It's been mostly overcast this weekend with rain moving through the area. The temperature has continued to be below normal, and I'm trying to savor that because it looks like hotter days will be moving in this coming week.
After a gym day on Friday, I was back in the boat yesterday. It was pouring down rain when I arrived at the river, and it rained on me a good bit as I paddled. As I paddled toward the mouth of the harbor there were a bunch of law enforcement and search and rescue craft on the water. I was curious to know what was going on, but I stayed out of their way.
Out on the river there was a big barge rig coming upstream. I paddled down to it and found the best wake surfing I'd seen in several weeks. There was no one wave I was able to ride for long, but there were some linkable runs and I had a lot of fun working those. I felt comfortable paddling aggressively, and once again I think having my most stable surfski down there has helped a lot. Barge wakes aren't exactly the same as downwind conditions, but here I was working on skills that will transfer directly to a downwind situation. It makes me want to go back to South Africa, although with the Grand Canyon trip coming up in 13 months I doubt I have it in me, energy-wise or money-wise, to squeeze in a big trip abroad like that. Maybe in 2026...
Eventually the waves petered out as the barge rig moved farther upriver, and I paddled up the Tennessee bank back to the harbor. I got a chance to talk to a couple of Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency rangers, and they told me they had just recovered the body of a drowning victim. Apparently sometime Friday the victim and a friend were in a fishing boat that capsized; emergency responders rescued the friend, but failed to find the drowning victim until yesterday morning around the time I was down there paddling.
I did a gym session this morning before heading to the river. We'd gotten some more rain overnight and early this morning, but the sun was peeking through by the time I was headed downtown. I paddled the surfski to the mouth of the harbor and found no barge traffic on the river, so I returned to the dock and paddled the whitewater boat. That wrapped up a pretty good weekend: I enjoyed some surfing FUN yesterday, and logged some more forward stroke practice and some whitewater drills today.
Meanwhile, the Olympics have begun over in France, and medals have been won in one of the four whitewater slalom classes. At 30 years old, Jessica Fox of Australia has solidified her status as one of the greatest of all time with her victory in the women's kayak class. Klaudia Zwolinska of Poland earned the silver medal, Kimberley Woods of Great Britain the bronze. The U.S. entrant, Evy Leibfarth of Bryson City, North Carolina, finished 15th in the semifinal round; only the top twelve finishers advanced to the final. It was a disappointment for Evy, but her Olympics isn't over yet: she'll compete in the women's canoe class starting Tuesday.
The semifinal results are posted here; the final results are here.
The men's canoeists are next: their semifinal and final are scheduled for tomorrow. The U.S. team's entrant, Casey Eichfeld of Drums, Pennsylvania, advanced to the semis with a 10th-place finish in yesterday's preliminary round.
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