A Family Adventure


in the mountains, ocean, and air

North Shore Paddlers Network

September 27, 2009
Emilie Phillips

Today was the anual meeting for NSPN — the kayaking group Tyson and then I joined this year. I was surprised to learn that the club is not that large (only 200 members). I was pleasantly surprised to learn that a good part of their mission is education. And then the discussion devolved into a discussion of how to do «Common Adventurer Model» rather than officially lead trips. It essentially means having all the trip participants actively involved in the group’s welfare. That seems to line up nicely with the education mission, so I don’t see why it’s such a big issue, but I guess the transition is hard.

Then after the meeting, there was a paddle. The forecast was heinous, so nobody was being that proactive, but when we finally did poke our heads outside, it wasn’t so bad. Tyson was getting a chance to try out another guy’s Pintail. So that put me back in my old plastic boat rather than the nice fast tandem I’ve gotten used to. Well, last time I was out in that boat in wind, I had horrible trouble controlling it. So my confession at the beach briefing was that I might be that person who bails and has to be escorted back to the put in.

Well, I put some balast in the front of the boat to try to trim it better, and I put on my best attitude and headed out. I was slower than everyone else, and the boat did lee-cock, and I still can’t turn it very well. But I didn’t do horribly! In fact I had fun!

I managed to catch a good number of waves and I managed to carve two turns. There were waves coming from two directions which added a little bit of bumpy excitement to the ride. I did my couple of rolls fine and I even tried a few of the greenland techniques with mixed luck.

And the end of the day was a nice easy ride back in with the wind and waves at our back.

P.S I’m sore.