RE: [Paddlewise] Forward stroke

> I went out to a local pond last night to try out some of the forward
> stroking tehniques in the canoe.  Got to the pond about 4:30pm and
> there was a 5-10 knot wind blowing and a few storm clouds not to far
> way.  The water was kinda ragged but no waves.
> 
I put in and headed into the wind and tried the technique.  The first
thing I found was my stroke was too long so I shortened it up so I was
planting the blade somewhere near the vicintity of my knee (I'm
sitting).  I would then pull the blade back as perpendicular as possible
while thrusting forward with my hips.  (I felt like a horny teenager
trying to pull is first date closer.)  With a little experimentation, I
decided my paddle was about 6 inches too long so I started grabbing if
by the shaft with the top hand.  The paddle was originally for a soloing
a 15 foot Mad River.

The wind is now in the 10-15 knot range and some small waves are forming
and I'm moving along into it tryng to get my body parts to work in
unison.  There's a lull in the wind when I run out of pond so I head
towards the end of the pond which is about half a mile away.  I'm
paddling along pulling and punching and thrusting and seem to make fair
progress but now have a problem steering.  I experiment a little and
come up with sort of an inverted sweep with a more pronounced "J" stroke
at the end and that helps a little but I'm still switching sides every 4
or 5 strokes.

Meanwhile the waves are picking up and I'm starting to surf on some 1
footers.  I look down towards the end of the pond and see a lot of rough
water but say "what the hell" and continue on.  I get down to the end
and turn around into a 15-20 knot wind that doesn't let up and start
back.  The waves are a steady 1 foot high with an occassional set in the
foot and a half range.  I have a pretty fair task ahead of me and revert
pack to my old style of muscle paddling.

I'm tacking back and forth making fair progress.  I'm on a shoreward
tack with the wind blowing me in faster than I'd like when a guy comes
out of a house and tells me I can putin there at his house till the wind
dies down.  We chat a little bit while I'm paddling like hell just to
stay even with him.  I finally thank him for his offer and continue on.

A little further on a good looking young woman comes out and offers me
the use of her dock until the wind dies down.  I tell her I've been out
in much worse than this and I'm having a good time.  She insists and
offers to drive me to the putin.  I decline and she says she's afraid
I'm going to get swamped and drown because I don't have a PFD.  I say,
"Sure I do, it's right there behind me."  She says "Well at least put it
on".  I look at her, think for a second and say "I can do that".  So I
pull in and get slammed around on some rocks while I put it on and take
off with her watching me unitl I went around a bend.  

When I'm tacking away from shore, I'm heading into the waves and they're
smashing into (not over) the bow and by now I'm soaking wet but holding
up real well.  Bear in mind this is a little 11 foot, single seat canoe
with about 2 inches of freeboard so waves tend to get a litle exciting.
About 2/3 of the way back to the putin the wind dies down to about 10
knots and the waves subside and the rest of the way is pretty easy.  All
in all took about 35 minutes to get back, including chat time.  I tried
the technique a couple of times with some success but had trouble
steering so I went back to the old way.

As I'm pulling into the putin, there's a boat tied to the ramp and
healthy young blond in cutoffs and bikini top is wading out  into the
water.  Then she starts bending over sweeping her hands in the water and
I figure she's rinsing herself off or something.  As I get closer, she
looks up and says hi and I try desperately to maintain eye contact.  

Her SO comes down the ramp and I ask "How ya doin' " and he says "Not so
good".   They've lost their car keys overboard and the woman was trying
to find them and they don't have a spare set anywhere.  I say "What a
dummy!" and of course tell him my sad story about losing my PFD and keys
last year.  For some reason, that doesn't make him feel any better.

Well, I guess I didn't really have a fair chance to test out the new
technique what with the wind and the waves and the good looking women
and all.  Maybe I can get out again with the canoe tonight and the 'yak
over the weekend and try again.


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