[CKF Info] Day #50, Those Who Can't, Teach

[Tomitacat at aol.com]

Thanks, Mark and Ken, for organizing a fun day of practice.  You know  how 
much I hate getting wet, but I had a good time anyway.  We also saw  Howard and 
Sharon out this morning.  This was Sharon's first paddle since  her knee 
surgery and she was doing really well.  It was a very busy day on  the water.  
 
A message from Barb Tomita 

 
In a message dated 6/14/2008 3:32:35 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
sandmarks at ca.rr.com writes:

6/14/08
 
When I got to the  Secret Beach, Ken and Barb were sitting on the sea wall 
looking like two  beached seals--all clad in black rubber ready for our Saturday 
Wet Works. They  head over to the CG beach while I got ready and when I 
joined them I found  Pete and Jeff Libby there to join us as well. To the side of 
the beach  was another, large group of paddlers getting ready to head out under 
the  expert tutelage of George M.
 
We all headed  to Pirate's Cove and we could see a couple yakkers already 
there who  turned out to be the Pilchard bunch. Clearly, they were there to show 
off  their nifty new two-piece Superior GP's  and had already warmed up with a 
coastal paddle. The sun wasn't out yet, but  the water didn't seem too cold, 
but I quickly had to acclimate to the chill.  Barb was just getting out her 
face mask when it slipped out of her hands  heading for the briny deep. The 
briny deep only being 10 to 12 feet here, I  donned my mask hoping for a quick 
retrieval. Sans my PFD, I still was rather  buoyant with just my wet suit top, 
but managed to make it down, but the Eel  Grass in the area was too high and 
after a few tries we left it as a sacrifice  to the rolling gods.
 
It didn't take  long for Kathy to start to show off with her new paddle. They 
claimed they  were still getting used to them, but Kathy showed off a real 
nice butterfly  roll that had her looking like a pro. She gave Ken a few hints 
and he was able  to do one too, so we already had people learning new skills on 
the day. About  this time, Ben paddled up from his launch site at NAC and 
joined in the  practice
 
Every one kind of  paired up to work on sundry skills. H&K worked on more 
Greenland skills  and Ken helped Jeff try out a paddle float reentry roll. Barb 
and Pete worked  on reentries and I just seemed to paddle around watching. Jeff 
wasn't  having any trouble with the paddle float roll, so I graduated him on 
to my  kickboard paddle float. It helped him add a bit of sweep to the 
maneuver and  soon Ken was schooling him in the finer aspects of real rolling. Off to 
the  side, Henry was helping Kathy get set up for a nice static brace. I 
looked  over to see Ben swimming, the victim of a broken paddle shaft on his  roll 
attempt.
 
After a while, I  asked Jeff if he wanted to come closer to shore where I 
could stand up and  help him with his roll attempts. Just trying to repeat my 
rolling class with  Jen, I had him do some hip snaps just holding my hands and he 
came up rather  smartly. We moved on to me holding the back of his boat and 
letting him try to  roll on his own and it wasn't taking a lot of help from me 
to get him up. We  gave him the story of keeping his head down and after a 
couple more tries  he rolled up all by himself like a real pro. We figured it 
best he stop on a  high note.
 
Since I was  already in the water, I worked with Pete trying out my kickboard 
paddle float.  He was doing well with that and we moved on to trying some 
real rolling. With  Henry giving advice and demonstrations, I think we got Pete 
moving in the  right direction, but we didn't have two new rollers on the day. 
Still I was  glad to see him doing well with the paddle float roll.
 
By this time I  hadn't even tried a real roll yet myself. I'd done a reentry 
roll earlier only  to find I should have recharged my bilge pump battery last 
night! My roll of  late has been at the best, iffy. I asked Ken to borrow his 
boat and despite  the tight fit, enjoyed rolling a boat that seems meant to be 
rolled. Not to be  out done, Barb was showing some excellent rolling 
technique. Of course,  Ken in my boat didn't look to have too much trouble rolling my  
barge.
 
We had had a busy,  successful morning of practice and all decided to head to 
the Fireside for  lunch. It was nice to be on hand for someone to do their 
first successful roll  despite the weakest roller giving the advice!
 
Mark  Sanders
_www.sandmarks.net_ (http://www.sandmarks.net/) 
 
#


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