Drowning a Pentax PC35AF-M in the shallow waters of the Assinniboine River, summer 1986

Me and BD propped the family aluminum canoe on our shoulders and portaged (I here pronounce the term in the French-English way) the many miles from my parents' place in Westwood to the Assinniboine River. I borrowed a Pentax PC35AF-M from work at Astral Photo to chronologue the canoe-trip (and also photographed, with her permission, the girl who was selling hotdogs in front of Eaton's — but never mind). 

The camera, not the girl.

We disembarked with the aluminum canoe. Because the water was so shallow in that part of the Assinniboine River it flowed really fast. We huffed and puffed upstream for several minutes. Finally, we turned around. 

Now we were sailing! We were also in the middle of the river — we were going to whip right past our point of disembarkation. "Row faster!" I shouted. We cut across the river and collided with the riverbank. The flow of the river caught the canoe and tipped the boat over. 

And  that is how I drowned a Pentax PC-35AF — which I now had to buy from the Pentax dealer for much more than kids today pay for a smartphone. 

Links: Here and here are a couple of BD memories. I rode motorcycle with him across Canada to Expo '86 in Vancouver, BC and down to Anaheim, CA — BD kept me on the road. Here is just one memory. Here is another. This is another BD memory (actually, the movie was The Road Warrior, this was The Colony Theatre across Portage Avenue from the downtown Winnipeg's Hudson Bay store, the girl we bumped into was named "Carole" and was probably a grade or two ahead of us. I stood around with my hands in my jeans pockets and wanted to talk with her some more, but she just wanted us to disappear. Who can blame her, really?). This is my reminiscence of Winnipeg's downtown The Bay store. BD was my prayer-partner in those days. He is currently in Uganda developing a walking tractor.