[Paddlewise] Havin' a bad day - or why I'll never be a kayak instructor.

Yesterday, I attended the Georgian Bay SK Symposium, hosted by White Squall up
in Parry Sound Ontario.  The usual crowd of kayak krazies were there, plus a lot of 
new faces.  The weather was spectacular, the best I've experienced for this event
in the three (four?) years I've attended - and I've got the sunburn to prove it (I left the 
sunscreen at home since the forecast suggested clouds.)

Amie and I spent the morning attending on-the-water instruction sessions.  Paddle
stroke refinements with Mark Scriver were, as usual, a worthwhile exercise.  His
approach to paddling (it's a dance on the water and we don't want to do the same
dance all the time) has helped relieve almost all my joint problems.

The turning sessions with Andy Hawksford was my first bad-day experience.  I had
been fooling around and he saw me doing some easy low-brace turns.  So when
we reach that part of the lesson, he asks me to demonstrate one - "I know you can
do it!".  I back-paddle deep into our little bay to get some "running room".  Facing
the group, I have my head down and dig in for some speed.  Looking up, I see that 
one of the other paddlers has drifted into my demo zone.  I edge around him
and look for a place to turn.  It turns into a slalom course through the pack.  I finally
get out of the crowd, with alarms going off in my head - I'm wasting time and not
demoing!  Stage fright starts to get me.  I'm in my new Ellesmere with the skeg up 
and I'm not used to its habits yet.  By the time I sweep, I'm out of the protection of 
the little bay and the bow pushes into the wind.  No turn!  I was too anxious to pay
attention to the wind.  Blush!

An easy paddle follows this session, comparing notes, paddles and kayaks with 
other paddlers.  I check out a S&G made by a youngish woman - nice job from a 
Pygmy kit!  I compare notes on Greenland style paddles with another fellow - looking 
for tips as I near completion of my storm paddle (needs final sanding and oil).  Then 
lunch with the gang.

After lunch, I attend a kayak design session with Mike Henderson of Current Designs.
With John Winters absent, Mike does the honors, presenting a different, West Coast 
view on design.  (I complained about the excessive length of cockpits.)

Then some gunkholing around the lake until a rolling session comes up.  One of the 
instructors had been asking me if I knew the crossover roll (aka the put-across, aka
the Kotzebue).  She wants to get it down and is looking for help.  I said I knew it, but 
hadn't done one in over a year.  I was reluctant to roll 'cause the water was cold and, 
in spite of my drysuit, I'm a wimp when it comes to cold water.

I attend Jack Elliot's Alternative Rolling clinic out of curiousity.  He advertised a roll
that anyone could learn.  It turns out to be a roll from a 1987 (or so) issue of Sea 
Kayaker.  It requires an unfeathered paddle.  Once upside down, you take one end 
of the paddle and stick the end of the blade in the space between the deck and cockpit 
coaming on the side of the kayak and let the paddle float on the surface.  You then grab
the shaft and pull on it.  Voila! you're up.  He had a young woman who had never rolled
demo it.  She got up the first time! (And promptly kept on going over the other side :-)
We got a chuckle out of that!

Folks asked about the unfeathered paddle - "What about those of us who use a feathered
paddle?"  I mention the put-across.  Jack asks me to show it.   I show how to hold the paddle,
etc.  No, Jack wants me to demo it.  Umm...  well...  haven't done it in a while... cold water...
Ok.  Over I go.  Set up... wait... I've got the paddle on the wrong side.  Sweep across... grunt...
no stupid, feather the outer blade so it slides through the water.  A shadow passes over me.
Am I drifting into the dock? I reach up - no.  Oh yeah the paddle...  where am I?  Damn, I should 
have practiced this.   Stage fright does it again.  My lungs ask for mercy, so I switch to a screw 
roll and snap up.  Blush!   Bad day part two.

After that, I get changed and wander around in civies yacking with everyone.  Amie and Elke are
plotting their Adirondack backpacking trip for next week.  We buy stuff - I get a new shirt in the
shop and she gets a bunch of half-price Platypuses (Platypi?) for friends.  Then it's time to 
pack up and go.  

We wander over to her kayak - a new Shadow.  She comments on painting a detailing stripe 
like the other one over there.  The guy standing next to her kayak tells us why they didn't do 
that at the factory.  It turns out he's Gary Barton, the honcho at Bluewater and The Upstream
Edge where Amie's kayak was made.  We chat about it and she points out the crack in the 
hatch cover, courtesy of your's truly.  Gary tells her he'll give her a new one if she pops into
the shop in Guelph.

You know, it wasn't really a bad day.  It just felt like it a couple of times.  I hate screwing up in public.
The day was actually great.  Good weather, good paddling friends, good fun.  But the nagging
feeling that I could never be an instructor.

Mike





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