MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Spring 2019

SPRING 2019 ML BLUE 35 Despite growing up in the tight-knit kayaking community of the Elora Gorge, Sydney Nixon admits she hated whitewater kayaking until she was a teenager. “It was like a switch flipped once I got my roll,” she says. “After that, you couldn’t get me out of the water.” Some of Ontario’s top paddlers have come from the small Elora Gorge paddling community and Sydney is proof of the support and encouragement the group provides to beginners. “There’s almost always someone willing to lend gear and take a newbie out paddling.” she says. With backing from the well-established Guelph Kayak Club the community also bands together to help established paddlers work towards big goals like making the national team. This support helped Sydney qualify to represent Canada at two freestyle World Championships. She is currently completing a nursing degree, and works on the river all summer to put herself through school. She’s a kayak instructor, a kayak camp coordinator and occasionally acts a video boater, filming for one of the busy Ottawa River rafting companies. A product of kayaking camps and development programs, she is now a role model within these circles. “The number of women whitewater kayaking has grown since I started kayaking, “ she says. “When I was a kid there would typically only be a couple of girls in the kayak camps. Now there tends to be anywhere from six to ten females absolutely crushing.” Ladies are in whitewater for the same reasons as the boys: to have fun and challenge themselves. “I enjoy the chance to go do something that takes all of your focus,” Nixon adds. “You can’t think about your other stressors in life when you’re on the river.” The Explorer: Sydney Nixon ABOVE Sydney Nixon descends the Seven Sisters,Rouge River,Quebec. TOM SIMENC. TOP RIGHT Portrait of Sydney Nixon. DENNISWERDEN “I enjoy the chance to do something that takes all of your focus; you can’t think about other stressors in life when you’re on the river.”