[Paddlewise] Cool Running

Just a post-script to my last note: I just got back from Beechy Head (in
sight of Race Rocks) with my wife and girls. We hike out there a couple of
times a week. It was running 40 knots plus again. It's so wonderful to do a
three hour or so hike in the coastal wind along the rugged trails, with the
forest ripping overhead with a gusty chorus, trees swaying in huge
crescendos. I hike out here year-round, so get a good visual idea of what
the different wind/tide combinations produce. I mention this just so folks
don't think I go off and do wild things without prior thought, etc.

I also spent the other afternoon at the lake practicing my
separation-from-kayak drill. My Thermofloat SeaSeat is in a new Lotus pouch
on the back of my Mustang inflatable. I practiced getting it out and blowing
it up. During inflation, I use my free hand to take out my neoprene gloves,
one at a time, and put them on, then out comes the neo skull cap. After I
climb on the SeaSeat, I pull out the radio from the other rescue pouch, and
do my mock mayday call. The whole thing takes under three minutes. Of
course, all the kids at the lake then expect me to give them rides out to
middle lake and back, which isn't bad exercise.

Is practice and planning for these fast paced adventures all part of
lifestyle? That's like asking which part of the ocean is wet.

Doug Lloyd
Victoria BC
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