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Vicky Taylor-Hood

@vthood

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Powerlifting athlete & coach
CanPL Secretary
Personal trainer-quilter-hiker-photographer-kayaker-Nfld🇨🇦
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In the last many meets I have spent way less time taking photos and editing vids and a hell of a lot more time focusing on the people and just soaking up how damned lucky we all are to have each other in this crazy sport.

I’m trying to fix that, but still skewed more to talking and listening at the event than lensing. In somewhat haphazard order, weighted a little light on lifting, I grabbed some memories:

1-3: Eat with a chef if you ever have the opportunity. You will get 4x your money’s worth. Food is amazing. Deer & Almond is astounding. @krillinthebencher @deer_and_almond

4. Lower Fort Gary, a visit which spun me into the vortex of remembering and relearning everything I learned in grade six social studies about the Riel rebellions, the Metis and the Red River. Unbelievable how much I remembered. May 1987 seems somehow validated.

5-7: I may have spent a chunk of grad school studying Cistercian libraries and it is possible I have a weakness for monastic ruins. Notre Dame des Prairies Cistercian ruins at St. Norbert.

8-10: Equipped benchers getting well earned medals way past their bedtimes. Those were insane sessions but damn what a fine coaching crew we had pulling it together! @lindaburns3016 @mercer_alison @sewmanystitches_nl

11. Curse-breaking bruise. IYKYK. Plus side: a health chunk of 135kg cannot break my arm. #bonedensity

12. Found a lifter. Picked her up. @cptnguyenlifts

13-14: The Leaf with @lindamcdazzle and @nerdypl. Jackfruit and Linda’s lipstick?

15: A terrifyingly powerful group of great people. Never underestimate how much fun masters lifters can have in the warmup room.

16: The Ofical Cricle Team! Tremendously hard-working folks with big hearts, strong backs and a dedication to game day coaching that showed in every session.

17-18: Dragon and cool tile in the Exchange Distict

19: Found six new-to-me kinds of garlic in the ‘Peg to plant on the Rock.

20: Turns out powerlifting is full of ‘em.

Great week. Excellent people. Damned fine community.

#commonwealthpowerlifting2026
#winnipeg #friendship taken in 2026 Commonwealth Powerlifting Federation Championships - Winnipeg, Canada by @vthood

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8 days ago

I miss breathing with the ocean.

#reentryishard #landbound #exploitsisland #kayaking #seakayaking taken in Exploits Islands by @vthood

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a month ago

Spinning through memories and wondering where the summer went…..
#kayaking #seakayaking #exploitsisland #sunset by @vthood

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a month ago

“Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning….”

#exploitsisland #reflections #decksitting #morningcoffee #DoIHaveEnoughPhotosToGetMeThroughTilMay taken in Exploits Islands by @vthood

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2 months ago

One of the things that makes Exploits so powerfully alluring is the group of iconoclastic characters who share a love of her beauty and who pull together to form a community. Almost without fail the summer denizens are enthusiastic, creative, and joyful in highly original ways. It’s a fun place to live with an incredible dialectic of tradition and opportunity, wisdom and adventure.

I’m going to miss the islands with their quiet early mornings and star-strewn harbour nights, but I’m also looking forward to next summer when the people who are still there share the stories they are collecting now with us.

See you next summer, folks. And thank you!
#friendship #community #exploitsisland taken in Exploits Island by @vthood

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2 months ago

We are a little spoiled by being able to step out the front door, walk the paths to the beach, and hit the water to explore places like this.

We stopped at this beach the other day and discovered what I thought at first was a disassembled wall but upon reflection I think were flat rocks from inside lobster pots. However if anyone from Exploits needs a small slate wall, I can give you the coordinates!

#beaches #seakayaking #paddlingadventures #exploitsisland taken in Exploits Island by @vthood

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2 months ago

Doing more of what makes me a better Vicky with the people who matter most to me, be it in a kayak, with a barbell, or up to my elbows in compost, either botanical or administrative.

#kayaking #exploitsisland #adventures #therarelyphotographedvickyinhernaturalhabitat by @vthood

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2 months ago

Adventures with J and K. Duck Islands, salt marsh, glassy paddling and a friend or two.

#exploitsisland #exploitsmagic #seakayaking #kayaking #familyadventures taken in Exploits Island by @vthood

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2 months ago

Some things never get old. They might change a bit, like this view has, with new window sashing, a few trees grown up, wharves built and slid into the sea, different boats, different seasons, but the prospect stays fundamentally the same.

I’ve been staring out this window for over fifty years now and figure that it’ll hold for another fifty.
#mornings #coffeethoughts #exploitsisland taken in Exploits Island by @vthood

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2 months ago

Give me a tide pool and I’m lost for the morning. Add a snail and you might not see me again.

We paddled to Duck Islands yesterday to see if there were any Great Blue Heron around. There have been a couple skulking in Squid Cove and the island rumour mill had it that they were camping out at Duck Islands and just swinging to our cove for snacks. This required investigation. Side note: We *do* have good snacks in Squid Cove.

Thinking ahead, we planned to arrive at high tide so that we could enter the salt marshes between the Duck Islands by the southern entrance. We checked the tide tables and the wind forecast (which predicted we would paddle into a light breeze and be blown home) and set off.

The trip over was nice paddling. Duck Islands are a series of four islands next to a large rounded rock resplendent with the vibrant greenery only found on rocks where gulls flourish and have eaten and processed food in abundance for a very long time.

We rounded into the main harbour and pulled for the marsh entrance at the lowest of low tides. Paddling of a kayak therein was not possible, but paddling of feet beckoned. Side note: do not confuse the high and low columns on the tide tables.

There were no heron on that day. There were superabundances of rock crabs, clams, and mussels and one rather lovely live moon snail who sat unperturbed in the channel, his house above the waterline and his foot happily buried in the silt. I called him James, because I am a child of A. A. Milne and there was a snail named James who reached the end of his brick and I respect that level of deep satisfaction with simple achievements.

I may have sat with James for a solid fifteen minutes. He moved half an inch. It was momentous. I feel like I’ve learned something but am not sure quite what.

Final note: while I misread the tide tables (I cannot call this a mistake as it resulted in happily meditating with James the Moon Snail), I did not misread the wind charts. We sailed home on a soft southwesterly.

#kayaking #duckislands #seakayaking #tidepools #exploitsisland taken in Exploits Island by @vthood

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2 months ago

Photo credit @katherinetaylorhood , mackerel credit @me-and-Bert-and-Kip, squid credit @some-guy-in-a-boat-called-Noah, off the rocks at Mad Moll in a 1-2m swell with crashing waves who hollered “ya want enny squid??” and then pulled up alongside and shovelled 100 into our bucket when we needed 12 which prompted us to take our 36 mackerel and 100 squid up and down the harbour, peddling a dozen here and there to Shawn, the Primmers, and Maggie-with-whom-I-used-to-powerlift’s husband and friends and dropping mackerel off to @allidj and Dirk and @adventuresnewfoundland (Paul and Jo) until we ended up with 6 mackerel and 5 squid and a nice full freezer.

Can’t wait to do it again.

#exploitsmagic #mackerel #squid #fishing #exploitsisland by @vthood

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2 months ago

Home for a rest….

…. After six days of coaching with a truly incredible team of coaches who not only can play numbers and tactics but also nailed the human component of the game beautifully. Hit the island tired but happy with what we built this week and so proud of the Canadian team of athletes.

Mathieu, Philippe, Daniel, Lily and Raphael - you guys are all amazing. Different personalities and skill sets that meshed perfectly. Thanks for this week - I’m grateful to have been a part and will jump at the chance to work with any of you again.

#home #exploitsisland #napfs2026
@coach.ken.sthpowergym @phil.electrique @coachdanzah @lilylifts99 @professionalweakbench by @vthood

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2 months ago