Rejuvenation

Well, it's been a while since I posted because it's been a while since I've paddled. I have been on the water - a few workout paddles, a quick river trip to try out a new boat - but nothing to write home about (I guess that makes this blog my home...). Partly it's due to the incredibly dry winter we are having in California, leaving the normal rivers too low to boat. Partly it's the high gas prices that make trips to the coast a little expensive for just an ordinary paddle. Partly it's been work - winter means covering the retail floor and planning the season ahead. But mostly I just haven't been incredibly motivated to paddle.

Everyone goes through lulls and I've been focused on a lot of other things in my life. It's not that I don't enjoy paddling anymore but it just moved down the list of priorities for a little. And sometimes once you step away it's easy to forget why you used to put so much effort into getting out on the water. But if you're lucky you have some friends there to remind you.

So this past weekend I taught at the Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium. It's an awesome event with great coaches from around the world and students from up and down the west coast (and beyond). This was the fourth year and it now feels like old home week. But it actually started out a little rough for me. I was leading the coastal tour on Saturday and we made the bold decision to launch from Rodeo beach and paddle one way around Pt. Bonita and in under the Golden Gate bridge. It's always a little nerve-wracking to take students through the dumpy surf and into such an exposed location, especially when the forecast is for 9'-12' swells and winds to 25 kts. But I had help (Deb Volturno was teaching with me) and the students were eager. We all got off the beach fine and I decided to roll to cool down in the warm sunshine. But on my way up I hurt my knee (subluxed kneecap) and flailed trying to complete my roll without my leg. I swam and I was in pain. But we got me back into my boat and I could paddle, if not walk, so we continued on.

Things went smooth around Pt. Diablo and we stopped at black sands beach for a nice lunch. Getting out of the boat was more painful than sitting still but at least I could still limp around. As we ate the wind picked up and after a little excitement on the launch we tried to head in past Pt. Diablo. But the ebb was early and strong, and the big swells had arrived, creating some really challenging conditions. One of the students flipped just short of the point and we did a quick rescue to get him back in his boat. But in the confused seas he flipped again before he could really get going. Luckily the safety boat was nearby and I waved them over - we loaded him up and they took him around the corner where we all regrouped in the shelter of the point. It was the first time I've ever used a safety boat but it was the right call - there wasn't any real danger and we could have gotten him back in his boat and headed back to black sands to wait out the current. But the safety boat saved the time and hassle and allowed that student and the entire group to continue on with the trip and get the most out of the day. By the time we got back everyone was happy and excited about the successful day but I was exhausted - it wasn't exactly a smooth return to paddling and I was worried I had spent all my energy when I had another day of teaching ahead.

So I took the evening off - I skipped the presentation by Jon Turk (I heard it was great) and I got a warm shower and some pleasant conversation. The next day I was teaching Advanced Rock Gardening though I didn't know if I was going to be working with Roger Schuman or Jeff Laxier. The forecast was worse and the uncertainty of it all weighed on me that evening. But I was second chair for the day and I trusted that either Jeff or Roger could carry the load if necessary.

I ended up with Jeff, a good friend of mine who runs Liquid Fusion Kayaking out of Ft. Bragg, CA. As always, he brought enough energy for the entire group and he chose an ambitious plan of heading out to Pt. Diablo and working our way back in. It would mean trying to come in under the bridge against a major 4.8 kt ebb at the end of the day. But once again the students were eager and we hit the water. My knee was fine once in a boat but my shoulder was hurting (trying to roll without my legs was a bad idea). It was a fair bit of work getting the class to cover the distance while still teaching skills and concepts - a very dynamic and challenging teaching environment. But we made it around the point and found some good features to push the students without creating too much carnage. We came back around the point for lunch and after a full day of playing we were ready to head in. The safety boat warned us that the earlier class had a couple swims fighting the ebb and we prepared for the worst. But the current was fading quickly and it was a piece of cake. Some folks even went back out to try it a second time. Once again when we got to shore it was smiles all around. The weekend was a success and I had even gotten a little energy back.

While in the parking lot cleaning up I finally got the chance to talk with my friend Paul Kuthe. We had said hi earlier, but as is often the case at such symposiums there was no time to talk since we weren't teaching together. But Paul and the rest of the Portland crew were going to stick around California to paddle for a few days. And I had conveniently arranged to take a couple extra days off work. So the plan was formed to head up to Ft. Bragg and meet up with Jeff's partner Cate (Jeff was staying to do the BCU Five Star training) for a couple of day of rock gardening on the Mendocino coast.

After a couple of days of teaching that were fun but hard work, it was great to get out on the water just for fun. On Monday Cate took us to Noyo Habor, a two minute drive from her house (where she kindly put us all up). We didn't launch until noon and we didn't paddle more than half a mile. It was a mellow and relaxing afternoon (that still cracked two boats and ripped a drysuit) and we topped it off with a nice dinner overlooking the harbor and some ice cream and beer back at Cate's. The next day we drove a little further and launched from Van Damme for some cave and tunnel exploration (with no damage of any kind). My shoulder was still hurting and my limp still noticeable, but as we sat on the beach and watched the sunset before driving home, I had remembered what was so great about paddling. It was the people and the place, the bounce of the waves and the splash of the sea, the sense of belonging and the fun without effort. This is what I had been missing.

We still have no rain and my schedule is more office than paddling. I may not get the chance to boat with friends again in the near future. But I won't forget the past four days anytime soon. And I know I'll be back to have more good times sometime in the future. And when I do I'll be happy to share them with y'all.

Enjoy the video and some pictures.

Higher levels

Leading the group in for a landing

I've said before that my favorite people to teach are other teachers. Some people like to teach beginners - it's hard to match the joy of introducing a new sport, one that can be life changing, to eager students. Some folks like to teach advanced courses - the chance to do some paddling that is truly fun and exciting while welcoming some new blood into the brotherhood. For me, instructor training is the highest level of coaching. It's more involved, more complicated, and more rewarding than any other class. At its best it delves into the minutia of how to transfer information from one person to another; it dissects the human psyche to develop systems and stratagems to help students learn as quickly and efficiently as possible. It's down right complicated and that's what makes it fun.

Apparently purple isn't visible enough

So this past weekend was a special treat as I assisted teaching an advanced open water ACA instructor certification course in Half Moon Bay. The advanced level cranks everything up a notch - the candidates are more experienced and motivated, the coaching is at a higher level, the conditions and locations are more challenging, overall it's just more fun! It was also a chance to work with Roger Schumann who I've known for years but never gotten to teach with before. And in addition, everyone in the class was a friend and paddling buddy. So it was really about workshopping with peers, where everyone is contributing ideas and sharing experiences.

Flat water fun

This being an advanced course we also got to go play in some fun conditions: a day of surfing 4-6' waves at Pillar Point; playing at Yellow Bluff and under the Golden Gate with4.5 knot currents; and a little rock gardening out at Pt. Diablo. The only disappointing thing about the weekend was the lack of wind - we needed at least 15 knots to create the proper conditions for the certification but in the three days of the course the wind never once reached that speed anywhere we could find. It's a sad day when December in San Francisco can't manage to stir up at least a little winter weather. But we made do with what we had and even at the end of a long weekend people were still playing around on the way back to CCK's classroom and the Princeton Boat Yard.

Pt. Bonita Rock Garden video

Don't have a lot to say, it was just a nice day of paddling on the coast with friends. Waves were a little big, but I'll let the video do the talking on that.

New moves

Sometimes it's interesting to look at the stats on this site. Occasionally I'll see that an old post is getting a lot of attention. Often I have no idea why but sometimes it makes sense. Lately I've gotten a number of hits on a post I did last year on off season training. Seeing as how we're back into the off season it's reasonable that people are looking for ideas to stay or get in shape. The article itself is still good but since I wrote it I have added a couple of exercises to my routine that I think have made a real difference so I thought I would share them. These are both particularly well suited to kayakers but are great core exercises for anyone that does anything.

1. Planks. No, it's not just lying still in strange locations. It involves using your core muscles to hold your body straight in alignment instead of crunching to compact them. The basic technique is to prop yourself on your forearms and toes and hold your body straight just off the ground. This better simulates how we use our core and works all the muscles in the region. The variation of a side plank where you use one forearm (or straight arm) to extend the body off the ground helps focus on the obliques.

2. Mountain Climbers. It doesn't actually involve climbing. You start in a pushup position with arms straight and you alternate bringing one knee at a time to your chest. Twisting the right knee towards your left elbow and vice versa is great for paddlers wanting to improve their torso rotation. You can add to the workout by throwing in a pushup in between reps with the legs.

What I like best about these exercises is that it doesn't take any equipment to do them. You can do them anywhere and they don't take much time. And they translate very directly for kayaking.

Here is a site with a little more description and you can do a google search if you want to see video.

Assessing Risk Assessment

Risk assessment seems like the topic d'jour. Perhaps that's just my perception, but between the incident at Lumpy Waters, the record number of whitewater fatalities this year and the instructor training I've been doing, risk assessment and post-game dissection has been a recurrent theme in my world. Part of that is the growing trend in kayaking towards the extreme, part of it is a modern aesthetic of justification through analyses, and part of it is the nature of 'social' media and mass communication (all these damn blogs...). While there is lots of useful discussion, debating, debriefing, dialogue and deliberation, I would like to throw a little reality check into the mix.

First, all the Monday morning quarterbacking is just that - Monday morning. After the fact everything is different. Perceptions, recollections, and facts themselves change and distort over time and the complete reality of a situation is never the same. So we can learn general points, we can point out mistakes, we can say what we would have done, but in the end all we can do is move forward. Don't get tied up to the incident that happened and the people that were involved. That reality will never come again and the only wisdom of value is that which can be applied in the abstract.

Second, everything we learn will be forgotten. I say that as a teacher. All these valuable lessons we learn from analyzing mistakes made and planning for the future will be needed again when the same mistakes are made. It's human nature. We may take a different path to making the mistake and at the time it will look completely different (because each situation is unique); but it will be the same mistake. Some people will learn, some people will change, some mistakes will be avoided and our general knowledge will grow. We can develop systems and strategies and procedures to follow for safety; we can create a rubric to protect everyone. But it will fail, and here's why:

Kayaking is fun. People having fun will not follow a system or instructions or a checklist.  It goes against our nature - we want to be free and we want to have fun without burden of restrictions or control. It's what draws us to this sport. (aside: it's been shown that surgeons following a simple checklist, even those with hundreds of similar operations under their belt, will have better results and make fewer mistakes. But surgeons don't want to follow a checklist.) So mistakes and tragedies will still happen, and here's why:

Kayaking is risky. So go ahead and conduct the postmortems; have an incident review; develop a system of safety. It will help. But in the end it comes down to something much more basic: human nature. Some will evaluate at a subconscious level and make the safe call; some will ignore their intuition and take that risk. Safety is ultimately an individual choice and responsibility. The only advice I can offer that might be truly be of use is to be aware of that simple fact. Be aware in general.

Awareness at its most basic level is what allows us to assess risk and properly manage it. Awareness is what allows us to recognize a situation and connect it to lesson learned from previous experience. Awareness is a conscious effort to separate the actor from the action. Awareness is going outside yourself and gaining perspective in the process. Awareness is a skill, an ability and a habit. Awareness can be learned and developed. Awareness is individual but can be shared. Awareness is what allows for the understanding of risk and the assessment in its undertaking. It's not a system or a chart, it's not a tool or a plan, it's not a template or document. Awareness is sum of who we are: our skills, knowledge, training, experience and thoughts. Let that be your guide and your beacon and you will make the right choice.

But you will make mistakes. And the same ones again. There will be danger and harm. There will be regret and recriminations. But we'll go kayaking and have some fun.