[Paddlewise] A Serious Question

Definition, wuss: a spineless creature,  turned jelly like with fear.

Some of you may think this is cute and laugh a bit. Whether this is a joke
at my expense of the laughter of the shared but denied experience only you
can tell. And for the younger folk you may miss it entirely but, again
we'll see in a few years. Now my wife says I'm long winded and I promise to
work on that, just not yet. You see I am "losing my groove", or at least my
balance, gaining fear and worst of all turning into  a 'wuss'.

Now I am a decent paddler. I have two folding kayaks and a couple sit on
tops and I have had a plastic double and a surf ski which I did not do very
well with. I have handled a bunch of difficult waves in Lake Superior,
Pudget Sound, Hawaii and in Northern & Southern California. Not long, great
expeditions or hairy class 5 whitewater but enough to have some experience
under my belt. But the skills seem to be fading. A recent example: My wife
& I were out paddling our sit on top kayaks a couple weeks ago. We launched
out of King Harbor in Redondo Beach, CA, Unlike some harbors it is just a
couple minutes to being out on the ocean. The swells were pretty big, some
of the larger ones we have been on but they were not breaking. In fact on a
scale of  1 to 5 the whole paddle prospect was a 3 and if you are one of
those ice bound folks who have been cooped up all winter waiting for a
paddle it would be at least a 4. But I did not feel comfortable with the
waves. And I have been on bigger waves than this. As long as I faced the
swells I felt fine but that meant only that I would paddle away from shore
forever. I was dreading turning around and there was little fun in not
feeling comfortable going diagonal to the waves to get where ever I wanted.
So I turned back in but my wife was happy as a lark to be out. Yes, she
knew the swells were pretty big but we had handled ones like this so what
was the problem? So we might dump & recover. But I really didn't want to
dump & recover. It was fun in Hawaii but even with the wet suits I just
didn't want to do that to myself.

I know I am freezing up. Its like watching a kid learn to use a bicycle or
to ski, you know they need to loosen up but how can I get my self to do
that? So my balance may be off, maybe due to loosing 30+ lbs in the last 4
months, but you think my balance would be better. Or maybe I am just
getting older (recently turned 50), but my wife doesn't seem to suffer from
this syndrome. And maybe I really need to paddle my folding boats, I have
come to love their flexing and seaworthiness. Yes, I know the sit on tops
are about as stable as a kayak can get superseded only by something like my
folding kayak or a cruise ship.

So whats the prescription? Put back on some weight? Have a few beers? Get
out and paddle more? Take a rolling class? Skip the rough stuff and stick
to the bays where I love to paddle & watch the birds?



I tried my folding single kayak out today just on the back bay and its
great. I love the rhythm of the paddle. I love the bird life but a man does
not like to bee seen as a wuss in his wife's eyes.


"A man with one watch knows what time it is,
a man with two watches is never sure..."  -  Albert Einstein



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