Monday photo feature

Well, I'm thrilled, because this morning I learned that my film "A Paddler's Journey" has claimed the "Viewer's Choice" award at the National Paddling Film Festival.

Granted, this particular competition is sort of like a race for county clerk in which there are 18 candidates and the election might be won with as little as 15 percent of the overall vote.

Nevertheless, my family and friends showed up for me, and for that I'm humbly grateful.  And I realize that I'm fortunate in a much more general way, too, because these people will likely be there for me when the stakes are much higher than just a homemade film in an obscure film festival.

And so, if you're one of the people who paid 20 bucks to watch and vote, please savor this award with me!  Even if you did nothing more than say something nice, I appreciate that, too, because I'm the world's worst self-promoter and gestures like that gave me the confidence to go out and ask people to watch.

Oh, and of course thanks to those who made contributions to the film: the people who appeared in it and spoke on camera like Ana Swetish, Greg Barton, Austin Kieffer, Chris Hipgrave, Michael Meredith, Jules Gismondi, Carter Johnson, and Rob Flanagan all did, and the guy who made some exceptionally good music for the soundtrack, Jason Freeman.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Plodding along

After not doing any gym since just before my trip to South Africa, I finally started up a new routine on Friday.  It includes some Hindu squats, some pushups, some power pendulum planks, some pull-ups, and some "superman" back-ups.

February is easily my least favorite month of the year, and the last few days have epitomized just what a drag this time of year can be.  It could be worse, of course--just look at this post from a year ago to see how bad February can be around here--but it's been overcast, rainy, and icy, with the temperature not getting much above the freezing point in recent days.

Saturday is a day I normally paddle, but with cloudy skies the temperature not expected to rise above 38 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, I chose to skip it.  Yeah, yeah, I know there's a race coming up in a few weeks and all that, but I don't do this sport to make myself miserable, and I just didn't see much hope of anything but misery out on the water yesterday.  So I stayed home.  What I did instead was get started on a new project in my woodworking shop.  The early stages of a project typically involve moving heavy planks of lumber or other big hunks of wood around.  As I did so yesterday, I realized how sore I was from Friday's gym.

The weather remained not so appealing this morning.  But it was supposed to be warmer: the afternoon high was forecast to be up near 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  And I felt a bit fresher after yesterday's day off even though my muscles were still sore.  I went down to the river for the usual Sunday over-distance session.  The wind wasn't bad, but a north breeze was blowing just hard enough to make paddling up the Mississippi feel like a chore.  It took me some five minutes longer than usual to reach the mouth of the Wolf River.  I'd considered doing another loop around the Loosahatchie Bar, but I decided to let that wait for a warmer, sunnier day.  Instead I continued up the Wolf to the Danny Thomas Boulevard bridge, and then came back down the Wolf, back down the Mississippi, and back up the harbor to the dock.  My elapsed time was right at two hours.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Soggy and tired

Tuesday was a very rainy day here in Memphis and the Mid South.  If you look back over my posts of the last few months you'll see a few tales of paddling in a bit of rain, but none of those episodes involved paddling in a torrential downpour from first stroke to last.

Well, that changed on Tuesday morning.  I drove down to the river in a steady rain.  Then I sat in my car in the parking lot until it slacked off enough for me to run down to the marina without getting thoroughly soaked.  More heavy rain moved in as I readied my gear under the marina's roof.  While doing that I discovered that I'd forgotten the shoes that I wear while paddling.  A lot of paddlers prefer to go barefoot, but I don't like to at all.  I need a bit of friction between my feet and the footboard, and even when I adjust my footstrap as tight as it will go, my bare feet aren't big enough to fit snugly between footboard and strap, meaning that I can't utilize foot pressure against the strap as much as I'd like.

And so, when I realized I didn't have my shoes, it felt almost like a deal-breaker.  I strongly considered forgetting the whole paddling-in-the-rain business and running back up to the car.  But then I thought about how important it is for an athlete to adapt when unexpected things happen, especially an athlete in an outdoor/wilderness sport like kayaking and canoeing.  The Mocke brothers mention it in their online video courses, and I used to hear whitewater slalom athletes and coaches talk about it.  I remember a time years ago when I traveled to a race and forgot my shoes, and raced barefoot and didn't perform terribly.

So, I decided I would paddle barefoot.  Fortunately it was not cold: the Fahrenheit temperature was hovering in the high 60s.  I waited for another lull in the rain to run out on the dock and get my boat off the rack and put it in the water.  The rain intensified once more as I paddled on my way, and was pretty heavy for a good 50 of the 60 minutes I paddled.  When it was over I threw my boat back on the rack, got into dry clothes as fast as I could, made a dash for the car during the next slackening of rain, and repaired to my nice dry home.

The rain continued through most of Tuesday afternoon.  By yesterday morning the temperature had plummeted to the low 30s; rain returned in the late afternoon, and when I woke up this morning it was raining just as hard as it had on Tuesday.  And this time it was cold, hovering just over the freezing point.  By the time I got down to the river my car's temperature display said it was 35 degrees, but at least the rain had moved out for a spell, and the wind wasn't bad.  And I remembered my shoes this time.

Once I'd warmed up and done three 8-stroke sprints, it was time for me to go another round in the pain locker: yes, six more 1000-meter pieces starting every 8th minute.  I'd hoped to maintain close to 12 kilometers per hour through the session, and I felt okay in the first piece, but it sort of went downhill from there.  By the second half of the workout I was slowing down noticeably.  I tried to keep taking consistent strokes at the slower pace and not fall apart.  I'm beginning to think that it might not be the best idea to have specific speed goals, seeing as how speed is affected by atmospheric conditions and even the water temperature, not to mention the fact that I do most of my training in a heavy, beat-up old boat.  For years I was a Luddite, relying very little if at all on a G.P.S. device, and maybe I need to go back to that.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Monday photo feature

As Scott Cummins and I finished up our paddle yesterday morning, it was SELFIE TIME!!!!  Getting out on Taylorsville Reservoir with my friend from Louisville was easily the best part of my weekend.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

I'm back in my Old Mid South Home

I arrived in Lexington, Kentucky, in the mid afternoon on Saturday.  The National Paddling Film Festival started at 4 o'clock at the Lyric Theatre, and the first thing I learned when I got there was that I was mistaken about the awards being handed out.  The "viewer's choice" award, based on votes from those who watch the movies online, won't be announced until next Saturday, February 26, when the online viewing period ends.  So you've still got all this week to watch and vote if you haven't already.  Information on how to do so is here.  If you have already watched my film and voted for it, I am sincerely grateful.

What they did announce on Saturday was the winners of the amateur, accomplished amateur, and pro categories as determined by the festival's own panel of judges.  In my category (amateur), the winner was a film called "My Dolphin Paddle."  Honorable mention was given to a film called "Calloway Creek, KY." I encourage you to watch those films as well as mine, and see if you agree with the judges.

There didn't really seem to be a reason for me to be there, but I stuck around and tried my best to socialize until 9 o'clock (the event ended at 10:00).  Then I returned to my motel--a spartan place even for a Motel 6--and tried to get some sleep.

Saturday had been a cold day, and when I got up yesterday the temperature was below freezing.  But the sun was out and the forecast called for a Fahrenheit high in the 60s.  I found some breakfast and then drove an hour or so west to Taylorsville Reservoir.  These days I'm trying to make Sunday my "over-distance" day, and this time I had company: longtime racing friend Scott Cummins came down from Louisville to meet me.  We paddled for two hours and covered about 18.6 kilometers (11.6 miles), and talked about everything under the sun.  It felt good to paddle and burn some energy and forget about driving and films and all that stuff for a while.

Scott and I talked about our racing plans for the year.  I told him I hadn't made extensive plans but intend to go to Ocean Springs next month.  Scott and I both plan to race at the Gorge Downwind Championships in the Pacific Northwest in July.  We also discussed maybe racing in Scott's double surfski at some point in the spring.

We said goodbye and I hit the road, getting home around 6:30 last night.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Hard workout done for the week; on to the festival

Tuesday was an utterly lovely day: sunny skies with a high around 68 degrees Fahrenheit.  I paddled steady and relaxed for 60 minutes Tuesday morning, and that was just what I needed.

The warm weather continued yesterday and, following the usual trend for this time of year, the wind picked up.  Strong thunderstorms with lots of wind were forecast for today.  The temperature was supposed to rise into the low 70s this morning and then drop into the 50s this afternoon, so I was sure to paddle in the morning.  I did another set of six 1000-meter pieces, starting every 8th minute.  The wind was blowing from the south, so I started off paddling toward the south end of the harbor so I could do most of my 1000s coming back north with the wind at my back.  I did do the first 1000 into the wind, and though I'd hoped to move at 11.0 kilometers per hour, I could only manage 10.6 or 10.7.  Once I was paddling with the wind my goal was to maintain 12.0 kph, but the speed and direction of the wind were so inconsistent that it was hard to find any consistency in my speed.  Sometimes I did 12.0 or a little faster, but other times I was as slow as 11.4 or 11.5.  I tried my best to keep my intensity at a consistent level.  It definitely was another tough session.  After a couple of pieces I wondered how I would complete all six, but I kept the workout moving along and finally made it out the far end.

Tomorrow I'll be heading out on a little road trip, not for a race but for a film festival.  The National Paddling Film Festival in-person event is Saturday in Lexington, Kentucky.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do there besides hang out and fly the flag for my entry, but I reckon I'll find out.  The award for the amateur category (in which my film is entered) is scheduled to be handed out at 4 o'clock Eastern, so I'll find out if my movie was the best-liked of the bunch.  If you haven't gotten around to watching my film yet, I'll be most grateful if you go here and watch and VOTE!

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Just a reminder: watch and vote for A Paddler's Journey!

This Saturday is "Awards Night" at the National Paddling Film Festival.  That means there's just a short time left to watch and vote for my film "A Paddler's Journey."

To watch the film, along with the other 17 films in this year's NPFF lineup, go here.  Scroll to the bottom of the page for ticket options.

I'm utterly grateful to everybody who has supported this project!

Here's the official trailer for the film.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Monday photo feature

This Saturday I'll be attending the National Paddling Film Festival at the Lyric Theatre in Lexington, Kentucky.  They'll be announcing the viewers' favorites of the 18 films in the lineup.  The overall winner will receive the award pictured above, the Palme D'Or.

At least, I think so... it's possible I'm confusing the NPFF with some other film festival.

Whatever the case, I'm hoping that a lot of festival-goers will decide that my film, A Paddler's Journey, is their favorite.

Mind you, I didn't make the film just to win awards; I saw it as a challenge, an interesting project, a fun way to share what I've learned in 40 years of paddling, and just getting it finished is reward enough for me.

But I won't lie... it sure would be cool to win at the festival.

So... if you would like to help make that a reality, please visit this page of the NPFF website, purchase a ticket, watch my film online (and the others, too!), and then VOTE for it!  I'd sure appreciate it.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Dreaming of the end of winter

I spent most of Friday doing more ice storm cleanup work at my rental property and in the alley behind my place.  I used a chainsaw to cut the bigger stuff and a handsaw or pruning shears for the smaller stuff.

Such work leaves me tired and sore, but I like it anyway.  I find it relaxing somehow.  And I'm pretty good at it, too.  I'm grateful to my dad for that.  Fairly often I get asked if my dad taught me woodworking, and the short answer is no, but the longer, more accurate answer is that he had a lot to do with it.  He made his living as a lawyer, but when he wasn't poring over boring documents in his office he was often working in the yard or addressing various household chores, and I think he got the same kind of relaxation from it that I do now.  Thanks to him I grew up in a house equipped with saws, shovels, rakes, hammers, screwdrivers, and all kinds of other things that seem like normal trappings of life to me but apparently not to everybody.  Sometimes I encounter somebody who never learned to use landscape tools or other tools, and I realize that I'm fortunate in that regard.

We had unseasonably warm weather Thursday and Friday, but by yesterday morning we were back to the kind of weather I expect in February.  When I got down to the river it was around 38 degrees Fahrenheit and overcast with a biting north wind blowing.  I got in the boat and headed for the north end of the harbor, slogging into that wind.  Once I'd warmed up and done three 8-stroke sprints, I launched into what's become sort of a bread-and-butter workout for me in recent years: ten 30-second sprints starting every third minute.  I did the first two sprints into the wind, and that was a drag, but at last I reached the harbor's north end and turned to have the wind at my back.  I was tired by the last couple of sprints, but the workout went well enough and once it was over I paddled easy until I'd completed an hour in the boat. Then I took out and got into dry clothes as fast as I could.  I've said this many times: 38 degrees and overcast and windy is much worse than 28 degrees and sunny and calm.

As if to prove my point, this morning it was around 28 degrees (30, actually, but still below freezing), sunny, and calm when I got to the riverfront.  It was time for some old-fashioned over-distance training, and I set out to paddle around the Loosahatchie Bar.  I felt pretty comfortable, especially once I was paddling up the Mississippi with the mild south breeze at my back.  I tried to keep the stroke race below 70 strokes per minute until it was time to ferry across the main channel, at which time I picked it up to around 80.  I was looking forward to rounding the north end of the Bar and having the current helping me, but that south breeze picked up a bit and that made the downriver leg more of a chore than I'd anticipated.  By this time it was probably in the mid to high 30s--still pretty chilly--and I had to stiffen my upper lip and forge ahead into that wind.  It was still nicer than yesterday because of the sunshine, but I was feeling a bit chilled and very tired when I got back to the dock.

I made the trip in about 30 seconds over two hours.  I try to break two hours when I paddle around the Bar, but today's river level (19.1 feet on the Memphis gauge) was lower than usual for when I do this circumnavigation, and the sandbar at the Bar's north end was more exposed and made the course a few hundred meters longer.

Paddling around the Bar is always taxing and I was pretty worn out the rest of the day.  But it felt good to have done good work in cold weather.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Laborious paddling and a cinematic escape

The next race I intend to enter is six weeks from this Saturday, a 13.7-kilometer flatwater affair down at Ocean Springs, Mississippi.  For the next several weeks I plan to get in some old-fashioned endurance base training.

I started Tuesday with a set of six 1000-meter pieces, starting every 8th minute.  My goal pace for each one was 11.5 kilometers per hour.  There was a south breeze blowing, and whenever it was at my back I moved at more like 11.8 kph, while I struggled to do even 11.0 kph when I paddled into the wind.  This workout is tougher than it sounds, but I'm going to do it once a week for the next little while and I hope maybe I can work up to 12.0 kph for each piece.

This morning I went out and did a mostly-steady 70-minute paddle out on the Mississippi, keeping my stroke rate below 70 strokes per minute.  I felt tired in the boat, because of both Tuesday's workout and the tree branch cleanup work I've been doing at my rental property.  An upstream-moving barge rig created a bunch of waves out on the river, and while I might welcome that in the summertime, today it made me tense up a bit and paddle defensively.  I felt that much more tired by the end of the session as a result.

Meanwhile, the online portion of the National Paddling Film Festival is underway from now until February 26.  I've bought my ticket and am working my way through the 17 films that make up the lineup alongside my own film, "A Paddler's Journey."  There's all manner of interesting subject matter: rivers in Iceland, multi-day trips in wooden dories out West, a bike/paddling expedition in the Alps, paddling with dolphins in Norway, downriver racing in British Columbia... and more!

I hope everybody reading this will consider buying a ticket and joining in the fun.  The ticket allows you not just to view all the movies, but also to vote on your favorite.  I'm sort of hoping that my film might be a lot of people's favorite, but regardless... watch and vote.  I think the vote winners will be announced at the in-person event on February 19, so be sure to vote before then.  The place to buy tickets is here.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Monday photo feature

Am I even in a boat, or am I just standing around in the surf?  This is one of the more amusing photos that John and Tamsin of Cape Town Sport Photography caught of me during my visit to South Africa from the 22nd to the 31st of January.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Getting in the swing of things back home

As Winter Storm Landon moved out early Friday, my city was getting some national attention as one of the hardest-hit areas.  That was definitely true in terms of power outages: at one point Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Division was reporting over 130,000 customers without electricity.

I heard a few people compare this storm to the big ice storm we had here in 1994, but I remember that storm well, as this one was not nearly as bad.  We do of course have some unfortunate folks whose homes were damaged by falling tree branches and stuff like that, but the streets were never entirely impassable, and by midday Friday the city was more or less functional again.

For the record, I am indeed among the most fortunate Memphians right now: my electricity never went out.  Still tired and a bit jet-lagged from my long trip home Monday and Tuesday, I've been perfectly happy to spend most of the last few days lying around the house like a slug.  But Friday afternoon I ventured out to have a look at my rental property over on the other side of Overton Park.  I hadn't heard anything from my tenants, and I assumed no news was good news, but the place does have a lot of trees and I wanted to see how they held up under the weight of the ice.  I found that quite a few medium-sized branches had fallen to the ground (fortunately, none had hit the building).  And a couple of small trees along the side of the house had sagged and were blocking the next-door neighbor's driveway.  So I ran back home and grabbed a few tree-trimming tools so I could begin some cleanup work.  I was actually grateful to have a bit of physical labor to get my blood flowing again.  After a couple of hours I was feeling like I'd rejoined society at least a little bit.

Yesterday morning I went to the river to paddle for the first time since my two Miller's Runs the previous Saturday morning.  The temperature was right around the freezing point, but the sun was out and there was very little wind, so it was actually about as nice a day to paddle as one can ask for this time of year.  The hardest part was getting my boat off the rack: the tie-down ropes were encased in ice and getting the knots out of them was a real chore.  Once that was done I had a boat with icy stalagmites on its deck:

I thawed it all out during a mostly-easy 50-minute paddle.

Yesterday's high was a few degrees above freezing and there was plenty of sunshine.  But the ice in the trees endured.  Ice-laden trees cause all kinds of problems, but they sure are pretty:

I spent yesterday afternoon doing more cleanup work at the rental property.  This morning I was back at the river: when I got there the temperature was around 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was sunny and calm again.  All I wanted to accomplish with this weekend's paddling was simply to get the blood moving and maintain some muscle memory; with my next race seven weeks away (Ocean Springs, March 26), I've got plenty of time to put together a good training plan.  This morning I paddled a moderate pace for 40 minutes.

By the time I was driving home, the temperature had risen above 40 degrees.  The ice up in the trees was melting fast.  Little chunks of ice were falling in impressive quantities, making me appreciate just how much ice was up in those branches.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Let's go to the pictures!

I really ought to have spoken MUCH more about this here, but I've been so preoccupied with overseas travel that I haven't really found time.

Oh well... time to start remedying that now.  I spent much of last year working on a big project: a feature-length film!

As you can see, its title is "A Paddler's Journey."  Last summer I marked 40 years as a paddler of canoes and kayaks, and I was looking for a fun way to share all the stuff I've learned in those four decades, and, well... somehow I decided that a movie was the way to go.  The film is centered around my trip out to the Columbia River Gorge for the Gorge Downwind Championships last July.  Along the way I get some great insights from world-class paddlers Ana Swetish, Austin Kieffer, and Greg Barton, and people like Rob Flanagan, Jules Gismondi, Chris Hipgrave, Carter Johnson, and Michael Meredith also pop in to say hello.  My friend Jason Freeman, an awesome musician here in Memphis, helped me jazz up the soundtrack.

How can you see this film?  It's making its premiere as part of the National Paddling Film Festival.  The online phase of the festival starts February 6 (this Sunday) and runs through February 26.  There's also an in-person event on February 19 at the Lyric Theatre in Lexington, Kentucky.  Go here to buy a ticket and find information about the festival.  Proceeds from ticket sales go to support American Whitewater.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

A short video from South Africa

Winter Storm Landon is raging outside, but my electricity has stayed on long enough for me to bang together a little video from footage that the Mocke brothers and I shot last week.  It's 77 seconds long, and I know that's very long in this age of social media, but brevity is not my thing.  Enjoy.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

A few random reflections

A long journey on three airplanes through four airports has delivered me back to good old Memphis, Tennessee.  Jet-lagged and just plain beat to the socks, I'm having trouble doing much of anything other than sit around the house and slowly get settled back in.  Winter Storm Landon has arrived in the Mid South--as I write this a light freezing rain falls outside, and I wonder how much longer I'll have electricity--and that's all the more reason just to take it easy for a while.

I do at least have happy thoughts of the people and places I saw on the Western Cape of South Africa to warm my heart.

Here's a photo of one place where I spent quite a bit of time: the Fish Hoek Beach Sports Club.  For a long time it was primarily a sailing club, but under no small amount of leadership from Dawid Mocke it has become a very nice gathering place and home base for surfski paddlers.

It's not particularly fancy--it'll never be mistaken for the Memphis Country Club or any such place--but for a guy who feels lucky just to have a marina with a water-level dock where he can keep his boat, the club is downright posh: it has storage sheds for boats, locker rooms with showers, a small kitchen and bar, and this lounge area where we unwound after each paddling session:

Clockwise from the bottom, we see Ezra, Moses, me, Donald, Jasper, and Dawid.

There's even a wind gauge outside, with this display on an inside wall:

My lodging in Fish Hoek was A Tuscan Villa.  It's basically a bed and breakfast, though "guest house" seems to be the official term for such places in South Africa.  Whatever you call it, it's a lovely place that I highly recommend to anybody visiting the area:

The innkeeper, Anita, is exceptionally attentive and a great source of information for the foreign traveler with many questions.

Fish Hoek itself is not a tony resort town; it has more of a working-class feel.  I like that about it.  I know I'm in a pretty good place when I see signs that make me grin, such as this one:

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.