In the water as you would guess, she was showing all the signs of trying to paddle with a shaft as long as an 11th century lance; Arms flailing up in the air, trouble keeping the shaft vertical with draws, etc., all things we see with new students anyway, but magnified by a paddle shaft much too long for the student or the boat.
I realized the other day how out of the loop I’d become when I watched a class being taught the “slap and tickle”, no wait, I mean “Slap & Dink” version of the low brace. I had a vision of Captain Kirk turning to Spock and saying, “Aren’t you dead?”
So anyway, I was looking through our class paperwork a while back and I was reminded of that bit about instructors arriving a half hour before class to prepare. I thought to myself, “Heck, we’re preparing the night before!”. What am I saying?? Some of us have been preparing for years, and continue to prepare in one way or another everyday of our lives… Half hour..? Wouldn’t that be something!
Back in the day every salesperson on the planet was told by some mysterious oracle that paddle shafts should be as long as a punting pole. Of course back then some thought crawling in a big paper bag inside a mattress lean-to would protect you in case of nuclear attack… Of course like all myths, these crazy ideas come from somewhere and often contain grains of truth.
This was not a kayak symposium or training event. There was not a prerequisite or guideline for paddlers to follow. It was simply a community event that took place on and around the water. Other than the paddling clinics everyone was pretty much free to well, sink or swim…
New paddlers or people who don’t paddle very often tend to notice slight breezes and subtle changes to the environment. They’ve got their “self-preservation radar” turned to full. Most of us can remember how the build up works; An increase in wind, increases the roar in our ears. We find ourselves pushing a bit harder, leaning a bit more forward and feeling a bit of a chill. We notice the cats paws cross the surface of the water, and see subtle changes in the waves.
Is it true that everyone in paddling but me used to ride with their parents in the back of an old, wood paneled, station wagon up to some Adirondack paradise and paddle past black bears while their fathers who always wore plaid, taught them to use a compass?
