2004-05-10 Julie

Julie had moved here from Texas with her husband and 2 young daughters and worked with Dave Dahl.  She said politely that Dave talks about canoe racing a lot.  I figured that she really came just to finally shut Dave up from asking her to come to Rookie Night.  She said that she wanted to teach her young daughters to do outdoor sports by example, but she had never been in a canoe before today.  Since she only wanted to learn to be a recreational canoeist, she didn’t need to learn the finer points of canoe racing.  She only needed to learn the basic stroke and the paddle brace. 

I explained the basics of paddling to her before we got into my tippy racing canoe.  We paddled upstream with the group as the rest of the canoes got into the water.  I had Julie watch how the other paddlers were paddling and told her that we weren’t going to try to keep up with anyone since this was her first time in a canoe.  I’ve tried pushing people too hard in a canoe many times in the past and it has never instilled a desire to paddle again as I hoped it would.  This was one of the better weather days we’ve had in the past few years with hardly any wind and lots of sunshine. 

We paddled in the pack very briefly as they sprinted for the first bridge and left us.  Even though I had told a few people that we weren’t going along with the pack, Chuck circled all the way back upstream to us and I told him to go on downstream without us.  I taught Julie how to brace the paddle on the surface whenever the canoe was stopped or whenever there were high waves.  Not long after that, a large speedboat came past us from behind and Julie did a great job bracing her paddle as several huge rollers lifted our canoe. 

Julie and I paddled easily downstream around the Highway 94 bridge and came back upstream.  It was good for me to take some time to slow down and enjoy the moment.  It also helped me to explain the basics of the paddling stroke and concentrate on doing what I tell her to do.   That’s why Rookie Night is good for the experienced paddlers as well as the rookies.  You can work on practicing your own technique because you aren’t trying to keep up with a group of faster teams.  You also work on timing of calling “huts” and riding side wakes.

I gave Julie the choice of paddling more when we got back at 7pm, but she was ready to go home.  I told her to get her kids used to sitting and playing in a canoe on land before she took them on water.  That’s not the way I did it with my kids when they were young, but I will with my grandchildren when they get old enough.  Then I’m going to buy a trolling motor and a heavy duty marine battery and put it on a big canoe so they can pace me in my solo racer.

With another hour left before they got back, I took my NorthwestCanoe.org C1 racer and headed downstream to catch the pack coming back.  Dave Dahl and Mark were the first canoe I saw coming back upstream to find out what happened to Julie and me.  We headed back downstream to find the pack and caught them just below large culvert the high white sand beach.  I went to the back of the pack and turned upstream to try and work my way to the front for a good workout.  I was still learning to steer this C1 and very sheepish about leaning it yet.  At this point I was happy to be able to ride side wakes without getting sucked into the canoes beside me.   I didn’t make it to the front before they stopped for a break, but at least I had closed some distance on a few of the experienced teams. 

Another worthwhile Monday Rookie Night.