Monday photo feature

This building, shown here in May not long after I bought it, has been the source of much stress for me in recent weeks.  Though it is well on its way to being inhabitable, there is much work left to do, and meanwhile I must move out of the place I have been living in this week.  I plan to store as much of my stuff in the building as possible, but I'm not so enthusiastic about doing that because the swarming of contractors around the place each day means that things will get dirty at best and broken at worst.  As for myself, I'll be semi-homeless for a while, sleeping either at my mother's or at the home of whatever friend might put up with me.

That I have kept up something of a paddling routine this summer is a minor miracle.

Another class, and the K1 odyssey rolls on

Unseasonably cool weather has made for pleasant paddling this weekend.  Yesterday morning I greeted four students out at Patriot Lake for another intro to kayaking class sponsored by Outdoors, Inc.  I tweaked my presentation a little, trying to smooth out the parts that went a little awkwardly last week, and the students seemed to enjoy the morning.  I've thought of more things I'll want to tweak next week.

I plan to teach classes for the next four Saturdays.  Go to the Outdoors, Inc., website to register yourself and/or somebody you love.

Today I went down to the harbor for some more K1 practice.  I was feeling really good in the boat and eagerly timed myself from the monorail bridge to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge.  I had done this piece in 2:02 last Sunday, and though my watch was on my wrist where I couldn't look at it during today's time trial, I felt like I was taking strong strokes and moving the boat well.  When I broke the plane of the HDB I looked at my watch... 2:14.

The result was disheartening and I think it blew my concentration for the rest of the session: I didn't feel nearly as stable or confident.  It didn't help that a number of motorized boaters seemed to appear out of nowhere, stirring up the previously-calm water.

Environmental activism

Today I paddled my plastic touring boat for about 100 minutes on McKellar Lake.  McKellar Lake is actually a slackwater harbor off the Mississippi River below downtown Memphis, and once upon a time there was no place more glamorous for the Mid South's bathing beauties:

These days, while a few die-hards continue to swim and sun themselves here on hot summer days, McKellar seems more like a parking lot for barges:

McKellar also has become known for its mass quantities of floating trash, and is a regular stop each year for Chad Pregracke's Living Lands and Waters cleanup project:

Another water quality issue is what brought me to McKellar Lake today: TVA's Allen Fossil Plant, located near the mouth of McKellar at the Mississippi River, burns coal and discharges heavy-metal-laden water from its ash ponds directly into the lake.  TVA is abiding by all existing laws and EPA regulations; the problem is that there are no laws prohibiting the heavy metals in question from being discharged into our nation's waterways.  Here's a picture I took today of the point of discharge:

The local chapter of the Sierra Club organized a peaceful demonstration for today to call attention to this problem, and I was happy to participate.  Here we display our message for the local media:

I'm the guy on the far right who's almost been cut out of the picture.

Clinging to sanity

It was another rather hectic day, navigated on below-average sleep.  There's a whole lot going on at my building, with plumbing, electrical, and masonry work nearing completion, and while that's gratifying and exciting, it's also stressful as I ponder the expenses and make plans to move.  I have to be out of my current residence by the end of the month (next Wednesday), as my mother's house has been sold.

Times like this are when I think it's more important than ever to maintain at least a bare-bones paddling routine.  I made it down to the harbor late this afternoon to spend 40 minutes in my K1.  I didn't feel very sharp, but I paddled easy and did some drills and got what I could out of this short session.

Monday photo feature

Today is the tenth anniversary of the storm that Memphians now know as "Hurricane Elvis."  Around 6:30 AM on July 22, 2003, straight-line winds topping 100 miles per hour laid waste to much of the greater Memphis area.  In this photo, both my parents' cars have been totaled by a tree that fell on the carport roof.

UPDATE: You can hear an interview I recorded with WKNO radio in Memphis here.  I am one of several Memphians who share their recollections of that violent storm.

Pushing ahead in the flatwater boat

I'm scheduled to teach kayak classes for Outdoors, Inc., for the next five Saturdays, with August 17 being for kids ages 10 to 15.  For more information, look here.

After yesterday's busy morning, I "relaxed" with a 60-minute session in the K1 this afternoon.  I'm still not quite comfortable enough in that boat for it to be very relaxing.  But keeping the boat upright is becoming less and less of a problem for me, and that's allowing me to concentrate on good strokes with full rotation.  I'm still throwing some braces in from time to time, but I'm having stretches where I'm moving the boat well.

Toward the end of the session I timed myself from the Mud Island monorail bridge to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge.  In other boats I have done this piece as fast as 2:03 or so, but I'm pretty sure I've never broken two minutes.  But today my time was 2:02.  That's encouraging because I feel I can go at least a few seconds faster once I get a bit more stable and can paddle at full power.

Class is in session

This morning I pulled a trailer of boats out to Patriot Lake and greeted six students for a beginner course in kayaking.  All came in with a great attitude and seemed to enjoy themselves during the three-hour session.

I think every advanced paddler should do some teaching from time to time, for there are many aspects of the sport we take for granted that seem quite mysterious to beginners.  Things as simple as holding the paddle, operating the rudder, and even dumping water out of a swamped boat--I got questions on all these topics today that made me pause and think for a minute before I could answer.

Teaching class is also a chance to be reminded of just how cool this sport is that I'm involved in.  It's tempting to be a little blasé about spending a hot summer morning out on Patriot Lake, but some students acted as though it was a thoroughly exhilarating experience.

And it was.

Pinball

This was one of those days where I was bouncing around like a pinball all day.  During the course of the day I did some work at my workshop, went by my building to check the construction progress, came home for lunch and a nap (I highly recommend naps, by the way; legendary distance-runner-turned-coach Alberto Salazar urges the athletes he coaches to take naps, saying it's as important as going for a second run in a day), went up to my rental house to collect some rent, packed up some of my things to move to the building soon, and disconnected the washer and dryer at my mother's house in preparation for moving them to my building.

I had planned to paddle today all along, and I managed to do so in the late afternoon even though it would have been easy to justify skipping it.  As Brent Reitz notes in his forward stroke video, if you get your paddle in you know you've done at least one good thing for the day, no matter what else happens.

I paddled the K1 in the harbor for 60 minutes.  I'm not entirely at ease in that boat, but I feel as though I'm making progress.  Those one-sided-paddling stroke drills I've been doing are going much better now than they were when I started them.  I think that's a big part of the value of doing stroke drills: you start with some specific movement, usually one that feels awkward at first, and as you become more proficient at the movement you get the satisfaction of a little noticeable improvement, and you come away feeling like something other than a failure.

Honest labor

My home Internet connection went out last night and didn't return until this afternoon, so it's time to catch up on what I did yesterday.  And what I did was this: an afternoon 60-minute paddle in the harbor in the K1.  I felt reasonably good in the boat; not perfect, but not bad.  I had lengthy stretches where I felt great, until I started thinking about it too much and got all wobbly.  I did some more of those stroke drills I've been doing and I continue to feel better and better with those.

Today I did a different sort of workout: I gripped lots of bricks while I sat outside my building chopping old mortar off them so that they can be re-used.  My wrists and forearms feel as though they've been through a weight workout.  I sure could feel my hurting elbow throughout the process.

Monday photo feature

Geoff Calhoun competes in the 2007 Great Falls Race on the Potomac River upstream of Washington, DC.  Formed where the Potomac flows over the fall line from the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain, Great Falls is a perfect example of the incredible beauty that continues to lure paddlers in spite of the potential for tragic consequences like those met by Shannon Christy last Thursday.  Photo by Rick McNamara; lifted from the American Whitewater website.

Death in the paddling community

This morning I paddled my surf ski out on the Mississippi for 90 minutes.  There was quite a bit of upstream-bound barge traffic, and I went out and tried to surf.  I didn't catch many waves, partly because the rigs were moving quite fast and partly because a fairly strong north wind was pushing the waves down.

My left elbow continues to hurt badly, and I'm sort of at a loss for what to do about it.  I suppose I should see a doctor, but I really, really hate going to the doctor thanks to the insurance industry and the way they make seeking even the most routine medical care an ordeal in this country.  I think I'll start with some icing.

Tragedy has struck the paddling world this week.  The annual Great Falls Race on the Potomac River, one of the first "extreme races" in the country, was scheduled for this weekend, and Shannon Christy had traveled from her home in South Carolina to participate.  On Thursday she was killed while making a practice run (some details of what happened are available here and here).

I made Shannon's acquaintance last September, when she and I were in the same group running the upper Gauley River in West Virginia; I mention her in passing in this post from that trip.  But the main reason it came as a shock yesterday morning when I learned of her fatal accident was a Face Book post she had made the day before.  Clearly excited about racing this weekend, Shannon posted a photo of her registration form.  On the form there was a section for a racer to give bullet-point personal information for the P.A. announcer to say during his or her run.  Shannon responded with humor: "I believe there's a direct correlation between smooth legs and smooth lines."  She added, "I just really like smiling, it's my favorite."

I tend to be kind of a worry-wart when I look far into my future, and there's no better example than my current state of affairs.  Right now I'm living in temporary quarters, and every bit of my attention is focused on that future time when I'll have my new building fixed up and be settled once more.  I'm spending tremendous sums of money and I find myself fretting over the question of whether I can preserve enough of my nest egg so that I can afford the food, shelter, and health care I'll need into my twilight years.  Moments when I can just relax and savor the present have been hard to come by.

Shannon, of course, did not know that Thursday would be her last day on Earth.  But it appears, at least from that Face Book post, that she was living as though it were her last, so to speak.  She was consumed by all the joy that our sport offers: the satisfaction of being skilled in her boat, the magnificence of the Potomac River environs, the friendship and camaraderie among the participants, the relaxed, light-hearted atmosphere that usually carries the day even on a stretch of whitewater as difficult as Great Falls.

I need to follow Shannon's example.  Even though this has not been an easy year for me so far, my life is generally pretty wonderful.  Shannon knew that, and I expect that has a lot to do with why she was so well-liked.  Today's Great Falls Race was canceled and replaced with a memorial service for Shannon, and this photo, posted on a Face Book page called Exploring Elements and re-posted by my Face Book friend Bill Hearn, shows all the paddlers who turned out to pay respects:

Staying the course

I mentioned last week that my K1's rudder wasn't working so well.  Today I remembered to take the relevant tools down to the dock and make some adjustments.  Basically, there was just too much slack in the cables.  Fixing that made a world of difference in the boat's performance.  Previously, if I wanted to turn right, I had to move my right foot just so I could push the tiller all the way to the right side of the footboard with my left foot.  Today the rudder was much more responsive, and I no longer had that distraction from the task of balancing and paddling strong.  I felt much more confident for my entire 60 minutes of paddling.

Last week, paddling with that sluggish rudder and negotiating turbulent water stirred up by Fourth of July revelers, I covered the distance between the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and the Auction Avenue bridge in a dismally slow 3:42 or so.  Today, with calmer conditions and my rudder working much better, I decided to try it again.  This time I intentionally did not paddle all-out, focusing instead on taking solid strokes with full rotation, and relaxing my body as much as I could.  I crossed the finish with a time of 3:15.

I also did numerous stroke drills--paddling on one side, and leaning the boat on its right and left edges while paddling--and felt as good as I've felt yet.  I would stop short of calling this a breakthrough session, as I've followed up a good session with a horrible one several times now.  But I feel as though I've made a little progress and that's satisfying.

Monday photo feature

My friend Meghan and I have a little picnic across the river from downtown Memphis about five years ago.  The water was very high, and the landowner, who keeps a picnic table down by the river so he and his friends can go down there and watch July Fourth fireworks and stuff like that, had moved the table to the highest piece of land (we call it the "atoll"), where it was dry but accessible only by boat.

Another pleasant summer Sunday on the water

This afternoon I paddled the K1 in the harbor for 60 minutes.  Except for a little one-sided paddling at the end, I gave myself a break from the drills and tried to get in a good rhythm and help my muscles recover from yesterday.

My left elbow is killing me these days.  I think I strained it while stripping paint off old doors several weeks ago.  I'm right-handed, so it doesn't interfere with most daily activities, and it doesn't really bother me while I'm paddling, either, but the pain is always there, and sometimes while I'm in bed at night it just throbs.

I think it's your basic "tennis elbow."  I had the same thing in my right elbow several years ago, and it eventually went away after a few months, so maybe that's what I have to hope for now.  My experience with over-the-counter anti-inflammatories like Advil is that they don't do me much good, and I really don't like popping that stuff anyway.

A trip around the Bar

This morning I went out for a longer paddle--a trip around the Loosahatchie Bar.  The Loosahatchie Bar is the big island you see looking upriver as you take Interstate 40 over the Hernando DeSoto Bridge.

I paddle around the Bar several times a year.  It affords views of the many faces of the Mississippi River at Memphis.  You get the big-city feel as you paddle out the harbor by the cobblestones, with the tall buildings of downtown up on the bluff; you see various city-dwellers availing themselves of the Greenbelt Park for walking, running, fishing, relaxing, and more; you experience a little heavy industry as you paddle by the Maynard C. Stiles wastewater treatment plant and the sand and gravel operation up above it; and you feel like you're in sure-enough wilderness as you paddle down the Loosahatchie Chute on the Arkansas side of the Bar, with nothing in sight but water and forest.

I think I average two and a quarter hours or so when I paddle around the Loosahatchie Bar, starting and finishing at Harbortown Marina.  Once or twice I have broken two hours, but I don't expect to do so these days because an enormous sand deposit has formed at the north end of the Bar in recent years, adding a fair bit of paddling distance to the course.  Today I made the journey in 130 minutes.  That included hopping out of the boat for brief swims in the Loosahatchie Chute.

I'm a little surprised at how soft I've gotten after just ten days or so out of the boat: by the time I was halfway through today, a couple of sizable blisters had formed on my left hand.

I paddled my surf ski today.  As I've said earlier, I want to spend as much of my paddling time this summer as possible in the K1, but with the water still fairly high for this time of year (it was about 19.3 feet on the Memphis gauge this morning), I decided to get out and see some of the beautiful sights that aren't accessible by boat during the low-water months of late summer and fall.  Also, it's probably not the worst thing to break up the K1 paddling with some time in a boat I'm more comfortable with, lest I end up wobbling around in all my other boats like I've been doing in the K1.

Back to K1 drills

We're having a pleasantly mild week for this time of year in Memphis, as a breeze from the north has kept temperatures below 90 degrees Fahrenheit.  It's not cool, but just how I think summer should be, with just the right level of humidity keeping things green against a backdrop of insect serenade in our wooded city.

This afternoon I went down to the harbor and paddled the K1 for 60 minutes.  There were numerous motorized pleasure craft out on the water--not a surprise on this national holiday, but it did make the harbor quite choppy.  I tried to relax and not get my undies in a bunch over it--I'll have to get comfortable in turbulent water sooner or later, after all.

I did some more one-sided stroking drills.  I tried to do ten in a row on one side without letting the opposite blade touch the water; if I had to do a stroke or a brace with the opposite blade, I started over.  My coach is a real taskmaster.

I also did a drill where I paddled on both sides, but leaned the boat one way or another as I did so, trying to get a feel for the boat's point of secondary stability.

As I headed back to the marina, I decided, on a whim, to time myself from the Hernando DeSoto Bridge to the Auction Avenue bridge (six or seven hundred meters, maybe).  I used to do this time trial fairly often, with a best time of 2:57 or so, and I was curious to see what I could do in the K1.  But it quickly became apparent that there would be no PR today: every other stroke seemed to be part brace, and I couldn't keep the boat on a straight line to save my life (I think some adjustment to the rudder might be in order).  As I flailed through the plane of the Auction bridge, I looked at my watch: about 3:42.  Ugh.

Oh well, I guess I'll keep at it, and try to enjoy the punishment.

Update on the kayak classes this summer: Kids' day August 17

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I will be teaching some kayak classes for Outdoors, Inc., this summer out at Patriot Lake.  The schedule and registration information are posted here.

It's now been announced that August 17 will be "kids' day."  The class that day is open to students age ten to seventeen.  So if you, your siblings, or your friends have kids who would like to learn a little kayaking technique, sign them up!

Monday photo feature

The U.S. C2 team of Horace Holden (bow) and Wayne Dickert approaches the rapid known as Humungous at the 1996 Olympic slalom race on the Ocoee River near Ducktown, Tennessee.  I was paddling this piece of water myself a week ago Saturday, though probably not well enough to make a good showing in the Olympics.