Today I decided to go for a nice little paddle. Nothing too exciting, but with Megan out of town for a few days I decided to amuse myself the best way possible and take my kayak out on the canal that goes through the city. It’s called the Rideau Canal, and it goes pretty much through the downtown core of the city and ends at a set of locks above the Ottawa River. I’ve paddled it before, and so I wasn’t expecting anything too special today.
Since I wasn’t expecting anything too exciting, I decided to try bringing my two GoPros and the 3D housing to see if I could generate any 3D footage, which I later determined was a complete waste of time as I don’t have any 3D glasses to try and watch it with.
I also decided to try mounting the camera on the aft deck of my kayak, instead of the foredeck, like I usually do, so, for the first time you would get to see me paddle, not just the bow of my boat. I know, that isn’t exactly the most inspiring thought, but I also thought it would be cool to show off the custom paddle work I did (well, actually Micah did!) that I thought you all might get a kick out of!
The mount I used to hold the camera was a complete fail, and as a result, most of the footage is absolute crap, with everything wobbling back and forth. But, I did manage to get some footage that I wanted to share. Sadly, I missed the coolest part, as the camera had gotten knocked to the wrong side in all the jostling.
As you watch the video below, you will see a garbage can on shore at the beginning. If you watch the water just beside my boat you will see a plastic grocery bag floating just below the surface. I usually like to pick up garbage when I am out paddling, because I hate seeing trash, so naturally I decided to pick it up.
Since there was a garbage can just on shore I figured I would just toss the bag on shore next to the can and some parks worker would take it the rest of the way.
The can had a top on it with a spring loaded panel on the front, similar to the type you see in a fast food parking lot, and, since there was some water trapped in the bag I figured I could lob the bag so that it would land on top of the can.
This is the part where I am really upset that the video was pointed the wrong way, as my lob was absolutely perfect, with the bag hitting the panel, popping it open enough that the bag could plop right inside.
It wasn’t perfect in that I had intended something else to happen, but it was perfect in that it looked like that’s what I intended, and I am sure the dozen or so people on shore, if they saw it, probably think I am the most awesome guy in the city!
Not wanting to look like I was shocked at how awesome the shot was, I casually pushed off from the sidewalk and paddled away as if this level of style was perfectly normal for me….
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