Archive for the ‘My Paddling’ Category

Yes, i’m your angel,
I’ll give you ev’rything
In my magic power.
So make a wish and i’ll let it come true for you.
Tra-la-la-la-la.
– yoko ono

It’s just silly to leave some great kayaks sitting in the shed when someone else would love them, and when what I really need is a solid roller.

What a sad, sorry state of affairs this is.  How many kayakers know this story.  I have lots of kayaks.  Still I’m not really happy. Usually that results in someone saying you just need one more boat…. Well.. No.  Not now anyway. What I need is about 3 less kayaks and one good roller.  However it happened, I’m a guy who lives “rolling” and yet I find myself without a low volume rolling kayak.. Duh.  This has to change.   Only, like many of us I can’t simply run out and drop three grand on a new Anas Acuta or Tahe Marine either.  It seems it’s time to cull the herd.    Read the rest of this entry »

Everybody gonna jump and shout
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.   Read the rest of this entry »

To draw you must close your eyes and sing. – Pablo Picasso

Do you have a paddling song?  Maybe a whole repertoire? What songs do you sing when you paddle?  How did you choose them?

People have paddling songs for lots of reasons.  Some folks sing in groups just because they are class clowns or entertainers.  I remember once paddling with a group of guys who knew all the lyrics to all the songs of the classic nautical musical, “HMS Pinafore”.  That took some work and obviously needed to be shared around whenever possible!  Besides, what better way to impress the girls than singing tunes from “The Lass that Loved a Sailor”? Read the rest of this entry »

I said, “Just tell me something before it’s too late and we’re gone
I mean just how safe is this boat we’ll be on?” – Sting

Today my workload is a bit heavy, not least of which is that I need to commit to a kayak to take to the Door County Sea Kayak Symposium coming up in about a week.  As usual, the level heads of friends, well-wishers, readers & psychologists have convinced me that doing some repairs on my old NDK kayaks is probably a better choice (and more valuable) than selling them off for something new, and maybe not so tough.   Read the rest of this entry »

After class yesterday I did two things I’ve never done before in my whole life… I went to Starbucks for a latte.. and I paddled a Valley Nordkapp.. Not much to say about Starbucks other than “Meh”… The Nordkapp?  Well, let’s talk about that tomorrow.  Happy Father’s Day!

I was hungry and I’m hungry still
And now it’s pouring rain
I look o.k. but I’ve been feeling ill
And now it’s pouring rain
– bob geldof

Yesterday we had flash flood warnings in our area, but that didn’t stop us from getting out for a bit of a paddle!  Heavy rains and flooding are getting to be typical for early June in our part of Wisconsin.  It’s defiantly a climate change, but I’d be hard pressed to tell you why.  Whatever the reason it’s been flooding pretty regularly since the ’90s in our area.  The local lake has been so flooded that the state DNR finally incorporated a permanent drain!  Read the rest of this entry »

And a bearded lady said to me –
if you start your raving and your misbehaving –
you’ll be sorry. – Tull

It’s O.K. to suck at something. Kayakers often forget when they were afraid they would fall over on flat water, but most of us have been there. Over years we learn all sorts of fun, fascinating, and “cool” kayaking skills. Even so, there are always things we’d like to be better at, and certain skills that we can never seem to perfect, our “Achilles Stroke”, if you will. Mine is using sweeps to turn-in-place. I struggled perfecting it for so long I think I developed a mad case of sweep-on-a-dime-o-phobia, I can do it, cleanly, smoothly and the rest..but I never and I mean NEVER feel comfortable. It’s that one move that still makes me break out in sweats when I have to demo it. As I said, we all have those moves that drive us crazy. For some it’s an offside roll, for some it’s side-sculling, for others it’s a hanging draw. What’s you’re Achilles Stroke? What’s going wrong? Maybe someone around here can offer some tips!