May 23, 2004

Flying through 360

Meredith is getting ready for a fund raising paddle on June 12th in New York. "Paddle with Pride" is a 24 mile journey down the Hudson river to raise money for the LGBT Community Center. You can find more info at the link above on Meredith's site.

From the launch we headed back in to Piscataway creek until we were forced to turn around because of dead falls. We paddled over to Atlantic Kayak to grab a quick bite then headed out into the Potomac, paddling north beyond Fort Washington and into Swan Creek.

I believe this is the first time I paddled in to this creek, and it went back further than I expected. We paddled past several house boats, and multi-million dollar homes on the waterfront. On the way out of the creek we beached our kayaks and went for a swim - with our paddles of course!

By the time we made it back to the launch we had covered 10 miles. Not the 24 she will face in a few weeks, but helping to stretch her limits a bit at a time.

On Sunday Katie and I headed out to Mason Neck to work on her skills. The flies on shore were horrendous so we quickly got in our boats and paddled off. Katie has expressed an interest in getting her BCU 2 star, and we worked on torso rotation, turns and draws. Paddling in reverse seemed to be her biggest challenge, but before we were done her reverse figure of 8 was coming along nicely.

Heading back to the launch I beached my kayak to help katie on her high brace. I held her paddle a few times while she hip snapped up. After a few times I let go of her paddle and a few more times later she was falling over and rolling back up on her own. Her off side needs some work, but she tried her best. I had her try going over several times while pulling her boat slowly through the water to work up to an "on the move" high brace.

Pictures link

Up until today, Katie's roll had consisted of only going down and back up on the same side. But her sweep looked good so I had her set up - explained the best I could the slight differences, and over she went, rolling 360 degrees on her first attempt! The second attempt I whipped out my digital camera and caught a crude video of her rolling.

Once she got that she wanted to do it 50 million times. I didn't think we'd ever go home.

I had told her if she rolled I'd buy her a new paddle. One of those pattern prints that Swift sells with Orcas on it. She tried at the end of the day at Lake Anna, but was too tired to roll up. Her first words after her first 360 was "Now you have to buy me a new paddle", and I had to admit I had already ordered it - a few days before Lake Anna:)

Woody