More paddling than swimming

Tonights session in Mark's Van Dusen went better than I expected....I did more paddling than swimming. I started off well and did the bridge lap including a couple of efforts without falling in. Mind you I was all over the place and at least a third of my strokes were probably brace strokes, but I stayed upright. I have always loved Van Dusens. The glide they get is amazing.
We continued up towards the lake and did some more efforts. I was able to get into a bit of a rhythm sometimes and had brief moments where I felt good. As we were about half way up and doing an effort I decided I was bit hot and wanted to go for a swim. So after swimming to shore and emptying the kayak out, I hopped back in and kept going. About 5 minutes later and close to the lake I fell in again. I had some fairly big chunks of grass wedged between by hip and the side of the kayak, that were sticking up right into my arm pit (from my previous re-entry). I was complaining about them and Mark asked me where they were (thanks Mark), so stupid me looked down and over, and then down and over I went.
By this stage Greg Slade had seen us paddling past his house and had hopped in his Kayak and met us as I was getting back in. Mark said I could head back to the boat ramp and him and Greg would catch up. Well, this part of the paddle went really well. I got into a nice rhythm for most of it and was doing less and less bracing strokes. I paddled the whole way back feeling pretty good. Mark and Greg were chatting and only caught me back at the ramp.
When we got back, Jack and Jen had obviously seen us paddling past their house and rode down to the ramp to meet us. We all had a great chat about kayaking stuff and I saw that Greg was paddling one of his makes of K1 (Sladecraft) and I was chatting to him about it. He offered for me to try it. I thought that since I was already wet I might as well try. So in I hopped and off I paddled. NICE CRAFT! It's a slimline and probably tipper than the Van Dusen but with a lower seat it felt more stable. I loved it. It had a beautiful feel to it and handled nicely. This is one kayak I would love to paddle more in.