Monday photo feature

The house we rented at Dauphin Island last week was very nice, but my one complaint is its lack of good water access for canoes and kayaks.  This photo shows some of the other houses in our little cul-de-sac off Mississippi Sound: many hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on dwellings, docks, boat lifts, and so on, and yet not a single low dock for canoe and kayak launching.  The anthropologist in me is dying to know: what on Earth is wrong with these people?

I came up with a decent solution at our house:

The boat lift was vacant, so I put the kayaks on it like so, and lowered it until the steel beams were just far enough underwater for the boats to be fully afloat with paddlers sitting in them.  That way you could stand on the beams when getting in and out of the boat.

Once again, Holmes Ingenuity™ saved the day.

Cautiously nudging up the intensity

In each of my last several times in the boat, my hip has been pain free for the first ten minutes or so but has become sore later in the session.  My approach has been to put a bit more stress on it each time out--without overdoing it--and then giving it time to recover before the next time in the boat.  I'm hoping that it will be a bit more solid each time.

On Saturday I paddled for 40 minutes in the harbor and a little bit out on the river, throwing in occasional short surges to see what the hip muscle could handle.  It was sore by the end of the session like I said, but didn't seem any worse when I woke up yesterday morning.

I gave myself all of yesterday off.  This morning I went down to the dock and did two rounds of my May-June strength routine, and then got in the boat for 50 minutes of paddling.  I warmed up for ten minutes, and needed all of that time to work out the fatigue from the strength exercises.  Then I did six two minute pieces with two minutes recovery in between.  The weather was calm, so it was a good day to use the GPS; I shot for 7 mph on each piece.  Once again the soreness in my hip increased as time went on, but I was careful not to red-line it and I think it will recover okay.

Relaxing and healing (I hope) at the beach

I got home last night after enjoying three full days at Dauphin Island.  Each morning I paddled some in Mississippi Sound, usually accompanied by a niece or nephew in the fat plastic boat I took down there.  Each of the kids went out with me at one time or another, but my 12-year-old niece Rachel was my most enthusiastic paddling partner:

The intensity was low; I think my longest session was an hour or so.  Basically, it was terrible training to be doing less than four weeks before the five-kilometer Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race.  But I was in rehab mode, trying to get healed enough to do a faster workout or two before race day.  My hip is still sore, but I would say, with caution, that it's been a little bit better each day.

Each afternoon I walked across the island to the beach and swam, giving myself over to the healing power of the Gulf of Mexico.

New strength routine

The weather here at Dauphin Island has been awfully close to perfect this week: mostly-sunny skies, Fahrenheit temperatures in the low 80s, a pleasant breeze.

I have started a new strength routine to go from now until my next race on June 18.  Since I'm on the road right now, I've drawn up a routine whose exercises rely on either body weight or easily-transportable rubber bands.  It goes like this:

1.  Dips
2.  Hindu squats
3.  Standing flies using rubber bands
4.  Four-way abdominal crunches
5.  Front and lat raises using rubber bands

I did the routine for the first time on Tuesday and then again today.  I'm still a bit sore from Tuesday's work but that just means the muscles are responding to a new stress.

U.S. Olympic Team: how many flatties?

I've been waiting to say anything more about the U.S. Olympic selection in flatwater because it's been hard to find much information online.  But the USA Canoe-Kayak website has finally posted a good explanation of what the situation is in the aftermath of the Pan American Championships at Lake Lanier last weekend.

Right now the U.S. has one guaranteed Olympian in flatwater sprint: Maggie Hogan of Huntington Beach, California, will compete in 500-meter single kayak in Rio.  She took second in this event behind a Canadian this past Friday, and since Canada had already qualified a female 500-meter kayaker for the Olympics, Hogan got a berth for herself.

2012 Olympian Tim Hornsby of Atlanta failed to place high enough in the 200-meter single kayak to guarantee his trip to Rio, but stands a decent chance of being named to the team later once other Pan Am nations announce their Olympic teams and the ICF reallocates any unused slots.  1000-meter canoeist Ian Ross of Gainesville, Georgia, also has a fair chance of ending up in Rio.

In both 2008 and 2012, the U.S. managed to send only two flatwater sprint racers to the Olympics.  Part of the reason is simply that U.S. athletes haven't been that successful at the international level so far in the 21st century.  Another part of the reason is the IOC's constraints on the number of canoe and kayak athletes in the Games, and its determination to allocate more of those berths to parts of the world that traditionally have not been as strong in canoe and kayak racing.

In any case, I'm hoping for the best.  I yearn for "the old days" when the U.S. sent a full contingent of flatwater racers--K2s, C2s, K4s, the whole bit--to the Olympics.  If it could get more than just the two berths it got in '08 and '12, that would be a shot in the arm.

Good place to train, if I could

I'm down at Dauphin Island until Friday.  The weather is gorgeous and I'm enjoying doing a whole lot of nothing this afternoon.

This morning I did some brief, easy paddling with my 12-year-old niece and my 13-year-old nephew. I wasn't sure how enthusiastic to paddle they'd be and I even considered not bringing a boat down for them, but as it turned out they were eager to go, especially my niece, so I'm glad I threw it on the car. They probably could have paddled all around the island if it weren't for my own physical limitation.

My hip didn't feel any worse than it felt when I paddled Saturday, but it didn't feel any better, either.  It's hard not to wonder whether I'll really be ready to race three weeks from Saturday.  The discomfort is such that I felt I could rev my engine if I needed to,  but right now I'm still nervous about making it worse.

Monday photo feature

I shot this photo of Peter White navigating a rocky stretch of water on the Pigeon River in 1993.

Rehab assignment

Yesterday afternoon I got in the boat for the first time in nine days and paddled for 30 minutes.  I paddled from the marina to the mouth of the harbor and back, keeping the intensity as low as I could stand.

My hip felt sore the whole time, but there wasn't the sort of stabbing pain on each stroke that I'd felt the last time I'd paddled.  I hope that's a good sign--that perhaps the muscle tear has mended but the muscle hasn't yet regained its flexibility.  Not being a doctor or anything other than a guy who's lived in his body for almost a half-century, I hope that's what's going on.  The most encouraging thing is that the area didn't feel any worse when I woke up this morning.

I guess I'll take my boat down to Dauphin Island and just paddle easy while I'm down there, building up little by little.  I won't lie: this is very frustrating.  I've basically been out of the boat for two weeks now, with at least another week of very light paddling to come.  Assuming everything goes well and I don't do anything to aggravate the injury, that will leave me with about two weeks to do any meaningful training for the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race on June 18.

I do, fortunately, have a good training base under me this season, and my fitness level should be up to the challenge.  My biggest concern is the intensity level required for a five-kilometer race, and whether I'll be able to heal enough to train all-out a time or two before race day.

We'll see.  There's a lot of season left after June 18, so I'll do my best to be ready for that date without hurting myself any worse.

U.S. Olympic Team update

I learned this morning that the ICF has made its decision, and the U.S. will indeed be allowed to enter boats in all four whitewater slalom classes at the Olympic Games this summer.  And so the U.S. Olympic Team is now set in this discipline.  Here are the U.S. athletes you'll see paddling whitewater on TV this August:

Women's kayak: Ashley Nee, Darnestown, Maryland
Men's kayak: Michal Smolen, Gastonia, North Carolina
Men's single canoe: Casey Eichfeld, Drums, Pennsylvania
Men's double canoe: Casey Eichfeld, Drums, Pennsylvania, and Devin McEwan, Lakeville, Connecticut

I've also recently learned that Michal Smolen's first name is pronounced "mee-how."  I'd just assumed it was pronounced just like "Michael."

Meanwhile, the Pan American Championships for flatwater sprint are taking place right now on Lake Lanier at Gainesville, Georgia.  This event will determine the boat classes in which each nation of the Americas will be allowed to enter athletes.  I'll share the results when I know them.

Strength routines

My hip is not pain-free, but I believe it is improving.  I'm trying to be patient and not rush back into the boat too soon.  Like I said, I'm trying to stay active doing stuff that doesn't affect the injured area, and I'm also doing my strength routine more frequently since I have more time on my hands.

After the race at Vicksburg back on April 30, I looked at the calendar and saw I had seven weeks before the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race here at Memphis.  I decided to do one strength routine for about the first half of that period and then another for the second half.  Right now I'm still on the "first half" routine, and it goes like this:

1.  Military press with dumbbells
2.  Dead lift and then military press with a barbell
3.  Pullups
4.  Stability ball core exercise

Before my injury, I was doing this routine twice a week (Wednesdays and Fridays), going through the routine twice each time.  At the end of last week, when I realized that I'd have to stop paddling for a while, I went to an every-other-day schedule: I did the routine Friday, Sunday, and yesterday, and I'll do it again tomorrow and Saturday.

I'm leaving town next Monday for my annual trip with my mother and my sister's family to Dauphin Island on the Alabama Gulf Coast.  I'll be down there until Friday.  I figure this will be a good time to switch to the "second half" routine.  I haven't settled on the exact routine yet, but since I'll be on the road it'll consist of more "portable" exercises that require little or no equipment.

Deep thoughts

One of the things I find fascinating about this sport is the things that go through a racer's mind during competition.  I can assure you all kinds of things go through my mind, and I always wonder (and sometimes try to guess) what's going through the minds of my adversaries.

Craig Impens of Toms River, New Jersey, attended a Philadelphia Canoe Club race on the Schuylkill River this past weekend, and finished second to one of this country's better racers, Jesse Lischuk.  Today he posted the video from his Go Pro camera after adding some annotation to the footage.  Watch the nearly ten-minute video and learn what Craig was thinking about for almost an hour in the boat:

Monday photo feature

Litter in our waterways is a problem paddlers all over the world put up with.  When I paddle on the Memphis riverfront, there are days when there's no litter in sight and there's no place more beautiful, but there are other days, typically after a period of heavy rain, when the mostly polymer-based flotsam is so thick I have to think about where I put my blade in the water.

From time to time I actually pluck pieces of litter from the water and toss them in the front part of my surf ski's footwell so I can dispose of them properly after I'm done paddling.  Other times the problem seems so impossible for a lone little guy like me to solve that I just throw up my hands and don't bother.

Indeed, I believe the problem won't truly be solved until everybody pitches in.  By "everybody" I do mean everybody--every single citizen of our society.  And by "pitching in" I mean not just putting refuse in the trash can, but ceasing to purchase in the first place all the cheap plastic junk that's being manufactured in this world, as well as all the pseudo-food that comes in low-grade plastic packaging.

During the awards ceremony at Vicksburg a couple of weeks ago, a special award, the "Trash Line Award," was bestowed upon Mr. Kelly McGinnis of suburban Jackson, Mississippi.  I wasn't really in the loop on the exact reason Kelly was selected for this award, but I think it had something to do with his unwavering commitment to the removal of litter from all our waterways.  Photo by Paul Ingram.

Presiding over the ceremony are Laura Callaway and Cliff Geter.  I believe the "M" on Cliff's ball cap stands for "Moratorium," as in "Let's declare a moratorium on the production and purchase of all plastic products that serve mankind in no meaningful way whatsoever and simply wind up polluting the lakes, rivers, and oceans where we paddle."  Once that's happened, and we realize we don't need so much money to buy useless stuff or to pay our medical bills for the maladies caused by consumption of junk food that came in plastic packaging as well as the air pollution that results from polymer manufacturing processes, we can stop working so many hours at jobs we don't like and spend more of our precious lives paddling our boats on our beautiful litter-free waterways.

"Tearin' it up," but not the way I intended

I went to the doctor Friday afternoon.  An x-ray of my pelvis showed nothing wrong, and the doctor said I probably have a muscle tear in my left hip area.  That sounds plausible to me.  I do a lot of rotating at the hip--in the boat, of course, and also in my stretching and warmup routines--and it's entirely possible that I cranked it too hard at some point and tore something.  And I think I made it worse once I discovered something was wrong.  When something hurts, I tend to want to stretch the area in an attempt to alleviate it, and in this case that was the wrong thing to do because it probably exacerbated the tear.

There's not much you can do for a muscle tear except rest and let it heal.  So that's what I'm doing.  My current strength routine (which I'll talk more about when I get a chance) doesn't affect that area, so I'll do that a bit more frequently this coming week since I'll be out of the boat.  I also plan to stay generally active, riding my bike and doing whatever else I might think of that won't aggravate the injury.  And I never have any trouble finding things to do in my non-athletic life.

The doctor thought a week or so out of the boat would be enough time for the muscle to mend.  After that, I need to ease back into paddling for another week or two.  With the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race five weeks away, it's not an ideal situation, but as long as I don't rush things I think I'll have time to recover and be decently ready to go by the 18th of June.

Today's inspiration

Here's an inspiring little video put together by the Nantahala Outdoor Center:




Basically, it celebrates everything that is good about competition, and how a beautiful river and a joyous sport like canoeing and kayaking can bring out all those good things.  Several of my favorite quotes:

"I love racing, and I love the fact that it made me better and more valuable in every role that I had at NOC... to do it right, a little bit better each time, matters."  --Gordon Grant

"Guests want to be surrounded by people who are really at the top of their game--people who are pushing the envelope, doing it gracefully..."  --John Burton

"Once you're been there, it's with you.  Once you've put your toe in the Nantahala River, it's with you forever."  --Lecky Haller


Paddlesports are not immune to the uglier aspects of competition.  Over the years I've encountered a few bloated egos, some behind-the-scenes backbiting, even some underhanded in-race tactics once or twice.  But in general I think the shared love for the beautiful environs promotes unity rather than discord among canoe and kayak racers.

The rivers around the North Carolina summer camp I attended, including the Nantahala, were where I first learned to love paddling.  Like Lecky said, it's with me forever.  As I've gotten older and visited an ever-growing list of rivers, I've learned to see that beauty in them as well, including, significantly, my river here at home, the Mississippi.

Paddles and baseball bats

I've managed to get an appointment with the orthopedist for this afternoon.  My left hip is hurting as much as ever this morning, and I hope I can find out what's going on and get myself on the road to a speedy recovery.

During baseball season I like to listen to Saint Louis Cardinals games on the radio  This week they played a series in Anaheim with the California Angels, whose roster includes former Cardinal Albert Pujols.  In eleven seasons with the Cardinals,  Pujols was their superstar and one of the undisputed stars in all of baseball.  Once his career is over, he should be a lock for induction into the baseball Hall of Fame on the basis of his performance during those years.

Sadly, Pujols has struggled with foot and leg injuries since signing as a free agent with the Angels after the 2011 season.  So far this season his batting average has languished below .200.  As he took an at-bat the other night, Cardinals radio announcers John Rooney and Rick Horton discussed his lower-body ailments and the damper they have put on his swing.  A powerful swing, they explained, is not simply a motion of the arms; it starts in the hips and torso, which in turn are dependent on legs and feet that are firmly planted on the ground.

Much the same is true of an effective paddle stroke.  A kayaker's feet are planted against the footboard, and leg drive generates rotation at the hips.  Most readers of this blog probably know this, but I do encounter people fairly often who are surprised that pain in the hips could have an impact on paddling a boat.  I always enjoy learning examples of similar issues in other sports.

Some racing advice from Mr. Barton

Since I won't be racing myself this weekend, I'll share this bit of racing advice that Greg Barton posted on his Face Book athlete page last week:

Wake Jumping 

One km into today’s Lake Whatcom Classic, I found myself on the stern wake of Brandon & Heather Nelson in a double ski, who were on the stern wake of a 4+ rowing shell. Off to our left was DJ Jacobsen & Kevin Olney drafting a 4x scull.
About 4 km into the race, the 4+ shell starting making a right turn, indicating they were doing the short course while the rest of us were doing the long course. That left the Nelsons and me without our “ride”. By that point, the 4x scull had pulled 60-80m ahead of us.
This brings up a major decision in a distance race – do I attempt to catch the lead pack, team up with the Nelson double ski, or paddle solo? If you are capable of staying with a faster boat or pack, it will give you a noticeably faster time for the race – provided you don’t tire yourself out so much that you completely die off towards the end. Even then, it may be worth it if you can stay with the faster boat for a significant time before falling off.
I opted to chase down the lead pack. There are 2 ways to go about this – 1) Climb up and over a series of wakes from directly behind the leader(s), or move out to the side into clear water and angle up to them just outside of the wakes. Since I was already within the vee of the lead wake at the point, I opted to paddle up the center. Even 80 meters back, there are still wakes – especially if they are from teamboats (which are heavier) or multiple craft.
The strategy is to surf the small wake for a period of time, then put in a hard sprint to move up and over the next wake. Rest for a short period, then sprint again to move another wake closer. The timing and effort is important. You need to sprint hard enough to climb over the next wake in 15-20 seconds. If instead you push forward with a steady grind, you’ll likely tire out before gaining enough speed to jump the wake. Then you need to chose your rest period – not enough rest before jumping the next wave and you’ll be too tired to make it. But resting too long decreases your chance of ever catching the leaders – especially if they are moving faster than you can paddle on your own. A series of sprints and high intensity paddling can only be maintained for a certain period of time. More than 5-10 minutes and you will likely tire before catching the pack.
My sequence was to jump a wake, recover for 30-60 seconds until I felt capable of going again and sprinting over the next wake. This was not a full recovery – I was still tired from the previous sprint before going again. But I knew I had to catch them before my limited energy reserves would be completely depleted. The good news is that each progressive wake becomes slightly larger and an easier ride, until you finally reach the stern wake of the last boat on the pack.
I was dead tired when finally catching up, but then tried to paddle as conservatively as possible while maintaining a position on the stern wake of the double ski. I kept this position until about 1.5 km from the finish. First I moved up to the side wake of the double ski, rested briefly and then pulled up alongside the 4x scull to challenge for the lead – eventually pulling ahead.
Jacobsen & Olney followed me up on my side wake. Then they took the lead for a period while I rode their side wake. I managed to pull ahead for a final time and held them off in a sprint to the finish.
It was an exciting race. Experience definitely pays off. The more times you put yourself in these situations and try different strategies, the more you’ll learn what does and doesn’t work for you!
Here’s the results.

One of the things I've always admired about Greg is his desire to master every aspect of canoe and kayak racing.  Whether it's "wake-jumping," or starts, or buoy turns, or any other skill, Greg seeks to find the methods that work best for him and be a truly complete racer.  I also like his problem-solving approach to dealing with issues he encounters on the water: I remember reading something he wrote once about arriving at a race in the Pacific Northwest and finding the conditions much colder than he'd expected, and fashioning a makeshift pair of pogies from a couple of plastic bags.

Any time you read something on this blog that you find particularly wise or enlightening, you can be sure that it is full of stuff I learned from Greg and similarly accomplished athletes.

Sigh.

Well, there will be no race for me this weekend.

The plan had been to drive up to the Osage River east of Jefferson City, Missouri, to participate in the Osage Spring 12 race on Saturday.

But on Tuesday I woke up with a sharp pain in my left hip area.  I thought maybe I'd slept on it wrong, or that maybe I'd done something Monday to tweak my back in that area, and that it would hurt for a couple of days but work itself out eventually.  I've had my share of little episodes like that where something is just a little out of joint and putting pressure on a nerve or something like that.

Now here I am two and a half days later and the area hurts as much as ever.  I went downtown this morning and attempted to paddle, but even paddling easy I could manage only 20 painful minutes.  The worst moments were the strokes on my right: as I pulled lightly on the foot strap with my left foot to drive my torso rotation, the pain in my left hip made me wince each time.

So, I'm afraid racing this weekend is out of the question.  Sure, Saturday is still a couple of days off, and if this were a local race I might at least go down there and warm up and see how it feels; but the Osage River is a five- or six-hour drive from here, and I just can't justify going all the way there just to have to withdraw at the last minute.

I'd planned to go to this same race last year, but my shoulder was bothering me and I ended up staying home.  Some higher authority must not want me to paddle on the Osage River.

As for what I'm going to do about this injury, I'm not sure yet.  Typically I give it a few days to see if there's any sign of it healing on its own.  But if I'm going to end up seeing a doctor, I need to do it soon because I have a trip to the beach with my mom and my sister's family planned for week after next, and I want to have any treatments underway by then.  The Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race is just three weeks or so after I get back from that trip.

Monday photo feature

We had gorgeous weather here in the greater Memphis area this past weekend.  And in fact, we've had a long run of pleasant weather this spring.  There's been quite a bit of rain and quite a bit of wind, but temperatures have been in mostly a very comfortable range for weeks.  In many years we go from chilly to hot very abruptly, but that hasn't been the case this year.

Purple martins take up residence all up and down the Memphis riverfront at this time of year.  We've got an active family at the marina where I keep my boat.  I've enjoyed their company while stretching on the dock and readying my boat and gear for paddling.

Good paddling weekend

I have a race up in Missouri this Saturday, and I'd like to do well in that.  But there's a lot of season to come after that, and I'm moving ahead with my eye toward the future as well.  A big date on the calendar is June 18, when the 35th Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race takes place.  It's my hometown race, and that's reason enough to want to do well, but it's also a very competitive race.  In some years there are as many as a half dozen guys right around my ability level, and we're all fighting it out to finish in the medals.  And it's a short race--5000 meters--so I've got to start working on speed and lactic endurance more.  So that will be a theme of the next month or so of training.

On Saturday I paddled for 60 minutes.  After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I did a set of eight one-minute pieces with two minutes recovery.  I had my GPS with me and was shooting for 8 miles per hour during each piece.  When I went too fast--at times I hit as high as 8.7 or 8.8 mph--I tried to back off the intensity ever so slightly while maintaining good solid stroke form.

Yesterday I did a longer session (100 minutes) at a strong tempo.  It was a beautiful day and I paddled up the Mississippi above the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and ferried across to paddle several kilometers up the Loosahatchie Chute, much like Ted Burnell and I had done last Monday.  This is one of my favorite outdoor places in the Memphis area; when you're paddling up there with your back to the city, all you see is wilderness populated by birds and fish and turtles and beavers.  Ted likened it to paddling up the Zambezi.  Then when you come back downriver you have arguably the best view of the Memphis skyline there is.

I didn't see any jumping Asian carp yesterday, but the fish sure were active underwater.  Three or four times I hit one with my paddle.  They were probably catfish, though they could have been alligator gar or sea monsters or who knows what.

U.S. Olympic paddling update

There was a U.S. Olympic Team selection event for flatwater sprint paddlers last weekend on Lake Lanier at Gainesville, Georgia.  This weekend the slalom racers were on the water at Oklahoma City's new artificial whitewater venue for the second of their two selection events.

The International Olympic Committee has a pre-set number of athletes it will allow to compete in canoe and kayak events at Rio this summer.  How those berths are distributed among nations is determined by how each nation performs in the previous year's world championships and in the championships for its continent or global region (i.e., Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Americas).

In flatwater, the U.S. athletes did not perform well enough at the 2015 world championships to secure any berths in the Rio Olympics.  That means that any Olympic berths the U.S. gets will be determined at the Pan American Championships on May 19-20 at Lake Lanier.  And so last weekend's trials on Lanier were a competition for the right to race in the Pan Ams.  The following athletes won their classes last weekend and will now attempt to qualify for spots in the Olympics later this month:

Men's 1000-meter single canoe: Ian Ross, Bethesda, Maryland
Men's 1000-meter double canoe: Ian Ross, Bethesda, Maryland, and Gavin Ross, Bethesda, Maryland
Men's 200-meter single canoe: Ben Hefner, Gainesville, Georgia
Women's 500-meter double canoe (non-Olympic event): Lydia Keefe Sampson, Seattle, Washington, and Azusa Murphy, Seattle, Washington
Women's 500-meter double kayak: Farran Smith and Samantha Barlow, San Diego, California
Women's 500-meter single kayak: Maggie Hogan, Huntington Beach, California
Men's 1000-meter single kayak: Chris Miller, Gainesville, Georgia
Men's 1000-meter double kayak: Chris Miller, Gainesville, Georgia, and Stanton Collins, Gainesville, Georgia
Men's 200-meter double kayak: Chris Miller, Gainesville, Georgia, and Stanton Collins, Gainesville, Georgia
Women's 500-meter single canoe (non-Olympic event): Lydia Keefe Sampson, Seattle, Washington
Women's 200-meter single para-kayak: Anja Pierce, Pittsford, New York
Men's 200-meter single para-kayak: Nik Miller, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Men's 200-meter single kayak: Tim Hornsby, Atlanta, Georgia
Women's 200-meter single kayak: Emily Wright, Fairport, New York

Tim Hornsby, who competed in 200-meter single kayak at the 2012 London Games, is the only member of this group who has previous Olympic experience.

In slalom, meanwhile, the U.S. Olympic Team is now complete.  Well, almost.

The U.S. secured Olympic berths in men's kayak and men's single canoe at the 2015 world championships, by virtue of Michal Smolen's third-place finish in K1 and Casey Eichfeld's fourth-place finish in C1.  Smolen and Eichfeld did not actually win the right to fill those berths in Rio at last year's worlds, but they did earn a points advantage over other U.S. athletes, and they closed the deal at the selection event at Charlotte last month.

In the other two slalom classes, women's kayak and men's double canoe, no athletes finished racing at Charlotte with an insurmountable point total for Olympic selection, and so competition continued in those classes this weekend at Oklahoma City.

Ashley Nee of Darnestown, Maryland, who had earned a K1W Olympic berth for the U.S. at the Pan American Championships at Minden, Ontario, last summer, won at Charlotte for an edge in points coming into Oklahoma City.  Dana Mann took the win this weekend, pulling into a tie with Nee in points, but Nee has been named to the Olympic Team because she was the one who qualified the spot at the Pan Ams.

In men's double canoe, the team of Casey Eichfeld and Devin McEwan beat out Michal Smolen and Zach Lokken this weekend.  Coupled with their win at Charlotte last month, this victory earned them the U.S. Olympic nomination in C2.

Now, this is where I still don't understand what's going on.  As I mentioned in this post several weeks ago, the U.S. has qualified to enter four warm bodies in whitewater slalom at the Games.  What the U.S. would like to do is simply enter the four boats that have emerged from its selection process, given that Casey Eichfeld is in both the winning C1 and the winning C2; but apparently the ICF hasn't made up its mind yet if that's an acceptable way for a nation to use its berths.

How did it even happen that the U.S. has only four qualified athlete berths?  Eichfeld/McEwan won the C2 class at the Pan Ams last summer, so why didn't that qualify an entire boat for the U.S.?  Was it because Casey Eichfeld had already qualified the C1 berth for the U.S.?  If so, why shouldn't his status as a U.S. Olympic nomination in both C1 and C2 be reason enough for the U.S. to send boats in all four classes?

I've pored over the USA Canoe-Kayak website but have not found an answer there.  All I know is that according to this article, there's a chance that either Ashley Nee or Devin McEwan will end up staying home this summer.  I sure hope it doesn't happen that way.

MORE video from Vicksburg

Here's a shorter video that Paul Ingram and Patrick Smith put together.  This one is video footage only--no stills.  Starting at 2:23 there's some nice footage of the Pellerins and Tave Lamperez, then me, then Randy Hargroder and Brad Rex and Rick Carter.

Video from Vicksburg

Paul Ingram has been taking great photos of the Bluz Cruz Canoe and Kayak Race for a few years now.  He did so again this year, and he also teamed up with Patrick Smith to make a video.  In it you will see aerial footage, land-based footage, and still photos of this Saturday's race:

Writin' for Surf Ski News

The Surf Ski News website has posted an account of the race at Vicksburg written by yours truly.  It's similar to the race report I posted here, but I tailored it a bit for the S.S.N. audience.  The post features some nice photos that photographer Paul Ingram took on Saturday.  Go check it out here.

Recovering and giving the two-bit tour

Yesterday was definitely a recovery day after the beating I put on my body in Saturday's race.  I did some stretching at home and then went down to the river for a very easy 30-minute paddle.  I spent probably ten of those 30 minutes just sitting in the boat talking to a couple of friends I ran into down there.

I woke up today feeling much better, and that was a good thing because I had an afternoon paddle planned with racing friend Ted Burnell of Chattanooga, who is in town on business for a couple of days.  Ted and I raced twice last year, with me barely winning once and him barely winning once, so I'd say we're pretty evenly matched.  He'd probably be a great training partner for me if we lived in the same city.

We met around 3 o'clock this afternoon and paddled for two hours.  I tried to give him a nice well-rounded experience out on the Mississippi: we paddled out of the harbor and upstream to the Greenbelt Park, then ferried over to paddle up the west side of the Loosahatchie Bar.  With the river at about 13.6 feet and rising on the Memphis gauge, we had to do a couple of slick attainment moves to get up over the Corps of Engineers dikes there.

Then we turned around and came back downriver, admiring the view of the downtown skyline.  I pointed out a few riverfront landmarks before saying goodbye back where Ted's car was parked.  Ted seemed to think it was a worthwhile afternoon spent on the river, and I was glad to have the chance to show him around.  I know I enjoy visiting the places where other people paddle.

Monday photo feature

I mentioned several weeks ago that I was sort of rooting for the C2 team of Casey Eichfeld and Devin McEwan to make the U.S. Olympic Team because Devin is the son of the first U.S. Olympic medalist in whitewater slalom, the late Jamie McEwan.

What I did not mention is that Olympic medal notwithstanding, Jamie was not even the most famous member of his family.  Devin's mother, and Jamie's widow, is none other than cartoonist Sandra Boynton, the creator of those cute hippos and rhinos and similar critters that you see on greeting cards and coffee mugs and stuff.  A couple of years ago I got me this cool Boynton tee shirt that Devin and Casey were selling.

The Olympic selection process for slalom resumes this coming weekend on the new whitewater course at Oklahoma City.  McEwan/Eichfeld are hoping to win an Olympic berth in the C2 class, and the women's kayak (K1W) berth is up for grabs as well.

This past weekend saw a selection event for flatwater sprint racing on Lake Lanier at Gainesville, Georgia.  The field of contenders for spots on the U.S.  Olympic Team has been narrowed down, as explained on the Surf Ski News website, here.  I'll talk more about it once I get up to speed.

Racing on the mighty Mississippi at Vicksburg

I got to Vicksburg Friday afternoon, crossed the river to drop off my boat up at Madison Parish Port, returned to town and went by the race check-in place, and retired to my motel for a good night's sleep.

Yesterday morning there was a line of strong storms over in Louisiana, but it looked as though they might hold off long enough to get the race in.  I joined fellow racers on the shuttle bus up to the start at Madison Parish Port and went about the business of getting my boat and gear ready to go under overcast but not-too-threatening skies.

The Mississippi was a bit low for this year's race: the Vicksburg gauge reading was 26.9 feet and dropping as final race preparations were underway.  Times were likely to be slow, and up at the start we had to navigate some knee-deep mud to get our boats in the water.  As I fought my way from the quagmire near the bank out into open water, my rudder got stuck in the mud and twisted out of alignment, so I had to go back to the bank and stand in the mud again while I got it readjusted.

With that nuisance distraction behind me, I warmed up and moved into position on the starting line.  There were three boats there that I figured would be my main competition.  Rick Carter of Eutawville, South Carolina, had proven himself a sturdy nemesis even though he is a relative newcomer to the sport.  The Pellerin triplets (Carson, Conrad, and Peyton) of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, were joined by Tave Lamperez of Lafayette to form a formidable K4.  Brad Rex (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) and Randy Hargroder (Opelousas, Louisiana) were teamed up in a fast tandem kayak.

The gun went off and I sprinted hard off the line, just like I'd been training to do in recent weeks.  In short order I sensed the familiar presence of Rick Carter on my stern wake, with Rex/Hargroder just behind him.  Rick was paddling a brand new V-10L surf ski with a day-glo orange bow, and Brad and Randy were in a bright yellow boat, so it wasn't hard to make them out in my peripheral vision.

I glanced about expecting to see Tave and the Pellerins nearby, but couldn't find them.  I don't know much about the boat they were paddling, but my guess is that it was a more stable (and therefore slower) craft than what I've been seeing the triplets paddle as a K3 lately.  In any case, I assumed they were somewhere in the hunt back there.

Six weeks earlier I had come away from the race at Ocean Springs feeling as though I'd left some money on the table.  In other words, I'd been content to hang back and ride people's wakes rather than push the pace and take control.  I don't know that the results would have been any different had I behaved differently, but for this race I'd resolved to be more aggressive.  I threw in several strong surges in the first couple of miles and managed to break away from my competitors.

I was fully aware that I was taking a gamble, but I reminded myself of the good training I'd done in the month of April and proceeded with confidence.  I was beginning to feel the first signs of fatigue as I rounded the first sharp bend in the river about eight miles (12 kilometers) in, but I was determined to think only positive thoughts and told myself that as long as I kept the boat moving smoothly it would be difficult for the others to run me down.

After another sharp bend the river flows straight toward the city of Vicksburg for some seven miles or eleven kilometers.  By this time fatigue was settling in for real, and I tried to stay relaxed and paddle as efficiently as possible, using my legs and my torso.  Occasional glances over my shoulder told me that I still had a good lead on those bright-colored boats, but not an insurmountable one if I didn't keep my act together.  I continued to keep my mind occupied with optimistic thoughts: "They're tired too."  "This is the same river I train on all the time, so surely I'm handling this water at least a little bit better than they are."  And so on.  But twinges of doubt were creeping in, too.  About a mile and a half (2.5 kilometers) from the finish the course leaves the Mississippi and heads up the Yazoo River, and here my "big river" advantage would be gone and I would be vulnerable to anybody who'd conserved his energy better than I had.

The wind was picking up and I paddled through a couple of kilometers of increasingly choppy water.  At long last I reached the mouth of the Yazoo, and I approached it on a path that I thought would miss the squirrelly shallow water there.  Once off the roiling Mississippi I found I had a bit more left in the tank than I'd expected, and I added some power to my strokes while keeping the stroke rate low overall.  Maybe, just maybe, I was going to finish this job.  And then...

I saw some day-glo orange over my right shoulder, and at that moment I knew I was in big trouble.  I tried not to overreact, and just keep things steady, but knowing Rick was getting a ride on my stern I threw in a couple of little surges hoping to break free.  That didn't work, so I shifted my priority to keeping him from moving up onto my side wake and a better position from which to sprint for the win.

Rick began to surge with a kilometer to go, and it was pretty clear that he had more left than I did.  I hung in there and paddled as hard as I could, but in the final meters Rick separated himself and beat me by 15 seconds.  According to my GPS we had traveled about 20.7 miles (about 33.4 km), and our times were 2 hours, 18 minutes, 31 seconds for Rick and 2:18:46 for me.  Times were indeed slow with the low water; my personal record on this course is 1:56:34.

Brad Rex and Randy Hargroder were just 93 seconds back in taking third place.  Tave Lamperez and the Pellerin triplets took fourth overall with a time of 2:28:15.  The fastest overall female finisher was Denise D'Abundo of Baton Rouge, who clocked 2:55:18.  The complete results are posted here.

I apparently made a mistake at the mouth of the Yazoo even though I didn't realize it at the time, allowing Rick to close the gap significantly.  After the race Rick and Randy and Brad all asked me why I had "gone so wide."  "Go wide?" I thought; "I didn't go wide!"  But in this sport I've learned that what you see from your boat sometimes looks very different from what people outside your boat see, and maybe at some point I should go back to the mouth of the Yazoo and see if I can figure out why the line I took was so costly.

As usual, Rick deflected the praise he had earned: "You were robbed, man!  You worked twice as hard as I did, and I just hung out back there and stole it from you at the very end!"  But I see it as a perfectly fair-and-square victory for him.  As I pointed out in this post a couple of weeks ago, part of winning is simply being in a position to capitalize when the competition makes a mistake or falters in some way, and that's exactly what Rick did.  Expending your energy wisely is a big part of this game, and it turned out Rick did a better job of that than I did.

In any case, as the rain began to fall while we awaited the awards, I was in a surprisingly upbeat mood even though I'd spent the second half of the race in fear of being caught from behind and then seen that fear become reality.  My goal was to win, but if I had to get beat I'm glad I got beat as a result of being overly aggressive rather than as a result of being overly timid.  I went out and did exactly what I thought I had to do, and it just didn't quite work out.

If I'm counting correctly, this was the 12th edition of the Bluz Cruz Canoe and Kayak Race.  The Vicksburgers who organize this event have done an outstanding job year after year, and once again I have returned home in high spirits after a gratifying race experience.