3 Star!!

Been keeping this quiet, but I've prepping for retaking the BCU 3 Star assessment again. I talk to Jen over at Aqua Adventures about it during the Baja Sea Caves trip. She was all for putting Jane and myself through our paces. After watching us on the open ocean, she was actually pushing us to try straight for 4 Star.

So last Sunday, the two of us meet up at Aqua and geared up. Jen grabbed a cup of coffee, two assessment sheets and hopped in her canoe. We paddled over to near the now removed docks of the San Diego Lifeguards. Once there we began working our way through the pilings in reverse or as points of reference for various draws. The skills came fairly smoothly. Jen, ever helpful, offered some addtional pointers. Our braces went well. I finally got a decent left side high brace. Maybe not 90 degrees, but off-balance.

With that last brace, the both of us passed. A high paddle was performed, and we turned and head back to the docks. Back at the shop, we filled out some paperwork for the BCU and headed for home. Unforuntately, my kayak clothes are still in the bin as the winds were to high to wash and dry them, then I had to evacuate due to the fires. I really don't want to smell them when I wash them out...

So now what? I am starting to think hard about the 2 Star Coaching and try the 4 Star as well. I have to wait and see what the new system from the BCU means first. I'll wait for Jen to get back from Georgia and give us the 411.

Kayaking for Dummies

Saw this in the paper and had to find it online:

Native Kayak

I was recently in Chicago for a conference and cut out early the last day to run through the Field Museum. I had been to Chicago before and did not have a chance to visit this museum. While exploring the museum, they have a permanent exhibit on Eskimos and Northwest Coast Indians. They had this kayak on display:

Rescues and Rolls

The San Diego Kayak Club hosted a Rescue and Roll Class led by Jen Kleck from Aqua Adventures. Some 26 paddlers turned out for this event. There were the usual suspects, Jane, Jay, Bob, Mike, Jon, Mike B., and Teresa. After warming up by playing scoop the item from the water, we made our way to Marnier's Cove. We first worked on some T-rescues, some of us work on some rolls. I wasn't planning on doing too much since I had not paddled in a few week. But Jen had a free moment, so I did some basic high braces, then she watched a few rolls. What was nice was I pulled off some regular rolls. Yeah.

The water was not too bad. We wrapped up the day with a T-rescue race. In teams of three, one paddler would be 20 yards away, capsize, then paddler 2 would sprint out and rescue that paddler, then they would capsize, while the rescued paddler would sprint back to the shore to tag the final paddler, who would race out to rescue the other paddler. Quite fun, although our team was rigged with Teresa and Jon and myself....

The final activity was a mass capsize. Some tried some modified T-rescues. I tried a few reentry and rolls, but they were not happening today. I decided to try a paddle float re-entry. It went quite fast once I inflated the float.

Back at the shop, we celebrated Jay's birthday. All in all quite a fun day to be back on the water.