Susan beat me by 5 seconds! Five seconds! In the V10 sport which is 3 inches wider than the Huki S1-A. So she came in second and I came in third. I'll get over it. But I'll never let her get ahead of me again! After the race Kathy told me, "Oh yeah. Never let Susan get ahead of you. She trained for sprints for the dragon boat races." Susan and I had never raced in surfskis together. So she didn't know my race strategy (I'm so new to this I really don't have one yet) and I didn't know her race strategy. Now I know. She won't surprise me with a final sprint again!

The Broadkill Race is a 10 mile course from Oyster Rocks Road outside Lewes, DE to the historic little town of Milton, DE. Over 100 people participated in this race. There were a lot of "plastic bathtubs" but there were also a surprising number of surfskis, thunderbolts, and other racing kayaks. Susan had given me a pre-race tour of the course a week before the real race, she in her Mark 1 and me in the Huki S1-A. During the pre-race run it was obvious that Susan was not yet "one with her Mark 1," so she didn't even consider racing it. Then last weekend she had the opportunity to paddle Brian's brand new V10 Sport. She liked it so much she ordered one. And Brian arranged for her to paddle his in the Broadkill race while he raced the V10 grande. Kathy brought her Simon River Laser. Cliff and Cyndi both raced in Thunderbolts. Susan's husband Vince and Chris, whom I met on the Manhattan Circumnavigation, both raced but I don't remember which boats they were in. Sorry...

We met at the put-in on Oyster Rocks road and unloaded our kayaks. Registration started at 0830 but I was there by 0800 and most of my group was already there as well. I was amazed by the number of people registered for this race ... over 100! Susan had told me that it was an annual fundraiser for the town of Milton and it had grown every year. The smaller group of racing kayaks were clearly focused on winning but the majority of the racers, who showed up in all kinds of plastic vessels, seemed to be there mostly for the fun of the event. The race ends in Milton where there is a small festival with miniature train, crafts and lots of food. Ending the race like that really did make it more fun.

And it was all about fun. Even though we're competing against friends we're still focused on enjoying the event. So I had my nails done for the race. And Susan and Judy (secretary for the PA Canoe and Kayak Club) both showed up with pink toenails. Kathy modeled her pink water shoes.

So around 0900 we drove our cars to the take-out and Chris' brother picked us up in his pickup truck to transport us back to the put-in. The race started at 1000 which was plenty of time to do registration and the car shuttle but when the race organizer yelled 5 minutes to start I was still arranging my boat. I wasn't the only one caught off-guard. Brian said he never got his water system set up either.


So over 100 boats were crammed into this little river. I tried to position myself as close to the front as possible as did all the other racing kayaks. But it was tight. And the incoming tide kept pushing me around.

And then we were off! The S1-A accelerates like a jack rabbit. I took off at over 8 mph. Of course, I can't maintain that speed. But for the first mile of the course I averaged 6.8 mph. The Broadkill river is tidal and for both the pre-race and the real race on Sat we were definitely aided by an incoming tide for the first 5 miles of the course. After the river got further inland I'm sure the incoming tide helped us a little but I felt it mostly for the first 5 miles.

For the first half mile I was just keeping pace with the faster men and of course I was lagging. But I was ahead of Cyndi, Kathy and Susan and I was hoping to keep that pace and order. But my forearms were burning. My right arm was almost numb from the buildup of lactic acid. From my years of rockclimbing I'm familiar with lactic acid burn in the forearms. In climbing we deal with it by shaking out one arm while hanging onto the rock with the other arm. Not really possible in kayaking. You need both hands on the paddle. So I paused a few times to shake out my arms. I'm sure the people behind me had no idea what I was doing. But once your arms build up with lactic acid they become like claws. I couldn't really dig the paddle into the water so I tried to increase the stroke rate to compensate.



Pretty soon Cyndi passed me. This was no surprise. She's faster than me. But then I saw Kathy's bow inch up beside me. My arms are still burning and there's nothing I can do. Then I glance around and see it ... the white rabbit. This is what I started to call V10 sport Susan was paddling. It reminds me of a white rabbit. Susan heard me grumble something. And she yelled back something to the effect that she was coming past me (or coming to get me ...).

So she came up beside me and got ahead by a boat length or two. Then we kept pace. Kathy was at least 20 yards ahead of us both. She was clearly coming in second. So it was between me and Susan for third place. I figured the lactic acid in my arms would move out by about mile 5 and then I'd have a chance to pass the white rabbit. Around mile 5 something else happened. Kathy swamped her laser. Susan reached her first. She was deep in the grass pumping the water out. We both paused for a second to see if she need help. Then we were off. The white rabbit still in front.

I was right about one thing. The burn began to subside about mile 5 and my stroke got better. But the white rabbit would not give up her position. I'd paddle harder and start to gain on the beast and it would just paddle harder. I tried sneaking up on the right ... then the left. Nothing worked. The faster I paddled the faster the white rabbit paddled. So I realized this was a losing proposition. If I pushed harder she would just push harder and one of us would burn out. Since I had just regained movement in my right hand I wasn't going to push it.

So my strategy was to tail the little white bunny to the finish line then gather up what remaining strength I had and bolt ahead. Vince, who was following close behind us, told me later that he could see what I was doing. Vince also knew that Susan had trained for sprints in the dragon boat races. So he knew what her strategy was as well. I'm sure he was very amused watching us race it out from behind!

A half mile or so till the end of the race I picked up the pace and paddled up beside her. And then like a jack rabbit she bolted. Of course I bolted after her. But she sprinted faster. As you can see by the table which breaks the race up into 1 mile laps I was indeed pushing it. My maximum heart rate is probably around 185. For the final half mile I was pushing above 180 bpm. And she beat me by 5 seconds!



Afterwards Kathy told me some "Susan race stories" which were very telling! This will certainly change my strategy for the next race. Cyndi came in first and beat us by something like 4 minutes. Susan got second. I got third. And Kathy who should have come in second took fourth. And it was an incredible amount of fun! Next race ... Wye Island. To read Susan's Race Report click here. And here is a link to Cyndi's Race Page. Officially results are now available on the Delmarva Race Page.


-Susanita

Today Susan showed me the course for the Wye Island Regatta which will take place mid-September. I had mentioned to her that I wanted to do the run before the race because of her now infamous Wye Island Circumnavigation Story. And she graciously offered to drive down from Philly and paddle the course with me. The Wye Island Regatta is a 12.4 mile race around the island. An island is a pretty hard landmark to miss. But last year she and Kathy did a pre-race run around the island and turned a 12.4 mile paddle into something like a 35 mile marathon paddle. They missed the turn around the island and basically headed out into the Chesapeake Bay and up a neighboring river. When I first heard the story I thought she must be directionally challenged. How difficult could it be to circumnavigate an island? It's a counterclockwise run. Just keep the island on the left. As it turns out, it's not that easy. Since Susan posted that story at least 13 people have written her to say that they too missed the turn around the island.



Susan is planning to paddle her Solstice and I'll be paddling the surfski for that race so we will not be paddling at the same pace. She carefully pointed out landmarks for me to take note of for the various turns and I took pictures with my digital camera. We kept a steady pace and chatted throughout the paddle. But unlike most group trips I've had with Susan there was no drama! Which is fine with me. I'm sure there will be plenty to blog about after this Saturday's Broadkill race.



Before we loaded up the kayaks Susan asked to sit in my S1-A. She didn't have the nerve to take it far from shore but she did remark that it felt alot more stable than she expected.

-Susanita

This Sunday we had 10 kayakers and one van support person for the fifth Kent Island Practice Paddle (KIPP) which is organized and led by Marshall Woodruff. After last months KIPP drama I was surprised to see so many new faces. As it turns out ... the drama which was played out on the CPA listserve actually enticed a few people to join the KIPP paddles. Steven was one new person who joined and he said he came specifically for the drama. Well ... I think he enjoyed the paddle but unfortunately there weren't any kayakers throwing up or washed up on the shore. In fact, most of us were prepared to go the distance all the way from Hemingway's to Love Point, which would have been about 29 miles. The only thing that kept us from making the final leg of the paddle were some ominous storm clouds which chased us off the water at Kent Narrows.

We started the paddle at Hemingway's restaurant which is on the water right after you exit the Bay Bridge. We drove all the cars to the take-out at Love Point and Anne, our designated cabana girl, shuttled all the kayakers back to the put-in at Hemingways. After a short briefing session on the beach 10 kayakers launched around 9 am. Out of 10 kayaks we had 5 wing paddles in this group. No surfskis but Stephen paddled his ultra light, ultra fast custom wooden boat that I did not get to demo! Maybe next time.



Unfortunately my Garmin GPS ran out of juice right away so I don't have any speed data. My GPS runs on rechargeable lithium batteries which are very sensitive to heat. I guess the GPS sat in the sun too long before the launch because the lithium battery was dead before we even started.



Fortunately Dan had his GPS so he kept track of the speed. The only reason I mention speed at all is because on the last trip there was concern that some of the group was paddling too fast.

According to Dan we kept pace at around 4.3 to 5.0 mph. For the first half of the paddle we had the tide in our favor so that probably brought our speed up a little higher than normal. But by no means was this a "race pace."

The forecast for the day was for 1 to 2 foot waves and westerly winds which means we were hit by most of the heavy surf and waves for the first 10 miles of the paddle. Around mile 6 one paddler began to tire and she bailed out. We called Anne by cell phone and arranged a pickup.

The rest of us paddled on to Kent Point where we all beached on private property. It was a much needed break for everyone. By then the wind had died down and the sun was bearing down. Susan was sucking down gatoraid like crazy. And she was tired. So she bailed out and joined the cabana group. I'm sure she'll go into detail about her decision to bail so I'll leave that story for her report!


The remaining 8 paddlers set out for Parson's Island a little after noon. From Kent Point, Parson's Island is about an 8 mile open water crossing. There is no bail out point. But the group pretty much stayed together for most of the crossing. We got a little spread out as we neared the island but that was more because different people interpreted the direct line to Parson's a little differently. Stephen and I were paddling more to the north of Parson's and Dan and others were paddling more to the south but we all thought we were paddling straight to Parson's. We all got there. We had a short water break, patched up some cuts and scrapes, and headed out again for the next stop ... Kent Narrows.

The distance from Parson's to Kent Narrows is probably about 4 1/2 miles. About two miles from Parsons we stopped for a little rest ... which turned into a short nap. I know I was starting to feel a little tired. But I think it was more psychological than physical. Once we started paddling again I got my second wind and by the time we made it to Kent Narrows I was ready to go the final 5 miles to Love Point.

But the sky was dark. Susan heard reports of 30 mph winds and thunderstorms in DC which were supposedly headed our way. Thunderstorms are so hard to predict. The group debated and debated. We really wanted to make the final 5 mile paddle. But in the end common sense prevailed. The final 5 mile leg was about a mile off shore. If a thunderstorm had hit while we were on the water we would have had no place to go. And it could have been very dangerous.

So we only did about 23 1/2 miles. The final Kent Island Circumnavigation paddle is scheduled for late September. Based on how the group felt today I would guess at least some of the group will make it! Afterwards the group had dinner at Hemingway's.
-Susanita

Susan and I did a pre-race run on the Broadkill in Lewes, DE this Friday afternoon. Next Saturday there will be a race with over 100 kayaks on this river so I wanted to check the run out before the race. This was primarily for my benefit since Susan has run this course something like 4 times already. She knows every turn by heart. This was also an opportunity for me to see Susan paddling her new surfski, the Mark 1. I've seen it in pictures and I've seen it on her van but I've never seen her paddle it. I also took it out for a spin.

So first impressions ... Susan is not yet "one with her surfski." And I think she is the first one to point that out. She didn't huli once on the 10 mile run but she clearly wasn't at ease. The lower half of her body is tense and straight. I really think she needs to spend some time getting to know the area of secondary stability on the ski. Amazingly she said Kathy, Cliff and Chris said the same thing! Hmmmm.

I took it out for a quick spin as well. My initial impression was it's much wider than the S1-A and slower. I could feel more drag when I was accelerating but once I got it up to speed it felt fine. I'm a little biased though. I love the S1-A!



But ... I kept the GPS on the whole time we were on the river and even though she paddled very intensely and tensely we still made good time. We took a few breaks to chat and for a gatoraid break and we still averaged a speed of about 5.4. I think she would do fine racing the surfski but I think she's going to race the Simon River Laser instead. It's just as fast as the surfski and a little more stable. They're expecting over 100 kayaks to enter the Broadkill. With all that frantic race boat wake she could huli in the surfski and that would throw the whole race off for her.

-Susanita

I paddled up to Quiet Waters tonight with Shannon. The Chesapeake Paddlers Association (CPA) has several midweek paddling groups scattered around the Chesapeake Bay area that they call "Piracies." I like to paddle Wednesday nights with the Pier 7 piracy which launches on the South River. The South River feeds into the Chesapeake Bay so it offers a variety of paddling opportunities from the protected waters of the river to the more exciting choppy waves of the Bay. So Shannon and I carpooled to Pier 7 from Takoma Park. We got to Pier 7 a little early so we missed the group paddles and she wanted some company. I was paddling with my new Bracsa VII paddle. She paddled for a while with my Epic mid-wing just to see what it was like. The Bracsa VII feels very different. I'm not sure I like it yet. It has a more pronounced cup shape and a smaller blade. And it's very unforgiving. Your stroke needs to be perfect or it tends to want to dive under the boat or just flutter uncontrollably. Truly not for casual paddling, but I was only planning to use it for racing anyway.

As we were coming back to the beach for the evening dinner we were greeted by Greg with a very serious looking camera. I think he was taking photos of everyone tonight and we were just lucky enough to get photographed as well. So here's an action shot of me and above is a posed shot of me and Shannon.

My friend Nigel, from KIOCC, and his son Trevor also visited tonight. Nigel came out to demo the Chesapeake Light Craft Pax 20 and to take out Brian's V10. I didn't get to paddle with them, but they stayed for dinner. And Jenny brought her laptop with pictures of the skin-on-frame greenland kayak that she's making from plans. Not a kit! She's making this cookbook style. I'm looking at the dimensions that she sent me now. I don't know ... I know she was just looking for a good rolling boat but the dimensions on this boat look like it's going to be FAST.

-Susanita

On Saturday I visited New York City for the first time and I saw it as few people get to see it ... by kayak. Shannon and I joined Susan, Kathy, Laura and Chris for the annual circumnavigation of Manhatten by kayak which is organized by Jerry Blackstone. To see a map of our route click here.

I decided to paddle the Mirage because Susan had warned me not to bring the surfski. In her earliest email about doing the Manhattan circumnavigation she wrote, "the water is absolutely, totally, utterly, fantastically, DISGUSTING all the way around. I think they found a dead body one year and sightings of dead animals are frequent. BUT don't let that deter you (from bringing the surfski) ... " Hmmm. Well the thought of dangling my legs down in the surfski and perhaps brushing the top of a dead body made it easy for me to choose the Mirage.

Because the Manhattan paddle started at 0800 Saturday morning, we left Friday afternoon and drove to New Jersey for the night. Susan's friend Chris had volunteered the use of his sister's condo as a crash pad and honestly if we hadn't had a place to stay the night before and after the paddle I doubt I would have gone. So ... THANK YOU CHRIS!

The most direct route from DC to New Jersey is I-95. In fact it's almost a straight shot. But both Shannon and I have "issues" with I-95. Years ago I had a head-on collision on I-95 so if given a choice I prefer another route. Shannon dislikes the tolls. So it was an easy decision. We decided to go up I-83 to Harrisburg, PA to I-81 to I-78 to New Jersey. On a map this looks quite ridiculous. But at the time it seemed pretty logical to us. We figured it would be longer distance-wise but quicker and cheaper. And less stressful for me. And if it hadn't been for the traffic around Baltimore, Harrisburg and all the points in between there and New Jersey ... we would have been right!

After a less than restful sleep we all woke up early and headed out to Pier 96 for the launch. I'm a southern girl and this was my very first visit to "Sin City" ... or so I had been warned. My first impression was that it was just big and crowded. And the water at Pier 96 smelled ... like sewage. After we unloaded the kayaks Susan took me over to a railing and showed me the nasty, smelly water. "Now aren't you glad you're not paddling the surfski?" she said. I was indeed!



Jerry Blackstone was the organizer of this interesting paddle and his friend Steve was serving as trip leader while Jerry provided ground support. All total I think we had something like 31 paddlers signed up for Saturday. In fact, so many people signed up for the circumnavigation that he had another paddle set for Sunday. The total mileage for the circumnavigation was about 31 miles. Jerry had very carefully planned this trip out to work around the tides so we had the tides in our favor through each leg of the trip. At some points we were cruising along at over 7 mph!



Shannon lived in NYC for a several years so she was my unofficial tour guide. She also had the only laminated map between us. So throughout the trip she kept showing me where we were and which bridge we were passing under. It was cool to see all these bridges I had heard about ... the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge and the others.



At one point around the Williamsburg bridge we hit a section with 3 foot waves. For Shannon and I this was just pure fun. Having paddled mostly on the Chesapeake Bay we're accustomed to waves and surf action. But we heard later that some of the other paddlers were really scared by the big waves. I think I clocked our speed in that section at close to 7 mph!

After another mile or so we all stopped for lunch at a sculpture park. And there we got to see some of the wildlife that Susan had talked about. Shannon found a dead rat washed up next to her kayak! See photo to the left. Although this looks like a calendar shot of Shannon she's actually posing with the dead rat. Look closely under the kayak! She also found a large dead bird in the water but I didn't get a photo of that one.

After lunch we continued out on the East River past a section called Hell's Gate. Hell's Gate is a narrow section of the East River between Manhatten and Long Island. It can be dangerous due to strong tidal currents and rocks but we made it through without incident.

We stopped at a boathouse in Harlem for another break. After the break Shannon and I took off in our kayaks ahead of Susan and Kathy. A few hundred feet from the launch I saw what appeared to be another dead thing in the water. As it turns out it was just a cabbage patch type doll. But as we were poking it in the water Susan yelled out, "What's that?" Because we had been talking about dead bodies floating I yelled back, "Oh nothing just another dead body." From afar it really looked like a dead body and I think I had her fooled until she got right up on it. Chris placed the dead body on Susan's kayak for transport to the morgue which we thought was quite funny. I don't think Kathy got the humor because she eventually threw it back to the river with a poke of her paddle. Although this sounds quite tasteless ... it seemed hilarious at the time!

We passed by Columbia University and headed back to the Hudson River for the final 7 miles to Pier 96. We were paddling around 6 mph which I thought was a decent pace, but Jerry had another planned break for us at a waterside bar on the Hudson River. We stopped there for about half an hour and waited for the tide to turn more in our favor. The idea was to give the group the maximum tidal push back to the Pier. Shannon beached herself on the rocks like a seal. I explored the bar and took a gatoraid break.



And he was right. A half hour delay meant the Hudson was rushing past us and we made the final paddle back at around 7.25 mph. This meant that even the slowest paddlers had an awesome speed coming in to the Pier and probably could have just floated back in! Here is the final speed graph from my GPS.



It was an awesome paddle! I got to see Manhattan and some of the famous landmarks from a perspective few people ever see. I would definitely do it again! As usual, I took most of the pictures. Shannon did bring her very serious waterproof camera and took some great city shots of me paddling. Unfortunately it's one of those old fashioned cameras. It uses film! So it will be awhile till I get to see some photos of me.

When we got back to DC we unloaded all the gear and washed the kayaks. There was so much crud from the river still on the boats. Here is a final shot of Shannon inspecting her kayak. She has a lot of black marks on the bottom which we were unable to remove. Any advice on cleaning scuff marks on a fiberglass kayak would be greatly appreciated!

-Susanita

Shannon and I had a late afternoon paddle at Sandy Point State Park on Sunday. We had originally planned to start loading the boats around 11:00, but she got in late Saturday night from a photography assignment and I didn't sleep well, so when she called around 10:00 I was more than happy to start later. We didn't get to Sandy Point until around 3:00, which was fine. We still managed to get in around 4 hours on the water. Not a hard paddle, but it was a nice workout.



We visited two lighthouses and kayaked under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge ... taking lots of pictures. Like usual I started out taking the pictures but since Shannon is a real photographer she couldn't resist telling me how to set the scene. Then she wanted the camera to take pictures of me. But everything had to be just right. We had to paddle around to get the best view of the bridge and to get the sun in the right position for optimum lighting. I rarely go to this much effort when I'm taking pictures. I just take enough that hopefully some will turn out.



At one point she accidentally hit the macro function on the camera. Some really good shots of me got all blurry until we figured out how to reset the camera.


-Susanita

I haven't been in my whitewater kayak for over a year now. But I was thinking I might try to run the Lower Yough (class III+) later this summer so I wanted to get a little practice in on gentler waters. So this Saturday I met Rob at Great Falls for a little whitewater refresher. Rob is one of my old rockclimbing partners so we had never actually kayaked together

We met at Angler's at 2 and I got a primo parking spot ... right by the trail leading to the put-in. Normally I just put-in below the parking lot but Rob suggested we paddle up the canal and put-in at Sandy Beach. My whitewater kayak is a Dagger Blast and like most of my kayaks it was specially designed for little people. It's actually marketed as a "kid's kayak" but it fits me perfectly. Rob was paddling an Eric Jackson kayak ... much shorter and stubbier than my river runner. He made the observation that in my blog there are very few photos of me. Mostly that's because I take most of the photos. So I let him carry my new waterproof Olympus Stylus and take as many photos as he wanted. So there are probably more photos of me in this blog than anywhere else on my website! Although ... the whitewater "outfit" is not the most attractive. If I were to ever meet someone through whitewater kayaking I know it would be because of my personality and not my appearance. No one looks good in a crash helmet!



There are many things I love about whitewater ... the sound of the water crashing on rocks, the bubbly nature of the current, and the adrenaline rush of running rapids. What I don't like about whiterwater kayaking is the hike to the put-in. Unlike most sea kayaking put-ins you can rarely drive your car right up to the water. After paddling through the canal we still had at least a 1/4 mile hike with the kayaks on our shoulders to get to the put-in. And part of this was over boulders and down a rocky trail. I griped and complained a little and I made Rob take this picture for the post.



We finally got to Sandy Beach and the water was really low. So we ended up dragging the kayaks over a small section of rocks to get to the put-in at S-turn. I've paddled S-turn before but never this low. Regardless my first eddy out into the current took me a little by surprise. Rob said I looked like I wasn't sure which way to lean the boat and I wasn't. Fortunately my whitewater skills came back quickly. We played around in the current at S-turn then headed downriver to Rocky Point. I spent some time ferrying back and forth across the current and surfing some small waves.



We ended the run by shooting down the Maryland chute. I like running rivers but I've never been much for surfing. The Maryland chute is a favorite surfing spot. So I convinced Rob to surf the waves in the chute so I could get an action picture of him. Here's the best one!



There weren't many people out on the river today, perhaps because the water was so low. But as we were coming back to the take-out at Anglers we ran in to the cutest little guy paddling a baby version of an Eric Jackson kayak. He let me take his picture and then did a few rolls for me. I'd never seen such a small whitewater boat. It was just too cute! We were off the river by six and said our good-byes. I don't get to see Rob that much now that I'm not climbing. But it was fun to see him in another environment.

-Susanita

It's still sweltering hot outside and only a few people volunteered to go out for practice Wednesday night. We had enough paddlers for one two man boat and the six man boat. Saki also joined us to try out my Huki/Futura S1-A surfski. In the six man were Tara, me, Jack, Nigel, Neil, and Bill. It was so hot Neil thought he would be cooler with his shirt wrapped around his head as a bandana. See photo to the left. It was great having Jack in seat 3 and Tara in seat 1. Jack is a former olympic paddler and he coached several people to the olympics. Tara is just an awesome paddler. They helped me work on my stroke and my transition. Sometimes I think I've got it and other times I just feel sloppy. I found out last night I was reaching too far into the water with the paddle and I was pulling back before the paddle was firmly planted, which caused a lot of splashing. While we were paddling the outrigger Saki was close beside us keeping pace in my surfski.

The S1-A is a very particular surfski. It's 18'4" long and has a mere 16" beam. It's rated as an expert ski, which means that it's very tippy. Saki_paddling_3But if you are the right size and right body type, it will embrace you willingly and perform like the perfect surfski. It will accelerate with lightning speed, edge smoothly, and idle calmly. If you are the wrong size, it will spit you out like a bucking bronco. When I took it to Lake Anna last spring for CPA's annual SK102 event about half a dozen people were unceremoniously dumped in the Lake by the S1-A.



Last night while we were doing our Wednesday night team practice Saki got to really test his ability to paddle the S1-A without the disruptions of the wind and waves we had last Saturday for the KIPP paddle. I made sure he had a paddle float because the S1-A is more difficult to remount than his C4 and before he set out he said he was prepared to spend a lot of time in the water. But that never happened. He just glided away and quickly got up to speed. Even though he's taller than me (like everyone else), Saki and I just happen to have the same inseam which means it's sized perfectly for him. And I think he would agree that it is the perfect surfski. As he was coming in to the beach after practiceJack_coaching_saki he said he couldn't believe how stable it was. That's the magic of this ski. It's truly a stable, fast surfski ... for the right person.



After practice Jack took a few minutes to work with Saki on his stroke and body rotation. Not that he needed any modifications. He's already fast in his Futura C4. But there's always room for improvement. And it's hard to turn down coaching from a former Olympic athlete and coach!

-Susanita

The above photo was taken on Parramore Island by Marc Webster on a trip to the Virginia Barrier Islands with kayaktraining.com. Rick, who is one of their instructors, sent me this photo last week. He writes, "I find this photo almost surreal. The action you see brewing in the distance hit us while we were on the water paddling back to the put-in at Quinby - torrential rains, and then (I swear) hail! For about 20 minutes, we could see only about 40 yards in front of us ... All these islands (18 of them stretching from Chincoteague down to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel) are owned by the Nature Conservancy. There is no one there and very little boat traffic. I've been down there about 6 or 7 times and continue to be stunned anew each time I go." They have another trip coming up in October. Definitely makes me want to sign up!

-Susanita