No time for the lake the last two weekend. I don't know what I did the last two weekends. I don't think I did any kayaking. I finally get to go kayaking this Wednesday. The weather forecasted a chance of thunderstorm and the sky is overcasted as I inched my way down the Belt Parkway to the clubhouse. From what people who went on Wednesday evening paddle, there is a large regular crowd but this Wednesday due to the uncertain weather, I get there 25 minutes late but there is only 3 cars at the club. I ran into Phil, George, Mat, and two other people that I don't know. Phil informed me that there are only two guests, and they are just paddleing in the basin since the weather may turn any second.
Mat is not coming with us on this paddle. I end up having a conversation with Mat, and end up volunteering to lead this Saturday trip. I have to see if I can get assistants for the trip, the weatherman is forecasting a perfect Saturday so we could have a large crowd on Saturday.
The only reason i will be in NYC this weekend is because the cabin at the lake is fully book for our Star 1 and Star2 classes. I wished I could be up there with them but they have more then enough Coaches, and Coaches trainees helping I would only get in the way.
We were just leaving the dock when Peter and his daughter Danielle come down the ramp. Pete were hollowing something to us but it was held to hear anything. We just hollowed back that we are just going up the basin then back down, that he can catch us on the way. I have a pleasant conversation with George on the paddle and learn that I should goes on the Friday night paddle. I haven't been to any organize paddle at the club this season so I missed out on the going on at the club.
We get back to the club as the thunder get louder and more frequent.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
So close but not quite
To quote on of my assessors, very close to star 3 but not quite. I was nervous and untight the whole day. I was not where as confidents with my skills as I should be. But the key thing is I was sloppy with basic techniques.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Getting my last star.
BCU Star 3 that is. I will be taking my assessment on Friday at the lake.
Plan is to drive up today, Thursday evening. Finally practice and testing is on Friday. I will stay over till Saturday. The rest of the group will do Coach 2 training which I am not doing. Will do some hiking. I will probably use the time to go to AKT and Campmore to get a couple of stuffs. I will drive home on Saturday evening, at about 5 or 6PM to get back to NYC before nighfall.
I get a race on Sunday. I hope my legs feel better then last week. I hate to have to give up running again last last year.
Plan is to drive up today, Thursday evening. Finally practice and testing is on Friday. I will stay over till Saturday. The rest of the group will do Coach 2 training which I am not doing. Will do some hiking. I will probably use the time to go to AKT and Campmore to get a couple of stuffs. I will drive home on Saturday evening, at about 5 or 6PM to get back to NYC before nighfall.
I get a race on Sunday. I hope my legs feel better then last week. I hate to have to give up running again last last year.
June 9 and 10 Weekend
Spend at the lake. Get there early, 8:30AM. I promised Adele that I would get there early to go paddle with her. When I get there the plan change. We went shopping, for antique and for food. Grocery is way expensive ins Sloatburg the town right outside the park. I should stock up on grocery when before I get there. Between Adele and Anne, they both 50 dollars worth of grocery that would have cost about 30 dollar in NYC. I volunteer to cover the meat part of our meal since I have often enough steal food from them last summer. We did not get to that part of the shopping till after the first paddle of the day. Just me, Adele, Anne and Jerry on a slow site seeing paddle. The flowers along the late shores are beautiful.
We did not anything too adventurous on our paddle. I was feeling a bit dizzy (from the sun and the fact that my hat is too tight). After the paddle Adele and I went swimming. Turn out Adele was also feeling dizzy from the paddle. The swim make us both feel much better.
I drove Adele to the only local grocery store that sell meat. I end up spending 48 dollars for two tray of ground meet for burger, 7 links of sausages and miscellaneous other food stuffs. We get back and lounge around till 5 when I start the fire in the fire pit at Anne and Jerry's cabin. It take almost an hours to get enough ambers for a proper bbq. I end up doing much of the cooking, which I preferred because I have obsolutely nothing to say in a conversation. There were about 12 people with us not including Beth and Mike's kids. Everyone have fun. We get too much sausages but other then that everything goes well.
Sunday started with breakfast at the local dinner. I ordered my usual, Western Omlette with home fries.
...don't remember much else about the weekend.
We did not anything too adventurous on our paddle. I was feeling a bit dizzy (from the sun and the fact that my hat is too tight). After the paddle Adele and I went swimming. Turn out Adele was also feeling dizzy from the paddle. The swim make us both feel much better.
I drove Adele to the only local grocery store that sell meat. I end up spending 48 dollars for two tray of ground meet for burger, 7 links of sausages and miscellaneous other food stuffs. We get back and lounge around till 5 when I start the fire in the fire pit at Anne and Jerry's cabin. It take almost an hours to get enough ambers for a proper bbq. I end up doing much of the cooking, which I preferred because I have obsolutely nothing to say in a conversation. There were about 12 people with us not including Beth and Mike's kids. Everyone have fun. We get too much sausages but other then that everything goes well.
Sunday started with breakfast at the local dinner. I ordered my usual, Western Omlette with home fries.
...don't remember much else about the weekend.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Belated Memorial Weekend Summary
Get a 4 day memorial day by taking Friday off. Went with Tony and two other guys, both name Walter for a paddle on the other side of JFK. It was a 14 miles paddle both way. The water is much cleaner then Jamaica Bay, but there is much more power boats traffics. There is one point in particular where we have to watch out for boats coming from 3 different directions. Patient and calm are the key to paddle a group across these busy waterway. This paddle was to access if it would be a good group trip. The wind and wave is a bit more interesting then Jamaica Bay but I don't see why a moderate paddlers with experiences with powerboats traffic would not be able to handle it.
We stopped at Empire Kayak for lunch. Empire Kayak is a sweet setup. It is run as a outfitter/kayak stores right in the backyard of the guy house that have a small beach, small as in enough room for 5 kayak to land nose in. We left our boats tied together under the ram so that it would be out of the way and walk out to a clam bar/burger place. I had a cheese burger with raw half shell clams on the side.
We tried to time our return trip so that the current is going out, since we started the journey at close to where the inlet open into the Atlantic Ocean. We did not rush lunch but we were itching to start back by 4PM because we don't want to be catch in the dark. The current were still coming in, which is not what we wanted but we decided to start back. Since the wind were on our back, and we take the short cut the first legs of the journey were not bad. I did have a bit of trouble trying to keep my boat going straight. I always prefered going into the wind the with it behind me because I end up spending way too much time adjusting my strokes. We get back to our car by 7:30PM.
I stopped by the Club to pickup my my Sof boat for the trip up to ACA cabin Harriman Park upstate (hencefore ACA Cabin). I will be leaving both kayak on top of my car outside my house overnight. When I get home, and try to find the key to my kayak lock, I realized that I losted it. I know at the end of last season I put it in a safe place, then I remember seeing a set of keys that look familiar to mine on the table at the club when I pick up my boat. I have a feeling that it was mine. I probably hide it in my winter summer water shoe. I was tempted to go in the morning to pick it up but decided against it, because it would defeat the whole point of me storing the boat on top of my car overnight.
I end up buying gate key at Harriman which I don't need since it was open when I drove up. There was noone one at the camp group when I get there at 8:30AM. The usual full time summer residents are about, Beth, her husband Mike, Scott the Camp Director, Anne, her long time companion, Jerry and some people from other club who I have never bother to meet. Since I don't have a key to the cabin, I knocked and hope that someone is inside. I wakeup David and his new girlfriend, Michelle. Nice enough kid.
Turn out that Sebago is hosting Memorial Weekend, meaning we have to sweep out the public area, make sure there is toilet paper in the restrooms, and clean the toilets. I volunteed to do the sweeping and tidying up of the pavilion. I think I finally get out of my SoF boat for a short paddle. Getting into it was a bit of a trick because a normal procedure for getting into a kayak would not do, and our dock have been push up onto the rocks and have a 30 degree incline. I forget what the proper way to get into a SnF boat was so I end up gingerly wiggling my legs into the boat while trying to keep the boat from sliding forward and away from the dock. It take my 5 minutes doing something that I normally take seconds doing on a normal boat. I take it out for a short paddle. The boat taken in about half a cup of water from water coming through the skin in the thirty minute paddles. It would be a problem if on a longer journey. The paint is not water tight.
Don't remember much of what else happen on Satursday. I may have take a paddle with Anne and Jerry around the lake. Don't remember, its a bit fuzzy.
Sunday is a bit more fun. Lot more paddles. (Really should write these thing down 3 week ago, because now I have no idea what happen). I did remember that my favorite little person arrived on Sunday. I went for a long paddle with Anne and Jerry on my SoF boat and end up with plisters on both my toe knuckles. There were cake, tea, cofees and movie night. The feature movies were Pirate of the Caribean, one and two which I already see on Sunday evening. Enjoy a nice game of frisby with a cute 11 years old girl who keep on trying to chop my head up with the frisby. Lucky for me her aim were bad and the frisby is a 3 feet nylon cover disk which do not hurt at all. Spend much of the rest of the night listening to people chat. It was a relaxing Sunday evening.
My regular paddling partners come on Monday, Stevie and his girlfriend(wife in everything but official), Adele. When Stevie arrived, it meant time for underwater fun, lot of rolling and getting completely wet. We take a long paddle to warm up, then went to a non-swimming beach to do the more adventurous stuff. Discover that I still remember my basic roll, on both sides. I take out my SoF in the afternoon and do some rolls that I would not be able to do in my regular both. It is also good to know that I can wet exit the boat without any problem if I have to. I do learned thought that sometime the boat refuse to complete capside leaving me disoriented and not know where the surface is. I wet exited both time it happen.
The day ended as usual with us all in front of Stevie fire at his camp ground. I steal some sausage and steak from Adele for dinner. I went for a walk right before the sun set, hoping to take some picture of the wild lifes. End up running into more deers then I bargain for, including one that block the path and refuse to move away till I flashed it why my camera flash. Get back right before it became complete dark. Good think too because I almost get lost a couple of time.
We planned to get to bed early, 8PM and get up at 4AM to drive back to NYC. I decided at night that there is no reason for me to rush home at 4Am so the plan was change to driving home with Elizabeth, who plan to drive home at a reasonable time, 6AM. But when I wake up at 4AM to see Stevie and Adele on their way and get back into bed, I decided that why should I came in to work at all? So I end up getting up at 9AM, have breakfast and take a short hike. Get lot of pictures. Meet a couple of deers, wild turkey and a very fast fox.
We stopped at Empire Kayak for lunch. Empire Kayak is a sweet setup. It is run as a outfitter/kayak stores right in the backyard of the guy house that have a small beach, small as in enough room for 5 kayak to land nose in. We left our boats tied together under the ram so that it would be out of the way and walk out to a clam bar/burger place. I had a cheese burger with raw half shell clams on the side.
We tried to time our return trip so that the current is going out, since we started the journey at close to where the inlet open into the Atlantic Ocean. We did not rush lunch but we were itching to start back by 4PM because we don't want to be catch in the dark. The current were still coming in, which is not what we wanted but we decided to start back. Since the wind were on our back, and we take the short cut the first legs of the journey were not bad. I did have a bit of trouble trying to keep my boat going straight. I always prefered going into the wind the with it behind me because I end up spending way too much time adjusting my strokes. We get back to our car by 7:30PM.
I stopped by the Club to pickup my my Sof boat for the trip up to ACA cabin Harriman Park upstate (hencefore ACA Cabin). I will be leaving both kayak on top of my car outside my house overnight. When I get home, and try to find the key to my kayak lock, I realized that I losted it. I know at the end of last season I put it in a safe place, then I remember seeing a set of keys that look familiar to mine on the table at the club when I pick up my boat. I have a feeling that it was mine. I probably hide it in my winter summer water shoe. I was tempted to go in the morning to pick it up but decided against it, because it would defeat the whole point of me storing the boat on top of my car overnight.
I end up buying gate key at Harriman which I don't need since it was open when I drove up. There was noone one at the camp group when I get there at 8:30AM. The usual full time summer residents are about, Beth, her husband Mike, Scott the Camp Director, Anne, her long time companion, Jerry and some people from other club who I have never bother to meet. Since I don't have a key to the cabin, I knocked and hope that someone is inside. I wakeup David and his new girlfriend, Michelle. Nice enough kid.
Turn out that Sebago is hosting Memorial Weekend, meaning we have to sweep out the public area, make sure there is toilet paper in the restrooms, and clean the toilets. I volunteed to do the sweeping and tidying up of the pavilion. I think I finally get out of my SoF boat for a short paddle. Getting into it was a bit of a trick because a normal procedure for getting into a kayak would not do, and our dock have been push up onto the rocks and have a 30 degree incline. I forget what the proper way to get into a SnF boat was so I end up gingerly wiggling my legs into the boat while trying to keep the boat from sliding forward and away from the dock. It take my 5 minutes doing something that I normally take seconds doing on a normal boat. I take it out for a short paddle. The boat taken in about half a cup of water from water coming through the skin in the thirty minute paddles. It would be a problem if on a longer journey. The paint is not water tight.
Don't remember much of what else happen on Satursday. I may have take a paddle with Anne and Jerry around the lake. Don't remember, its a bit fuzzy.
Sunday is a bit more fun. Lot more paddles. (Really should write these thing down 3 week ago, because now I have no idea what happen). I did remember that my favorite little person arrived on Sunday. I went for a long paddle with Anne and Jerry on my SoF boat and end up with plisters on both my toe knuckles. There were cake, tea, cofees and movie night. The feature movies were Pirate of the Caribean, one and two which I already see on Sunday evening. Enjoy a nice game of frisby with a cute 11 years old girl who keep on trying to chop my head up with the frisby. Lucky for me her aim were bad and the frisby is a 3 feet nylon cover disk which do not hurt at all. Spend much of the rest of the night listening to people chat. It was a relaxing Sunday evening.
My regular paddling partners come on Monday, Stevie and his girlfriend(wife in everything but official), Adele. When Stevie arrived, it meant time for underwater fun, lot of rolling and getting completely wet. We take a long paddle to warm up, then went to a non-swimming beach to do the more adventurous stuff. Discover that I still remember my basic roll, on both sides. I take out my SoF in the afternoon and do some rolls that I would not be able to do in my regular both. It is also good to know that I can wet exit the boat without any problem if I have to. I do learned thought that sometime the boat refuse to complete capside leaving me disoriented and not know where the surface is. I wet exited both time it happen.
The day ended as usual with us all in front of Stevie fire at his camp ground. I steal some sausage and steak from Adele for dinner. I went for a walk right before the sun set, hoping to take some picture of the wild lifes. End up running into more deers then I bargain for, including one that block the path and refuse to move away till I flashed it why my camera flash. Get back right before it became complete dark. Good think too because I almost get lost a couple of time.
We planned to get to bed early, 8PM and get up at 4AM to drive back to NYC. I decided at night that there is no reason for me to rush home at 4Am so the plan was change to driving home with Elizabeth, who plan to drive home at a reasonable time, 6AM. But when I wake up at 4AM to see Stevie and Adele on their way and get back into bed, I decided that why should I came in to work at all? So I end up getting up at 9AM, have breakfast and take a short hike. Get lot of pictures. Meet a couple of deers, wild turkey and a very fast fox.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)