Through a long chain of events that goes through Facebook and an Australian maker of clothing for surf ski paddlers, I found myself travelling to Traverse City Michigan for the “TC Surfski Immersion Vacation” from Thursday June 5th to Sunday June 8th. It was an extremely long and tiring drive, and I was hoping it was going to be worth it. When we found the right driveway (after missing it once) and pulled up the hill to the Hill Top Lodge and saw this beautiful building with all these cars with surf skis on top, I got my first confirmation that yes, this was going to be worth it.
We’d been aiming to get there by 5:30 on Thursday in order to get in on time for an initial paddle, but thanks to an incredible backup at the crossing into Michigan we missed the time deadline, but fortunately they were running late as well. A quick intro to some of the other paddlers and the instructors (and a pretty much futile attempt to remember some names), and a quick change into my paddling clothes, and we were off.
The first paddle was just an out and back on the bay off the bay off Lake Michigan, out to a bouy that would become very familiar this weekend, and back to the put-in. Mostly it was a chance to try to learn some of the other participant’s names, and to shake out some of the stiffness from the long drive. Much like Tuesday’s paddle on Lake Ontario, the air was warm but the water was very cold.
As we were milling around getting organized on the water, Rob Hartman came cruising by. I should mention that Rob is one of the instructors, a name I’ve heard very often in surf ski circles, and he looks the part – very tall and thin and athletic looking, and in a Epic V12 with stickers from the Chicago Shoreline Marathon. So naturally my instinct was to grab onto his wake. I got onto his side wake and held on tight. Another guy started coming up onto his other side and Rob was trying to talk him into how to ride wake – he said to me it looked like I’d done this before. Yeah, you could say that. After we reached the bouy Rob pulled off and started looking around for other people to instruct and the other guy (who I later learned was named James) and I paddled back to the put-in, trying to pick it out from the shore line. Truth be told, I was using the map track on my Forerunner to make sure we hadn’t overshot it until we saw the line of markers marking a channel out from it.
After paddling, we gathered back at the lodge for an evening of food and conversation. I was struggling with my natural inclination to show off – I know I’ve been to Tarifa and learned a lot there, plus I have the massive advantage of having paddled with a group of paddlers and having regular coaching, but I’m here to learn not to teach and I’ve got to hold back except where I have something real to contribute.