pawsplus
Paddler
So while I was visiting my mom in Vancouver this summer, I planned a trip from Deep Cove up Indian Arm. Planned to spend the night and paddle back the next day.
Philip Torrens, who is the nicest guy ever, volunteered to lend me camping gear, as it seemed absurd to have to ship all my gear from Nashville to Van and back. I was super grateful for this!! I ordered a cheapo sleeping bag and had it delivered to my mom's place, but was borrowing tent, stove, cooking stuff, etc. from Philip.
On the Sunday, he and I met at Ecomarine for a paddle. We spent several hours working on rolling and rescues, and for some unknown reason I could NOT get my left-hand standard GL roll!! I am still not sure what was up with that. Yes, the boat was unfamiliar, but I often paddle unfamiliar boats and have rolled a ton of them at symposia. I think it was psychological (as most rolling problems are IMHO). When I practice rolling w/ my friend Joel, we had been switching off with one person in the water and one in the boat, at least on rolls that are not 100%. Now, my off-side standard roll has been good for almost a year now. I have done it successfully many times in deep water with no one there, BUT this was a specified rolling practice, and my brain said, "THERE IS NO ONE TO SAVE YOU!!!!" And I suck at waiting under the boat for bow rescue. We tried that and I either panicked and wet exited or I fell out of the boat (b/c it was too wide and I couldn't get locked in with no thigh bracing). I was super frustrated that I couldn't do it. Did my onside roll, as well as butterfly and shotgun, but the left was abandoning me. I could tell what I was doing wrong (rushing, so not getting my right shoulder down on the water), but just couldn't fix it!
But as a result, we did a lot of rescues LOL.
The good news: As soon as I got back, I went to the lake with Joel and got my offside roll right away. And we are now practicing at least sometimes with us both in boats, one ready to come in and bow rescue the other, to avoid this psychological hitch in the future! I'm actually NEARLY there on my left side Norsaq roll, too!
[CONTINUED NEXT POST]
Philip Torrens, who is the nicest guy ever, volunteered to lend me camping gear, as it seemed absurd to have to ship all my gear from Nashville to Van and back. I was super grateful for this!! I ordered a cheapo sleeping bag and had it delivered to my mom's place, but was borrowing tent, stove, cooking stuff, etc. from Philip.
On the Sunday, he and I met at Ecomarine for a paddle. We spent several hours working on rolling and rescues, and for some unknown reason I could NOT get my left-hand standard GL roll!! I am still not sure what was up with that. Yes, the boat was unfamiliar, but I often paddle unfamiliar boats and have rolled a ton of them at symposia. I think it was psychological (as most rolling problems are IMHO). When I practice rolling w/ my friend Joel, we had been switching off with one person in the water and one in the boat, at least on rolls that are not 100%. Now, my off-side standard roll has been good for almost a year now. I have done it successfully many times in deep water with no one there, BUT this was a specified rolling practice, and my brain said, "THERE IS NO ONE TO SAVE YOU!!!!" And I suck at waiting under the boat for bow rescue. We tried that and I either panicked and wet exited or I fell out of the boat (b/c it was too wide and I couldn't get locked in with no thigh bracing). I was super frustrated that I couldn't do it. Did my onside roll, as well as butterfly and shotgun, but the left was abandoning me. I could tell what I was doing wrong (rushing, so not getting my right shoulder down on the water), but just couldn't fix it!
But as a result, we did a lot of rescues LOL.
The good news: As soon as I got back, I went to the lake with Joel and got my offside roll right away. And we are now practicing at least sometimes with us both in boats, one ready to come in and bow rescue the other, to avoid this psychological hitch in the future! I'm actually NEARLY there on my left side Norsaq roll, too!
[CONTINUED NEXT POST]
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