Some more K1 fun

This morning I did two sets of the January strength routine and paddled for 80 minutes.  I wanted to paddle my new K1 today and the conditions were fair for it (mostly cloudy and chilly, but dead calm), but I didn't want to spend the entire session wobbling around in a tippy, unfamiliar boat and not getting any good strokes.  So I went half-and-half, paddling the surf ski for 40 minutes and the K1 for 40 minutes.

When I got in the K1 I felt pretty good (I think it helped to be warmed up from paddling the surf ski), and I set off toward the north end of the harbor.  But some 300 meters from the marina I let my center of gravity slip just a hair too far to the right, and over I went.

The harbor does not have many good places to pull out on the bank; the banks are steep and covered with trees and/or underbrush.  I pulled myself onto the boat's stern deck, face-down, and paddled myself over into the trees, dodging vines floating logs, and seeing the bright side of winter in that the snakes are hibernating.  I used a sturdy sapling for support and climbed back into the boat, which hadn't taken on too much water.

The problem now was that I had to dodge more logs and vines to get back out of the trees, and in my effort to do so I flipped again.  The boat took on more water, but that actually made it more stable and this time I hopped back in quickly (using another tree for support).  I paddled back to the marina, dumped the water out of the boat, and spent the rest of my 40 minutes paddling laps around the marina. I didn't flip anymore, though I did have a couple of close calls.

One might think I'd be demoralized by the experience, but actually I feel good about the session.  It was only my second time in the boat, and swims notwithstanding I already felt quite a bit more stable than I had last Saturday.  It was also reassuring to have some idea of the consequences of a swim this time of year: today, with the air temperature in the high 40s, they weren't bad.  I'll continue to make sure I'm properly dressed.

The objective, of course, is to become comfortable enough in the boat to take good forward strokes with full rotation, and today I had short stretches where I was able to do that before I had to stop and brace.  Now I just have to lengthen those stretches, and that will come with more time in the boat.  I figure for the next several months I'll keep working in short sessions like today's whenever the conditions are calm, and then I'll really hit it hard this summer.