I'm trying to be more evil this Halloween after last year's pirate girl costume that many mistook for a "Mouseketeer" or Musketeer. So I discarded the puffy pirate blouse and replaced the feathered pirate hat with a witch's hat. I also added some scars around my arms and chest and some more evil looking make-up. Earlier in the evening Ursula, the she-devil, and I were practicing our evil look at her house ... which came out looking a little less than evil in the photos.

So this was a kayak party hosted by the owners of Potomac Paddlesports, where Ursula has been taking whitewater kayak lessons. Ursula and I spent most of the evening dancing, while Charlie, Ursula's husband, took the photos in between eating and watching the World's Series on the big screen TV. I have to admit I'm not a big fan of organized sports. When Charlie told me the World Series was on I asked, "For what sport?" As the evening wore on and I got colder dancing outside I moved into the living room where the game was on. Charlie explained the strategy behind baseball and it started to make a little more sense.

Before we left they had a contest for best costume and Ursula forced me to line up with the other women ... some of whom had very original costumes. I got good reviews on my scars but in the end it was the white witch who got the most applause. Maybe next year. More photos HERE.

-Susanita

I left the Delmarva Paddler's Retreat on Sunday, but Monday was a holiday ... for government workers at least. So Ursula suggested we join the DC Dragons for their annual Columbus Day paddle and picnic to the Arboretum. We were hoping to get enough outriggers to fill a six-man for the paddle down. But only three showed up. So Ursula and I joined the dragonboat paddlers. For me that was an exercise in pain. I don't enjoy paddling on one side. So every half hour or so Ursula and I switched sides. The steersman was pretty cool about it ... calling "Hut" whenever we switched. To see photos from the event, CLICK HERE.

-Susanita

The first weekend in October I attended the Delmarva Paddler's Retreat in Lewes, Delaware. The focus of delmarva is greenland kayaking and rolling. There are rolling demonstrations, on water rolling classing, boat building classes, ropes gymnastics and this year there was an on water kayak wedding. It was a full weekend. On the photo page there are three videos: a video of Alison Sigethy rolling to music, a video of James Hartford playing the bagpipes, and a video of the kayak wedding.

I took my SOF racing kayak and worked with Alison in the water on Saturday learning how to do a C to C roll. I thought I had my roll down prior to the Blackburn but I don't think I had a combat roll ... meaning I don't think I could do it under duress. That's pretty crucial because you usually don't roll your kayak unless you're under duress.

Kayaks of Greenland : The History and Development of the Greenlandic Hunting Kayak, 1600-2000

-Susanita

I finally finished the trip report and photos from our week long kayak/camping trip to Maine. The trip report was too long to fit within the blog so I put it on a separate site. I also had this cool magazine template I wanted to use. So the trip is written up to look like a magazine or book. You really have to see it. So just GO HERE. And don't come back till you're read the whole thing!

-Susanita

This is a group photo of the NCAWPA team members which showed up for the Chestertown OC Race which was held on ... Kent Island. This was primarily an OC1/OC2 race but the novices in our club wanted to add a few OC6's just for fun. So we had three OC6 teams added to the roster. My team came in a very, very close second. The first place team was a KIOCC team and really only had one novice in the crew. So we were very pleased.



Nate was the stroker and his wife Reeza was the steersperson. Next to Nate and Reeza in the photo is me and Ursula. This was Reeza's second time steering in a race and she was awesome. She yelled at us the entire time. I think when the race was over her voice was starting to falter. A few more photos can be found HERE.

More blog posts coming ... it's been a busy few weeks. Last weekend was the 2007 Delmarva Greenland Paddler's Retreat. And there was a wedding thrown into the events!

-Susanita

Sorry for the delay in blog posts. Maine was great! But we had so many photos and the trip was so long that it's taking longer than normal to do the photo editing and blog post. But here is a snippet from the trip. We spent two days camping on a very small island off the coast of Mt. Desert Island. It started raining as we were paddling out to the island and the rain lasted for two days. We left the morning that video was taken and the rain did clear the next morning but we forgot to wish for calm winds!

-Susanita