Last installment of the Paddlefest, from note to Coach:
Yesterday we had Waveology again. They came prepared to split the class. Paula and Rick took Aht and Jennifer. Greg took James and I as well as Paulo "JP" who is an instructor and boat maker in Chile. JP was trained in the WDC area by Tom Nickels. I remembered him from somewhere. Memorable guy.
Greg stepped up his game yesterday. We demonstrated different strokes in rough water. Then he took us into 3-5 foot swells. After a brief break we found a tide race and played in that. He explained the difference between waves and tide races and the differing strategies for working them. I had a blast there. Very Southport conditions. I flipped once but managed a cowboy. I'm sure that was a fluke.
Then JP and Greg both "needed" to be contact towed back to the beach. I got Greg, in his beefy Explorer. Darn that was hard. We had to cross an eddy line and entered 2 knot current. I struggled to keep us at a ferry-angle. Oof. I think I pulled a chest muscle.
Standing on the beach we pulled all our tow stuff for Greg to look at. He suggested I remove the short tow from my bag which I promptly did. He also suggested I, cough, remove the bungee from my spray deck. And I immediately thought "ah, Brian said same thing." I cut it off when we got back to the car.
We had earlier found a North Shore tow bag that unrolls into a sheet at SKC. I had bought James the North Shore tow bag like yours but he prefers the rolled one. So I get his "old" one and can keep my NRS bag as a spare. My first tow bag with the short line James will keep as a backup.
This was a shake down day. We both left with lots to work on.
Greg complimented my reverse stroke, btw. He said "I can really tell you've been working with Dale when you do that." I knew it was because of your tutelage but I think maybe you got it from Dale yourself, so it was a compliment to you both. :-)
(end of note)
When we got back to the Festival grounds we dropped our boats in the water and went to check out the Festival's merchants and hoped to meet Nigel Foster on the Master's Beach.
Indeed, we did find Mr. Foster! He was quite warm and friendly, just as I had remembered from last year. My husband chatted with him about his Whisky and we talked about our future plans to travel to Seattle. We also got to try out his paddle, one of his designs. I loved the large shaft and slightly higher weight than my Werner Ikelos. It turned the boat well but felt like it put less torque on my arm. Nice!
This trip really hooked my husband on classes. It is good that he has a real life understanding of why I travel up and down the East Coast from workshop to symposia. It is me, it is what I do. I am happy, and like my license plate rim says "do what you like, and like what you do."
Indeed, we did find Mr. Foster! He was quite warm and friendly, just as I had remembered from last year. My husband chatted with him about his Whisky and we talked about our future plans to travel to Seattle. We also got to try out his paddle, one of his designs. I loved the large shaft and slightly higher weight than my Werner Ikelos. It turned the boat well but felt like it put less torque on my arm. Nice!
This trip really hooked my husband on classes. It is good that he has a real life understanding of why I travel up and down the East Coast from workshop to symposia. It is me, it is what I do. I am happy, and like my license plate rim says "do what you like, and like what you do."
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