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. . .