I see a dark sail on the horizon
set under a black cloud that hides the sun
.- tull

You can’t paddle all the time, every day, every year. Sometimes you simply need to walk away for a bit. Go hiking, biking or find some other way to enjoy nature. Of course sooner or later most of us end up right back I the kayak. It’s right there that we get a little refresher. A bit of wind and we abruptly reminded why we rant on and on about torso rotation and we are also reminded exactly what muscles we let get out of shape when we took a break.

When I turned up into the strong headwind my shoulders and arms suddenly just felt as if they were locking up trying to pull my kayak into the wind. At the same moment I realized I has somehow fell back into arm paddling. I reset my body and my head and started over. I turned my torso allowing my paddle to enter the water up near the front hatch. I tightened my abdomen and turned my body bringing the paddle back and propelling the kayak forward. I popped the blade out of the water with my thumb and having twisted my torso in the previous stroke, I was set up to slip the blade in on the other side and unwind repeat the stroke on the other side. Soon I was back into the old habits and paddling into the wind with my torso again. Just for a moment, I had forgotten. Now I was moving into the oncoming wind and making fair progress. Of course the next day my lower abdomen wash chiding me for not paddling in awhile. Yeah, I deserved it.

—

I’m off to Canoecopia in an hour or so. If I post at all today it will be on Twitter.

Related Posts:

1. Torso by Simon
2. THE BIG SWEEP
3. Turning Your Kayak In Wind – A First Step
4. Studio Drawings in Mixed Media. . .
5. Wind