October 30, 1999

God can cook

Trip #60

30 Oct, 1999

Distance: Not much - Doesn't matter

Brian Blankinship, along with our most gracious host and hostess David Compton and Teresa Pendleton, put together a skills workshop within the cooling pond of the Lake Anna nuclear power plant. At about 9:30 am some twenty odd kayakers began gathering in Teresa and David's back yard as if drawn to this place by some unstoppable force. It reminded me of the movie E.T. as people from all over Virginia and Maryland began to congregate and set up a small tent village.

When everyone was nearly set up, Brian called us together on the bank of the lake to make introductions. First there was the *staff*, Nick, Gar, Spence, Kevin and Brain (did I leave anyone out?). Then we all introduced ourselves, where we were from and experience levels. I was surprised at the number of "intermediate" paddlers. I deemed myself an "intermediate beginner" and even felt uncomfortable classifying myself that high. After we were done with intro's Brian referred to the surrounding scenery and stated "Can't God cook?". The trees were filled with orange, red, yellow, green and brown, and every other color in between. The water was 79 degrees, and the sky was crystal clear. My limited vocabulary prohibits me from describing such a scene properly which is why you see little of this in my trip reports. But this scene was quite fantastic, and Brian's words summed it up most accurately.

We split in two teams. The team I was assigned to started with paddling basics; the forward stroke, reverse stroke, draw stroke, sculling, and then some low and high braces. Eventually someone went over and needed to be rescued. I too ended up upside down and tried to quickly set up to roll, but I didn't set up properly and my sinus filled with water. As I came near the surface I tried to get a breath of air and got a little water instead. I decided to bail out and after spitting out half the lake I became the next person to demo a person being rescued. After emptying my kayak A.J. came up bow to stern to hold my kayak. I had my feet back in the cockpit and started to rotate in, but I rotated away from the support kayak and was soon back in the water. My PFD was riding almost above my head. I had taken off a polartec jacket earlier and didn't retighten it to fit properly. I tried my best to tighten it while in the water and eventually made it back into the kayak.

After lunch we went for a paddle. Again we divided into two groups; a faster - longer group which intended to go about 12 miles, and a shorter - slower group with about 6 - 8 miles as a goal. After spending the morning working on skills and recognizing the skills and speed of the faster group, I opted for the slower paddle. I figured I could have kept up with the faster group but didn't want to risk aggravating my shoulder on the first day. Dave and I tried to set a nice 3 MPH pace, but Spence kept reminding me I was causing the group to spread out, so we settled down to about 1.5 to 2 MPH. About a little over an hour out we stopped for a quick break and then started our return trip. It wasn't long the fast group caught up and some passed us just as Spence was starting to demo towing another kayak to A.J. Brain dropped out of the fast group to give some pointers and before long we were back at base camp.

We split into groups again with Brian, Carol, Matt, Silka, and myself taking up a kayak game much like dodge ball but played with a soft foam football. You get 2 points for hitting a person, and 1 point for hitting their boat. What a great game for practicing skills! A sideways skull, forward and reverse strokes and the ability to turn on a dime were needed skills. We didn't keep score but I'm sure I probably lost since I didn't manage to hit anyone but Silka with the football. Carol had her new Mariner kayak and was perpetually being kidded about giving her boat the first scratch.

After the game I changed into some dry clothes to get ready to go into town for dinner. Brian worked on rolls with Silka and she managed to roll up her first time! Wanting to stop while ahead the rest of the people got ready to go to dinner and we piled into cars and trucks for the 20 minute drive into town. About 20 of us herded into a small Chinese restaurant which surprisingly not only managed to seat us, but also get our food to us quickly.

Back at the lake, we all mutually agreed to call off the night paddle. It would have been really nice, but I don't think anyone wanted to change back into wet clothes after dinner. A few of us sat around the camp fire while some folks debated the proper genus of some weeds they found growing next to the fire pit. In the distance we could hear Nick playing guitar out by the dock.

The next morning we managed to get up after a restful night. The night sky had been full of stars and the morning sky was just as clear. We made it onto the water to practice more skills, primarily one on one rolling instruction. At some point in the rolling instruction, it may have been the day before, Robb snapped his Greenland paddle in half. I noticed that people with the handicap of having hair look different when wet. I must have tried to figure out who Alice was for 10 minutes while she was being baptized by Gar with his rolling instruction.

Around lunch time a small group headed off to paddle and I just practiced a few skills before packing up for the ride home. It was a fantastic time and my thanks go out to all the "staff", our host and hostess, and Brian for putting it all together. It was great meeting some new faces and seeing old ones again. And I think I'll put in my reservation now for the next skills workshop!