard to breathe or turn. Pre-stretching is essential in most cases to provide an optimum fit and to make your first outings bearable. Your basically trying to speed up what your neck will do anyway. Here are some steps to breaking in your drytop or suit.

Find a couple of household object that are a little bigger than your wrists and neck
Apply 303 to the gaskets
Gently work the gaskets over the objects you found (sugar tub and water bottle for me)
Let sit for 24 hrs or more
Remove carefully by rolling down, mind your sharp fingernails

Try out your top for a couple of short paddles to see how things workout. If things are still too tight, then you can consider trimming the troublesome gasket. I recommend trimming a line or two, see how it goes. Trimming is permanent and not always necessary, most gaskets stretch where they need to on their own.

Dickerson Open at Long Last!

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:49:00 +0000

It has been a long time now, but this weekend will be the first weekend that we have been able to paddle the course in a long while. We just got word about 330 pm this afternoon so you can imagine that my afternoon has been a little extra busy. Fortunately Aaron Mann came by to get a BCE card and stuck around long enough to make them so that I could continue to juggle last minute pool rolling requests.

Here is the word on Dickerson. Open for now, weekends only, escort down to the course from the guards. For this first weekend we would like to go in there gradually, so if you are a LAKS paddler and BCE member, join me this Sunday at 130 -4pm at the course. Sign up online on our registration page to join or email me at the office to join the workout. Make sure you bring a Mirant Waiver with you to the course. We will enter together and leave together like we did before. We a couple smooth weekends we should be back to normal.