"Instructing canoeing skills is important, but what's more important to me is to instill the reason why we are using the canoe to get where we want to go, without leaving any footprints. I want my films to impart that."
- Becky Mason
(This story and photo originally appeared in the May/June 2002 edition of Paddler Magazine)
Continuing her family's canoeing tradition
By
John Geary
While
Bill Mason has often been called “The Father of Modern Canadian Canoeing,”
his daughter Becky continues the tradition of teaching the world about the
science and art of canoeing, while imparting the importance of conserving
wilderness to those who enjoy its beauty from a canoe seat.
Her
most recent effort at continuing this tradition took the form of her very-first
video production, Classic Solo Canoeing. Released in 2001, it toured
North America as part of the Canadian Recreational Canoeing Association’s
(CRCA) biennial Waterwalker Film Festival.
The
video is based on the classic solo canoeing course she has taught for 16 years,
a program she developed with her late father.
Becky
laid the foundation for teaching by guiding with the Black Feather Wilderness
Adventure Company for six years, paddling on the Picanoc (Quebec), Nahanni
(Northwest Territories), and Petawawa (Ontario) Rivers. She started teaching her
own courses in 1987.
She
teaches from April to October at Meech Lake, in Gatineau Park, Quebec. She also
takes her courses on the road, teaching in locations that include Rhinelander,
Wisconsin; Duluth, Minnesota; and Bridgton, Maine (site of the Maine Canoe
Symposium.) She decided to produce a solo canoeing video to reach out and teach
the skills to more people.
"I
saw a need to put it down on something, so people who couldn't come to my
workshops could access the program," she says.
She
would like to produce more videos in the future, including A Magic Paddle,
a canoe-ballet film her father started but never completed. As a former
whitewater guide, she also sees a need for a women's tripping video.
"I
don't desire to take people out on a wilderness trip, but show them in a movie
how I would do things. And like my first video, it would be more than just a
'how-to-do-it.' I would try to impart my love of tripping and why I do it.
"Instructing
canoeing skills is important, but what's more important to me is to instill the
reason why we use the canoe to get where we want to go, without leaving
footprints. I want my films to impart that."
Like
her father, Becky views canoeing as more than an end in itself; it is also a
means to an end. While the act of paddling is very rewarding, using a canoe to
connect with nature is just as important.
"Going
out in a canoe, even for a short paddle, recharges and nourishes your
soul."
The
need for that nourishment motivates her to make strong efforts to help save
North America's remaining wilderness. She works with, and supports, the Canadian
Parks and Wilderness Society, the CRCA and is a board member of the Quetico
Foundation, working to protect Ontario's equivalent of the Boundary Waters Canoe
Area.
In
2001, she played a key role in stopping Ontario's Dog River from being dammed.
She met with Ministry of Natural Resource personnel, First Nations
representatives and a local outfitter; she wrote letters and asked everyone she
knew to write letters.
"I
was able to convince them it was such a pristine area that we should save it. I
believe it's now going to be a waterway park."
She
believes strongly in the power of letter-writing.
"When
Dad was alive he wrote a lot of letters to the government and one day I asked
him why. And he turned his head and said, 'Becky
if one of these letters can make a difference of one less dam, or another park
created, then all the letters I've written are worthwhile.' He taught me that
hope and action can get results with just a simple letter."
She
has also been involved in the Sierra Club's Lands for Life program in Ontario.
"The
day we have no wilderness will be a very sad day," she says. "As long
as I'm breathing I'll fight as hard as I can to save special areas."
She
stresses the fact wilderness can be saved simply for wilderness' sake.
"It
irritates me when I hear 'We need to save this area for future generations to
use,' " she says. "There are special places in the wilderness that
don't need people to visit them in order to make them worthy of being
saved."
Her
love of wilderness developed during the many canoe trips that highlighted her
childhood, trips to Lake Superior, Georgian Bay, the Nahanni and French Rivers.
Some trips involved the entire Mason clan; others involved just she and her
father. Some involved filming, others simply provided pure paddling pleasure.
"The
filming trips were work trips, and one thing that really stands out is the way
we'd get to know one particular campsite. We might be at one spot for days, that
taught me how to appreciate all the different nuances of an area."
She
cherishes the trips she took alone with her father, recognizing them as special
moments of sharing.
"We
shared our passion for painting and our love of the land. He was a really
wonderful person, as well as a very interesting person to canoe with."
Although
she may not have thought then about using her childhood canoeing background to
launch an adult career, she never ruled anything out, either. Her parents raised
her and her brother Paul with a "you-can-do-anything" attitude.
"Dad
encouraged us to seek out creative venues," she says. "If we could
turn it into a job, great, but we didn't have to do it just to earn a living.
"For
example, when I was in Grade 11, he told me to decide whether I was going to
paint full-time or part-time. If I wanted to paint every day, then I could go to
art school. He told me I'd never make much money painting, but I would be very
rewarded."
She
studied at Toronto's Ontario College of Art. Her art has appeared in several
central Canadian exhibitions.
Painting
provides a good counterbalance to paddling. At the end of summer, she exchanges
her paddle for a set of paintbrushes. Come spring, she packs the brushes away
and dusts off her paddle.
She
and her husband, Reid McLachlan, do not have any children, and do not plan to
have a family. They enjoy paddling with their nieces and nephews, but she does
not want to pass on her father's teachings to family members only.
"We're
not on this earth to pass on skills only to our own children. It's very
important to pass them on to all young people."
There
are many places the 38-year-old still wants to paddle.
"From
our house, I want to paddle all the lakes, rivers and streams that lie within a
radius of a three- to four-hour drive. It will probably take two, three years to
do that."
In
addition to her paddling, videography and painting, she also writes, having
contributed work to several canoe books.
Paddling,
filming, painting, writing … she does not prefer one activity to another, as
each in its own way provides the one thing she loves most of all.
"What
I like best is peace. I've found peace - peace of soul, calm. While I do get
riled up like everyone else, the main core of me is peaceful."
