I’m feeling pretty bruised today. These bruises are from
last night’s kayak session though I use the word kayak lightly, as approximately
fifty percent of the time it was a swimming session, the constant falling out,
bailing, and getting back in the boat took its toll. I lost count the number of
times I capsized in the hour or so we were on (and/or in) the water.
When we have been at the lake I blamed the need to turn, or
the inability to get up to a good speed as the reason I found the boat tippy so
last night after work we headed to a canal so I could prove to myself that I
can kayak after all. We met with another experienced K1 paddler and I hoped
that I would get a chance to talk to her about boats and technique and other canoey
things but within not many paddle strokes I was swimming. In the end I waved
the other two away so they didn’t spend the whole session waiting for me and so
that I could enjoy my own soggy misery by myself.
I don’t think I am being big headed when I say that I have a
great paddle technique. I have owned fast boats (my Pyranha Speeder is an all-time
favourite) for years and have really focused on my straight line paddling,
unlike a lot of paddlers new to sprint and marathon boats I don’t really have
to learn this skill, I thought I would just be able to focus on keeping a tippy
boat upright but that is proving to be a much harder task than I thought. As I
write this I am still unsure how or why I fall in. It happens so fast, there
must be something I am doing wrong I just don’t know what it is. I am able to push
away (shakily) from the bank, and once I have both hands on the paddle I’m able
to start moving, quite quickly too. Once I thought I was in control I started
to relax into my technique, then bam, soaked. Sometimes I was able to drop a
brace in and save it, turning an instant dunking into a rather protracted tank
slapper, but most of the time it happened so unexpectedly that I didn’t have
time to react.
I’m not a quitter, sometimes I’m too lazy to start something
but I rarely give up on things. This boat is making me have second thoughts
though, I’m starting to think that I am not going to be able to master it,
pretty soon the water is going to be fowl rather than mildly chilly making a
capsize a breath-taking nightmare rather than just being a bit annoying.
Right now I don’t want to get back into the boat. This blog might
become much shorter than I intended.
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