Today we went down to Charles River Canoe and Kayak to rent some solo skinny tippy kayaks. It happened that there was a clinic being offered on the forward paddle stroke, so we signed up for that too.

There was some confusion about which boats we were taking out, so for the clinic, Tyson got an Epic V10-sport and I got a random nice boat whose make I can’t remember. It is unfortunate that I can’t remember the make because I rather liked that boat. What Tyson was in is technically a surf ski. It is a sit on top, except it is a racing boat.

The clinic was taught by an olympic medalist, which was kind of cool. And there was a group of people racing in the background, so he got to use them as examples. He went over how to do a stroke correctly. Where in this correctly is the way that delivers the most power without fatiguing the body. He went over common mistakes, of which I identified a couple that I do. And some excercises to improve on various parts of the stroke.

Then we all paddled around a bit. Despite how easy he made it look, I felt like I was trying to juggle while holding a spoon with an egg in my mouth. He gave everyone a few words of constructive criticism. I don’t think I have learned anything yet, but I have a list of things to work on.

Then the outfitter was closing so we had to go find my actual rental boat. They eventually found it. It’s a really fancy boat that I’m not supposed to blow on wrong or it might break. I paddled it briefly to get from there back over to where we had parked, and wow is it tippy. It’s an Epic V10L, so mostly like what Tyson has but a little skinnier, a little longer, and a bit lighter.

By the time all those shenanigans were done, it was dark and late, and we are still driving home now.

Previous training trip: rough water is tough.

Next day: Surf skis on open water.