I made the after work foray to South Haven south beach yesterday. The wind was up again, 20-25 knots out of the northwest, gusting to 30 knots. I had the beginnings of a cold, now in full bloom. When I arrived at the beach the tops of the waves were being blown off into furious …
Category Archive: Eskimo Rolling
Sep
12
May
30
The Romantic Journey-WMCKA Symposium 2007
I picked Jon Turk up at the Kalamazoo airport on Friday after work. I’d heard that he wasn’t as chatty and vivacious as some of the younger pups we’d had to symposium over the last few years. Simon and Justine definitely are very fun and very very social, which is great. Jon Turk though is …
Jan
28
Into the blue
I am more accustomed to the smell of chlorine these last few weeks than the smell of fresh air. The lakes have finally started to freeze over. I am blessed with three pools to visit. Two of which allow kayaks, the third being the YMCA. The “WMCKA”:http://wmcka.org pool sessions are fun, but crowded. We are …
Jan
12
Nemesis
The forward recovery handroll has been my nemesis since I’ve started to learn it. The roll is basically a very swift ab crunch and vigorous hip flick almost simultaneously. I have the Norsaq assist part down pretty tight. I finally hit a few in the pool this week without the Norsaq. Of course they were …
Jan
12
This is the Lake
There are so many reasons why this is probably only funny to me. But I’m posting it anyway.
Oct
13
No one knows you are a kayak ninja when you’re dead.
I cycled in to work yesterday through driving snow and building wind. My bike pushed me about 2 feet side ways with one solid gust on a downhil portion of the ride to downtown Kalamazoo. The forecast predicted a wersterly 30 knot gale force wind that would die over the course of the day into …
Aug
28
You just gotta believe…
Leaving a great Cuban themed work party was hard, mohitos on the lawn of the Kellogg’s mansion beckoned. Bocce ball and other diversions abounded just prior to departure for Qajaq Training Camp. I sucked in my temptation to indulge my vices and drive up late in the dark. I just managed to squeeze in to …
May
23
The ode to John Grady Cole
I used to think that every word out of my mouth was funny, wise, or whimsically beautiful. I used to feel impervious to criticism. Participating in writer’s groups and workshops will steel you for some pretty mean shit. But the idea that you have something worthwhile to say that other people would be interested in …
Mar
16
The Youth Brigade
I’ve had what an optimist would call mixed success with rolling instruction. Ok for clarification of the data pool I will say that I’ve tried to help twenty or so people with a first roll. Which is not many. But out of those twenty, only two actually rolled while I was helping them. Now I …
Feb
27
Minimalism and Paddling
Minimalism, the art of doing more with less may have a lot to do with paddling. Rolling in particular has the minimalist bent to it. First you learn to hip snap, sweep and brace with the paddle in order to get oxygen. That’s pretty simple, (relatively speaking). If you decide to get more into this, …
