Catch a falling star an’ put it in your pocket,
Never let it fade away!
Catch a falling star an’ put it in your pocket,
Save it for a rainy day! – perry como

prologue

I’m still tired and spacy. Please forgive the typos. But here is my very long report.

We backed out of the gravel drive at four am and took off east. The drive from Baraboo, Wisconsin to Tybee Island Georgia covers a good a part of the United States east of the Mississippi River. Most of the first day we drove through the endless farmlands of Illinois only broken on occasion by a clump of buildings and trees. Somewhere in the miles we passed a large wind farm with turning blades rising into the sky as far as you could see. An exit here and exit there sent us passing through Paducah Kentucky then to a traffic filled Nashville Tennessee and the miles wore on. Somewhere in the dark we slipped into the mountains. When my eyes begin to fail due to the long day and little sleep we pulled off into the small mountain town of Monteagle and spent the night in a log cabin complete with sauna and unique local television programming. We rose with the sun and played on the weathered swings before setting out again to begin the decent down into the heat of Georgia which rose to meet us at the boarder. By the time we reached Tybee Island it was close to 90F and the ocean looked like a dream. Large cargo ships loomed on the horizon as black smudges without form or detail to discern. In a rush we sorted out our gear at the Sea Breeze Hotel and walked the half block down to the beach to play in the water until the sun fell.

On Thursday we ran over to the shop of Sea Kayak Georgia to get ourselves organized. While Mary shopped, Gryphon and I roamed around back to see the salt marsh that slid out to meet white houses far in the distance. A yellow Nigel Dennis Explorer sat comfortably on the dock. (I couldn’t help but notice the seat and back band had been replaced.) Around us were kayaks of every kind mostly of British decent, P&H, Valleys, NDKs, and such. A small stack of white water boats laid against the back wall of the shop. After we had replenished our supplies with crocs & denzo tape we were off for a little classic flowered shirt tourism. We visited the Tybee light and museum then we were off again to play on the beach. By that time I was beginning to feel like a heroin addict with a syringe lying within reach. I had to get out on the sea.

Never having been on the ocean alone I couldn’t help but feel a bit of awe and nerve as I launched off the beach toward the distant white breakers on an otherwise calm sea. Along the way I crossed paths with a returning kayak and chatted a bit with a guy who turned out to be a rep for epic. Obviously he had been here before and told me where to find a nice little surf zone south of breaking waves. After saying our goodbyes I paddled into the waves and soon found out why these waves were breaking. The water which was at least deeper than my paddle was long suddenly met a wall of sand. Beyond this point, the water was only inches deep. I choose to stay out beyond the breakers as opposed to getting beached on the bar. A few larger waves broke over my boat and the taste of salt crossed my lips. After an hour or so of wandering aimlessly around the waves I returned to the beach, stopping to roll about 50 yards from shore. In my mind I could now log a roll in both oceans. Not bad for a kid from Wisconsin.

DAY 1. – The Sting of Tradition

On Friday Mary spent her day with Cheri (Pronounced Sherry) Perry and Turner Wilson. Someone in the group offered that she knew Alex Pak which was met with Cheri elbowing Turner and saying “remember Alex??” with a big smile. So they decided Mary could work on rolls later with Alex and should spend the day working on other skills. In the end she came away with a balance brace for the day. After some time lying out on the water in Cheri’s chopped kit boat she was bringing her arm around to recover from the brace and was stung by a Jellyfish. I’m told this is something that you get used to over time, but the first time around she swelled up quite a bit and had to cut the day short. You know, one way to get rid of the burn of a jellyfish sting is to pee on it. But if no one wants to pee on each other, an orange will do quite nicely.

Day 2. – Foster Care

I spent my first real day on the water with Nigel Foster and his partner, who by the way is pretty darned talented in her own right, learning all sorts of crazy rudders, prys, and utterly useless paddling techniques. I’m a great admirer of Nigel’s mad method. He focuses on using these skills to bring about better balance and better understanding of how your blade interacts with the water. Of course we also spent time crawling on our boats and trying to stand up in the cockpit, on the back deck, and on the hull. I find some of these games are great to use with new students to overcome their fear of “falling in”. No, I still cannot stand in my cockpit for more than a few seconds but now I understand how to get there which I did not know before. It will come.

On the beach at the end of the day Nigel put me on the spot when asked why we would do this stuff. He called me over from my boat and had the woman ask me. “Ah. . . stutter, stutter”. . . Well, I started rambling on about boat comfort. . .” He nicely let me off the hook though. He wanted his answer not mine. So Why? Balance & Technique. Remember that for the test.

One last thing on this subject. At the end of the day Nigel took a bit of extra time to be sure I could perform a stern draw correctly. That really came in handy in my 4 star assessment. I appreciate that to no end. As an instructor you often don’t know how little things you do in a class impact a particular student. So I had to mention that here. Thanks again!

Day 3 – 4 Star Training

Four star training and assessment is fun, no doubt. But in the back of your mind you have a goal. Sure everyone says, “well I’m just taking it as a learning thing and I don’t care if I pass.” My poker face is not that good. I want to pass. As I talked about endlessly in a previous blog, I hate to fail. Even minor failures (see above). I am of the nature to dine on ashes for days so it’s best that I don’t fail or I’m a miserable companion for days on end. I’ll pick myself apart forever. The poor assessor will probably never ask the question, “how do you feel you did?” again after asking me!

Training day was a blast. We went out into strong 10+mpg winds and worked on turns and strokes. Then we paddled over to a nice surf beach and work on “controlled” landings. For those of you who are not quite up to dealing with controlled landings in surf, the basic idea is NOT to let the waves control you. This is not too hard really depending on the size of the waves. You have a lot of choices. You can paddle backwards to slow down or often just leaning back on the deck will drop you off the wave. The idea is to NOT surf, and paddle in on the back of the waves. Or you can surf in as long as you’re the boss. I had a hard time using my paddle to rudder in surf as I was taught to not use my paddle unless I absolutely have to. This is the difference between landing and playing. When playing in surf you want to edge the boat and get the long ride without adding the drag of a paddle. To land you want to go straight in if possible and get your heavy sea boat onto the beach without killing someone and with a minimum amount of beach rolls. Beach rolls, as you know, ‘SUCK!’

In the afternoon we headed out to the ‘Triangle’ which was happily tossing around 3 to 4.5 footers in all directions while a strong wind blasted the tops into spray. The Triangle is basically a big sand bar with deeper water around it. Depending on wind, wave and tide in can get really gnarly. Because of the messed up shape of the bar, waves tend to come at you from all directions. What they called ‘getting knocked off your ride’, I called getting surfed into a brick wall.

The Triangle was a rockin good time and a great place to test your bracing skills. With out a good brace you get to practice your roll. I can’t help but at least mention in passing that the guys with Greenland paddles got in some rolling practice. The guys with the euros stayed on top. What does that mean? Probably nothing, but it stood out to me. My big lesson of the day was to learn to use a low brace on big waves. I had developed a high brace habit which had to be broken.

We worked on rescues which produced my only unplanned roll. I was playing the roll of victim to another student. As soon as he got me in my boat, he let go. SPLASH! I was right back over. I rolled up, shook the water out of my ears and still being right beside him I said, “ah, could you hold my boat while I pump the water out? Cool, thanks”. . .

Day 3 – 4 Star Assessment & The Return of Karmic Retribution

The painting starts with dead grey skies. Wind 10-15 mph and rain coming on and off in fits. The assessors have us gathered on the beach and the lead begins with, ” Imagine if you were on the stand in a court room. The lawyer asked, Were you aware that you were going out in to 10 to 15 mpg winds and 3-5ft seas that most likely would degrade over the day to produce 35-40mph winds with a 9-12 foot sea? We’re you aware that conditions could be well beyond the scope of a 4 star assessment? Yet you freely went out to sea?”. I wondered if anyone else was a little nervous? You see, hurricane Wilma had just battered south Florida and was at this very moment racing up to fly by the Georgia coast on it’s way north to join a low pressure system and create an exciting nor’easter, ala “Perfect Storm”. The plan was to get out into the Triangle right away and try to get the skill work done quickly before conditions deteriorated so far that we could not perform, then duck back into the bay to finish the day.

Myself and two other students followed our assessor, Lamar Hudgens, out into the sea. The first half of the day went well as we performed figure 8s, 360s and played follow the leader through nasty wind and waves. (Luckily the waves were not quite as big as the day before.) We would paddle across a break line, then back through a rip. Boat control was at issue here. At one point we had to paddle backwards through the soup while being sure to demonstrate edging skills along the way. Lamar likes to see a GOOD edge! I cannot begin to express how insane it feels to try to sit in one spot and do the 360 drill in those conditions. For new folks the 360 drill is where you sit in one spot and use forward and reverse sweeps to spin your boat clockwise then counter-clockwise! On flat water you edge (lean) your boat over as you sweep and your coach wants to see the boat turn cleanly without drifting forward or backward. In the conditions of the day I think he just wanted to see us stay up!

Our next task was to do a little T-rescue demonstrations (which I’m sure we did but I don’t remember), then tow. Two of us had minor equipment issues as the knot slipped off the carabineer when we detached it from our belts. Just a quick thing to fix but an issue I’m going to deal with so I don’t have to worry about it in the future.

From there we set a course across a rip to demonstrate our ability to hold our bering, then it was off to a beach to ride controlled through the surf into the beach. At that point we pretended our paddle was our bestest pal and treated them for hypothermia behind whatever shelter we could find on the almost barren windswept shore. Luckily at this point I had my BCU required flask with hot coffee ready. (My other flask with the whiskey was back on the landing). Then it was quiz time. Separately we got out our charts & compasses for a private quiz with the master before we headed back out to sea.

Sometime later as I paddled along I suddenly noticed drag on my boat. I looked back to see my rear hatch cover was gone!! My tail was going under quickly. Even with the bungies I still lost one! So we got another lesson in towing, ME! Luckily being a 4 star class we all had solutions to the hatch cover issue. We paddled back into shore and then put inflated paddle floats into the back compartment and placed a neoprene emergency cover on the hatch. There in the middle of the now calming surf, as I leaned on Lamar’s kayak for support, I looked over to him and said something to the effect of “Ok, Do I have to come back??”. He was smug as usual. I was deflated. I was cooked, or so I thought. On our way back to the launch we had to set out toward a light on the distant shore and hold the line. Both times this happened I found myself going in my own direction further up stream as it were. I was more than a little concerned that I should get over with the others, but my head was telling me I was correct where I was. Then it was back to the launch and each of us had to demonstrate our roll before landing. Oddly the conditions actually got quite flat by the time we got back to the inlet launch. We were to meet in about an hour back at the shop for sentencing.

Now Karma kicks in. Since we had a small group we were back before our rides. Mary was gone with the truck. I grabbed my cell phone, but it was dead! So I walked, in soaking wet gear, in rain, from the inlet over to our hotel. Mary was not there but with lucky timing the maid was cleaning and I got into the room. I dried off and changed. Then tried to find the charger for my phone. I couldn’t. I am not a “finder”, I am a “loser”. (Insert Beck lyrics here; “Soy un perdedor, I’m a loser baby so why don’t you kill me?”) Mary finds stuff, not me. So since I could not find the charger, and I didn’t know Mary’s cell number I couldn’t call her from the room phone. “Ahhhhhhhhh”, I thought. I DO have the Jeep so I can get to my evaluation. “Oh no!” My keys are back in my hatch! So I walked back to the boat, got the keys and walked back to the truck. Then. . . (drum roll) The truck didn’t start! Ok, now I was going to miss my evaluation. I called Sea Kayak Georgia to leave a message, but they very kindly sent someone over to give me a ride back to the shop.

So, tired, frazzled, wet, embarrassed, old, odd & confused I arrived late to be evaluated. . . “Dead Man Walking”, I said as I went down the stares to meet Lamar. I felt sick to my stomach. “So how do YOU think you did?” he asked, as I sat dejected on the bench opposite him. Ooops, he shouldn’t have done that! “Ok, well, I couldn’t extreme edge my boat in the 360s, I was bracing too much. My knot slipped off so I took too long on my tow. I forgot a spare hat for my friend paddle and would have had to cover his head with a sweat-shirt. I blew a hatch cover and had to be towed into shore. I sucked. I should just go back to the beach and launch out about 3 miles and set fire to myself and sink. You know I wrote about this a week ago in my blog. . .you should read it sometime . . . I knew I sucked. . I. . .”

Actually Lamar did not let me go on that long, and most of that rant went on in my mind while I outwardly looked for something positive to say. Thankfully Lamar took over the conversation. He talked to me about 4 star expectations. He talked about the ability to take care of yourself and one other person. He talked about boat control and problem solving. He said that a 4 star paddler is someone you would happily take a long on a 5 star trip. After a pause he said, “I’d be happy to paddle with you, anytime.” Then he said. . . I passed. And I nearly did. Right there. On the floor.

Epilogue

Let me end here with some little observations. . .

Each time you get up another “notch”, you don’t really feel any smarter, talented or skilled. You feel like someone’s having you on.

I must have done some things correctly during my 4 star, but only the assessor could really say. All I know for sure is I didn’t get rolled, and he tried.

I got to see some friends I didn’t expect to see and make some new ones. Hi Hastings!

I no longer carry a knife on my PFD. (but I may again. . See This Post)

My high-brace is now a low-high brace.

There were actually quite a few Midwesterners at the event.

We took in most of the presentations. It was nice to see Gail Green again. The Video from Sweetwater Kayaks about their Labrador trip was great. I don’t remember who the guy from Wales was. Sorry. But, I still need to figure out how it is Wales, Large amounts of intoxicating libations, and sea kayaking are never far apart. I hate to say it, but I admire that quite a bit.

I saw dolphins next to my kayak. Amazing.

We fixed our Jeep. The starter had failed. Drove home. Pretty un-eventful. We were even to tired to stop to buy all the great fireworks in Tennessee that are illegal here.

What did I buy? A Reed Chillcheater Top.

What did Mary get me after I passed my 4 star? A model of the HMS Victory.

this blog post is too long.

Pictures to follow.

-d