[Paddlewise] Earth Day Kayaking

I had been asked about a month ago by a local kayak dealer if I would be 
available to help with kayaking at the Earth Day/Bay Day celebration.  I 
called last week to see if I was still needed.  It turns out the local dealer 
is not selling kayaks anymore, does not know who is bringing the kayaks or 
what they want me to do, but is sure they still want me to show up.  I got 
down to the county park along the river at about 7:30 am.  The activities 
were not scheduled to begin until10:00 am, but I just had to get some 
paddling in on such a nice day.It was dead calm, about 60 degrees and the 
radiation fog was rising off the river in thousands of little wisps. I did 
about 11/2 hours of sprint work.  Sprinting (its still pretty slow, but is 
seems like sprinting to me) for 10 minutes and then just drifting for a few 
minutes and then sprinting again.  During the drifting the bird songs were 
wonderful.  I think there must still be a few migrating warblers coming 
through.  I never got a good enough look to identify them, but the quick 
jerky movements and the songs certainly reminded me of warblers.

When I got back to the launch area, the kayaks had arrived.  There were 10 
Perception Jocasee's from the university's (Texas A&M Corpus Christi) 
wetlands education program.  The wetlands education program teaches grade 
school children about wetlands and their mportance through a three-day 
combination of kayaking, seining, and mud core sampling. The Jocasee's are 
recreational doulbe kayaks.  They are wide, stable, and with their single 
large cockpit are very easy to get in and out of.  Although they are not 
speed demons, they work real well for kids (and adults) who have never been 
canoeing or kayaking.

My job was paddling kids whose parents did not want to go paddling with them. 
I not need have worried about wasting a day without paddling.  From 10 am 
till    4 pm I paddled kids up and down the river.  My kayak stroke may never 
be the same again.  Sitting in the back you have to match the stroke of the 
child in the front.  For a 15 minute demonstration ride you can only give a 
little instruction. You really want the kids to have fun and not think of 
this as some kind of lecture.  I had fast strokers who would put Greenland 
experts to shame.  Of course they only had a 3" stroke and about 1/4 of the 
blade in the water.  I had kids who finished the stroke on one side and I 
swear counted to 10 before starting the stroke on the other side.  I had flat 
paddlers, vertical paddlers, and even one kid doing a version of the 
Greenland sliding stroke (this kid obviously has real potential).  By the end 
of the day I was not sure how to hold my paddle, much less how to use it 
properly.  But I managed to keep from banging paddles most of the time, kept 
us out of the trees along the bank, only got run into by another kayak twice, 
and most importantly made sure the kids had a great time.

I also got to talk a little about Greenland style paddles and boats and do a 
couple of very simple rolling demonstrations.  I was sure that they were 
going to be eskimo rescue or wet exit/recovery demo's, but I made it up on 
all the rolls.  Most people down here have only seen sit-on-top kayaks if 
they have seen any kayaks at all so they found the Greenland boat and paddle 
very interesting.  I hope we got some new people interested in the sport.  We 
did not save the planet, but everyone seemed to have a great time.

P. S. - A note of caution if you ever get called upon to paddle an open 
cockpitted kayak.  Do not forget the sunscreen on your feet.  I now have 
brillant red and white markings on the inside of my feet and ankles.  Red 
from the sunburn and white from the sandal straps.

Mark J. Arnold
MJAkayaker_at_aol.com 
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