Sunday, May 24, 2009

A great paddle

Chris's soccer was on, then it was off, then it was on but at a different time and place, then it was off, then it was on at the original time and venue, and then no-one seemed to know...
So I arranged to meet Anton at 7:30am for a quick paddle to get back in time for Chris's possible game of Soccer. It was windy, but not as bad as yesterday. I was very nervous in the K1 and was so confident about staying upright that I wore my wetsuit top! Anton was in his TK1.
We started by heading to the bridge and I was feeling pretty good, when on the return trip....who should we see.....but "Oh no, it's that f**king idiot again", as I called out to Anton. It was the guy in the boat who was responsible for me falling out last week. Goody, goody I thought...now he'll have a hat-trick". I immediately started to feel tippy and had to do some brace strokes, but maybe he heard me (whoops) or maybe he actually had a brain in his head today, but he stopped his boat and waited until we were past until he headed off again. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!!!!
Anyway, we continued up to the lake, briefly saw Greg outside his house, and it was getting progressively windier and choppier up towards the top. However I still felt pretty good. I turned around at the beach at the point (no way I was tackling the markers in that weather) and we headed back. We came across a few other boats going in the opposite direction, but their minimal wash wasn't a problem. We got back to the boat ramp without any dramas and I was extremely pleased that I hadn't fallen out.
I went to the car to check my mobile phone and there was a message from Chris saying that Soccer was on in the afternoon and I didn't have to rush home now. Woo Hoo. So Anton convinced me to do a couple of sprints with him. We headed up just past the 200m mark and did a couple of moderate paced efforts. I found I couldn't pt too much effort because the kayak started to bob, and I felt too unstable. This got better as we did a few more. I decided to try a couple of sprints where I stayed behind Anton practiced dealing with wash. I managed better than I thought. On the final one I practiced wash-riding and again coped better than I though.
All in all a great paddle. It was a huge confidence booster and I can't wait to get out in the K1 again.



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