My main focus this past week has been nursing my neck back to health. This bit of literature, courtesy of my chiropractor, offers the most likely explanation of what's going on:
My chiropractor also showed me a few exercises I can do to work on the area. She'd actually promised to e-mail them to me a couple of weeks earlier, but she forgot, and I kept forgetting to remind her. But we finally got that straightened out this past week and I've been doing the exercises every day since then. And I think they're having an effect. My neck pain isn't gone yet--there's still a lot of tightness--but I'm not wincing every time I turn my head to the left. If nothing else, I'm getting a psychological boost from actually doing something myself to address the problem in between visits to the chiropractor's office.
Aside from an easy paddle with Joe on Tuesday, I spent most of last week out of the boat. Simply put, I was ready for a break. I very well might have continued that break through the weekend, except that a run of exceptionally nice weather had moved in. With sunny skies and temperatures in the mid to high 70s Fahrenheit, I simply couldn't stay away from the river entirely.
On Friday I went down to the dock and spent some time stretching, doing a round of my strength routine, and doing my neck rehab exercises. Then I got in the boat and set out with the intention of doing what I felt like doing--nothing more, nothing less.
When I reached the mouth of the harbor I saw a barge rig heading upriver from beneath the Harahan Bridge. I headed straight for it, for I certainly couldn't let a surfing opportunity go by in such warm weather. The waves weren't the most ideal I've ever seen, but they were playful. I had great fun just working the boat to prolong each run, and each time a run ended there was another good wave right behind it for me to catch. The few days of rest seemed to have done me good: I was able to sprint hard again and again with no debilitating fatigue.
As I glided along, I wondered if the morning could possibly be any more perfect. The weather was gorgeous, I'd done some good work on the dock, and now here I was enjoying the most pleasing sensation a paddler can experience. Life was good indeed.
Then, just like that, my morning became slightly less perfect. I needed to turn the boat to the right to keep my "nose in the hole" (as the Mocke brothers like to say), so I pressed on my right foot pedal... and the boat didn't respond. I pushed the pedal all the way down. Nothing. My boat continued moving off to the left, off the wave. My rudder had inexplicably quit on me.
I muscled the boat over to the Arkansas bank, paddling mostly on my left side because my inert rudder was turning the boat to the left. I found a place to hop out and see what the deal was. In short, the little bracket that attaches to the top of the rudder post was no longer gripping the post. Tightening it required an Allen wrench, and I didn't have one with me (note to self: start keeping one in a life jacket pocket from now on).
I did everything I could to remedy the problem with just my fingers, but I couldn't get the rudder functioning again. I did at least get it fixed in the center position so it would act as a skeg as I made my way back toward the harbor. I was now sullen because a lousy equipment failure had yanked a really fun surf session out from under me. And there probably aren't many days left this year when it's not too cold for such activity.
Yesterday morning I replaced my rudder with a different one with a slightly longer post that I hope the bracket will keep its grip on. According to the forecast we still had several more balmy days, so both yesterday and today I paddled with the hope of finding some more barge wakes to surf. Alas, commercial traffic was nowhere to be found. The environmentalist nature-loving side of me should have been happy to enjoy a river free of the air and noise pollution those beasts create, and in fact I did have good hour-long sessions both days. But the feeling of being robbed on Friday continued to gnaw at me.
Oh well... I'll get over it. There ought to be plenty more surfing in my future. For now my training break will continue and with any luck I'll get this neck ailment under control.
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