The Yukon Canoe and Kayak Club (YCKC) held instructional clinics recently with Canadian National Freestyle Kayak Coach Kalob Grady.

The clinics took place July 8 to 10 under the blue bridge on the millennium trail in Whitehorse.

The group focused on learning competition tricks.

About 22 people attended the workshop over three days.

Grady, 28, was born and raised in the Ottawa Valley. He's a professional kayaker who started competing internationally in 2011.

He's also a Program Director for the Kayak School at World Class Academy.

"He grew up in Ottawa teaching and working for one of the rafting companies," said YCKC executive director Lawrence Brennan. "I'm pretty sure he competed on the junior freestyle team; (he) has been a senior freestyle member for a while now. I think he's taught for the World Class (Academy) for the last six years.

"He's also part of this paddling collective media company (Send). It's kind of for paddlers who are some of the best in the world at really pushing the aspects of the sport, whether it's tricks in freestyle or it's big rivers and big expeditions or big waterfalls."

Brennan explained the purpose of the clinics.

"With kayaking, there's a couple different disciplines. There's slalom, which is the Olympic discipline where you have gates set up and you're racing against the clock. There's river running, which is you're out exploring, going from Point A to Point B and then there's freestyle – which is what this clinic was –and you're surfing on a wave and doing tricks.

They all kind of compliment each other.

"And the idea here is we've got ... a great feature here in town underneath the blue bridge up by the dam and for our members ... we're always trying to provide programming that allows people to improve their skills. We're also trying to foster community where we're creating events where people can come and learn but also find people they want to paddle with – their paddling group.

"And right now in town with Tat(shenshini) Expediting and Yukon Canoe we have ... beginner courses but we don't have more of the advanced intermediate style things. So this is a way for us to – with funding from YG – to bring somebody up who's an expert in their field to provide our members an opportunity to learn from one of the best."

As for how the event went, "It was great," said Brennan. "Each day we had more and more people come out. It was the first time we've had Kalob up here and first time in a while we've run a freestyle course so I think it was a good learning experience.

"Each day was two sessions. Morning session for a couple hours, lunch, then an afternoon session.

"I think one of the things we learned this year is that a full day of play boating is a lot. I think after two or three hours of being in the water upside down, right side up, upside down, right side up, people were quite tired. So looking forward for next year we talked about doing more evening sessions during the week and then having one or two days on the weekend would be a full day.

"In general, people were quite appreciative. Anytime I was able to stop by and say hi there were smiles everywhere and it sounds like lots are learning new tricks that they've been trying for years and just having that objective look and that knowledge to have passed on – all of a sudden it started clicking for people – just really neat to see."

Brennan said there's a possibility of Grady coming back again.

"I think he seemed keen. I think lots of our members would love to have him back up again."

"We were really appreciative to have him," added Brennan. "It's always pretty cool I think when we start having some of the best in the field come to Whitehorse ... as the club starts to grow, as paddling continues to grow off this momentum from COVID, it's great to have more athletes up there.

"And we also have a long history of sending freestyle athletes down south – representing at the worlds, on the world stage. I think of Kevin Daff and my brother Joel Brennan and Mael Pronovost and Hunter Vincent over the years and now we're looking at the next generation that's gonna be around."

YCKC also has a fun freestyle competition coming up Aug. 19.

"It's a great way, too, for people to learn some new stuff and get some confidence under their belts if they want to compete and have fun in August," related Brennan.

"All of the fun competitions happen from the fish ladder down to the blue bridge and then we have wars and a barbecue at our bins a little farther down the river at the old intake at 25 Selkirk Street."