Ride'em cowboy Stan
Stan's kayak has after burners?
Jim Price is one of the best kayakers in Newfoundland and Jim says "there are 2 kinds of paddlers: swimmers and those who are going to be swimmers". Before Stan and myself put in today at St. Phillips (again!) I was in the category of "going to be swimmer". Now, I've joined the ranks of the swimmers.
It was blowing at 55 kms/hr with wind gusts of 70. It wasn't ideal but with air temps on December 13 at 15 degrees C, Stan seconded the motion of carpe diem - sieze the day. The wind was very brisk and the gusts threatened to rip the paddle out of my hands.
Then, there was a picture op of Stan. I have my camera attached to the paddle but it means presenting the whole paddle to the wind when taking a picture. I turned broadside to the wind, raised the paddle to snap the picture, a gust of wind caught both paddle blades and over I went. I made one attempt to roll unsuccessfully and bailed. No panic, we've practiced assisted rescues and before long I was back in the boat. I decided not to pump the boat out so I paddled into the beach with the cockpit full of water, 50 kms wind and 1 metre wind waves. A good exercise in balance control.
We hung around for about an hour after and I had to do one roll before calling it a day. I had to reassure myself because I was disappointed that my roll failed just when I needed it.
Anyway, I learned something today - exercise caution taking pictures in challenging conditions and a friend in need is a friend indeed. Thanks Stan!
Tony :-)
2 comments:
Always a pleasure and always a blast Tony. I know what it is like to be untimely cast into the dunk. A bit refreshen' ain't it! I am sure there'll be lots more for us. Otherwise we'd just probably be doing everything right all the time! ;-)
Stan
Its hard to practice accidental dunks because they just never match the real thing. I mean a planned roll is hardly an accident. But going to work on it more next year. Water temp is still 6 so its not that bad really!
Tony :-)
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