A new Adult Learn to Kayak class began last night at the club. Full class this time around, which is really lots of fun but frankly, also a lot of work. That's okay though! Every physical type of mom you could imagine. It took awhile, but we finally found boats for everyone and got the big, heavy rec boats hauled down to the docks.
The first few moments of the paddle are always a little hectic, when people are finding their water legs. Especially when the group is so relatively large. Basics come first; how to propel the boat, how to stop slowly, putting the brakes on quickly, turning, back-paddling, and the all-important skill of paddling into the wash when necessary.
I always start the class by having everyone paddle the rec boats approximately 1 kilometer down to the shore on the other end of the water on our boathouse side. It's a manageable paddle, all in the no-wake zone. I don't like to put them in choppy water at first. That will probably come Thursday night when we paddle up the course. At any rate, we paddle back to the boathouse, and then it's time to bust out the trainers. They are the intro racing boats, and really what we do at Lanier. On some levels, this is a feeder program for the masters program, but really it's a feeder program for a healthier life.
The trainers are somewhere around 20 years old. They are plastex boats which are in a sad state of disrepair. I am pretty sure that they don't even make the parts for these anymore. Unfortunate, really, because so many folks have started in those boats. Hundreds, at the very least.
But I digress. I love to put my students in these boats, because they have actual rudders and are a lot lighter than the rec boats, so they can move them more quickly and control them with relative ease. For most of my paddlers, with the exception of those with a lot of extra weight or a lot of extra years, once they get into the trainers they don't go back to the other boats. Before anyone is allowed on the water with these, however, I need to get into one and flip it so that they will know what to do in the event that they flip. This is kind of a selfish moment for me; I actually love to be in the lake. And, it's really important that they know what to do. After all, these are old fiberglass boats. When they flip, they take on lots of water. Once that cockpit is full, it's all but impossible to pull it back up. As I tell my students, I don't know when the next 50 years drought will be, but that's when we'll recover that boat.
I had 7 students try the trainers last night. No flips. Yes! Good for the confidence, and the majority of them had a new profile picture. One mom even got into the Dusen k-2 with one of our high performance athletes. They looked really good...until they flipped. But she's got real street cred with her 2 boys which are in the developmental program!!
So, Thursday night we'll get into the trainers and head up the course. We'll work more on using the legs to create twist and they'll be one step closer to being good paddlers. More importantly, they'll be moms in their 30's-60's who may have just become born-again athletes who will paddle for life.
TKM
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