2004-04-19 Trina at Rookie Racers

We had at least 13 tandem racing canoes and a relatively warm T-shirt evening.  The previous night’s storm had washed cow manure into the river north of the city so there was some lime green scum foam on the surface in the backwaters.  However, the majority of the river was a cleaner even though it was still brown in color.  The interesting buildings of the University, the tall buildings of Minneapolis, the high bridges, and the limestone banks around the University of Minnesota make it worth paddling there just for the scenery. 

My partner, Trina, said this was her third time coming to Rookie Racers and she finally convinced her husband and his friend to come.  They were planning on doing an adventure race and she wanted to learn what she could. She had been at the back of the pack last week and I could tell she wanted to show her husband what she had learned.  I borrowed a cruiser racing canoe from Kenn Ketter’s rack of canoes.  Her husband, Kevin, was paddling with the same racer she had last Monday, Dave Dahl. We put in and headed upstream towards the bottom lock below St. Anthony Falls until everyone was in the water.  I explained what I could about the paddling stroke and told her that I would not be calling “Huts” on the five miles downstream so she could concentrate on programming her arm muscles for technique.  There would be five miles of upstream paddling at the end to provide more than enough challenge for a new racer.

The pack of canoes was stringing out too much tonight because there were several canoes with 2 experienced racers and a lot of rookies from last year.  When I get an experienced racer as a partner, I start at the back of the pack and work my way to the front.  If we get to the front, then I circle back past the slowest team and start working my way up again.  This gives me a great workout and lots of practice at riding canoe wakes and passing canoes.  Circling back or zigzagging across the river and back allows you to keep paddling as well as keeping the pack tighter.  The best racers do that when they are paddling with some of their slower friends who race.  It’s safer to have more canoes around if anyone tips over.  It’s also better for rookies to learn more if they can see and hear examples all around them.

Tonight, I had a rookie racing paddler in the bow and I was getting a good workout just trying to keep up.  We were able to stay next to her husband most of the way, but I knew that we couldn’t circle back or we would never get back to the front.  Since we had a faster canoe than Dave Dahl was using, we had a bit of an edge over her husband, but Trina was doing a good job of working on technique and putting power on the paddle.  I told her she needed to work on switching sides so we didn’t miss any strokes, but that it was hard to learn and she was doing well.  It was almost getting dark by the time we got back.