Just a couple weeks back I was standing in warm water on a sunny beach. . . What the He*l Happened!? Winter storm & weather warnings continue around the mid-west today. It may not be safe to drive, but paddling isn’t so bad. Click Here For The Pictures.
Darlings are you ready for the long winter’s fall?
Said the lady in her parlor
-tull
You never know how these winter storm warnings will play out. The main storm may go south of us or with a bit of a change of mood it could hit us directly. Sounds like the folks along the Lake Michigan lakeshore may get the bigger hit. The nice thing is that on small inland lakes we don’t have to worry so much about “sea states”. So with that in mind it sounds like a good day to go paddle. Maybe we’ll get a bit of snow, maybe not. Could be an adventure!
I remember long ago -
when the sun was shining
Yes and the stars were bright
All through the night
And the sound of your laughter
As I held you tight
So long ago
- genesis
A phrase I’ve heard a couple times recently has been sticking in my mind. It goes something like this. “Circumnavigations are not important, they just provide a logical place to stop”. There is certainly no reason to not to go around something and there’s no reason not to make a note in the records of your life if you were “first”. But I’m beginning to realize that I could be content if I never go around something again. I will, certainly. . (see “provides a logical place to stop”). But I don’t want to miss the point of kayaking either. The kayak for me is there to take me places I may otherwise not be able to reach. When I get there, I should damn well enjoy it! Read the rest of this entry »
Never Stop Learning!
In the end we always get back to the paddling! I have just posted my 2008 Optimist Sea Kayak Symposium Photo Gallery here. By the way it’s really hard to sort images down to something manageable! Even then I still had 74 pictures which I thought at least sort of captured the event. Later I’ll post images from our off the water adventures.
> 2008 Optimist Sea Kayak Symposium Photo Gallery
* In the galleries you may just watch the slide show as is, or you can click the link above the slideshow to see thumbnails and click those for larger images. Also in the slideshow menu there is a button (far right) that will open the slideshow to your full screen. It’s a nice feature but some of the images may get fuzzy.
Tomarrow we all head out. Jeff Allan returns to the UK in the morning, soon to be followed by me slipping back to the US, then Yosale & team who will begin their long flight to Patagonia. Tel Aviv will just have to get used to dealing with kayakers! I can’t say enough how wonderful this experience has been. The guys at the Optimist Kayak Club have went WAY out of their way to make us all comfortable during our stay. They’ve given us all a gift we will treasure for the rest of our lives.
Above Yosale shows off his new Reed Chillcheater gear. His dad flew out to the UK just a couple days ago and brought back all the gear just in the nick of time. I tossed my lucky noseplugs into his bag as well. It may seem silly, but those things have been around my neck for over a year and it’s time their magic was passed along.
We’ll chat again when I get back to Wisconsin. Burrrrr!!!!! I have hundreds of pictures and lots of stories to share. At the moment I don’t dare spend too long here on the computer. I would’nt want to come off, well. . . bookish. . .
Yalla Bye!!!
Only a moment to post today as we are off again soon. . .
After the symposium Jeff Allen, Hadas Feldman, Zohar Navon, and I took off in a Isuzu 4 wheeler and headed into the great rift valley. Over the next few days we explored the Dead Sea, walked the Juda Desert and stayed with Zohar’s family at a small moshav. We climbed to the top of Masada where Hebrew rebels spilled their own blood, killing their wives and families rather than submit to the Roman army. We found a dead Pelican who became stuck in the thick dead sea mud and was surrounded by blood red dye used to color phosphorus extracted from the sea for export. This red polution bleeds from the works along the shore to fill streams and ponds creating images hinting at an old testiment plague.
Past check-points and Bedouin camps we entered Jeruselem and drove through the winding neighboorhoods built upon the Mount of Olives. We walked in the garden of Gethsemane, now fenced and imprisoned by church walls and street vendors selling olive branches, baseball caps and brass menoras, all sold from the hood of a ‘66 chevrolet. I stood quietly as I looked over old cemetaries shaded by ancient olive trees and sprinkled with urban trash. Each grave maked with a body length hoizontal slab of stone, lie side by side over hills and into the deep shaded valleys near the old city walls. Out of respect some had placed stones upon the graves with gentle reverence for loved ones lost.
We drove through the hustle and bustle of the arab neighborhoods of Jerulsem, past open air markets filled with people in modern and traditional dress. An elderly woman sat almost invisable on a sidewalk selling flowers as the world passed by. I snaped a picture and captured the breath of the moment.
There are so many stories interwined in these moments. These stories can be told when once again I am able to sit in the quiet of my little room and consider all that has been. For the moment these images go by like lightning and I’m not quite capable of grasping the details. So stay tuned, I’ll soon have many stories to tell.
*photo by Jeff Allen
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(photo by Hadas Feldman)
It’s just past noon on Sunday here in Israel and I’m done teaching for the symposium. I have to admit I’m chilled to the bone. 4 days of 2 half day classes each is a long time to stand in the water. But the experience is probably the richest I’ve had since I started paddling, which is much better than the disaster I had so feared.Honestly I came to this symposium feeling like a bit of a hack. I am not Turner Wilson, or Greg Stamer. I doubt I’ll ever have their talents. Having my name in a line with Jeff Allen & Phil Eccles was enough to produce hives. I have no legitimacy to share the bill. Sitting on the plane flying into Tel Aviv, I was so concerned that I’d be worthless I was almost hyperventilating. I doubted I could live up to the expectations. What was I doing filling a place that should have been taken by a real “top” coach!?? You take these things seriously when a shop invests in bringing you in. There were pangs of guilt. I felt the weight of taking on the first “traditional” rolling classes in a place where the spark was not yet a fire. It seemed there were some big cliffs I could easily fall off. I knew my weird mix-n-match ways are not the standard and I’m not sure how or if my methods fit into the traditional world. Heck I get some raised eyebrow reactions to my “standard” teaching methods!!
I entered into this symposium with tepid steps. Like a blind man finding my way. Still something seemed to be working. Students were learning to roll. What’s more, many were advancing much faster that I could have ever imagined. Going from Pawlata to spine rolls in one session, or Angel Roll to hand roll in minutes. All anyone really ever needed from me were those little tips that I had only gained from my many mentors. My confidence grew and with each class I came closer to finding my own skin. I felt bit better. A “bit”, tempered because I know that with so many talented people in these classes there was very little I had to do other than open a few windows and let them fly with their own wings. Still my daft methods seemed to be working. Thankfully!!
As I’ve seen so many times before in traditional rolling classes some of the women moved very fast through that first set of layback rolls. I think a time will come everywhere where women will be dominant in traditional rolling. I love seeing this happen after so many experiences working with women whose confidence had been slammed in standard rolling classes. Traditional rolling tips the balance from strength to control. I’d like to say it levels the field, but it seems to actually have unbalanced it in the other direction.
In the end I can only hope I earned my keep. I always remember my BCU training in Wales last year when I was told that my only job was to inspire paddlers to get on the water. If I did that, then they would seek out higher level coaches and move up the ladder. That one idea really took a weight of my shoulders. My goal then has been just to make it fun so that paddlers want to practice and want to learn more. If they go away chomping at the bit to get back out there, then I can feel good. My hope is that this was the one thing I may have accomplished.
