Checking In From The Dry Hotel
Published July 11, 2011 | 
I woke up this morning to a blood-red dawn, dark around the edges with flashes of white. Before the sun could light up the day, heavy storms squashed the light. As I walked the dunes I came across a deer standing on one of the high mounds silhouetted against the glow. An amazing sight!
At the moment I’m sitting in a dry hotel room taking advantage of a bit of time and a good WIFI connection. I’ll write more about last weekends events when I have more time to take it all in.
This year I spent most of my time at the Door County Sea Kayak Symposium out on trips. It was a nice change of pace, but it was odd not to be doing any rolling classes. Maybe that was a good thing though. A woman on one of my trips who has been working on her lay-back roll, told me she took a rolling class to continue working on it the day before. Her instructor told her that she had to learn the C to C because a lay-back was too dangerous in real-world conditions. (Any Comments??) Being a pretty mellow person, she took it in her stride and tried to learn (again) another rolling style. Not surprisingly she said was a bit tough trying to switch from where she was. I’ll bet. She should have had an accident with her paddle if you ask me. Why are there still coaches out there that think THEIR way is the ONLY way to do something?? I don’t care how many DVDs you sell Mr. “Uber coach” and I’m sure you’re better at everything than I am, but telling students they must learn a C2C as the only “safe” roll, and forcing students to stop learning one roll in mid-stride to learn your “required” roll puts a big blotch on your cred as far as I’m concerned.. Oh, well.. what do I know!?
I was better off out in the wilderness paddling around with folks like this guy! (above) Yes, that is a beer can, but it was empty when we found it. Still, we thought a photo might give Nancy our Door County symposium organizer extraordinaire, fits if she saw it and that was well worth the set up! By the way the guy with the nice can is Jacob Stachovak who you may know from his recent Portage To Portage adventure. I’ll be seeing him again in a few days up at Grand Marais. Better get more beer!
Well, that’s enough rambling for the moment.. We’ll check in again in a few days!
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Posted in Coaching, Commentary & Rants, Events & Symposia, My Paddling, Paddling, People | 
Coaching, door county, rolling2 Responses to Checking In From The Dry Hotel
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Great post! Sounds like a “rolling czar” needs a revolution. Love the STAGED photo! Got the AED ready for Nancy. See ya Thursday!
I suppose that is the difference between a coach and an instructor – one facilitates learning, the other teaches (what s/he knows or thinks that knows)