Sea Kayak Trip Lake Michigan, Saugatuck

After several months of feeling sub-standard, experiencing new low ebbs of my fitness and strength, and consequently feeling very low in spirits; the wind began to blow. Unfortunately it did not howl, but spirited breezes across Lake Michigan were quite enough for me to be getting on with. After being a complete ass and forgetting about dropping off my Isabella at camp (I suck), I negotiated a penitent truce at home. Paddle time with Lori and Doug and getting Isabella off to Van Buren Youth Camp became a settled armistice between all parties.

We paddled out of the harbor and into the wind. This particular day was overcast and the wind was veering from the southwest to due west, to northwest. We made the call to head directly out. We paddled at a steady four knot clip due west for almost two and a half hours. I felt some of my old strength and fitness returning. Nothing ached for once. Lori unfortunately was taking my bad mojo. She was hurting but keeping up.

As we neared the time for turn around the wind had begun to veer completely to the northwest. The waves had been tidied up and began to form tidy swells. The blue green freshwater sea began to hiss as the cat’s paws of white caps skittered across the surface. Mist closed in around the land. My paddle blades caught the wind as we tacked towards land. I dug in for all I was worth feeling the muscles in my back and my abdomen pulse, twitch, and burn.The Foster Silhouette began to plane and surf on the small wind driven waves. I was leaning well forward trying to free the stern and allow it to catch the swells. I began to fly with my old grace again. As my kayak spilled down wave, I was edging hard and allowing the hard chines to catch and then pivot the kayak down wave again.

Doug and I have a tendency to try and ram one another while surfing, I actually parked my Silhouette over the top of his Valkyrie deck on a crossing between North and South Manitou while surfing wind waves between the islands. I tried to keep the distance healthy, but as we surfed, I had to drop a few emergency hanging draws to pull us apart.

I enjoyed feeling the powerful fluid bite of the Werner Ikelos. I found myself using a fairly high cadence for my forward stroke. I would spin hard and then sweep and edge to stay on course and then dig in with a rudder to keep the lighthouses marking the harbor on my bow. Doug and I would trade leading the surge towards land like two motorcycle riders on a starting line, goosing the throttle, he would spin dig his blades deep, spin hard, and then catch a ride. Doug’s Valkyrie would scoot ahead fifty or one hundred yards until he would have to start paddling hard again. Then I would dig and spin until I caught a ride, perhaps even getting on the back of another waves, and then smelling another ride, dig hard to climb over the top and spill down wave again.

As this sprinting continued I forgot about the hernia repair, work, and all problems, and only about the next ride. In some small way this is what being in a sea kayak on open water is about, the distance between land and sea is a thin tether that needs to be broken every once in a while. If I stay too long on land the tether seems to grow in thickness and weight until it becomes hard to bear. Nothing in life that I have done thus far has felt as beautiful or as free as flying before a tail wind 5 miles from land.

We all know surf kayaking is obviously very freeing. It is however a different feeling. Heading out to surf storms has a certain amount of sheer dread with brief moments of pure bliss. The pit of dread in your belly as you break out on a 25 knot wind day from a beach with 10 foot surf is a bit much at times. But that dread is rewarded with a carving green water bliss that you couldn’t top with a shot of heroin in the eyeball. Burt Monro said it best about his motorcycle, “I live more in five minutes on that bike than most people do in their whole lives”. This is especially true of surf kayaking. Sea kayaking wind driven waves is not as thrilling, but it has beauty and grace. It also has a different pace, it is slow enough to be able to enjoy it while you’re doing it. While surf kayaking I am so completely in the moment, I have to think back while in the car on the way home about the rides I caught, rather than while I am paddling out to get the next one. Suffice it to say, I am still in love with both mistresses.

tags: betsie bay   great lakes   lake michigan   Nigel Foster   sea kayaking   silhouette   surf kayaking   valkyrie  

Is the Euro Paddle the power of the Dark Side?

I am going to try using a euro paddle for some of my day trips and maybe even longer trips to see how I do. Is this the power of the darkside at work? I am not going to make any grand predictions. My experience with the towing demonstration at the WMCKA Symposium 2008 has shaken my belief that the two paddles are really equal in all things. I love using a Greenland style paddle. I love the simplicity, the natural ergonomic weight of it, the symmetry, and of course the natural buoyancy. I really enjoy working on the rolls, and all of my strokes with the traditional blade. But after three years kayak surfing, and using a white water blade, first a Double torque Lendal XTI 194cm, and now a Werner Sidekick 194cm straight shaft, I am finding I like the quick application of power the really big spoons provide. The Iggy and the Stooges Raw Power.

I will share one anecdote about one tight spot I was in about 3 years ago in a sea kayak that might demonstrate what the key differences are between the paddles. Jason Roon and I were out kayak surfing in long boats on Lake Michigan in summer in 2005. It was a rip roaring day with steep vertical faces. Wind was around 15-20 knots. Waves were 3-5 feet. I was surfing my Nigel Foster Silhouette using a home made western red cedar traditional paddle. Jason was in a P&H Sirius with a Lendal Kinetic Crank Shaft 210cm paddle. Near Deer Lick south of South Haven there is a small cove built out of truck tires and concrete pilings, rebar and a bunch of other lake refuse. As nasty as it sounds, this is an excellent place to surf because of the depth and the reflection waves. It’s a good play area. The only danger is getting caught on the inside because if you swim or get surfed in you are on the rebar and concrete.


Jason and I surfed in on the same wave but spread out by at least 50 yards. I surfed about twenty yards and pitchpoled my sea kayak. (There were no board surfers in sight and Jason was 50-60 yards away). I surfed in upside down the rest of the way, and then rolled up. I edged my kayak and turned around. In this process I managed to capsize again. I rolled up again. Now that I was pointed the right way. I tried to break out. The reflection waves and the pounding that cove was taking kept knocking me sideways and back. I was coming dangerously close to the concrete and rebar sticking into Lake Michigan. Each time I was ready to punch through I’d get knocked back and over again. I’d roll up each time and be forced to start over. Jason had already broken out, and was contemplating coming in to tow me out. Finally I started using a sliding stroke and used every ounce of strength I possessed to punch out.

In summary Jason and I are fairly equal in paddling skill and strength, but he managed to break out, where I was struggling. I think a bigger spoon blade might have allowed me to break out at least on the second try.

I have not really used a Euro blade to do any serious distances since about 2001. So I might be in for a real eye opener there. The traditional paddle is something I have likened to granny gear on a bicycle, high cadence, or high rotation of strokes with continual movement. The paddler does not have to lift their arms very high, and can sink the blade deep with minimal effort repeatedly. I think this is really the benefit of the paddle. You can go all day at high repetition with minimal effort.

I’ve been using a 85” Superior Carbon Fiber for about three years now. I think it is a really excellent paddle. It is scary light, super stiff, and very buoyant. My only complaint is the sound of loose foam rattling around inside from my abuse of the paddle over three years on Lake Michigan and Superior.

I’ve selected a 205 cm Carbon Crank shaft Werner Ikelos for a trial run, it is the big spoon of Werner’s Touring Line and I hope to give it a spin in the near future to see if I can put it through it’s paces. I think the real test will be over distances if the higher angle stroke with more catch can be sustained.

I have not fallen out of love with traditional paddling by any means. But I have had more experience using both now that I have been surfing with one and touring with the other. I would like to give the euro paddle a try again on some longer trips and see which is right for me. Curiosity and continuous discovery are important. Questioning what you know, and what you believe are always good things. These questions lead you somewhere, and for me I think these questions like a lot of searches may only lead to more questions, but that’s ok. Being able to teach effectively with both I think is also crucial. Not having a bias may provide some of my guinea pigs with a little perspective.

Also I’ve been practicing all of my Greenland competition rolls with my surf paddle and I think it works pretty well. Storm rolls, reverse low brace, shotgun, and even spine rolls do work with the modern blade. Zero feather angle is really important.

tags: euro paddle   greenland paddle   lendal   Nigel Foster   Nigel Foster Silhouette   P&H   sea kayaking   Towing a sea kayak   werner  

Managing Inexperienced Paddlers on the Water

In 2006 I led a Sea Kayaking trip in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior. To say that I led the trip is a stretch. I will say it was a great experience to learn how to lead a trip.

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Myself and Jim Svensson took two more inexperienced paddlers to paddle through the islands in July of 2005. I won’t give a blow by blow of the account. But I will offer some advice for other sea kayakers who are thinking of taking less experienced paddlers on a trip.

Jim Svensson and I are both BCU 4 Star Paddlers with thousands of miles under our hulls. We have done many trips together on Lake Superior, we have both paddled Pukaskwa National Park in Canada, we also did the Silver Islet to Rossport trip together. I have many many hours surf kayaking on Lake Michigan and even a couple of trips to the Pacific to surf. I’ve done a lot of the islands on Lake Michigan and Huron. However each of these trips was done with paddlers of at least equal paddling skill, if not higher than our own skill level. This was our first trip with beginners.

I want to start with some things about the trip to give an idea of the plan, because believe it or not I did have a plan.

We wanted to do a loop from Sand Beach back to Bayfield. We had an outfitter drop us off at Sand Beach and we would paddle back to Bayfield. We wanted to hit Sand Island with all of the caves and cliffs, and especially Devil’s Island, we also wanted to circle out and see Outer Island. Maybe even circumnavigate Outer before heading back.

Planning and Preparation for the Sea Kayaking Trip

In the early part of the spring, I paddled with the two more inexperienced paddlers (a married couple) many times. Though one of them had a lot of obligations and was not able to do the training trips as often as what would be necessary.

I made a point of taking them out and doing rescues. We performed t-rescues, eskimo rescues, all-in rescues, and even a hand of god or two for fun. I wanted to get them comfortable with the idea that maybe not everything would go as planned. Also I wanted them to not freak out if someone swam, which I was predicting might happen if there were any clapotis waves near cliffs or caves. I also worked with one of them on developing a roll, directional strokes and some surfing.

I also took one of them out to Ludington to the WMCKA spring gathering. We paddled into 25 knot winds on Sunday afternoon and then surfed back to shore. Great fun, but also an eye opener in watching how little progress our duckling made.

They key thing is that one of our paddlers was really taking the trip quite seriously, and the other did not prepare.

The couple did however take my warnings about cold water, and possible cold weather seriously and bought a ton of gear before the trip. One bought a Goretex Meridian Drysuit, the other bought a really nice IR Drytop and a farmer jane wet suit. I felt that they were at least prepared from an equipment standpoint.

As the days wound down to the trip, our other paddler still engaged in work duties had not been out to paddle very much. I made a conscientious effort to talk with her about the challenges of the trip and to make sure she understood them.

This is really where I failed her. She could not understand the challenges of the trip, because she had no frame of reference for how strong the wind might be, how big the waves would be, or how unrelenting Lake Superior could be. I wanted everyone to have a good trip, so I allowed her to go. When really I should have just been a good friend and told her we would modify the trip plan to be less ambitious, or that she could not go.

I asked Doug Van Doren about leadership on the water. His take is that the strongest paddler will often naturally end up leading the other paddlers through an emergency, whether or not this person is designated as the leader or not.

With that in mind, I was committed whether I knew it or not.

Crossings into the Wind

Our troubles really began on the leg between Devil’s Island and South Twin. There is a long leg far from shore where there is no protection. One also has to go around Rock Island. The weather for most of the day around Devil’s Island had been ideal. It was very calm with no huge waves. I snaked my foster silhouette into every cave I could fit into. Once finished we ended up on the south east corner of the island looking at the crossing. The wind was getting up and we had to make a break for it.

Part of the problem with the Apostles is the designated campsites. Every paddling group must designate which campsite they will be staying at on what night. Under ideal conditions this is fine, but it unfortunately influences decisions with some of the more OCD folks. I am more of a free spirit in this regard. I feel that as long as it’s safe, and that I am low impact I am willing to bend a few rules. But others tend to take this quite literally to the point of jeopardizing safety, which I am OCD about. In this instance I should have been more vocal about making sure we were safe, rather than jeopardizing the groups safety in a crossing that one of us wasn’t read for.

About thirty minutes into the crossing the wind picked up to about 15 knots. To Jim and I this was a good thing, we despise flat conditions and would rather have a little texture to remind us of why we drove 14 hours to paddle. To our inexperienced paddlers it was an insurmountable obstacle. Our least prepared paddler began to waver, then fade, and finally to become unstable. I remember looking at the conditions and seeing how slowly she was moving, and I had clipped my tow carabiner to my life jacket prior to starting the crossing.

Jim and I began using the GPS as a gauge of how slowly we were going we started at three miles per hour, then two, then one.

I saw the first accidental dip of a vertical paddle and a quick low brace to recover. After she almost went into the drink, I made an instantaneous decision to tow her without asking her. I glided up to her bow and told her, “We’re going to do a little towing to get around the tip of Rock Island.” She looked almost relieved.

I began to haul ass for the northern tip of Rock Island right away. Pretty soon we were halfway, then three quarters of the way, and then Jim thankfully offered to take over for a bit. Our other inexperienced paddler seemed to be struggling, but making progress. Jim also really hauled it and pretty soon, we were discussing linked towing. So I clipped in on the lead to Jim’s Explorer’s bow and began to lead again. Once we did this we were really making good progress. Ironically once I had made it to the tip of Rock Island I had to pee like you wouldn’t believe. I can still remember two years later how bad I had to go. We were now with the wind, but I unclipped to pee on Rock Island. Jim led the tow the remaining half mile to South Twin.

In that 30 seconds I believe we corrected a very bad situation. The wind continued to grow the sky grew gray and the wind built eventually to about 25 knots. So quick and decisive decisions on the water tend to make for better feelings off the water, rather than worrying about someone’s feelings. I remember that look on her face when I clipped in to this day. Her face just said, “I surrender”. Also I can remember that feeling of relief for my own part as Rock Island quickly came into view. I got some serious satisfaction while I was towing to hear Jim report our speed from his deck GPS. I could barely hear him through the increasing howl in the wind, “3 miles per hour, four, four point five”.

We tried to quickly cover the distance before the weather built ahead of us. We might have had to consider turning and going with the wind, back to Devil’s Island. A quartering sea and that small slip on the south end would have been hard to hit dead on with the wind. The consequences for missing would have been catastrophic, because there is no land fall between Devil’s Island and Minnesota.

Lesson’s Learned from Tow #1

1. Quick Decision to tow based on decreasing speed and stability of the weaker paddler was a good decision.
2. Linked towing exerted far less energy than towing solo.
3. A Camelback full of gatorade does hydrate a paddler very well, but also makes them have to pee every 20 minutes.

Tow #2 From Cat Island to Outer Island

The next day we wound down around Ironwood Island and the southern tip of Cat Island for lunch.
The wind had begun to build again as we ate lunch. It was however a beautiful bright skied day. We started to head out to Outer Island with the intent of maybe seeing the light house on the north end.

Again I should stress that trip plans should have been changed by me to perhaps camp where we were, or to run with the wind until we were in the lee of the islands and then camp somewhere else. With the wind already beginning to make some beautiful blue green waves and foamy whitecaps, it would be tough going for our less experienced paddlers, but a fun day playing in the wind for Jim and myself.

However the first day turned out fine even with the towing, so I made a decision to go for it. We quickly ran into problems as the wind out of the north east was beginning to really build some nice swells. This made things very difficult for our least experienced paddler. She quickly slowed to around one mile an hour. She also became unsteady. I then quickly made another decision to clip in and tow her. Jim then clipped in and led the tow for about twenty minutes. It was tough going. We swapped spots on the lead twice. Finally the wind had begun to howl around the southern tip of Outer Island, which is a sand spit. It offered no protection. We knew the camp site was on the other side. So we struggled valiantly around the tip of the island for at least another twenty minutes.

I remember the white caps really beginning to pile over the deck of my kayak, digging my carbon fiber superior Greenland paddle into the water and torquing my torso with every once of strength I possessed. I don’t know how much strength I had left, but I remember thinking, wow! I really wish I could turn and sprint to catch that wave. (I think it is really I kind of mental illness to be thinking of surfing under those circumstances).

We were defeated as we rounded the sand spit. We started to wash onto the beach. Which was steep and cobbled. We began having the time honored catastrophic problem of using ropes in dangerous situations. The stronger paddler was being out paced by a side surfing sea kayak victim. I watched our weaker paddler side surf into the beach under tow, and Jim and I frantically trying to make a decision on what evil thing to do next. Either un-clip and let her go, or try to pull her back out to sea. I made the decision for myself. I quickly released my tow from the victim, as Jim was in the lead, but Jim did not. This led to some tangles and serious crashing on the beach with our two boats lined together. It was an ugly landing. Jim and I managed to bring the kayaks up the beach above the water line.

Tow #2 Lessons Learned

1. Linked towing when a landing is imminent has its limitations.
2. Communication between the two towing paddlers is crucial
3. Ropes and surf landings are always problematic.

In retrospect once we had rounded the tip of the island we should have dropped to a single tow so that one paddler could make a quick decision about when to drop the tow and just wait to pick up the pieces from the landing.

We managed to get everyone on dry land on Outer Island safely. So there were some good things about the day.

The next day we did an evaluation of the weather. It looked like the next day would have a twenty knot wind from the north east. And then would start to veer to due east. With all of the islands we had left to do, and the prospect of possibly more towing. We decided to make a break for it and run with the wind to get as close to Bayfield as we could with the twenty knot tail wind.

As I remember the outside of Stockton Island was quite beautiful. There were many sea stacks. As it turned out with the tail wind at 20 knots all day, we covered 21 miles in relatively short order. We decided to run all the way in to Bayfield that night. We had finally altered the trip to meet the group which was probably the best thing we did from a leadership perspective. Our two inexperienced paddlers were pretty toasted. But very happy to be on dry land.

I’ve included some of the gory details but not all. I think the main lessons to be learned from all of this is the following:

• Know the limitations of the paddling group and adjust the trip accordingly
• Be flexible and prepared to change the trip midstream to meet the needs of the weakest member
• Be prepared to tell someone they can’t come if the trip is not flexible.
• Be prepared to tow if the group begins to slow when performing an open crossing
• Watch the weather and know what the back-out plans were
• Be ready to make decisions quickly and to worry about hurt feelings later

Thankfully there have been no hurt feelings from this trip. But I still have some very serious nagging guilt for not being prepared to adjust course or say no when the trip preparation and training didn’t come together as I would’ve liked. In truth if our other inexperienced paddler had swum, needed a tow, or gotten sea sick, we could have been really hosed.

As with just about everything I do, I think there is a certain element of risk involved. The benefits certainly outweighed the risks for this trip. I wouldn’t advise someone not to do a trip based purely out of fear of the unknown. But having had a lot of practice in wind and waves, my BCU training, and being physically fit shape that perspective. I would really encourage folks with only one or two of these elements to seek out the training, and also to head out to play in conditions as much as they can within a margin of safety.

tags: ACA   BCU   Open Water Crossing   sea kayak leadership   sea kayaking   sea kayaking the apostles   Towing a sea kayak  

WMCKA Sea Kayak Symposium Memorial Day Weekend 2008

Our West Michigan Coastal Kayakers’ (WMCKA) Annual Sea Kayaking Symposium is fast approaching. Memorial day Weekend at Big Blue Lake North of Muskegon. We will be heading out to Big Blue Lake to endure the wind, the rain, and hopefully the sunshine. There will be three days of sea kayaking instruction, a full fledged kids program with kayak polo, harpoon throwing, and the best kayak rodeo in the United States. The WMCKA Symposium is famous for its family atmosphere, great instruction, fun and camaraderie. Also let’s not forget the Band!!! Betsie Baye and the Groove Engine will be making a return for dancing on Sunday Night.

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WMCKA is lucky enough to have two guest speakers this year.

Shawna Franklin will be one of our featured guest speakers and instructors. Shawna Franklin was the first woman to achieve the lofty BCU (British Canoe Union) 5 Star Sea Award. She and Leon Somme circumnavigated Iceland, and Queen Charlotte’s Island together, as well as being featured numerous times in Justine Curgenven’s now ubiquitous This is the Sea Videos.

Leon Somme will also be attending. From what I can gather so far, he will present a Wind and Waves slide show, but don’t hold me to that. Leon also holds the BCU 5 Star Sea award, the 4 Star Surf award, and the 4 Star Inland award.

Shawna and Leon got their start on the Great Lakes on Lake Superior in Minnesota, (I sure hope I have my facts right). So hopefully we can get out on Lake Michigan when it’s textured before their departure back to the San Juans in Washington State.

Shawna and Leon will also be hosting an instructor update, which if you missed instructor email missive and want to attend, add the event here. Please note: this is not part of the official WMCKA Symposium and is only open to the Symposium Instructor Staff.

Directions to Camp Pendalouan:

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My wilderness trip this year led us to Lake Superior Provincial Park. Somehow I always run out of gas to wax poetic about the wilderness trips. I will say this, it is every bit as beautiful as Pukaskwa. However towards the end, Highway 17 is clearly audible and visible at many points. I could only get a fraction of my pictures up on flickr due to bandwidth. I may have more later.

We paddled south from the Michipicoten river towards Agawa Bay.

We really took our time and tried to see everything. There was however a lot of Patrick O’Brian novel reading going on, naps being taken, and generally a more vacation like pace than in previous trips. It was actually relaxing rather than exhausting.

Check out the pictures here: Lake Superior Provincial Park

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I picked Jon Turk up at the Kalamazoo airport on Friday after work. I’d heard that he wasn’t as chatty and vivacious as some of the younger pups we’d had to symposium over the last few years. Simon and Justine definitely are very fun and very very social, which is great. Jon Turk though is in a class all his own. We hit the road and he started talking almost immediately. Much to my surprise he is a listener as much as he is a speaker, or better yet a story teller.

I’m always interested in hearing about couples that have children young who have their adventures too. What sacrifices are made? What are the repercussions from those long periods of time away from home might have been. While I have ultimate respect for Simon and Justine, I have a deep affinity and respect for a man like Jon because he made hard choices in life. He had to choose to be away from home and family to do the things he needed to do, and he had to live with those choices. Further, his family had to live with them too.

Jon has done some amazing things in life, probably so grand that it boggles even his mind how he did it. He’s crossed the northwest passage, gone from Japan all the way to the Siberian straits, paddled in Greenland, climbed and mountain biked in Asia.

Our talk in the car circled around the inherent social dynamics of human beings, adventures, his children, and ultimately his dead wife Chris. We could talk about anything from UFO’s to paddling and Jon ultimately circled back to Chris. Her death clearly haunts him. How could it not. For the full story read this.

I remember listening to Cold Oceans Jon’s first book in the car when I was making a very difficult work commute to Detroit from Paw Paw. The book is about more than his monumental expeditions into the Arctic. It is also about the lifelong love affair with Chris, his children, and how long it really took to get the two of them together. It is written like Hemingway without the need for pointless machismo. It moved me, and his reading of it is phenomenal if you get a chance to buy it on tape, Jon reads it!

Jon’s talk at Symposium is on the topic of the Romantic vs the Pragmatist in man. It’s clearly not really a strictly paddling expedition talk. Which clearly sums up why most of us get into paddling. It certainly isn’t pragmatic to kayak at all, which is why Jet skis are so popular. There is a certain nobility and simplicity to paddling that makes it difficult to think of it in rational terms. I can say from my first time in a kayak it was like touching a dream. The kayak glided through the water effortlessly and my hands dipped into a mirror smooth lake on every stroke. The notion to get into a sport that costs thousands, is completely individual, and not at all practical was not something that made sense, I just did it because I caught the bug. Every paddler has that perfect moment they are searching for. It’s a lifelong quest. You never really get it. Or at least I hope I don’t, because then the trip is over. I keep going back out there because that dream is still out there, the dream of that perfect wave, or the perfect downwind ride in a sea kayak, that perfect moment in the wilderness where you see God.
We all know it’s out there somewhere, so we keep going. Jon’s talk based on the book, In the Wake of the Jomon
is based on the notion that people did not cross on a land bridge to North America from Asia, but perhaps paddled here in canoes and kayaks. This is based on the premise that at our hearts we are not pragmatists, but romantics. Or at the least, we are dreamers in addition to being pragmatists. The argument itself is poetic. And this Yeats Poem says it all:

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I think Jon Turk still has some expeditions left in him. When we were in the car, he even hinted he might have a few left to do by kayak. His talk smacked of the sort of lyricism that moves the soul, rather than cold details about what happened each day. Sure he had the usual death defying heroics we expect, but it was backed by a long life full of adventure, pain, beauty, and hard work; which is not something you get to hear everywhere. We were priveleged to have him. And he also cut the rug on Sunday night with Betsie and the band like a madman!

As usual the Symposium had a mix of weather, rain, sunshine and a little cold in the evening. The training and the classes were great. I got to play with the kids, and the adults a bit. I cough accidentally knocked a few students over. But managed to teach them something too. I got to learn from some students as usual!

I also managed not to disgrace myself in the rolling demo, for which I was thankful. I had to add a little sculling on my forward recovery handroll, but hey who’s counting?

The feelings I have for the WMCKA symposium can’t be taken out of context. Essentially whenever I think about WMCKA I see the cut-away version of the human anatomy. I see how colors are interpreted by the optic nerve, how pain is transferred from the nerves to the brain, how food is chewed and then digested. Serving on the board, and on the symposium committee has been a privilege. Most of the time it’s been great fun, but it also changes how I see things when it comes time to have fun. So when it came time to arrive on site Friday night, I had the distinct distaste of having seen how the sausages are made. Which let me know, it’s time to take a break.

I’ve heard from lots of folks it is one of the best run symposiums in the Midwest, so I trust my efforts and the efforts of the board have not gone unnoticed. I hope to attend next year and just stick to playing with the kids and knocking students in the water. Poor poor students

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How often have I paddled from South Haven pier towards Van Buren state park? Maybe in the hundreds of times? I don’t know. It is different every time. After kayak surfing in San Diego, I feel like I’ve cheated on a very loyal, but tempestuous milky skinned midwestern girl in favor of a more tanned athletic Pacific coast one. So in order to assuage my guilt, I think I have to say something sentimental about my last two trips to Lake Michigan.

I’ve gone out twice since I’ve been back. The bright azure clear skies and cool southwest breezes offered unparalleled opportunities to see the shore of south east Lake Michigan up close and personal. I often cruise past the tumbled concrete pilings, rusty iron shore breaks, the truck tires, to get down to the dunes. But I decided to inspect her, warts and all this Sunday.

The water has been crystal blue green, with little wavelets racing from somewhere in Illinois. The calm conditions have made it easy to see the shore, and the cold water has kept the FIPS (fucking illinois/indiana people) away. The sandy beaches are often interspersed with the wreckage of concrete and rusting construction grade steel that is either dumped in the lake, or has been left there to neglect from days when more big freighters made their stop in South Haven. Houses now line almost the entire shore of the Lake, making a landing there an occasionally unfriendly occurrence. But the little coves and rusty breakwalls made for interesting fodder to bow rudder, side slip, and hanging stern draw myself around.

I have to say the rust belt flotsam and jetsam is not something most people would find interesting. But there is a certain tainted beauty to the 5 miles between South Haven south beach, and Van Buren State Park. It’s like driving through the desert and stopping at a diner to find a slightly middle-aged beauty queen working the counter, she’s got a few tattoos and some wrinkles, maybe one too many piercings, but as Tom Waits always said, “there’s nothing wrong with her a hundred dollars wouldn’t fix.”

There are certainly more pristine sections of Lake Michigan. Hell who wouldn’t take the Pacific if you had a chance. But this is the girl I married, and she delivers every time, you just have to know how and where to look.

End note-
Some poor bastards have to write shite like this about Lake Erie.

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Now as always, I am waiting for the storms of spring to bring some waves my way. The waiting is killing me. Watching the lake cam when it’s calm is like watching a television tuned to a dead channel.
After a while you think you start to see a pattern where there is none.

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The islands of Lake Michigan trip for me will be postponed indefinitely. I am still drawn to this trip. I wish Steve and Jim Viviano good fortune and tail winds.

I’ve been in San Diego for the last week with the family. Made it out surfing three times on the Pacific. For those who are curious, I have two words, Reef Break. I have some photos to share. I think I may have another trip up my sleeve for June. We’ll see…

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