Well I hope you’re not too sick of my little parlor trick infatuation recently. But for me it’s been another little epiphany. Another step along the path to boat control. By now you know how that goes with me, I get zoned in on an idea and just have to see it through.

FH20 wondered the other day if I was not sharing the pictures of my big “splashes”. Well, no doubt for every new skill or trick is a few hours (days, weeks. .) of me drinking lake water that’s for sure. And now that I’ve really started trying that head stand in earnest, crashing and splashing is coming on in great big fits (see below)!. So far, this is about the best I’ve been able to do. I can get my legs up there and sort of hold position, but as soon as I try to bring them in together and reach for the sky I go right over!! No matter, It will come. I can feel it now. That’s the great part about learning. At some point you become aware that you can learn just about anything if you’re driven to do it. You stop beating yourself up saying “I’ll never succeed” because you’ve been at that “failure” stage so many times in the past that you’re used to it. You remind yourself, “I’ll get there in the end, I just have to push through”. Then you wipe the water from your eyes, and the snot from your nose and go right back at it.

So here’s what’s got me into the circus tricks. First let me admit it. They look so cool! You see all these incredible people doing them and think, “wow, I wish I could do that!”. But even though I admit to feeling a bit of that pressure, It was not enough to make me dedicate any real time to such “silliness”. I tried it a bit last year after that class with Nigel, but after crashing 8 billion times I got over it! I thought, there is no real value in this. It’s just “Parlor Tricks”, right??

Then earlier this year I noticed something; One day while walking with Gryphon along the railroad tracks we each jumped up on a rail and tried to walk them in tightrope fasion which as you know, is a railroad track requirement. Yikes! I suddenly realized I could walk down railroad track rails at a normal pace! Where the hell did that come from!?? I could never do that in my life!!! I could walk fast, stop, turn on a dime and go the other way. . It weirded me out!!! I guessed that I was either becoming some other worldly super hero type (Look Out, RadioActive Man!!) or it was the kayaking. Yeah, probably just the kayaking. (oh, well. . ) So with a bit of twilight-zoney butterly-filled trepidation, I started trying all sorts of weird things. (Yeah, maybe YOU can do stuff like this, but I’m a clod!! For me a miracle had happened. ) I started walking on railings, and stone walls, and whatever I was around. Yeah, I’d crash. . Big, Loud, Amazing Crashes. . . , but I was really much better at it than I could ever remember. A couple weeks ago on a whim, I walked up and over a teeter-totter and back just to see if I could do it. It’s sort of an old silent film, Harold Lloyd kind of trick. You just have to watch that middle step where the totter changes from one side down to the other side down. I must have walked over it 50 times! Then I wondered if I could just stand in the middle and keep both sides up. So as the sun was fading at Thompson’s West End Park, there I was balancing the teeter-totter while tired, wet, symposium attendees were walking back to their campers for the night. . That sort of stuff even gives other kayakers reason to look at you funny!

And then there’s this; I was riding down this steep little 3-4 foot surf wave a few weeks back and suddenly found my daft self out of position as the Acuta began to broach. I was about to be window shaded on a fast surf in like 4 inches of water!! But as it is when you’re suddenly grasped by terror, time slows way down and I felt like I had all the time in the world to get ready to set up for a nice sand roll. In that instant I put my head back on the deck and prepared to cover my face and “shock”. . . I recovered my balance!! Remember the Doug Van Doren bit that “your head weighs as much as a bowling ball”?? Well it seems just getting my head and body down was enough to allow me to find my center and recover against the wave. Laying back without a brace while broaching on a fast wave is not something I’d think of doing for fun, but It’s cool to think it’s possible (at least on small mid-west waves). Later I thought about how laying on the deck is a very comfortable place for me these days. Maybe just laying back relaxed my body and that was why I recovered. Who knows, but that was the closest I’ve been to getting rolled (against my will) by a wave so far.

Mary’s also been working along with me on this stuff. She just mastered sitting on the back deck with her feet in the cockpit without bracing. She got her cowboy recovery back. Cool. She has been excited by improvements in her day to day stuff. She’s been really happy to see that at the end of the day her beach exit from the ocean cockpit of her Greenlander has cleaned right up. She’s not falling over any more. She was also out rolling in a bit of broaching waves yesterday and recovering without the inevitable “wobble” as often happens when you roll up into chop. The play time does have rewards. BTW did you see my silly balance practice routine? (second clip from bottom)

I think that working with traditional rolling has been the bit that really exaggerated my boat comfort and balance over time. I am feeling pretty darn comfortable on the deck of a boat. Then recently I found I’ve started having some successes with the parlor tricks. I’d have to go back in the blog to figure out why I even tried them again. Oh, wait. . It’s Leon’s fault. . “standing in the cockpit is easy” NOW I REMEMBER!!! Then of course, success tends to drive you to push a bit further just to see how far you can go. So now here I am trying to see if it’s possible for a chubby guy like me to do a headstand it a kayak. I figure if John Bulushi could do them out of a kayak, then maybe I have a chance in one. I’ll probably go back out to the beach tonight and give it another whirl. . . and the beat goes on. . .

. . and the beat goes on. . .

. . and the beat goes on. . .

. . and the beat goes on. . .

. . and the beat goes on. . .

. . and the beat goes on. . .

. . La De Da De De. . .

. . La De Da De Da. . .

Ok, Let’s do this today. Each one of us take a moment to go to Rotem Ron’s Journal and post just a quick note of encouragement. Yes, that means YOU too. Rotem is now on her way south down the Eastern coast of Iceland in her attempt to become the first person to solo circumnavigate this island nation. Not quite half way it seems to me. (oh, one third according to today’s post!) I cannot even begin to express to you the true breadth of this challenge. Rotem is amazing! (or crazy, or both). Ahead of her yet Iceland’s wild south coast awaits. I can’t help but think of Shawna and Leon’s presentation about their circumnavigation with Chris Duff. It seems that on the south coast the steep unprotected black sand beaches presented a nasty challenge for the team. These steep beaches dropped into a big dumping surf that no one in their right mind would want to launch into or try to land in. They would try to just stay out on the water as much as possible. But sooner or later you need to land and that means getting back out again. So each day they would draw lots (or something to that effect) to see which poor sod would be last to launch thus receiving no help from the other two. The last person off the beach would just have to accept that they would be getting a merciless beating at the hands of the sea. Sometimes facing many attempts to escape before they could finally break through the angry surf. Shawna said that most of the time the guys were honorable and did not leave her in that position. Heck I wouldn’t want anyone leaving me in the position either!!! I don’t envy Rotem taking this on alone. So if you’re reading today, why not take a moment and let her know we’re thinking about her.

In other news, Misha Hochman and Alon Ohad are setting off on July 1st to circumnavigate Ireland. (by kayak of course). Their website is here. This is their follow-up to their 2005 circumnavigation of Tasmania. One thing quite interesting about this trip is that they going to include a few of their fellow Israeli kayakers along the way who want to gain expediton experience. They take an active part in all the expedition preparations and gain experience for their own future trips. Cool concept! Gadi Goldfarb with join them for the SE, S and SW coasts, Inna Hoichman will then switch with him and paddle on the west cost. You can follow those updates here.

I think that’s it for the moment.

Alright, so where are you going now? Click Here. (and post. .!)

Communion

Relaxation

Balance

Cheetos!

Ok, so here’s something I picked up from Shawna and Leon of Body, Boat, Blade that’s just too good not to share. Balls. I’m using tennis balls but I think anything that floats would be ok. Well, they don’t even have to float but if not, you may end up replacing them a lot.

So there we were sitting in our kayaks just a few hundred yards from the launch at Living Adventures in Red Cliff, when Leon takes a bag of balls (not un-like the bag of balls in the picture above) and begins tossing a ball to each student. While he did this Shawna requested that we each toss our balls in our cockpit. One ball per boat mind you. After the toys were portioned out, we were all left sitting in our kayaks contemplating our balls. What would we do with these?

Now if you see a lot of inference and use of various words related to humorous adult slang, it’s certainly not my fault! Please don’t write letters to me because of YOUR nasty mind. . )

Next Shawna asked that we all be sure our balls were between our knees. Which surprisingly most were. But we were happy for the guidence. Then we played a little catch. With ourselves. . . Rolling the ball from knee to knee. How do you do this? Well, by edging the kayak of course. Lift the right knee and the ball rolls across the hull and under the left knee. Lift the left and the ball rolls right.

Ok then, if you paddle your kayak just a few strokes and then put your ball under your left knee which way will your kayak glide? Left or Right? Usually to the right, correct? Of course this little experiment also displays the difference between edging and leaning. I don’t tend to use this edging experiment with students because they tend to lean their whole body and not stay centered thus producing the wrong results. But you can usually get away with it when working with other coaches. Usually. But to continue on let’s try just paddling along while using edging to keep the ball under the right knee. How does the kayak react? Are you starting to go in a big wide circle? Which direction?

How about sweep strokes!? As I sweep the boat to the right, where’s my ball going to be?

How about practicing hip snaps? With a quick hip-flick can I kick that ball over to the other knee?

You’ll probably find a bunch of other applications once you ponder the concept a bit and start playing with your own balls as well . . . I’ve just started using tennis balls in my own classes. You can see above that I got them wet and had to hang them out to dry.

As I’ve mentioned many times I find kayaking to be a sensual sport. (I’m not sure how well the term “sensual” fits into this post, but so be it!) I don’t learn well from just words or watching someone else. I need to feel it. I think a good portion of early students do as well. Using this method just fits right in there for me. Giving the students sensual feedback seems to set the correct concepts of edging (or J-Leans for you more officious types) in their minds quickly. Personally I’ve taken to using them for about 50% of a day long class. We move on to other things but we always keep our balls in mind as we go throughout our morning. Then by afternoon you take out the training wheels (or training-balls if you like) and can always, as Shawna said, “ask them about their virtual balls” if they get stuck on which way to edge or if they forget to edge completely. The mind can quickly conjure up that sensual/physical memory and get back on track.

I certainly can’t take any credit for this one, but I really want to share it around. What a fun and useful tool! If you’re an instructor you should try it. All you need are the balls!

We had a nice evening out under the stars chatting all about kayaking. We even beat the lightning that was slowly sneaking up on us. I was asked by someone recently if I liked public speaking because I seemed really comfortable leading on the water. My answer was that I do feel comfortable “On the Water”. On land my nose itches and I feel a bit like I’m diving 100 feet down into a glass of water. I always have a nagging feeling that everyone is expecting something else and are just board silly with what I’m actually talking about. I’m not sure what I think they were expecting. . . jugglers maybe? Anyway, I guess you’d have to ask the audience how it went. One thing is sure, I’m really learning to hate computer projectors!

Thanks to the folks at Mirror Lake State Park for inviting me back.