Fix Photo Essay Travel

Paddle, Paddle, Paddle Your Boat – If You Can – At Toronto’s Busy Harbourfront

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YJI reporters Caroline Nelissen, of the Netherlands, and Mugdha Gurram of the United States, try to get their paddle boat out beyond the dock at Toronto’s Harbourfront. 

 

 
By Caroline
Nelissen, Mehran Shamit,
 
Yelena
Samofalova and Mugdha Gurram
 
Reporters
 
 
TORONTO,
Canada – Paddle-boating is harder than it looks, especially for a bunch of
first-timers.
Toronto Tour 2014 logo by
Mary Majerus-Collins
 
In our defense, we came up with a list explaining why:
 
1.   The steering is counter intuitive.
 
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YJI reporters Caroline Nelissen and Mugdha Gurram are starting to get the knack of paddle boating.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    
 
 
 
2.    The little kids, who were much better at steering than we were, kept attacking us.
 
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YJI reporters Lubaba Samin of Toronto and Mary Majerus-Collins of Connecticut in the background. In the foreground is one of the little kids who paddled circles around the young journalists.

 

 

 
3.     We kept going around in circles.
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YJI reporters Caroline Nelissen and Mugdha Gurram are learning to steer.

 

 

 
4.    The boats were meant for children much smaller than us.
 
5.   Our feet kept sliding off the pedals, and on top of that, it was physically hard to pedal.
 
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YJI reporters Mehran Shamit of Toronto and Yelena Samofalova of Connecticut had a lot of trouble getting their paddle boat to go the way they wanted it to, but they had no trouble enjoying the ride. 

 

 

 

 
6.    There were a lot of people in the area, which was pretty small to begin with, so there wasn’t much room for us to steer.
 
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Even if paddle boating was tricky, the Toronto Harbourfront offers a nice setting to learn.

 

 
7.    It was really hot.
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YJI paddle boaters, from left, Lubaba Samin of Toronto, Mary Majerus-Collins of Connecticut, Mehran Shamit of Toronto and Yelena Samofalova of Connecticut.
 
8.    There was a duck in the paddling area, which was thankfully better at steering than us.
 
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It took some cooperation, but the YJI paddle boating reporters did manage to line up their crafts for a group picture. From left, Mehran Shamit, Yelena Samofalova, Lubaba Samin, Mary Majerus-Collins, Caroline Nelissen and Mugdha Gurram.

 

9.    No one explained how to work the boat before we got on, even our resident expert-boat-paddler.

 

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Paddle boaters got a helpful shove away from the dock, but no great advice on how to work the boat.

 



But once we got the hang of it, it was a lot of fun.

 
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YJI reporters Caroline Nelissen of the Netherlands and Mugdha Gurram of the United States met each other a few minutes before navigating the Toronto  Harbourfront in a paddle boat – a first for both of them. They didn’t win any boating awards but did win a new friend while on the water.