Great Students, New Boats, Harsh Winds
Published May 2, 2011 | 
If you’ve got the hutzpa to take a sea kayaking class in Wisconsin in April, you’re probably going to do OK. That’s been my experience every spring when I head down to Rutabaga to teach that first sea kayak course each year. It’s almost always cold and certainly wet. This time it was ridiculously windy as well. I can’t say this is my favorite time of year to teach. We find ourselves working around a lot of interference & distraction that we wouldn’t be facing once the season warms up and the weather settles down. On the upside though, the students that do show up this time of year are particularly keen to “just go for it”. Continue reading
3.5
Published April 22, 2011 | 
I knew a girl who tried to walk across the lake, / course it was winter when all this was ice.
Thats a hell of a thing to do, you know. / They say the lake is as big as the ocean.
I wonder if she knew about it? – Yoko Ono
Today I spent the wee hours of my morning looking at the 3point5.com system for outdoor industry pros. The “point” as it were, is to get retail salespeople to earn their pro-deal discounts (You did know that salespeople sometimes get discounts right?) by learning more about the products & companies they sell. Not a bad idea. Nothing more painful to watch than a salesperson who has no clue what they’re on about!! Continue reading
psychological support
Published September 11, 2010 | 
Shawna Franklin & Leon Somme of Body Boat Blade are offering up a little bit of paddle counseling with the help of Bryan Smith and Canoe & Kayak Magazine. They are producing a 3 part “How To” series that includes an article in Canoe & Kayak along with supporting online video and discussion. Great plan. As always Shawna and Leon do a fantastic job demonstrating techniques in a way that is fairly easy to grasp for folks of all skill levels. Continue reading
Names Darling!
Published July 23, 2010 | 
Ziggy played for time, jiving us that we was voodoo
The kids was just crass. He was the nazz
With God given ass
He took it all too far, but boy could he play guitar
– bowie
So I got into this conversation the other day. The topic was “Names”. Do paddlers you read about in Sea Kayaker magazine inspire you to sign up for events or symposiums? Would you go any way? Maybe when you read that a certain paddler is going to coach it’s a great idea to attend to get instruction from the ‘masters’ so to speak. But what if the ‘Name’ is only there to present and preside? Should symposiums sort out the green M&Ms for the latest person to paddle across Boyizitbig Bay, or should they save the bowl for a couple great coaches instead? Continue reading
Discovery
Published July 21, 2010 | 
I told you ’bout the Fool on the hill, I tell you man he’s living there still,
Well, here’s another place you can be, Listen to me,
Fixing a hole in the ocean,
Trying to make a dovetail joint,
Looking through the glass onion.
– beatles
Here’s one of those strange and yet weirdly meditative kayak play moves.. this is an open lotus.. to make it more challenging bring your feet in further underneath your body then bring your arms inward, turn your hands up and rest them on the paddle just above your knees. Of course do that funky thumb & forefinger thing as well… Let me know if you become one with the universe!
Yesterday I went on a short rant about the concept of “fun”. The main point of the story of course is that fun is not a commodity, but an organic result of an experience. Some people struggle with the concept of fun and yet know it to be important, so they say the word repeatedly in hopes of conjuring it into existence. I think this has consequences as well when we start mainstreaming “experiential learning” & learning through play” under the recently hip label of “Discovery Learning”. Experiential learning and learning through play are actually fairly slippery concepts and doomed to become failures and distractions if we don’t “feel” what we’re doing out there. We again can’t simply say we’re all about “Discovery”. Continue reading
Arms Down
Published July 13, 2010 | 
You can poison my cat / Baby I don’t care
But if you talk in the movies / I’ll kill you right there
It’s just the little things
Yeah it’s the little things
That drive me wild
– alice cooper
Rolling a kayak is easy. Learning it is hard. Teaching it, even harder. As instructors we know how easy rolling is, which can make us blind to all the little things you need to do right to get your roll consistent. My major focus as an instructor has always been body control. I hate the C to C roll for sea kayakers because I find it disappointing for the students and way to much fun for the instructors because they get to spend so much time talking and demonstrating. The C to C is also all about testosterone in the beginning which runs totally against many students natures.. I could go on and on, and I will (I’m sure) but for the moment I want to tell you where I was cocking things up… Continue reading
Everybody gonna sing it out
Everybody gonna dance around tonight
Well you can come on to my place if you want to
You can do anything you want to do…
-mccartney
I have to tell you, I really dislike events where the organizers spend too much time telling coaches and participates what sort of time they are having; “We had a great day, didn’t we!!?”, “What wonderful weather we had today!” (so far so good….), “Remember, the most important thing we should do today is have FUN!”, (Warning! Warning!) “Give yourselves all a round of applause!” (There’s the wind up, here comes the pitch!) “Fun, great, fun, wonderful, fun, great, fun, weather, wonderful, fun, love, vendor, fun, sun, wonderful fun on a sticky bun fun!!!!”… (AND…. breath!)
You know what I’m on about! While all this pep talking might be fine in small doses, I think everyone knows what sort of “time” they are having and telling them shouldn’t be necessary. In fact when people start telling me what sort of time I’m having, I start to feel psychic beat down coming. Continue reading →