Although she’s lost count, Chelsey Tidmarsh figures she’s seen World Champion gold more than 15 times as a member of Canada’s national Outrigger and Dragon Boat team.
Three days a week, she unleashes her unique blend of warmth, encouragement and badass world champ athleticism to eager boot camp participants at the Calgary Canoe Club. Focused on the celebration of every win, large or small, Chelsey ensures no one in her boot camp family is left behind.
First things first, tell us about your sport.
I compete in two different paddling sports: Outrigger and Dragon Boat. Outrigger canoeing is of Polynesian descent. It uses a canoe with a lateral support on one or both sides, and there are six paddlers. The Polynesian influences are woven throughout the sport’s culture in some of the language and customs we use. Dragon boat comes from China and features ornate carved boats. There are 20 paddlers in a dragon boat, plus a steerer and a drummer: the heartbeat that helps us keep our rhythm.
You’re from Manitoba. What brought you to Calgary and, ultimately, into paddling?
I was given the opportunity to try out for the bobsleigh doubles team. I was the brakeman; the person who sits in the back behind the driver and is responsible for the majority of the pushing to get the sleigh going at the start of the race. It was a great experience, but it didn’t feel like it was going to be my sport.
Then I got involved in rugby sevens and absolutely loved it. I was on the Alberta team and we traveled around the country playing. I’d still play it to this day if it weren’t for my knee: I ruptured my ACL and had to have it reconstructed. While I was rehabbing my knee, I found my way to the Calgary Canoe Club and took up paddling. It really took off from there.
How does your experience training to be a world champ athlete translate into your boot camp classes? It sounds scary.
It’s not scary! There is a wide variety of fitness levels and fitness goals within the group and I cater to them all individually. I also don’t measure their success in the typical ways: we don’t do weigh-ins, I don’t take measurements. But if one of my participants does one more push-up from her toes than she did the week before, I’ll celebrate that. You have to celebrate every win. Maybe that’s the lesson I bring in from my sport.
So what’s is the cruelest thing you make your boot camp participants do?
My boot campers know me as the Burpee Queen. I’ve got hundreds of different ways of doing burpees. In fact, I’m pretty sure I could do a different type of burpee every day for a year without ever duplicating. Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of the night having dreamt up a new burpee.
When you’re not training for your sport, not traveling the world competing and not making your boot campers do 365 types of burpees, how do you like to spend your time?
As a family, we love to get out to the mountains for some snowboarding. And we still spend time at the cottage in Manitoba in the summer, where I’ll just paddle for fun on my SUP board. For me, I love hot yoga - I’ve found that it gives me the chance to heal my body from the work I put it through, without being too slow-moving; that just doesn’t come naturally to me!
Women’s health issues are near and dear to your heart. What’s one of your most important women’s wellness topics?
Achieving balance between taking care of yourself and taking care of your family is something that a lot of moms struggle with. I try to encourage the women in my classes to feel proud of taking care of themselves. As a mother myself, I feel very strongly that my family needs to come first. But when I take care of myself, I can take better care of them; and when my family is taken care of, I feel better about myself as a mom. Both halves of the equation are equally important.
What’s next for you?
I’m taking a break from Outrigger for this year, but right now I’m focused on national team trials for 2014 Dragon Boat. Wish me luck!
Chelsey’s boot camp classes run three days a week out of the Calgary Canoe Club. To get in touch with Chelsey and give her class a try, she encourages you to reach out to her at [email protected]
Erin Power from City, Province
Erin Power is a fitness trainer, holistic nutritionist and a lover of wellness topics far and wide. She lives peacefully on a hobby farm in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, where she spends her days growing her own food, tending to her chickens, riding her horses and enjoying the simplicity of a quiet life.
More about the author
