Amie and I, at the invite of our paddling friend, Keith, decided to attend this year's ECCKF. With Keith providing lodging for most of the weekend, we knew that costs could be managable and insect bites kept to a minimum. We left for a two day, 1600km (1000 mile) drive. We opted to take the "interior" route along I79/I77/I76/whatever through PA, WV, NC and SC rather than the "coastal" route through DC and on south via I95. We were glad we did - the drive, especially through West Virginia, was delightful. The scenery is gorgeous and crossing the Gauley and Appalachians was a treat. We were just short of the NC border the first day and got to Charleston SC in the late afternoon the next. Friday morning was a confused mess - shopping for food, getting registered, finding breakfast etc. We ended up eating at a "hippy" restaurant (so described by one of the festival organizers) in Folly Beach and then wandered around on the beach and through the shops. Back at the festival site, we cruised through the vendors' exhibits. Amie tried out a Solstice GTS she wants and gave Tom, the CD rep (formerly the Perception rep) a rough time (jokingly of course). He had "talked her into" the Shadow she no longer wants and now is trying to get her into the GTS. I like the improvements they've made in the 2002 models of the Solstices. For the most part, the vendors' exhibits gave us sticker shock. When you convert to Canadian dollars, we can't afford anything. For some reason, everything is cheaper back home. I don't know whether it means higher profits for the US vendors, lower for Canadian or a combination of both. (Food is the real killer - e.g. orange juice: US$3.39 at Piggly Wiggly is sold at home for C$3.49 [=US$2.18] - same brand from Florida - who's taking the hit?) We also lurked around the Greenland-style paddle making class. I didn't want to interrupt Gabriel or Ray, the instructors, so I kept to myself and introduced myself the next day. Gabriel's made some beautiful paddles - they sure make mine look rather mundane. Compared to the almost furniture grade finish on his, mine look barely more than scratched up 2x4s! It was interesting to see the students quickly turning the wood into real paddles. The interest in Greenland style equipment and technique is increasing. Saturday morning saw us up at 4:30 am to get ready for the early bird paddle. About twenty or so paddlers showed up, including a couple of first timers. We headed out towards Folly Beach and launched on a river leading out to the Atlantic. Keith showed up and we all paddled off into the sunrise. A dolphin surfaced nearby, but otherwise it was a gentle, uneventful paddle. Amie was disappointed at paying for this - we decided to go on our own the next morning. Back to the festival site, I found some breakfast in the car and wandered around. We met many folks and compared notes on paddling destinations. When people heard we were from Ontario, the wanted to know about Georgian Bay or other destinations. Earlier, Andy, a paddler from Bethlehem PA, had compared notes with me on paddling the Canadian Maritimes, particularly Nova Scotia. He goes there every summer and could understand my desire to retire there. (Interesting - only one person identified our origins from our accents and he was a South African! Everyone else assumed we were from NY or some other northern state.) I introduced myself to Gabriel and found him to be a very friendly and pleasant man. Amie, having attended a paddling "debate" with Ken Fink, Greg Barton, Lou L.... and Gabriel commented on how he can disagree with people in the most pleasant way! :-) We also both like Rita - his wife with the cool metalflake Romany. Finding ourselves with time and little to do on site, we jumped into the car and headed to the old part of downtown Charleston to play tourist. It's a lovely old city but we didn't have the time to do it justice. We went back to the site and met with Keith. Heading off, we got more food and settled into our room at his rented vacation home. Pat, his wife, and daughter Emma were there looking rested from a day of walking and hanging out at the pool. We had an awesome dinner of grouper, shrimp and other goodies. Sunday dawned just as hot and sunny as every other day. Amie and I were starting to fade from the heat, having come from a cold spring in Toronto. Launching into the river behind Keith's home, we set out to follow the river to the ocean. We came across four dolphins. They were herding some fish. Once they had them where they wanted, they four rushed the shore, pushing the fish up onto the beach. They then gobbled up the stranded fish and returned to the water. Amie snapped a photo from a distance http://members.rogers.com/michaeldaly2/dolphins.htm. You can see them splashing, with three dorsals and one dolphin's head visible. You can also make out the waterline showing how high up the beach the dolphins had pushed the water. I had seen this behavior on TV, but to see it in person was amazing! We took the channel out to the Atlantic and found ourselves at a perfect little beach for learning how to surf. For Amie and I, it was our first time in real, surfable breaking waves. We had fun and Amie only dumped once. Unfortunately, we were running out of time if we were to make it to the courses we booked at the festival, so we headed back home and thence to the festival. Amie took a paddle stroke course with Greg Barton and was impressed with the instruction. However, she's convinced it is too sophisticated for her level of paddling. I took Ray Killen's Advanced Rolling course and had a ball. When I got out of the water, I found Amie wilting (I called her a fading rose) in the heat. Unlike myself, she had not been rolling around in the water and the heat was taking its toll. I packed her into the car and we headed for home to another of Pat's amazing meals. Monday, the official festival was over, but there were a number of courses still being offered. Ray and Margaret Killen were offering an all-day session on Traditional Paddling techniques. Amie and Keith returned to the surf, then Amie went for a two-hour run (she's guiding a blind woman in a marathon in NYC this Sunday (26th)), then they went to the pool; I found her starting to relax as I got home. My day was busy and fun. I learned a _lot_. Some of the material was not new to me, but it was refreshing to hear others' perspectives or have my existing understandings confirmed. Having no source of info on traditional techniques close to home, I'm forced to learn everything by reading. Seeing and talking can make a big difference. I finally got the balance brace. Margaret had made one comment about turning your whole body in the seat and it made the difference between success and failure for me. I had been turning from the waist and sinking; now I can float with relative ease. The next morning Amie and I slowly worked up the courage to load the car and leave. Two more days and another 1600km of driving got us home. As we approached our house, still wearing shorts and T-shirts in the car, Amie cried "They're wearing hats and gloves!" as she saw our neighbors walking their dog. Our recently bloomed daffodils have died in the cold that has returned to T.O. and it's chilling me to the bone. I hope to return to Charleston and the festival. Next time we'll make a longer vacation and enjoy the area more. Thanks for the wonderful southern hospitality! Mike *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:29 PDT