art of letting go
Published April 10, 2008 | 
JB of Milwaukee shows off a draw
This always cracks me up. The first time I ever rolled because I actually HAD to roll was the result of being silly. I was doing a simple draw or as I like to say, “pulling my boat sideways”, and I brought my paddle in right next to my hull and SPLOOOSH! I didn’t know the solution to that little predicament was the simple art of letting go!
When we are first learning to paddle we soon discover that there are mermaids hiding under our boats waiting to pull us over. It’s always when we bring our paddle right up next to our hull and suddenly their mischievous side appears. Of course, what’s really going on is opposite forces are working against the boat and the paddle. When moving our boat sideways the boat is going in one direction and are paddle the other. Suddenly it comes to the side of our boat and stops. The force of the moving kayak has to go somewhere. If we just leave our paddle there, we’re going swimming. We essentially “trip”. In time of course we learn to keep the blade out a bit and we become adept at slicing it out of the water before that force takes over. Sometimes though we can still find ourselves wrestling with the mermaids. The solution is simple. So simple that you feel like a fool when you learn it; Let go. Yup, just release your top hand from the paddle and let it go its own way for a moment. When you release the top hand the paddle will then pivot on your lower hand and take the pressure off. You are then free to sign a refrain of, “How Dry I am!”.
Freya Says. . .
Published April 9, 2008 | 
I got the new Canoe & Kayak Travel Issue today. I’ve only flipped through, but look who I found! It’s Freya! Sorry the guys at C&K would come here and kick my tail if I read it all to you. I did understand the bit there about being an attractive female, but . . someone has to describe “chossy” swells for me. . . ok, I’m going to go read that bit about Justin & James. Oh wait? 9 things I don’t know about the Outer Banks. . . Only 9?? Amazing what you don’t know you know. You know? Well, I’ve got some reading to do. . .
watching the wheels
Published April 9, 2008 | 
I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round,
I really love to watch them roll,
No longer riding on the merry-go-round,
I just had to let it go
- lennon
There has always been a standing rule in business that says, “If you’re not growing your dying.” If you don’t follow that rule you’re often thought of as being a bit thick. Maybe. I’ve never bought into that idea. I look at it like blowing up a balloon. You can only grow so much, then eventually you either pop or slowly lose air. An individual hungry to grow his business will reach out like an octopus to build up his market. Success is marked by buildings, investments, share holders, ad budgets, employee rolls and all that other stuff that comes with growth. In the end that individual risks becoming a cog in his own wheel. Thing is, never ending growth like life, is unsustainable. Never ending growth is also not a goal, just a moving target.
I started my business 11 years ago quite by accident. I had no money and little education. (yeah, I did drop out of highschool) The thing I did have was a keen interest in learning new things. I followed a path tha went everywhere. I sold vacuum cleaners, promoted stage shows on the East coast, worked at a farm implement store & wal-mart, worked at ICF and 3 years at a state park, did theater, toured with a rock band, bar tended, covered local issues for a newspaper and a billion other things in between. Eventually I got into web development. . Only because I had a cheap Packard Bell PC from Wal-mart and a couple books! Somehow a local campground got wind that I might be able to build them a website. Funny thing too since this was 1996 and having a website was still pretty innovative. From there the rest as they say is “history”. I should mention as well that I had an employer who left his job at a university to become a wine maker. He understood my head and gave me every leeway to follow my own goals and still get a paycheck.
Over the years I’ve had many opportunities to grow a “real” business. The thing was, along with it came visions of all the things I didn’t want to do. All the restrictions that “working for a living” puts on us. The goal I set instead was to earn enough to pay the bills on my own. Hey, paying bills seemed rich to me!! (still does!) Over time I managed that. It took a long time too! But the good side was that when the larger firms were going under when the first internet bubble collapsed, I personally was growing. In fact many of their customers were coming my way.
These days I have a pretty large number of clients and publish a variety of travel websites. Between development and advertisers I manage to eek out a fairly comfortable living. Comfortable means an old country house with a roof that needs painting and old cars that stay running. By US standards I’m still bloody poor, but “poor” of course is a matter of perception.
Of course you can imagine I feel a strong loyalty to other small businesses I work with. I have a bias. I know what the little guys have gone through and I understand their goals for themselves. It’s not about making gobs of cash. It’s about a sense of self. Backing up your work, spending real time with your clients and believing in what you do. The reward is that with your client’s support you get to live a slightly less structured lifestyle.
This is true of course in the Paddling industry as well. There are companies in constant growth and small businesses just plugging along. Thing is you don’t want to jump to quickly to assume the little guy is being buried. He may just be taking it slow and easy and as Lennon said, enjoying “Watching the Wheels go round”.
If you’re interested here’s my real life. . .
Kayak Klutter
Published April 8, 2008 | 
Nothing like a little mid-day post! The morning started out a bit crazy as I had an 8am client meeting which of course means getting organized for that at the same time you’re trying to get a kid off to school. Crazy times! While dusting around my office I was just taking in all the kayak stuff that seems to fill every corner, shelf and floor space. Truth be told I tend to collect trinkets anyway. Please someone tell me I’m not the only one with a room full of kayak clutter!!!
Speaking of clutter, I’ve also been busy trying to work out my summer paddling season. Between teaching, trips, symposiums, and my real job it’s a bit like air traffic control. It looks like I’m going to attend about 5 symposiums this summer. I signed up this morning to do an instructor training program with Shawna Franklin & Leon Somme’ before the WMCKA symposium at the end of May and then just a few minutes ago I confirmed a trip to the Qajaq Training Camp in Michigan. That’s exciting. I hope they let me in even if I don’t have a Tuiliq!
This cracks me up! Still sitting on my shelf is this bottle of Tesco sunblock. I guess I should use it sparingly. It would be a heck of a hike to get another bottle!
Oh, and for something completely different. . . Simon Willis, who publishes a great blog by the way, posted a video first impression review of his new Werner paddles. Check that out here.
Alrighty then, I should get back to work!
River Food For Sea People
Published April 8, 2008 | 
If you come down to the river
I bet you gonna find some people who live
You dont have to worry if you got no money
People on the river are happy to give
-j. c. forgety
Well, there have certainly been a lot of cross-dressers, no wait, I meant “cross-paddlers” around these days. If you’re still a “no-current” type sea kayaker you’re really missing out on something, and it’s more than just the fun.
Here in the Midwest it’s easy for a sea paddler to overlook current. The Great Lakes are just inland seas in many ways but one thing they do lack is the type of tidal variances that cause strong currents. Great Lakes paddlers can surf, but they don’t get a lot of experience in tidal currents, races and over-falls. So Midwest paddlers with a mind toward ocean paddling have to find other ways to build up their skills in dynamic water. The simple answer is river paddling.
Ok, now before you get you’re undies in a bundle and start fretting over getting your old body in one of those tiny playboats, that’s not what I’m talking about. Well it can be, but not necessarily. What I mean is taking your sea kayak on the river and not just any river, but one with some nice currents, eddies and bits you can surf. This doesn’t mean running class IVs in your sea kayak, what it means is finding spots on even a small river that offer you the opportunities to practice working the dynamics of the flow. Often you can find areas where you can play all day in one spot without ever having to worry about shuttles. It just takes a bit of searching.
My local river is a great example. Although it’s shallow and small, there are a couple spots that are perfectly set up to practice moving in and out of eddies and currents, ferry crossing, and even a bit of surfing now and again. Whereas a play boater might find them small and boring, they are quite nice for a sea boat. All of these skills practiced on the river translate quite well to the dynamics of sea paddling.
In some ways sea boating, even on a small river can be a bit more technical. First, the currents are often much faster. Moving in and out of eddies requires your edging and bracing skills to be rock-solid. Again, due to the speed of the current and sometimes the turbulence of a shallow river, ferry crossings can take a bit of practice to get clean. Even those tiny surf waves provide a good chance to sharpen your boat control skills. On the sea, you often ride nice wide waves that offer you lots of room to move while still keeping your ride. On the river the wave may only be 3 feet wide, maybe less. Keeping your sea kayak on that wave demands constant adjustments. You find yourself changing your edge constantly just to keep centered. Translating those river skills to the sea can at times make the sea seem a bit more relaxing. Well, other than the ocean waves can be brutally huge and the raw power can be a bit of a shock! Still, the skills themselves do cross over. Thing is, we’d love to always be out on the big stuff, but if we can’t or if we are just learning new skills the little stuff offers some fun opportunities as well. I’ll talk more about some of the specifics in posts to come, but with the new season approaching I just wanted to open some eyes to the possibility.
frigid as. . .
Published April 8, 2008 | 
As wrong as the map that led us to this
As blind as the bat that watched our first kiss
As tame as the moon you held in your hand
As wild as me, and as frigid as England
- cutting crew
After a few years of blogging about paddling It’s not like I’ve not talked about cold water safety before, however it’s probably a good time for a reminder. Here in the north we are starting to get those days where the air temperature is delightfully warm while the water is still frigid as an ex. Don’t be silly. The fact is if you fall in you’re going to be a sad little monkey. The best option this time of year is to wear a drysuit. Yeah, they do get a bit hot in those warm spring days, but you know the rule, dress for the swim. Drysuits are not as expensive as they once were so if you don’t have one, now is a great time to go shopping. Here in Wisconsin the water on even inland lakes can stay pretty chilly until about mid-June.
Ok, rules are meant to be broken right? As a coach I’m going to tell you to always wear a drysuit, but honesty dictates that I say that there may be situations where I myself will not. Well, this is where common sense & measured risk comes in. I’ll break the drysuit rule IF I’m not alone, IF the water is dead calm and the body of water is small, and IF the air temp is pretty warm, and IF I can stand up, and IF I can then walk less than 25 feet to shore, and IF then my warm car is nearby. All those things need to be at play. Even then I’m wearing gear that will afford me some limited protection for the initial dip and walk in. Still that is my personal decision based on my own experience. I’ve spent lots of time swimming, rolling and experimenting in cold water specifically to understand how I personally react. Those experiences have also taught me that if there is any chance I may swim, and by that I mean simply that the water is over 4 feet deep, or I’m a distance from my car. . I will wear a dry suit.
Someone once said, “rules are for the stupid”, and that may be. Thing is even smart people can be pretty stupid sometimes, so it’s worth at least reviewing the risks before we make our choices.
Xplore
eXplore
eXplorer
Explorer
I was thinking that if you actually say the names it’s pretty hard to make them sound different. Must be my soft “r”s. Any thoughts?