Ron Eell Passing Away

[mfdanko99]

It is with great sorrow that I must send out this email. Our club lost a very valuable member Ron Eells.
Ron brought a different style of paddling to the club. He was a retired river guide on the Youghioghney River. He taught many of us a lot of whitewater strokes and eddying out of currents and peeling out back into the current to ferrying across the river.
He showed us those whitewater strokes and how they can work on rec kayaks and gives us the paddler better control of the boats. Ron could do it all from whitewater kayaking to sea kayaking and canoeing. Ron loved to paddle and I say this in a good way; he was a river rat. When we would do side trips to Slippery Rock, Connoquenessing Creek, or other whitewater trips he looked like a kid on Christmas morning.
One of Ron's biggest accomplishments he told me about was getting to successfully paddle the Upper Yough (Class IV & V) with former Olympic paddlers. He called it rubbing elbows with the big boys.

Ron helped bring the idea of indoor pool sessions to the club for basic safety & paddling to a roll session. He was always looking out for other paddlers and offering advice to anyone who would listen. At times he would go so fast that I would get so confused and he would eventually realize I was at step 1 where he was at step 10 of a stroke. :)

He was the guy you always saw in that little blue whitewater kayak with his gold helmet or his 18ft yellow sea kayak to his old town canoe.
For me personally he was more than a friend; he was a paddling mentor that helped guide me into whitewater kayaking and solo canoeing. I know he helped many others in the club and will be missed.

Ron's obituary
https://www.morningjournalnews.com/o...ald-jay-eells/