Category: Kayaking

Last night I went out for the first time with the bulk of the team. As well as myself and Dan, we also had Ken A, Doug R, Stephen B, Paul D. Mike was missing because he’s taking some sort of training class. As well as having a big group, I also tried out the new camera mount for the first time. Except for the fact that it was pointed a little too far up, it worked out great.

The gathering storm

Here I am at the beginning, just warming up and milling around while the rest of the team gets ready. I’m really concentrating on my technique, and I think it’s paying off. (Note: this part hasn’t finished uploading while I’m posting this, so it might not be here when you look.)

The gathering storm

Here’s a bit at the beginning leading up the creek. You can see most of the team in the background – yes, I was in the lead most of the time. At first I thought we were just waiting for people to catch up, but it turns out that the team was comfortable with the pace I was setting. I got some good sustained paddling and my shoulder wasn’t bothering me at all at this point.

See if you can catch a glimpse of Ken in the bright orange top. He’s got the most amazing style – almost no movement in his shoulders at all, just totally in the torso. I asked him if next time I could put the camera on his boat so I can study it, and he said that would probably be ok.

The gathering storm

This is on the way back. We’d gotten into a really shallow bit and had a strong head wind, and I’d fallen behind, so I yelled up again that I was turning back. Rather than just letting me go, the whole team turned around and paddled part of the way back with me. This part is towards the end of that, until the camera ran out of storage. I was really tired and my shoulder was starting to hurt, but to me at least it seems like my technique isn’t falling apart that badly. I’m proud of that.

Soon after this, the rest of the team stopped to practice buoy turns or something and I continued back. I made it a goal to paddle all the way back to the dock without stopping or even pausing, and I did it.

Today I tried a few experiments with mounting the Flip camera on my camera. As you can see from the included videos, the positions are usable, but a bit closer to the cockpit than I’d like.

If I want to mount the camera further back, the Fit2Paddle site recommends the StickyPod, but it’s $69, which seems excessive. However, googling has found me this much cheaper camera mount. It’s only $17, so it might be worth buying it just to give it a try.

This is my earliest “first paddle” ever. If searching my blog is be believed, I’ve made it out in March once before, but only just – 31 March 2006.

Doug had sent out an email suggesting it. I hadn’t replied because I had my doubts about my ability to sneak out of work, or the state of my shoulder. Ken was the only person who’d responded positively, and I knew I was no match for either of them. But when the Baycreek web cam showed open water this afternoon, and I reached a point in the thing I was working on I could either leave now or start something that would take hours to resolve, I decided on the former course of action.

I figured I’d get there after they left, but at least if something happened to me out on the creek there would be other paddlers to come by and find me. So I got in and paddled up to the half-mile marker where the time trial course turns around, and turned there. I was tired and my shoulder was hurting. I got back to the dock and was talking to Dave there when Doug and Ken arrived back. They had gone up to the weir and back, so about double the distance I’d gone, and they were keen to do it again. The weir had been blocked, and the bay is still iced over, so they didn’t have anywhere else they could go. They convinced me to come with them. And you know, after a little bit, my shoulder wasn’t hurting too bad. I felt badly out of shape, and I had to keep stopping for breath, but I did it, and it was very pleasant to be out, especially with other people.

The Canada Geese were out in huge numbers, and the Red Wing Blackbird males were claiming their territories before there were even any rushes to claim, and Ken and I disagreed on whether that bird was a Red Tailed Hawk or an Osprey, but it really is a little slice of heaven back there.

Tomorrow is going to be in the mid 40s. A couple of members of the kayaking team emailed to say they’re going paddling tomorrow. Just for the hell of it, I’ve put my kayak on the roof of my car.

Oh yeah, sure, I’ve got a sore shoulder, and I should probably be at work at that time. So I probably shouldn’t go. But I’ll have the kayak on the roof rack, so the potential is there. And that’s the important thing.

It’s been pretty disappointing to me recently that with my problems with my shoulder, I haven’t managed to much time on the kayak ergo. Mostly my work-outs have been lots of time stretching and doing core exercises, lots of time warming up on one of those exercise bikes that has the arm movement as well, but only a few very short stints on the KayakPro – just working on a bit of technique until the shoulder starts to hurt, and then going on to other things and then coming back to it.

Today, we took that tactic again, but Dan mixed things up more than usual and this time something really went right, and for my last time on the KayakPro I was concentrating entirely on the pull back with my torso, and trying not to push forward with my upper hand at all (or at least until there was no further resistance from the machine), and in spite of the fact that it didn’t seem to be slowing me down or adjusting my stroke at all, I managed to keep going and going until I was feeling both muscular and aerobic fatigue. I probably only went about 5 minutes or less, but it’s the longest single session I’ve gotten on the machine in weeks, and I was elated to quit for some reason other than a sore shoulder.

I can’t wait to start building time again. I know I’m not going to be racing 10 milers as soon as the season starts, but it would be nice to be able to finish the BayCreek Wednesday night time trials without having to stop for a rest like I did for most of the season last year.