I was in Veracruz (Gulf of Mexico) for a week with my family. We were in the beach called Chachalacas where we plan to have a small kayaking club for foreing visitors. (N 19° 25.9' W 96° 19.5') Paddled four days. Very calm seas, excellent weather, no rain. Water was warm and transparent to 4 - 6 feet depth. Snorkeling amazing in the same place where last spring we could see only sand due to choppy conditions. There was some wind at about 2 PM and died again by 6 PM. It reminded me of Christopher Columbus when first crossed the Atlantic in 1492, and spent in September several weeks stranded in the Caribbean seas with no wind, waterless and with no way to move anywhere. Sailors were superstitious and thought it was God punishment, because they dared to go west beyond the accepted limits in the flat earth held by 4 big monsters. Contrast in the Gulf of Mexico is amazing in the summertime. Last year waves were on the 3-4 feet with winds on the 20-25 mph at noon time. If hurricanes are close it can get pretty bad, and it is of course the ideal playground in the wintertime for advanced kayakers because it is very windy 2 days out of every four. Anyway, I was taking it easy. My ten year old boy and I went in two singles up river in new streams unexplored by me. I also deviced a new way to practice rolls that works pretty well, and wanted to share it with you. You place your paddelfloat on the offside blade (non rolling blade). You set up to make your roll with the normal blade on the roll side. You roll and if you are successful you keep on practicing. If you miss a roll, you change the paddle side and you roll up with the paddlefloat side. That way you donīt have to wet exit to inflate the paddle float and pump water out of the cockpit afterwards, or have somebody close by to help you. I tried it way out and proved that it works. Then I practiced my rolls with more confidence and increased my success rate. As I mentioned before, a roll with a well inflated paddlefloat and an extended paddle is very hard to miss, so having that resource at hand increases your confidence. Best Regards, Rafael Mier-Maza el cayuco chief. *************************************************************************** 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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