Over the river and through the surf....
Jen led another BCU 4 star training class on Sunday. Six of us meet at the shop. We hauled our boats across the street to launch via the San Diego River. After a quick intro (most of the faces were the same as last week), Jen put me in charge of organizing the boats and bodies down to the water's edge. I scouted a reasonable path down to the rocks. We put four on a boat and walked them down to the river's edge. I put Jane in first since she had a dry suit on and I knew she would be capable of assisting from the water side. We all launched with no issues (yeah!).
As we paddled down the channel discussing the pro-cons of where the group's leader should position themselves. Here's the recap:
In front:
PROS: Can control the pace. Can spot hazards early. Paddle signals can be seen.
CONS: Need to turn to check the group every 30 seconds. Hard to hear the group. Hard to observe how a paddler maybe doing. Must do a 180 to help another paddler.
In middle:
PROS: Can observe some of the group easier. Able to better hear some of the group.
CONS: Can be blocked by other paddlers if they need to offer aid. Still need to turn back to check the group.
In the Back:
PROS: Can see the entire group
CONS: Less able to see harzards. Communication with the group harder (paddle signals aren't going to work).
The general feeling, was it depends on the skills of group, the water conditions, the type of paddle as to where to position one's self. Jen mentioned that she like to paddle in the middle but off to one side at the start of a paddle. That enables her to start to assess the skills of the groups in a quick fashion.
Soon we reached the end of the river, and the start of Dog Beach. The plan for the day was to become comfortable in the surf conditions. To start with Jen had each of us paddle in a simple box, allowing each of us to find their comfort zone as to the size of the surf. The surf was fairly small, I would say 1-2 feet, with a larger set once in a while. There were periods of extented calm, in fact I was able to return to the starting point from the outer maker we were using with ever dealing with a wave.
Through out the morning Jen had us doing 360s in the surf zone, out and backs across the surf zone. It felt really good. In debreifing with Jen, she said that it looked like I was handling the boat very nicely out there. We had a few folks go swimming, but no real issues. We landed for lunch and discussed how we were feeling paddling there. We opted to stay at Dog Beach working our various surf skills rather than head down Sunset Cliffs.
Not long after I returned back into water, I got dumped. Not sure why the brace failed, but it did. I started to try a roll, but my elbow was beat and did not want to risk an injury. Jen had Jane and I try a rescue in the surf zone, but I didn't have the arm strength left to pull it off, so I swam the boat in.
After returning to shore, I repositioned my tendon brace and head back into the water for a bit. I wanted to just hang out just past the surf zone, just working on some light strokes in the swells. But the morning's fun was starting to take its toll.
I did catch a few very nice rides on the waves during the day, the one at the end was a lot of fun. Soon, the whole group was feeling sore and tired, and it was time to call it a day. We opted to paddle around the jetty back to the shop rather than haul the boats up the rocks. The return trip was nice and easy. We loaded up our boats and wished eveyone a happy holidays.
These two classes have been great. My elbows are still sore from all the abuse they took. Nothing too worrisome, but a lot of Advil, ice, and massage throughout the week (and no Guitar Hero).
Happy Holidays to all!
As we paddled down the channel discussing the pro-cons of where the group's leader should position themselves. Here's the recap:
In front:
PROS: Can control the pace. Can spot hazards early. Paddle signals can be seen.
CONS: Need to turn to check the group every 30 seconds. Hard to hear the group. Hard to observe how a paddler maybe doing. Must do a 180 to help another paddler.
In middle:
PROS: Can observe some of the group easier. Able to better hear some of the group.
CONS: Can be blocked by other paddlers if they need to offer aid. Still need to turn back to check the group.
In the Back:
PROS: Can see the entire group
CONS: Less able to see harzards. Communication with the group harder (paddle signals aren't going to work).
The general feeling, was it depends on the skills of group, the water conditions, the type of paddle as to where to position one's self. Jen mentioned that she like to paddle in the middle but off to one side at the start of a paddle. That enables her to start to assess the skills of the groups in a quick fashion.
Soon we reached the end of the river, and the start of Dog Beach. The plan for the day was to become comfortable in the surf conditions. To start with Jen had each of us paddle in a simple box, allowing each of us to find their comfort zone as to the size of the surf. The surf was fairly small, I would say 1-2 feet, with a larger set once in a while. There were periods of extented calm, in fact I was able to return to the starting point from the outer maker we were using with ever dealing with a wave.
Through out the morning Jen had us doing 360s in the surf zone, out and backs across the surf zone. It felt really good. In debreifing with Jen, she said that it looked like I was handling the boat very nicely out there. We had a few folks go swimming, but no real issues. We landed for lunch and discussed how we were feeling paddling there. We opted to stay at Dog Beach working our various surf skills rather than head down Sunset Cliffs.
Not long after I returned back into water, I got dumped. Not sure why the brace failed, but it did. I started to try a roll, but my elbow was beat and did not want to risk an injury. Jen had Jane and I try a rescue in the surf zone, but I didn't have the arm strength left to pull it off, so I swam the boat in.
After returning to shore, I repositioned my tendon brace and head back into the water for a bit. I wanted to just hang out just past the surf zone, just working on some light strokes in the swells. But the morning's fun was starting to take its toll.
I did catch a few very nice rides on the waves during the day, the one at the end was a lot of fun. Soon, the whole group was feeling sore and tired, and it was time to call it a day. We opted to paddle around the jetty back to the shop rather than haul the boats up the rocks. The return trip was nice and easy. We loaded up our boats and wished eveyone a happy holidays.
These two classes have been great. My elbows are still sore from all the abuse they took. Nothing too worrisome, but a lot of Advil, ice, and massage throughout the week (and no Guitar Hero).
Happy Holidays to all!
Labels: four star training
posted by Chris Griffith at
2:12 PM
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