The Blackwater Paddlers are hosting their Annual General Meeting and the Waterwalker Film Festival this week on Thursday, May 2.
The Waterwalker Film Festival was started in 1987 by the great Canadian paddler, environmentalism and filmmaker Bill Mason. Following his death, the festival was picked up by Paddle Canada.
Ron Watteyne, the president of the Blackwater Paddlers, says Mason paddled throughout the Canadian Shield, and even has a rock named after him in the middle of the Virginia Falls on the Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories.
The Waterwalker Festival is held by paddling and film-loving groups across the country and features a variety of films that relate back to the sport.
“There’s environmental films, there are really emotional, touching films … adventure films, some with things like whitewater kayaking over waterfalls — it’s enough to turn your stomach,” says Watteyne, who is currently going through the list of films and choosing which ones the group intends to feature.
One film he knows they will show is The Passage. It’s the story of two brothers who paddled across the Inside Passage — the coastal route for ships along a network of passages through islands on the Northwest coast of the Pacific — together. Then, 40 years later, the brothers returned and paddled the Inside Passage with their sons. “It’s a really emotional film,” says Watteyne.
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There will be several movies shown at the festival, which range in length from five minutes to just over 20 minutes.
The evening will kick off with the Annual General Meeting (AGM) at 6:30 p.m., which anyone is welcome to attend, followed by the festival at 7:00 p.m.
Watteyne says people do not need to attend the AGM to attend the festival — the events, although held the same night, are separate.
Watteyne has been a member of the Blackwater Paddlers since the club’s inception in 1992, when a group of avid local paddlers formed the club to celebrate the bicentennial of Alexander Mackenzie’s journey across Canada. It was 1793 when Mackenzie reached the Pacific.
“We started a year before [1993], and we built a 26 foot cedar strip voyageur canoe,” says Watteyne.
Around the same time, a group of Lakehead University students from Thunder Bay, Ont. were paddling their way across the country. “We paddled with them in Peace River, and then we also paddled with them in McGregor River, which is upstream from Prince George, and then through Prince George to Quesnel in the voyageur canoe with them in 1993,” says Watteyne.
The Blackwater Paddlers boast about 45 members, and are always looking for more. Watteyne says they would love for anyone to join the club, but in particular are looking for ways to attract youth to the group. He says potential members do not necessarily need to own a canoe, however some experience paddling is necessary if someone wants to paddle on running water, like a river. Typically, new members start out on one of the many lakes in the area until they’ve learned the basics. If they want to go on a moving water trip, says Watteyne, then they’ll need to have a white water certification.
The group has a schedule of planned trips each year — including around the Bowron Lake chain — which they will present at their AGM.
“I’d just like to encourage people to come out and see it and see what the club has to offer,” says Watteyne. We have canoeing and kayaking, we have voyageur canoeing. And there’s even people who go out on the stand-up paddle board, so [we encourage] most forms of paddling.”
Advance tickets to the film festival are available at Rocky Peak Adventure Gear, and include a discount for students interested in attending. Tickets will also be available at the door.
Heather Norman
Community Reporter
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