Conductive Cassie

Ah thunderstorms. Gotta love them. I met Anton down the river at around 2:30pm and after fiddling around with the new seat in the Van Dusen we were on our way. There was distant thunder and warnings of sever electrical storms but I thought we'd probably get our paddle done in time. Not even 300m into it I went for a swim. Not sure why. I was trying the new lower seat that Greg Slade had made up for me and maybe because it was snugger in the hips I was throwing myself off balance more...I don't know, because I was actually feeling more stable and pretty good up until that point. Anyway today I seemed to keep off-balancing towards the left and I need to work out why.

The rest of the paddle was going well and by the time we reached the bridge the thunder was getting closer. I wanted to do an effort back to the boat ramp to compare with my time in the club K1. I felt pretty good most of the way (with a few braces now and then), and we did it in 8min exactly. We were paddling against the flow and I was pretty happy with my time.

By the time we got back, the thunder was overhead and after long deliberations (and one very loud crack of thunder) we opted to finish the session. Thunderstorms are the one weather condition I won't paddle in. My logic is that I may miss a training session and that can always be made up, but if there is a lightning strike then there's no second chances. My family (and my own life) is too important to me to risk it. But Anton shared some interesting bits of information relating to thunderstorms and paddling. The first was that if you place yourself (ie. him) in between the trees on the bank and the other paddler (ie. me) then the chances are that the lighting will hit either the trees or the other paddler. NICE. And then he tells me that when I went in for the swim that he was thinking that I'd be nice and conductive now. So, what...that would make me Conductive Cassie!!!! Lovely! (I know you're only joking Anton)

Sure enough when the kayaks were washed down and secured on our roofs, it had passed over and I felt pretty $hitty (with myself) that we had stopped. But, you never know. This time is worked out that way, but it only takes once for it to all turn bad. When I got back home Chris said that they had thunder and lightning and heavy rain, so it really was the right decision after all.

Now - for tomorrow's club race. I've decided to do it in the Van Dusen according to Mark's advice (I had to put that in so I can blame someone if it all goes wrong). I'm resigned to the idea that I might fall in, but it will be a good learning experience for me. I figure I can either play it safe and race the club K1 or really challenge myself and paddle the Van Dusen. I may regret it, but I'll give it a go. But for now, I'll take bets on what time I'll do and how many times I'll fall in. My guess is 1:10 with only 1 swim to 1:30 with 4 swims. Somewhere in there I think.