Yesterday might have been our warmest day so far this year, with the temperature rising into the mid 80s Fahrenheit. I waited until the afternoon to paddle because there was a south wind blowing and I wanted it to build as much as possible so I might have at least a hint of some downwind conditions. I put the more stable surfski that I got just for this purpose on the car, and had it on the water by 3 o'clock.
The wind was up to around 15 miles per hour (just over 13 knots). The conditions weren't big, but there were lots of small bumps with just enough definition for me to work on the basics of downwind paddling. In my quest to find something good, I checked out different parts of the river from the mouth of the harbor to down below the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge.
It was more of a drill session than pure, unadulterated fun--there were no big, fat, sweet, juicy swells to ride. But I was happy to be working on some skills. I kept repeating Dawid Mocke's "five rules" in my head: "nose in the hole," "one at a time," "keep up the run rate," "little ones lead to big ones," and "there's always one behind."
Eventually a big upstream-bound barge rig came along, and I went after it hoping to find some big waves to surf. I wasn't quite able to generate the speed to stay on the biggest swells, but after a while I noticed some interesting things happening along the inside of the big bend just below the old bridges. The river is a bit shallower there, and some breaking waves were forming. The water was quite boily and confused and I wasn't getting any prolonged surfs, so eventually I gave up and headed back upriver.
Once I got up to a point across from the entrance to the harbor, I found that same phenomenon happening: even though the barge rig was now more than a mile upstream, some of its lingering waves were building up as they ran into the shallower water on the Arkansas side. And this time they were cleaner and friendlier to the paddler wishing to surf. I was getting tired but I spent 20 minutes or so having some fun in this area before heading back to the harbor.
I don't think I slept poorly last night, but I had a really hard time waking up this morning. It took longer than usual to beat the sleepiness out of my body. And I was very sore in my midsection, as though I'd done a long hard race yesterday. Eventually I managed to do a thorough round of stretching and head to the river.
I did an easy 60-minute paddle. It was entirely uneventful except for a little mishap at the southern tip of Mud Island. The water there was shallower than I realized, and my rudder plowed into the muddy bottom hard enough to bend the post a little. When that happens, the rudder gets jammed against the bottom of the boat and is very difficult to move with the pedals. I dealt with it as best I could and made it back to the dock. Once I was out of the boat I tried to bend the rudder back so it would move freely again, but it wouldn't budge. I'll have to take some tools with me on my next trip down there and see if I can get the problem fixed.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment