Archive for February, 2005
Oysters
February 28th, 2005 | 
Author: 
I wrote and re-wrote this post looking ways to not to bring you down. It’s certainly not my intent. I want to give you a good answer to your question. But in the end I have to give you the correct answer and not necessarily the answer you want. Forgive me for this, but a beginner just should NOT be on the water this time of year. There really is no flexibility. This is what I would tell my own family members. The only exception would be if you took a drive to Lake Columbia in Portage, WI. This lake is heated by a power plant and is very warm. Even here you will learn very quickly what wet skin feels like in cold air. Never paddle in water you are not willing to swim in. The point is “beginner” and cold water just don’t mix. It’s just too risky and who wants to kill themselves over a hobby anyway??
Experienced sea kayakers will go out this time of year but we wear a drysuit that will actually keep water off us. Then we wear wicking clothing under the drysuit. Then we also back up this with a bunch of emergency gear. We plan for the worse and hope we never need it. Anything less than a drysuit is too much risk. I know guys go out fishing all the time in row boats and motorboats without dry gear. But note too that most hypothermia deaths among kayakers are new or inexperienced kayakers. They just should not have been out there. I have read various accident reports already this year where inexperienced kayakers have needlessly died due to poor choices. It’s very sad but good people die every year and they just don’t understand the risks they take.
So please, for now, put your kayaks in the living room and sit in the cockpits and watch TV for the time being. (I did that with my first boat) In fact why not get a copy of “This Is The Sea” or other kayaking videos to get the feel for it. Then take a lesson either from Rutabaga, myself or other certified instructor. Give yourself an extra safety margin while you learn, then after you have more experience you can decide if you want to invest in dry gear and explore the winter wonderland by water.
All the best!
Let Me Roll It
Heavy Horses
As much as you would like to think about kayaking everyday, life often draws you to other places. In my work as a web developer this time of year gets just rockin. I’m finding myself backed up into spring. At least then it will be time again to slip back out into the water on a more regular basis. I really miss the summer when I can end most days with a practice session at the lake. I keep my poor old laminated card with all the “must work on” notes out on the deck and begin the routine;
Unload the Warhorse. Carry it across the road and down to the lake. Now the gear. Gawwd, how’d I get so much damn gear!! Back on the water. Boat feels tight. Feeling fat again. Stretch. Paddle to “my spot”. Ready and. . .
Roll, Roll, Roll onside, roll, roll, roll offside. C to C, Sweep, sculling recoveries, laybacks. Grab the Greenland paddle. Do it all over again add in standard roll, storm roll and vertical sculling roll. Then lay on the back deck and catch my breath. It’s at this moment when all the day’s stress is gone.
Ok, now clean forward stroke. Reverse stroke. Keep the damn boat straight! High brace, Low brace. Scull for support, great onside, weak off-side need to work on this. Sweeps. Keep the boat on a dime. Why is it I can’t keep this boat on a dime anyway? Well, try again, and again, and again. Remember, model the stroke. Get on an edge. Slow, easy. . .
Draws. In water, out of water, sculling draw. . Go forward get up momentum. Bow draws. Pry? YIKES! almost lost it again. Never pry. . . Slide paddle from Bow to hip to stern. Neutral blade. Good. Open it up. Just a bit. Lay on the paddle turning in a nice wide ark. Look behind you, you’re safe just lean out on your paddle. Wrap right round to your goal.
Water & Candy Please.
Now work on that static. Still not there. leg down. . Arch the back. nope. . glug, glug, glug sweep back up. Hand roll?? Look at the bottom, look at the sky. Simple. NOT! Made it once, but VERY sloppy. . . No repeats.
Rest.
Ok. Paddlefloat onside, off-side. Scramble. Flip, scull, sit. No problem. Re-entry roll. No nose plugs. Ooops, choke!!
All right, let’s be Nigel Foster and stand up. wobble, wobble. . . I’m Up! I’m Up! Oh, Sh#T! I’m down!!
Lay on the beach. Stretch. Watch the clouds. Paddle back out. once around the lake and back to the car. Tired. Getting cold. Turn on the heater. Turn up Jethro Tull. Load the boat.
Go home. Find food. . . .
Posted in Learn To Roll, Learning, My Paddling, My Weird Life, Paddling | 
Tags: devils lake, practice | 
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Under Ice
“It’s wonderful, everywhere.
Everything is so white. . . ” – kate bush
I picked up my kayak on Friday! So.. It was only natural to get out on the water on Saturday. Luckily we had a perfect day for it. I made the two hour drive over to Milwaukee to meet a friend there and we found a little spot between huge Icebergs (for the Midwest) where we could launch. There were others there as well from the Milwaukee paddling group. However they went out some time before we got on the water. As is my habit, I had to take time to get some pictures before we could head out.
I forgot how heavy my barge actually is. At least I think I forgot. It could just be that I am totally out of shape. We spent the day running between burgs, going through Ice arches and gabbing about whatever came to mind. What a fantastic day. I had never been on Lake Michigan this time of year and it was amazing to see the many ice formations and to see drift ice dotting the water far out onto the horizon. I was excited by the sound of the water slapping up under the shelves sounding like a magnified wet towel being slapped against a wall. Then as the water subsided a shower would fall from the shelf until the next wave came in. We also went on a hunt for a wreck that is in the shallow water however the marker is a milk jug that surprisingly we couldn’t find amongst the ice. Right before we went in I did a quick roll just to be sure I hadn’t lost it in the last month and a half since I was out last. Sloppy but up. Up is as you know, the important part. What a great day.
I have pictures posted in the gallery. (Milwaukee Feb 12) You will see a lot of pictures of “JB” who is an instructor from the Milwaukee area and was one of my ACA ITs. (instructor trainers) You will find him teaching at Rutabaga in Madison and at the Door County symposium this summer.
Once again I re-re-updating all the galleries. I keep finding pictures I should have added and have separated some out into their own galleries. I have many old “film” shots that I took before I had the digital camera and am still scanning them in as I have time. I think most galleries have at least a few new shots now. I have also captioned many of the pictures as well. Tonight I am going to try to sort out all my 2004 NEWkayakers event photos. I still have some prints to scan and add in.
It’s great to be “aqua-mobile” again. We plan to go out to lake Columbia next weekend for a day in the fog.
I think that’s it for the moment. So I will just wrap it up here.
updates and goings on
Greetings lost souls,
Come on, if your reading this you’re lost. .
It’s 5:30 in the morning and my day is going to be pretty busy, but I did have some updates I wanted to tell you about.
First I have some new links to other Sea Kayaking Blogs out there. I HATE the word blog, so can we please say “journals” instead?
To my list of Favorite kayak related books I have added Chris Duff’s book, “On Celtic Tides”. No one needs me to tell them about Chris Duff, but I finally was able to sit down and read this book and felt it really needed to go in the “Must Have” list. In the end the draw for me was the common ground or ‘water’ that any kayaker can find in his love of the elements and the connection to life that sea kayaking can only enhance. There is a short story of how he had to swim out into the frigid water to rescue a small boy who had drifted out to sea in HIS boat. Yikes! I had to just put the book down and get my emotions back in order before I could continue.
This summer looks to be a busy one. I am filling my weekends with kayaking events as much as possible this year with a goal to get the “public” experience I need to become a better instructor and paddler for that matter. I hope to be assisting in some shape or form at both the Inland Sea Kayak Symposium and the Door County Symposium. AND if humanly possible the West Michigan symposium as well. It also looks like my wife and I will be working at Canoecopia next month in Madison, WI. To add to that I plan on working on my first BCU assessment as well as instructing wherever ever else they will have me.
I think that’s about it for updates. The suggestion is that I will actually get my boat back today and I may get out to paddle lake Michigan on Saturday. Yippee!
Rum & Coca Cola 0r “Oh you vex me, you vex me. . “
Ran down to get my boat today as it was to be done. but. . . It was not quite done. Oh well. I can get it tomarrow. So for tonight it’s Rum & Coca Cola and tomarrow it’s back to working for the Yankee dollar! Now where is that Andrew Sisters CD??
I MISS MY BOAT. . .
Please gather around the fire and listen to my pitiful tale . . . .
A great beginning if I had a story to go with it. By now almost everyone within 3500 miles of Wisconsin knows my boat is waiting patiently to be repaired. I really need a garage, but while I’m dreaming I could use a house within a couple miles of a coastline as well. So fate being what it is I have no choice but to be patient. I certainly understand the trials of the poor guy who is backed up at least until the great George Bush moon landing. But I still really miss my baby. The hope is it comes home this month.
My old blue Nigel Dennis Explorer is just under 18ft long and about as heavy as fully laden Mississippi river barge. (Not to be confused with a coconut-laden swallow) The fact that I am a gear hound does not help matters any. But I really appreciate the old axiom (cliché?) that says “ I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.” In some parts of life that’s just a justification for collecting crap, but in sea kayaking this is a given. So I have lots of gear and a damn heavy boat.
Luckily someone else traded it for a new boat and there it sat at the local paddle shop covered in snow. I practically mortgaged my dog to get up the $1400.00. In fact the day I went to see it my chest locked up so bad thinking of the cash I was going to layout that we left without buying it. Then about 2 miles in the direction of home my wife and I pulled into a parking lot while she encouraged me and I swum in the guilt of the purchase. In the end we turned around and went back. Many of you know how you try to keep your bursting excitement contained when you finally get your big toy. I think I did a good job looking like I do this every day. We got it loaded and I hardly considered it all the way home. I could not let go of the expense. It’s like having Indiana Jones’s dad in your head saying “Look What You Just Did!, I Can’t Believe What You Just Did!: Then I planted it in the yard and comatosely stared at it for days as it rested in the brown grass. After that, it has hardly spent a night outdoors when it was not on a beach. Not only is it a beautiful boat, but I can’t imagine it in any other color. . .
The first time I took the warhorse out it was skittish like a horse with a first time rider. I was sure I was going to swim in the just thawed waters of Devil’s Lake. Somehow though we stayed upright. My boat kept me up even if I didn’t have a clue. From that day on I knew I was in good hands. I just needed to learn to be equal to my steed. Something I am still trying to do today. I think it may take a lifetime.
In December of ’04 I was involved in a rescue on Lake Michigan. The interesting part of the day was how conditions got worse as you passed through the surf zone. You would expect it to settle down out past the breakers but that is not always the case. I was so locked in the task at hand that I really had little time to think about boat handling. The fact that I came back in one piece is a testament to my Explorer. In many ways I had no business in the situation I was in, but often situations do not wait for your perfect moment. Sometime I hope to post a detailed report but today I am only thinking of how I with only meager skills, was able to quickly lean and turn myself round in the nasty conditions that day. My explorer allowed me to never fear my inabilities. I did not consciously make any effort to lean into the big, fast, sloppy waves coming in from the northeast. I was too busy. The warhorse stood solid while I took care of what I could do and never asked me to do anything to care for it and in the process it took care of me.
When I took her/him.. ( I have never made a gender assessment of my boat) down to be repaired I realized I only wanted the necessary repairs done. Fix the bone, but leave the scar so to speak. The big gouge in the rear deck gel coat would be remain as a reminder that it took the hits for me and how it kept me alive on that day. They also remind me why I have to keep working to earn “the boat”. I know that it’s of a rare bloodline and deserving of a skilled rider. I can’t be sure I will ever get to that point, but every time I see that beat up old boat I will be reminded why I want to keep trying. . . Thank you, Nigel wherever you are . . . . .
Man, I sure do miss my boat!
Posted in My Paddling, Paddling, Repairs & Modifications, Safety |
Tags: Explorer, ndk, Nigel Dennis, rescue, wisconsin |
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