White Water Canoe Cert Day 4

Thursday, April 8, 2010
Have had a few days off between posts so need to dig back in my brain. At the Millers River again.

Started the day with more presentations. At some point I said that I was going to make an effort to be more in the fun than I had been.

Mark has been a raft guide for five or six years. He showed us some video in class of him taking his family down some rafting rapids. Wild stuff. Today we paddled together. He wanted to start in the bow to practice different strokes from rafting so I took the stern. I'm not sure why, but it was a better day in the stern than when Kristi and I were paddling and I struggled so much steering us up river. As usual, we switched places after lunch and I was in the bow. We found an area with a good surfing wave and Evan suggested we all play in it for a while. Mark and I paddled hard to get into the wave and then he kept telling me to "paddle hard" or "stop paddling." I followed directions but didn't really know why what I was doing was working. But we had some good rides and it was fun.

We stopped for an early lunch and more presentations. Mark and Jen were doing their 20 minutes on River Obstacles so we split up with our paddling groups. Jen's group had to put their gear back on--full suits, PFDs and helmets because they were staying along the river. Beth called to me to stay with their group and in my hesitation waltz, finally heading their way, got busted for falling prey to peer pressure. Okay, I go with my group and am treated because Mark takes us up on the bridge where we can enjoy the breeze without all our paraphernalia on. They do need to get the gear on when we go back to the bank for my presentation on Fundamentals of River Current. Mikey makes a suggestion that we stand in the water which works for me. Cools us off and gives us a feel of the current. So, my presentation looked good on paper. In an effort to keep it concise, I cut out some important info and messed it up in reality. People didn't have enough info for the assignment to find factors related to river current. I turned it around easily enough and just threw the questions out to them for answers. But Mikey and Erin deliberately concocted a lousy answer for the volume question and, while I didn't really understand it, I let it go and found other ways to incorporate volume. I also was able to bring in the side view of current that I took from the ACA Manual. Evan told me I had it wrong which surprised me because I thought I had it down. I checked it today and what I said is what their diagram shows and states. Sometime I'll have to ask him about that.

At some point on the river, Evan told us that we were coming to some rapids that had both IIs and IIIs and we could choose which to run--IIIs on river left and IIs down the center. I asked what the difference was and I believe it was the difficulty and the danger. I sort of tossed out that IIs were fine with me but in my mind I had some sense that I might change my mind so I could say that I ran a III. And, I wasn't the only one in the boat so didn't want to decide for Mark. My regret is that it came up fast and we went through the II--it looked like the wilder and more fun ride from what I could see--curling waves that bounced us around and dumped in the boat. Most everyone else went through the III which I remember thinking had much less water and was bonier--more rocks. I find that combination just annoying rather than fun. Oh, well. I whooped it up through the II just for the fun of it.

We also hit more rapids on a steeper gradient followed by an immediate, sharp curve to river right and Evan asked us to eddy up and signal back to stay river left to use the deeper water and make the turn. Evan said to pump the signal if people weren't going left soon enough. Just a short distance around that bend was the take out and the end of our day.

Evan had been meeting with people during the day to let them know where they were in his assessment and what they needed to do to meet their cert level goal. I caught up with him at the boat house after unloading. I'm on the edge of Level 2 but may only get Level 1. I need to pull it all together tomorrow with another run at leading the group and nailing my strokes. If I can't pull it together, I'm close enough that he would be willing to hold the Level 2 open until I can go for it again soon. The person he sees on the river is different than the person he talks to and he thinks it's a mental block. He says I'm a strong paddler and often nail what I need to do if I relax and am not so serious. Just pull it together tomorrow.

All in all, I made a point of focusing on the fun and while I may have been the only one to notice, that needs to be enough for now. Tomorrow, I need to nail it down fully.