Category: Kayaking

Kayak Racing: 24.13 Woo hoo! I rule!

Last Thursday I went for a private lesson with Dan. It went so well that I confidently boasted to somebody that not only would I beat my person best, 24.60, but I’d demolish it with a 24.30. Instead, I not only demolished it, I jumped up and down on the pieces. 24.13. My split was 11.88, compared to my previous best of 12.00, so much of that improvement came in the second half, where my improved technique on both halves of the course meant I had more energy and didn’t have to stop paddling to take a drink several times in the last quarter as I’ve done so many times in the past.

I took a stop watch this time and recorded split times at both buoy turns as well, but I forgot and reset the watch before I recorded them. Oh well, maybe next time.

With my technique and conditioning improving, I’m convinced that the only other factor I need to work on is the fact that I’m paddling a heavy plastic boat. Time to get back out into the garage and finish my Arctic Tern 17 Hi.

Kayak Racing: 25.00 – Not a personal best, but still fun

Ok, I was slower today – 25.00 instead of 24.60. Most people beat their personal best. I guess that’s what I get for missing a week. But we’ve had so much rain this summer that the creek is still running well, and there is still a good crowd coming out, so they’ve decided to run the races for a few more weeks.

On the way out, I was trying to paddle right, but as I passed the split, Dan yelled at me to push the paddle in at the catch and then pull, instead of pulling as the paddle went in, or words to that effect. Once I figured out what he meant, I fixed my catch and also started working on what my upper arm was doing on the power stroke, which gave me better rotation. And it was good, the boat was moving fast. Unfortunately by that time I was too tired and I could do a good stroke about 5 or 10 strokes and then had to rest. That’s why my split time was 0.30 slower than my previous best, and my total time was 0.40 slower.

Kayak Race: 24.60: No excuses, none needed!

After the race where my time sucked because of the broken skeg, and the race where my time sucked because I was in a strange boat, today I didn’t have any excuses – I was back in my own boat. And who needs excuses when you improve your previous best time by 48 seconds!

The rain ended minutes before the race – the thunderstorm had been so intense that they’d announced at work that people should not wade through puddles because the intense rainfall had blown the tops of manholes and you might fall in one.

The creek was running pretty fast, and the bay was calm and flat. For me, that was perfect. I really enjoyed the strategy of trying to read the river and find the quieter parts on the way upstream and the faster bits for the way downstream. I was a little scared of breaking my skeg so I pulled it up long before I got to the channel off the bay. And then I paddled inside the “scum line” – a line of duckweed that showed you where there was a little back-eddy for some of the upstream, then it was cutting inside corners and trying to stay as close to the inner bank as I could and still make a good paddle stroke. After the turn, I paddled downstream in the fastest part of the stream, usually the outside of corners.

What a great evening. Worth missing watching the best stage of the Tour de France for, which is high praise indeed.

Wednesday night race: not getting any better

My boat is still broken. The skeg came in, but it turns out that the wire in the boat is too big for the hole in the skeg – evidently Valley made the skegs narrower in recent years and used a smaller gauge wire to fit it. So I’m going to have to wait while Dave at Baycreek rewires my boat.

I tried a Cobra Eliminator, which is a pretty fast sit-atop kayak. It was a bit tippy, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Unfortunately it had a couple of problems:

  • It had a tendency to turn left unless I held a bit of right rudder
  • the venturi self-bailer only bailed when I was going full speed, and tended to fill the boat if I went even a little bit slower
  • Even with full rudder, it couldn’t do a u-turn in the width of the creek
  • Most importantly, when I went out into the bay the water started coming in faster than it was going out – I ended up trying to balance the boat with the entire cockpit full of water
  • The cockpit was a bit too short for me, so my inner thighs were burning after a few minutes, and when I got tired my paddle kept hitting my knees. We tried taking out the seat so I could sit back further, but then I started sliding from side to side, which was a real treat when the cockpit filled with water again

So I decided not to use the Eliminator. The closest equivalent to what I’m used to was a Valley Nordkapp. It’s a little narrower than the Skerry, but it has almost no rocker, so it was very difficult to turn. Going out on the bay, it wasn’t bad, but when it came time to make the turn I discovered that the combination of narrowness and my unfamiliarity with the boat, and a new set of rollers coming from 90 degrees to my course, I dissolved into a quivering lump of “oh god, please don’t let me tip out here”. Needless to say, that didn’t do much to help my time. And the paddling I did before, and the bad technique during the quivering lump part of the course, meant that my second half wasn’t very good either.

Soon after I finished, and while others were still on the course, we got a brief thunderstorm. Those of us not on the water waited it out under the tarp, but the wind was coming pretty hard so we got wet anyways.

I need to work on my technique, conditioning, weight, and get a better boat. But other than that, I’m perfect.

Well, that kind of sucked

Today I was supposed to have another private lesson with Dan, and then attempt to keep up with the team while they trained. But Dan couldn’t get there until nearly the time the team was supposed to show up, so I went out and tried to practice a bit before he got there, and then paddle with the team. But without a skeg, my boat was damn near uncontrollable on the bay – there was a tiny bit of wind coming from the west, and my boat kept wanting to weather vane into the wind. And then a boat would come along, producing a wake coming from the east, and my boat would try to turn into the waves. I’d be trying to practice a good forward stroke, and end up turning in circles. Then I’d try to keep up with the team but in order to paddle in the same direction as them, I’d be doing sweeps on one side for 10 or 20 strokes before I dared make even one stroke on the other side. I can’t really practice my forward stroke when I’m only able to paddle on one side at a time, so I yelled to Dan that I was heading back as they disappeared in the distance.

As I turned back to the dock, I got a long series of wakes coming at me, and by sweeping on the upwind side I actually got a good surf going, and about a third of the way back was assisted very nicely by that. That was the only fun part of the whole evening.