8-9 November in the Lewis pass

In November, 17 women attended the Wahine Workshop at the Boyle Lodge, traveling from as far away as Wanaka, Alexandra, Dunedin, Christchurch, Nelson and Wellington.

Jess Matheson from the NZ Kayak School joined on Saturday to lead a classroom session on leadership, focused on the experiences of women and the different challenges they face. Content ranged from the technical elements of trip planning to the theory behind leadership and communication style.

Themes from the leadership conversation on supporting women to lead and grow as paddlers included:

• Having a longer lead-in to prepare to lead a trip and more information available (e.g. not expecting people to put up their hand to lead a group the morning of the paddle).
• Changing the way swims and self-rescue are talked about; swims being seen negatively makes women more reluctant to play or challenge themselves.
• Having greater clarity on what being a trip leader entails and the expectations of them.
• Having more detailed information available on the trip logistics and river (put in/take out location, shuttle arrangements, paddle distance, hazards, likely river characteristics etc). Spending more time discussing the trip logistics and river would likely increase confidence, enabling women to play or push themselves more.

On Saturday we all paddled the Boyle River from the lodge down to the Engineer Camp. Recent storms meant the rivers in the area were running higher than usual, but the water had cleared and the sun was out. Jess facilitated some workshops on self-rescue, something many of the women attending struggle with. Jess did a great job of enabling those present to share their tips and tricks and help each other.

On Sunday people put their leadership learnings into practice and stepped up to plan and lead three different trips on the Nina, Doubtful and Boyle rivers.

Feedback from everyone who attended was great, in their own words:

“It was a truly fantastic event, and the fact that many of us spent 14 hours in a car just to paddle for two days speaks volumes about the value and impact of a weekend like this for women.”

“I think it’s really important to provide a space for women. Not to exclude men, but to nurture and encourage an under represented segment. A lot of women at the meet lacked confidence, not skill, and I think the women only meetups are a great way to help encourage each other and build confidence in a safe space.”

“Having an entire event with just women. I love my male friends, I love paddling with them. But they will never quite understand the frustration and self doubt women constantly place on themselves in mixed sport events. It really was a breath of fresh air having an event
completely comprised of women.”