Some unexpected sweetness

I might as well retire from paddling right now.

I kid, of course.  But I very well may never again have as good a session of surfing on towboat wakes as I had yesterday.  And if I do, it might not happen when I have my Go Pro camera with me.  Here's the video of what happened yesterday:



Trying to surf towboat wakes is usually an exercise in frustration.  Typically, the waves are moving a little too fast, or their amplitude is not quite right, or they're wandering right and left all over the place rather than moving in an organized train.  And then, of course, there's the fact that I'm not the most gifted athlete in the world.  Over the years it's been rare for me to get anything more than a couple of ten-second rides on towboat wakes.

Yesterday, as I was paddling out of the harbor, there was a barge rig moving upriver just above the Harahan Bridge, and as usual I was inclined to go check it out.  What I found was the most perfect set of surfing waves I've ever seen produced by one of those big commercial vessels.  From 0:17 until 7:47 in the video above, it's uncut raw footage.  My first ride starts at 0:23, and I keep it going until 5:05; I then quickly get established on the next wave back and have another good long ride.  I was actually starting to feel sort of lazy just sitting there on the wave... I think I burn more calories sitting on my sofa.

I felt like I was flying as I surfed along.  But the speed on my G.P.S. device rarely exceeded 4.5 miles per hour or so.  That's because I was moving up the Mississippi River, whose current flows around 4 mph.

Eventually the towboat put more distance on me, the waves began to diminish, and the rides got shorter and shorter.  So in the later stages of the video there's more splicing to cut out the non-surfing footage.  And, just to be honest... this video is probably a bit boring unless you're an absolute nerd for this kind of stuff.  I even say that out loud at 16:35.  I do make a few other remarks that contain all the wisdom and wit you've come to expect from My Training Blog by Elmore.  I also throw in a few of those obligatory "woo-hoos," and even cough up a catcall at 2:00.  That's some real effort for a not-very-emotive person such as I.

Anyway, I had myself some big fun yesterday and I spent the rest of the day with a little smile on my face.  For all the misery inflicted upon humanity by this pandemic, I'm having some moments I can look back on fondly later, and I'm grateful for that.

This morning I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor, and then paddled back out on the river.  There was no barge traffic in sight, but a pretty stiff south wind was blowing and creating an "infant" stage of downwind conditions.  I worked on getting my boat moving on the little bumps for a while before taking it back in to the dock.


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