Going Retro

Well, kayaking season is officially done for 2025.

DW and I got our kayaks into the water so many times this year that I've posted a record number of videos this year, and there were even two outings where I didn't attach my video camera to the deck of my boat.

I have a large hard drive where I store all of the video projects that I have. I don't keep on top of it and I bought the drive after DW and I started kayaking, so some of our earlier videos got misplaced by my earlier storage system.

I started going through old file folders the other week, in an attempt to organize older drives, and I came across a few video projects that I never touched. I have video clips from 2020 that have never seen the light of day, until now.

Just a few weeks after we acquired our first kayaks, DW and I got them out as often as we could. We did our first paddle on the Rideau River, at the Chapman Mills Conservation Area, and travelled upstream, at sunset, to the Vimy Memorial Bridge. It was a short paddle but we were just getting used to the feel of our boats, and I didn't capture this paddle on video.

The first video that I made of our paddling was on the South Nation River, at Jessups Falls. We went from this put-in area to Plantagenet, and back.

The next weekend, we went for a short paddle, once again, on the Rideau River. This time, we put our kayaks in at Black Rapids lockstation and paddled downstream, toward Mooney's Bay. But after a little more than three kilometres, we decided to turn back.

I covered this paddle with my video camera but I never did anything with the footage. When I rediscovered these clips, last week, I wondered if I could make a video now.

Unfortunately, I didn't have many video clips saved and I could only find video of our decision to turn around and some clips of our return trip. Nevertheless, I decided to make a video anyway.

I call it a retro video. Have a look.

I've also found other video footage and I plan to make more retro videos, now that our new kayaks are put away until ice-out conditions, next spring.

I don't have many of these lost kayaking adventures, so I'll probably only share one each month. If you like my kayaking videos, subscribe to my channel so that you don't miss the next one.

Happy Friday!