I can fall in all on my own!

Nooooo, I don't need powerboats, wind, chop, or even Anton's wash to fall in....I can do it all on my own.

Everyone one else was doing something else this morning and I just felt like doing a nice easy paddle on my own anyway. After a week of feeling like crap, I just wanted a cruisy, no pressure, no timing, just enjoy paddling along session today.

The weather was magic. It was cold, but not terrible, mildly sunny, no wind, and not a ripple on the water in sight. It looked like glass. I wanted to do 1.5 laps today. I haven't done more than 1 lap (8km) in any 1 stretch in the new K1, so I thought I'd just try it today (since I was going easy).

I started off heading to the bridge, just cruising, feeling good. No worries. No sign of "my mate" (the guy in the yellow boat who seems magnetically to make me fall in). I continued up towards the lake, all good, feeling relaxed and trying a few technique things out. When I reached the lake it was flawless. Not a ripple in sight, it was glass. I've only ever seen it like that a couple of times. I headed out around the second marker and headed back towards the boat ramp. Still feeling good and playing around with steering and technique. Came across a couple of other paddlers, simply a nod of the head. All good still.

Only 1 km to go until the boat ramp...hmmm..I wonder what time I'll do it in, since it feels so easy....lets look down and check my watch, 45:30...split second later...$hit that water's cold, wow my skirt came off without a problem, damn it's hard swimming with it still on.

No-one to blame but me and my beginners balance, (and stupidity for looking down and twisting my arm to see my watch). Well a quick empty out, and relaunch and I was on my way. It was a useful lesson though...
1. My spray skirt comes off easily, without any dramas. This was something I was curious about and had hoped would happen (to avoid unpleasant upside-down time trying to get one off)
2. My thermals were really quite warm when wet - once paddling again, my legs actually felt warmer than when they were dry, and my upper body was fine until the wind picked up.
3. Don't try anything fancy like looking at my watch until my balance it better.

I continued past the ramp, down to the bridge and back without any further dramas, and was very happy to have done the extra distance. I wasn't upset with falling in, and overall it was a great paddle.

It also occured to me that since no-one saw me fall in, then I didn't have to tell anyone. But I'm not like that. I figure that the more people that hear about this stuff, the better they will feel about themselves and their learning curve. I hope there is a paddler out there somewhere who reads this and thinks..."Cool, I'm doing alright afterall". The more people I hear about that fall in , the less worried it makes me.

1 lap time trial (kind of)

After a debacle with lost car keys, and thinking that I was going to have to miss the session, they were eventually found and I headed to the river. I thought that everyone would be well on their way by now and I had resigned myself to paddling on my own again, but when I got there Anton and Mark were still there. Thanks guys.
This morning I woke up in the mood to do a hard paddle (much to Anton's horror - I think he might have wished that he hadn't waited for me after all). Anyway, I put it to the guys "Hey guys... I'm in the mood for a hard paddle today...I want to see how fast I can go in this thing", to which Anton looked in horror and Mark looked intrigued. The reply from Anton was "really?" and from Mark "Oh yeh". I think I surprised them.
Anyway, we headed to the bridge first and then back up towards the lake. I was going hard (maybe 25km pace) but Mark (in his Rocket) and Anton (in his TK1) were keeping up easily (though they may argue that point. Anyway, Mark was just toying with us - he could have dropped us easily if he had wanted to, but Anton was pushing it but keeping up without any dramas really. By the time we got the point it was 31min. I was pleasantly surprised as I thought I wasn't paddling that well. The last part towards the lake had been pretty nasty for me...the wind and chop had picked up and some nasty gusts had hit us. I was very happy that I stayed upright. But there was no way I was going to go out in the lake and around the markers so we pulled into the beach, turned around and headed back. Anton left before us and jumped on a boats wash. ]
Mark and I headed off together and I was all over the place. We had a tiny bit of wash from the boat (and rebound wash of the sides) but this was enough to make me unbalanced. Seriously - I was all over the shop. There were some very close calls, but I did make it back without falling in (just). Our time back was 12:30 min. So for the 7.5km (short lap) we did it in 43:30min. Adding another 3 minutes on (according to our average) if we had gone out to the second marker would have given us a 46:30 min 8km lap. I was pleasantly suprised again. The fastest I've ever done the full lap is 47:10 in the Van Dusen. Cooool.
When we got back we were just getting off the water and it bucketed down. Mark and I sheltered under our car boots whilst waiting for Anton to come back...he had decided to paddle a bit further. We got soaked putting out kayaks back on the car...but I didn't care. I had a great paddle and I'm glad I decided to go hard.

Time trial and trying my new skirt

Chris had to work this morning so unfortunately that meant that I couldn't paddle (maybe in 10 years time I will be able to leave the boys on their own.....then again make that never). Anyway he was meant to be home by early afternoon, but he ended up having to work back (grrrr, the poor thing ended up working pretty much a full day) and got home pretty late. I called Anton and said that I'd be at the river around 4pm, but due to other circumstances he couldn't paddle then so I was on my own.

I thought...ok then I'll do a warm-up to the bridge and then try and do a time trial from the bridge back to the boat ramp. Remember that I fell in last time I tried this. I figured it would probably be best doing this on my own anyway, and the river conditions were perfect for it. Calm water with a bit of outflow (going with me). I was mentally up for it, and very keen to see how I would go.

The warm up went well. I felt good and my balance felt ok. In the meantime Anton had ridden down and met me at the bridge. I said to him..."Do you reckon you could beat me back to the boat ramp" figuring that he could definately ride there in under 8 minutes. I had my watch on me anyway, and at 4:13:40 pm I headed off from a rolling start. I started off at a moderate pace and fell into a nice rhythm. As usual, every time I tried to go harder I started to lose my balance, but I was going pretty hard anyway. About half way through I heard Anton call out from the road, and I lost my concentration and balance a bit, but managed to get back on track. The last 400m were a bit 'all over the place', but I finished the 1.5km at 4:21:27. As soon as I worked out that my time was 7:47 I was stoked! The fastest I'd previously done was 8:07 in the club K1 and I think 7:57 in the Van Dusen K1. So it confirmed my thoughts...I can paddle the Sladecraft quicker than the Van Dusen. Now I'm not saying that the Sladecraft IS quicker than the Van Dusen...just that I can paddle it quicker, and therefor it's a quicker kayak for me. I can't wait to see what I can do in it with some decent training and with better balance.

By now it was dusk, and I decided to spend the rest of the session trying out my new sprayskirt. I'd stumbled across it on ebay and geartrade. For only $45 I figured that I wasn't going to find a K1 sprayskirt for anywhere near that price and so the remainder of my spendable "Ruddy Money" went on that. It arrived a couple of days ago, and looked awesome so I was keen to try it out. My only concern was if I fell in, that I would be stuck dangling around upside down under the water trying to remove myself (and skirt) from the kayak. But as soon as I had it on, I could see that it would pop off easily (probably before my body hit the water). So I went for a short paddle and it was great. My legs were dry and 'toasty', and the water just beaded off it. I actually delberately threw heaps of water on it, and it still just beaded off. Cooooool!!! And I didn't fall in.

It was getting dark by now, so I called it quits (after Anton had taken some photos with his mobile phone). He reckons that I should say that the blurry one is because I was going so fast...yep, I'll go with that!
So eventhough it was a short session, it was very effective and productive.

I love it

Well there's no doubt about my new K1. I love it. This morning a group of us went for a paddle along the river again. Me in the Sladecraft Stealth K1, Anton in his Mustang K1, Mark in his Rocket and Graham in his TK1.
I warned everyone..."He who gives me wash..their name will be mud in my blog" to which Mark just gave an evil laugh. I have to say though, the guys were wonderful today. They were very considerate and made it as easy as possible for me by staying clear of me. Thankyou!!!!

I headed off to the lake first with the others behind me. I was too petrified to turn around and look where they were and was just hoping that they were following me. I was almost up at the lake before I heard Mark's voice behind me and stopped at the turnaround spot to see that the others weren't far behind. I couldn't believe that Anton had kept up in his K1, as we were going a decent pace. He's paddling it so well now. We're all going to have no hope when he's got it down pat.
The paddle back was uneventful, and back at the boat ramp, Mark and Anton switched kayaks and we headed down towards the bridge.

I wanted to do an effort from the bridge back to the boat ramp, to see what kind of time I could do in the K1. I knew my times in the Club, Van Dusen, and Struer K1's and wanted to see how I compared in the new one at this early stage. I was all motivated to give it a good shot and off I went. The others let me go ahead of them (again being very considerate), and I was feeling good at the first bend in the river. Then who should I see....but the guy in the boat from yesterday (who saw me fall out). And guess what he did....took off and gave us a heap of wash. What a goose. He only had to wait 10 seconds and we would have been past him, but Nooooooo. Anway, I managed the wash from the boat, but the rebound wash from the edges got me first go. In I went. Damn that water is getting cold. It took me ages to get back in. The bank was really muddy and I fell back in at one stage trying to get my paddle. Finally I was back in and paddled back to the boat ramp with muddy feet slipping all over the foot plate. I was most annoyed that I had now run out of time to do the time trial. But also that this idiot didn't have enough sense to wait 10 seconds until we were past him. I know it's not his fault I fell in...it's my fault and part of the learning process. But still...considering he saw me fall in yesterday and knew that I was in a tippy kayak and likely to fall in...you think he would have had some consideration.
Anyway, I love the K1 and can't wait to paddle it again.

My own K1

Oh yeh! As soon as I hopped into the K1 today it felt 'right'. It was a tight fit, but no tighter than the club K1, and it felt very comfortable.

I met Carole down at the boat ramp at 7am and had managed to fit both the Mirage and the K1 on the roof racks. After some fiddling around moving the Mirage foot rest back into Carole's position, we were soon off heading up towards the lake. Damn that K1 is fast. I just had to put my paddle in the water and it was effortlessly gliding through the water. I was just doing some balance drills and poor Carole was doing 3 strokes to my 1 just to keep up. So we paddled up to the lake doing a fast speed for her, and a very slow speed for me. Great balance practice and it let me get a good feel for the K1.

I was nervous turning around at the point because it was quite windy and a bit choppy by then, but managed it unscathed. We paddled back and saw Greg outside his house to which I called out "I'll have her, she's beautiful". We headed down towards the bridge and I felt nice and relaxed paddling...then I heard a boat coming up behind us. Silly me started feeling nervous, turned around to look and "man that water's cold!" In I went, and after a quick swim to shore, empty out, we were on our way again.

We did the rest of the paddle without any dramas and I just LOVED the feel of the K1. At one point I said to Carole..."This looks much better than a ring sitting in a drawer" (because I have sold my 1st marriage's engagment ring to buy it). She agreed and said "Definately, but the ring wouldn't have made you wet!" Indeed.

Well, I am excited and relieved to now have my very own K1. I went over to Greg's house this afternoon and paid him the money, so the Sladecraft "Stealth" K1 is officially mine. Yipee!!!!!

Maybe not heartbroken...there's hope

I went to pick up the club K1 from Greg's house today (just getting a few repairs done before I give it back). On the phone last night he said he had 2 jobs he wanted me to look at. I was curious. Well, when I got there today he showed me the Sladecraft K1 I had tried (and not fit in). He has widened the cockpit by 40mm and said I could give it another try. WOO HOOOO!!!!

It's now a similar width to a cleaver X at the top of the cockpit, so I'm very hopeful that it will be good. He's put a new seat in, and a new seat plate. It's looking good! So I can't wait to try it out tomorrow. Here's hoping that this time tomorrow I'll be doing a blog entry saying that I loved it and I'm buying it. Not getting my hopes up or anything...yeh right.

Heartbroken

I picked up the Sladecraft K1 on Sunday night and was lucky enough that I could try it out this afternoon. It sure looked skinny, but beautiful with it's blue sparkly deck. I couldn't wait to paddle it again and was anticipating loving it and buying it this week.

Apprently Liz told Jack that she had cracked the sides just sitting in it (which struck me as odd because she is lean). I wasn't worried about it. Well, it took me and Anton about an hour to get the seating arrangement right (just fiddling around etc). I did fit in it, but whilst sitting there realised that the cracks Liz was talking about opened up every time pressure was put against the sides, even just by merely sitting in it. I was now worried. I didn't want to risk doing further damage to it (by cracking it further). Anton had a sit in it and unbelievably it was even worse for him. He wasn't game to paddle it for fear of doing more damage too.
I had another sit in it and eventhough my hips were touching the sides it wasn't too uncomfortable so I decided to go for a short paddle to try it out.

Anton had his K1 so we both nervously made our way up towards the lake. After a little while my hips started feeling better and I was feeling optimistic. But it didn't take long to be VERY uncomfortable again. I was almost at the lake when I decided to turn around and head back because I just HAD to get out of it. It was getting pretty painful. Well, with a maximum width of 37cm I guess my hips are always going to be too tight a fit in it. I reckon I could lose as much weight as I like and my bone structure is still going to be too big for it.

I was heartbroken. I really had my hopes up on this one. The feel of it through the water was just beautiful and it handled so well. I loved paddling it, but just knew I wouldn't be comfortable sitting it in. Such a shame.

Jack met us back at the boat ramp and had a sit in it. His hips didn't touch the sides at all - he fit in perfectly. I had a quick try of Anton's Mustang K1, and it's a tippy little bugger. I found it had an odd feel to it. It felt nice when up and running, but if my balance was off slightly I had the odd sensation that it would be very hard to recover from and I would be swimming before I knew it. Luckily that didn't happen though (as the water was chilly and the air temperature had certainly dropped by now).

Anyway, I dropped it straight back to Greg's house. For someone who can comfortable fit in it I think it would be a wonderful K1 to paddle. However I'm definatley heart broken and back to the drawing board...continuing my search to buy a K1.

I'm so excited!!!!

Well, last week I made the decision to sell my engagement ring from my first marriage so that I can buy a K1 of my own. Basically it came down to the fact that I'd rather have my own K1 to paddle than have a ring (albeit a very beautiful one) sitting in my drawer doing nothing. I now have an incredibly engagment and wedding ring from my husband Chris and that's the one that means something to me.

To be honest it's been doing my head in a bit, trying to work out how much I could sell it for and what kind of K1 to get. I really wanted to have another try of Greg Slade's (Sladecraft) slimline K1. I had a very brief paddle of it a couple of months ago and absolutely loved it. Now there's no way I'll get enough for the ring to pay for a new Sladecraft K1, so I thought I'd ask Greg if he'd consider selling me the plug kayak (the one I tried). He's keen and I'm going to get it this weekend to have a better paddle in to see if I like it over greater distances. I'm soooooo excited. If all goes well and I still like it, then I'll buy it and I'll finally have a K1 of my own again.

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.

Product Review - Sladecraft Comet

This morning I had the opportunity to paddle Mick's Comet (by Sladecraft). The craft I have previously paddled are TK1's, TK2's, K1's and my Mirage 580. I completed the 8.4km lap in around 52 minutes (around 10km/hr) which is an excellent time for me. For comparison, with the same effort (race pace) in the Mirage it takes me at least an hour. The Comet, which classifies as a LREC (Long Recreational) felt 'like' a Mirage, but much faster and with less stability. I felt very comfortable paddling it (no worry at all with stability) and enjoyed pushing it with proper technique and effort without the thought of falling in. It had a nice glide through the water and was easy to turn, and I must say I'm impressed. I would have flown if I had paddled this in the Hawkesbury Classic. It's definately something I would consider using when doing the Classic again.