I just wanted to share what a great time I had this weekend when I "got it." I think I owe some thanks to Ken Rasmussen but I'm not sure. I printed off his article on rolling and thought I read it there but when I got home Saturday evening I reread that thing 3 times and it's not there so I'm thinking it was in something else he wrote here. Anyway, all I remembered was something about the zipper of the PFD (that's it!) and I think something was said about crossing the centerline with the zipper. Almost as soon as I got in my boat on Saturday I had that visual of letting my PFD zipper cross the centerline and off I went! It was incredible. I've only been paddling for a year and I have heard other illustrations about pretend there's a big ball in front of you, present there's a box in front of you. Well, I was just taking everybody's instructions and putting them to use the best I could. But this illustration was it! I've tried to figure out why this worked and others didn't and the only thing I can come up with is that it got my focus down near my navel and not up in the chest area. Whatever it was I ain't never gonna forget it! :) I went to a pool session on Sunday and a couple of the women who were on the trip on Saturday commented on my "fast boat." <hahahaha> I had to laugh. My boat isn't fast. In fact, I've only had it a year and I'm shopping for one that fits me better. I currently own a Merlin XT and one of the criterion I have for my next boat is that the cockpit depth is *not* going to be 14". (I'm barely 5'2".) So far I've tried an Ellesmere, a Looksha IVS, and an Elan. I've found a Shadow Hawk that someone is selling and also a Mariner Express that I'm hoping to demo real soon, hopefully this weekend. Janet *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
At 06:16 PM 5/14/01 -0700, Janet Washburn wrote: >So far I've tried an Ellesmere, a Looksha IVS, and an Elan. I've found a >Shadow Hawk that someone is selling Shadow Hawk? I know of a Arctic Hawk and Sparrow Hawk (from Wilderness Systems), a Nighthawk (Eddyline), Sea Hawk (Easy Rider), and several other "Hawks" from Superior Kayaks but I've never heard of a Shadow Hawk. You might want to try a VCP Anas Acuta as well. Definitely don't have to worry about a 14" depth in that one. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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