I foolishly volunteered to do swim support for the local triathlon this weekend. Almost immediately the old adage that "No good deed goes unpunished" was proven as I backed into my carport with the kayak still on the car (well it was on the car when I started backing in). Actually the kayak was saved by Mariner Kayaks "anti-carport roof fouling stern" design. I am sure you can find all the details on their website, but needless to say the kayak just rode up and over the roof with minimal damage. However the racks pulled their clips out of the door frame taking significant paint with them and one tower collapsed putting a rather large dent in the door rail. The dent was just the right size and location to keep me from being able to replace the racks on the car. With no way to carry my kayak it looked like I was not going to be able to help with the triathlon. However I used all my cunning and guile to con a friend, Winnie, into getting up at 4:00 am so she could come over and pick up me and my kayak in time to get to the sunrise start time for the swim. Heck I was so persuasive that I even convinced her to bring her kayak and help out with the support. The wind was going to be light and the site was protected and there were going to be lots of other kayaks and boats for support so it would be an easy day. Remember "No good deed goes unpunished". Well the site is protected from all wind directions except NE and the wind was light at the airport some 20 miles inland where the forecast is actually centered. So there we were at 6:00 am standing in a 15-20 mph NE wind watching the waves breaking over the low sea wall and creating all kinds of rebound clutter at our intended launch site. Another couple with kayaks pulled up and we agreed that we should move our launch to the beach where the swim was starting in order to avoid all that messy stuff. We did manage to get down to the beach without running down any of the athletes trying to get through the check-in area but just barely. Winnie decided it was too rough for her to try to act as support. She had paddled in rougher conditions, but sitting still and especially trying to help a distressed swimmer in these conditions was more than she wanted to try. The couple who drove down with us consisted of a father/daughter team with father being a swift-water rescue certified fireman and daughter a lifeguard with experience in Gulf Beach surf. They were both in sit-on-tops and carried rescue floats. I was in my touring kayak and was carrying an extra PFD to use as a rescue float. We were joined by the wife of one of the triathletes in her sit-on-top. There were no jet skis and only one motor-boat for support. I was really glad to have that experienced father/daughter team out there. This was a sprint triathlon with only a 1000 yard swim so they placed the turn around buoy about 500 yards offshore. That meant that almost all the swim was in a semi-surf zone (steep waves with lots of breaking waves near shore and occasional breaking waves all the way out to the buoy.) None of the waves were very big but sitting sideways to even an occasional breaker can be quite interesting. I was assigned to the buoy since I could get out there quickest. As we paddled out, the wife of the participant was flipped and had some difficulty getting back in so she went back to shore. That left just the three kayaks out there. I am pretty sure most triathlons in Texas are held on calm water (usually lakes) so this was a big challenge for most of the swimmers even though it was a short distance. Stacy (the lifeguard) wound up doing 7 rescues and was flipped over 3 times by panicked swimmers. I was luckier and did one short assist and one rescue. I was trying to stay inside the triangle that was supposed to be the course but the swimmers lost direction in the waves and we had returning swimmers crossing outgoing swimmers and I got caught in the middle. I put in a lot of effort trying to stay out of swimmers way while still getting to the few who looked like they were having problems. I need to learn the proper brace for reaching across two swimmers next to your kayak and staying upright without hitting anyone in the head. A 6 in long sweep stroke that would turn the kayak 90 deg would have been useful also. Anyway in the end we got everyone in safely and that is what really matters. It was nice to find out later that the last swimmer in (whom I followed all the way back in from the buoy) finished the race and actually said he enjoyed it. Now if I can just remember 4 things: Never volunteer, never volunteer, never volunteer, and the kayak does not fit under the carport. No real chance of remembering since those senior moments are coming more often every day. Mark J. Arnold *************************************************************************** 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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