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Diane Carr of Traverse City Michigan attends the WMCKA Symposium every year as an instructor. She is also an artist. I was trying to look up her e-mail address to make sure she got the invite for the Instructor Update. So I google her. This is what comes up when you google Diane Carr!

Just to keep it real. This is one of the top image results for Keith Wikle. Who is this guy and why is he such a dork?

Diane is a graceful paddler, she focuses on the traditional style. She rolls quite well, and in addition is one of those must meet people at WMCKA. As U2 is wont to say, you feel like God walked through the room when you meet her. She always mentions how much she loves seeing my kids, loves the web site, and wants to know all about surfing.

She never mentioned once that she was an artist until someone at dinner asked her what she did for a living.
Up until this moment, I never saw a piece she made. Feels like I’ve finally seen the whole Diane Carr picture.
So check out Diane Carr’s work on Artnet. Make sure to watch the video at the bottom of the page.

And make sure you introduce yourself to Diane this year!

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Jeff Allen renown expedition paddler, BCU Coach, and contributor to the increasingly awesome Ocean Paddler magazine will be the WMCKA Keynote Speaker for our 2009 symposium.

Jeff Allen is one half of Sea Kayaking Cornwall. Simon Osborne being the other half.

Jeff has a vast experience with long trips and a life long love affair with the sea. It shows in his long trips at sea in circumnavigating Japan, his trip to South Georgia Island, and his writing for Ocean Paddler Magazine. Jeff has written a series of excellent and I think groundbreaking articles on incident management for Ocean Paddler. I would recommend checking them out.

WMCKA is excited to have Jeff Allen come and visit us.

I would encourage particpants to sign up on facebook and friend Jeff Allen ahead of time.

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WMCKA Sea Kayak Symposium 2008 My Home is the Sea

Every year I attend the WMCKA Sea Kayaking Symposium it takes me a few days to absorb the impact of what it means to me. It is easy to say this happened and that happened. It is also easy to say this is the one thing that it meant, to go for the grand recit. What is infinitely harder is to say what it meant in smaller terms that make up the big picture. For my part WMCKA means a lot to me, as it is a culmination of planning efforts and coordination with the Symposium Committee, the WMCKA governing board, and a governing of my own desires for a great symposium.

I’d been trying to get Shawna Franklin and Leon Somme to come to our symposium since about 2005. Finally this year it worked out for both parties. This alone made me very happy in my heart. We decided to plan an instructor update prior to Symposium. This event was very well attended by our instructor group.

Shawna and Leon suited up and got us all out on the water asking us to paddle across Duck Lake and turning upwind. Their approach was to allow us to find our own way. They asked us to find five ways to turn upwind and simply let us paddle. We all came back with about seven ways to paddle upwind. The objective here it seems was to give us an objective, and allow us to interact with our environment, and then come up with our own conclusions. Based on the level of skill and experience each person has, they will come up with a variety of ways to deal with the environment. Only after we had tried a few things did Shawna and Leon call us in to have us give our ideas about what worked and what didn’t. Then after we had told them what we thought, they finally gave us their input. It was a really interesting way to teach a class. They barely spoke and allowed all of us to teach ourselves, each other, and finally when all that was done they gave us some pointers.

Derrick and a lot of the instructors were very juiced up about the bracing and rolling progression Shawna and Leon were sharing. This progression starts in a low brace, then high brace, and finally rolling. It focuses on starting the paddler on their back. Shawna and Leon have been using it with a high success rate in Washington. I would love to see a video of this progression a couple more times.

One of the more interesting points of the instruction for me was a paddle power demonstration. Shawna and Leon had us pair up with another paddler and link in tail to tail with another paddler on a contact tow. One paddler would use a euro paddle, the other would use a wing paddle or a euro paddle. The objective was to see who would tow who with the different paddle. I was paired off with Alec Boyd Peshkin who is my size and of equal power and skill. We started out with my carbon fiber greenland paddle and his werner shuna. Invariably the euro paddle would quickly overpower the Greenland paddle. We switched back and forth with the same results. We then used an epic wing and the Greenland paddle. It was dead even on these two paddles, I was surprised by this. We then switched to the wing and the euro. Again the euro paddle started dragging the paddler with the wing around.

I’ve held a not very scientific or empirical bias that the Euro and the Greenland style paddle were pretty much the same under these conditions. But after this I am not convinced. Doug Van Doren and Steve Bailey experienced the same results. Though Steve Bailey is a very powerful paddler and much bigger than Doug. Food for thought!!

A few of us headed out to Lake Michigan to paddle in the wind and waves afterwards. My inguinal hernia let me know pretty quickly that it was too soon for this type of exertion. I was left in the dust within a few minutes. I managed to take a few pictures regardless.

This was the point of the weekend where my mental state went in the drink. As a person I am competitive, gregarious, and outgoing. I found it very hard to be the slowest man on the water. It was a knife like jab in my belly to be unable to lead the pack when there was wind and waves to be had. My greatest joy in life is to be flying down wave with the wind at my back. To watch others easily out pace me felt like a clumsy root canal from a sadistic dentist with no anesthetic. I find I am a very poor spectator.

Once on sight at the Symposium in my spectator status I observed that the energy and enthusiasm Shawna and Leon exerted was as palpable as the pollen in the air. They were the first to be suited up to paddle and often the very last off the water. They were omnipresent and engaged in a way I have not seen any other instructors behave. You could tell that they loved being on the water, loved kayaking. And this enthusiasm melted over to the instructors, and the participants.

They also participated in the rodeo, and I saw kindred spirits, (I love a rodeo) in their competitive fun loving nature in the races, rolling contest, and passion to be involved, in the thick of things. Leon may have been channeling my wounded spirit when he and two other racers tackled one another into the shallows. What more could one ask for besides a rugby style tackle in a drysuit?

My grand recit for the weekend was observing Shawna and Leon as a couple. They spent every moment happily in each other’s company. I can say with some authority that this is very rare. You rarely saw one without the other. This sort of affection and dedication was so genuine one could hardly not feel it’s contagious gravity. I found myself more calm, more open towards friends, Laura, and the symposium in general. It seems to be the sort of bond you only read about in books, or see in movies. And perhaps this is not unlike kayaking, where you only get out of it what you put into it. And if this is any indication, the relationship and their kayaking seemed to have an effortless grace. Meaning there has probably been a lot of hard work on both ends.

Their slide show presentation on the Queen Charlotte Islands or Haida Gwai was fantastic. This expedition took place on the inside and outside of this island group. The outside is right on the edge of the continental shelf. The unbroken Pacific Ocean has no barrier between swell generation and the islands. So the full force of the world’s largest ocean breaks on these islands. Justine Curgenven went with Shawna and Leon and filmed the trip, so look for it in the next installment of This is the Sea.

One of Leon’s opening statements about the trip has been firmly cemented in my mind.
“You will never have enough money, you will never have enough vacation time, you just have to go.” Too bad that is too big to get as a tattoo.

I actually had many many participants and beginner paddlers come up and tell me how great the presentation was. That was a first. It is further proof that the energy you give to something is very real and palpable.

I hope to be able to find someone, or somebody as dedicated, enthusiastic and as skilled as Shawna and Leon for next year. I know there are some folks I would like to ask to visit us on Big Blue Lake. Some small part wonders if this may have been the proverbial summit of our little symposium.

I will leave you with a song by Will Oldham (aka Bonnie Prince Billy) that probably explains the energy we all feel about kayaking, instruction, and a life full of adventure, either small or big.

My Home Is the Sea-Bonnie Prince Billy Lyrics

I have often said
that I would like to be dead
in shark’s mouth

a woman swimming under
her warm breath sendin’ a thunder
on two parts south

and love is stripped and frayed
and duty is delayed
until next life

someone has my mind
holding yes so kind
it is my wife

and my home is the sea
my home is the sea
look not for me

my home is the sea
disaster flies upon me
and i sleep
we can see the house lights
colored from a distance
for a party as a dream

my tongue will into me
my arms unfold these seeds
cause im a strong man

and do not love my tummy
is round and firm and funny
and thats what i am

my home is the sea
my home is the sea

i am under your spell
you will have me i reckon
and the drowning this town
as a drowning i welcome

i know nothing and im over joyed
i know nothing and im over joyed
i know nothing and im over joyed

god gave you life and thought
now its ours to waste
i have the finest love
and the finest taste

see her when im home
i am home

you are home

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Flotnar 4th Annual Ice paddle on Lake Michigan in South Haven

Jim Viviano and I decided to try for an Icepaddle two weeks ago. The ice cliffs on the Lake Michigan piled quite high this year. The ice cliffs on the Great Lakes form as the warmer water begins to erode the edges of the ice pack. Then wave action piles the remaining ice up into cliffs, which will melt and refreeze until they are completely thawed.

We loaded our sea kayaks up at the Black River DNR boat launch. The dredger was digging up mud for the powerboats to have a deeper draft through the channel. Jim and I quickly passed through the channel and then were astonished to see the ice had formed a narrow band between open Lake, and the ice cliffs.

The ice blocked us from viewing the cliffs up close, pancake pack ice was solid to the shore about two-three hundred yards out. There was also a moving ice debris field that was on the open lake and drifting in. We had no where to go. We pushed our sea kayaks through some brash ice to paddle in what looked like a little ice pond that was a quarter mile long and 500 yards wide. We did find some spots on the south side of the pier where i could get out and take some pictures.

Jim and I performed a few eskimo rolls in the river mouth and paddled back in. Despite being defeated by the ice, it was a short bright sunny day. I am continually astonished at how different the ice can be each spring. In my first years out on the Lake 2003-2004 the ice was very high and dramatic, but it was easy to get out through the river and then very close to 20-30 foot ice cliffs.

Our winter was especially long and cold this year with more snow than usual. This provided a more confined paddle, but fun nonetheless. What I always like is the feeling that if one didn’t know they were looking at Lake Michigan, you could almost feel it was Greenland, or Baffin Island. The dynamic nature of Lake Michigan for sea kayaking, and surf kayaking continues to entice and deliver. My thanks to Jim.

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This year’s Wind, Waves, and Wine event was moved to Lake Michigan Recreation Area north of Ludington. Blessed with fortune I left work on Friday to arrive at exactly the same time as Henry Davies. We drove over to the beach and quickly assessed that surfing was out, but paddling would happen. We set up camp and then did the monster carry to the beach. Henry and I paddled out into a good 20 knot headwind for over an hour. The wind was coming slightly off the land which made it a little hairy as we proceeded. I made sure to keep angling my bow in towards land as we went in order not to be blown to Wisconsin. After an hour or so of this, we turned around and sailed back with the wind. I caught several long rides with minimal effort. I flew along at a terrific pace spilling foam along either side of the kayak. I edged to control my direction as the Silhouette loves being edged I was having the time of my life. I tried filming a bit of Henry. It came out looking quite flat and not that windy. Justine Curgenven taught me this. It always looks flatter on TV!

The next morning after we figured out who arrived and who didn’t we piled down to the beach with a bunch of the Mega Surf Kayaks. The surf was 2 foot, but the water was too deep off shore for it to break further out. I hopped in the Maverick and caught two decent rides about 50 yards off shore. But the majority of the surfing was in 2 foot of water. I got hung up in two foot of water and had to ditch my paddle and hand roll up. Not pretty. Dotty Kasunic, Monnie Evans, Lori Stegmier, Barb Fishback, Paul Fishback, and Henry Davies all surfed in sea kayaks making runs off shore and riding waves in to the beach. Monnie, who is a beginner performed really well and caught a few rides in to the beach. Joe Deja and I held hope for bigger waves based on the wind direction. So we drove over to Ludington on the surf safari. Much to our displeasure it appeared that the wind was dropping and the waves were smaller. Upon our return we hopped in sea kayaks and went out to practice rescues. I taught the T rescue to Joe. He got back into his own boat pretty quickly. When it came time for Joe to rescue me he had a little difficulty with getting his paddle stowed quickly and holding onto everything. Because we had real conditions it was a great lesson. He let go of my boat for about two seconds to get his paddle stowed and it surfed off. He had to get his paddle un-stowed and paddle after it! From my tentative position of 50 degree Lake Michigan Water; I politely suggested to Joe that he not do that again.

That evening Lori and I whipped together a quesadilla cook-off which I think we will repeat for next year! Lori provided shrimp and a few different types of cheese. I brought up two different types of salsa, a green tomatillo, and a more traditional tomato salsa. Both meandering on the border between hot and medium hot. After dinner we were joined by Brad and Mike from Holland around the fire. Based on the days events most folks winked out early.

I started this event about four years ago never sure if anyone would come. Much to my surprise every year, there have been new people I didn’t know. But each year we keep saying we need to make it later in the year to get real surf. I think I may have to keep that in mind. I think late October may be the time for next year!

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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 in a class all his own. We hit the road and he started talking almost immediately. Much to my surprise he is a listener as much as he is a speaker, or better yet a story teller.

I’m always interested in hearing about couples that have children young who have their adventures too. What sacrifices are made? What are the repercussions from those long periods of time away from home might have been. While I have ultimate respect for Simon and Justine, I have a deep affinity and respect for a man like Jon because he made hard choices in life. He had to choose to be away from home and family to do the things he needed to do, and he had to live with those choices. Further, his family had to live with them too.

Jon has done some amazing things in life, probably so grand that it boggles even his mind how he did it. He’s crossed the northwest passage, gone from Japan all the way to the Siberian straits, paddled in Greenland, climbed and mountain biked in Asia.

Our talk in the car circled around the inherent social dynamics of human beings, adventures, his children, and ultimately his dead wife Chris. We could talk about anything from UFO’s to paddling and Jon ultimately circled back to Chris. Her death clearly haunts him. How could it not. For the full story read “this”:http://summitjournal.com/articles/features/skiing_lines.html.

I remember listening to “Cold Oceans”:http://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Kayak-Rowboat-Dogsled-Turk/dp/0694520373/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/103-4770724-8819841?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180539808&sr=8-3 Jon’s first book in the car when I was making a very difficult work commute to Detroit from Paw Paw. The book is about more than his monumental expeditions into the Arctic. It is also about the lifelong love affair with Chris, his children, and how long it really took to get the two of them together. It is written like Hemingway without the need for pointless machismo. It moved me, and his reading of it is phenomenal if you get a chance to buy it on tape, Jon reads it!

Jon’s talk at Symposium is on the topic of the Romantic vs the Pragmatist in man. It’s clearly not really a strictly paddling expedition talk. Which clearly sums up why most of us get into paddling. It certainly isn’t pragmatic to kayak at all, which is why Jet skis are so popular. There is a certain nobility and simplicity to paddling that makes it difficult to think of it in rational terms. I can say from my first time in a kayak it was like touching a dream. The kayak glided through the water effortlessly and my hands dipped into a mirror smooth lake on every stroke. The notion to get into a sport that costs thousands, is completely individual, and not at all practical was not something that made sense, I just did it because I caught the bug. Every paddler has that perfect moment they are searching for. It’s a lifelong quest. You never really get it. Or at least I hope I don’t, because then the trip is over. I keep going back out there because that dream is still out there, the dream of that perfect wave, or the perfect downwind ride in a sea kayak, that perfect moment in the wilderness where you see God.
We all know it’s out there somewhere, so we keep going. Jon’s talk based on the book, “In the Wake of the Jomon”:http://www.amazon.com/Wake-Jomon-Jon-Turk/dp/0071449027/ref=sr_1_4/103-4770724-8819841?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1180539808&sr=8-4
is based on the notion that people did not cross on a land bridge to North America from Asia, but perhaps paddled here in canoes and kayaks. This is based on the premise that at our hearts we are not pragmatists, but romantics. Or at the least, we are dreamers in addition to being pragmatists. The argument itself is poetic. And this Yeats Poem says it all:

??Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.??

I think Jon Turk still has some expeditions left in him. When we were in the car, he even hinted he might have a few left to do by kayak. His talk smacked of the sort of lyricism that moves the soul, rather than cold details about what happened each day. Sure he had the usual death defying heroics we expect, but it was backed by a long life full of adventure, pain, beauty, and hard work; which is not something you get to hear everywhere. We were priveleged to have him. And he also cut the rug on Sunday night with Betsie and the band like a madman!

As usual the Symposium had a mix of weather, rain, sunshine and a little cold in the evening. The training and the classes were great. I got to play with the kids, and the adults a bit. I *cough* accidentally knocked a few students over. But managed to teach them something too. I got to learn from some students as usual!

I also managed not to disgrace myself in the rolling demo, for which I was thankful. I had to add a little sculling on my forward recovery handroll, but hey who’s counting?

The feelings I have for the WMCKA symposium can’t be taken out of context. Essentially whenever I think about WMCKA I see the cut-away version of the human anatomy. I see how colors are interpreted by the optic nerve, how pain is transferred from the nerves to the brain, how food is chewed and then digested. Serving on the board, and on the symposium committee has been a privilege. Most of the time it’s been great fun, but it also changes how I see things when it comes time to have fun. So when it came time to arrive on site Friday night, I had the distinct distaste of having seen how the sausages are made. Which let me know, it’s time to take a break.

I’ve heard from lots of folks it is one of the best run symposiums in the Midwest, so I trust my efforts and the efforts of the board have not gone unnoticed. I hope to attend next year and just stick to playing with the kids and knocking students in the water. Poor poor students

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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 planning the 2007 Sea Kayaking Symposium in Grand Rapids. WMCKA is a very family oriented club with a lot of kids in the pool. Some of the kids are getting pretty skilled in their kayaks. I managed the kids program last year at the symposium which was a hoot. I look forward to working with the kids again this year.

I drove up to use the pool and got these shots of the kids in the pool. I also got a video of Margaret Fishback’s roll.

Her mother Barb worked with her in the pool to get her this far. I think it looks pretty solid.

Aidan Van Doren is also making progress on his balance brace as well. He has the same instructor I did for teaching Greenland skills, so I think he should be in fine shape!

Seeing the kids work on skills in the pool is pretty amazing. No telling what they will try. Or what they will be able to do unless they are turned loose. From my experience with Gabriel, some good some bad, I have to say that building their confidence is crucial. Believing you are capable of doing something is key. When they lose interest, you drop it and come back to it later.

This is a full size image of Andy for Paul!