So it has been quite a while since my last entry but with the new format that is acceptable, which is quite nice. Anyway, since my last entries from my trip a lot has happened. I have paddled a few times on the Rappahannock. Nothing too exciting has really happened though. I can't recall if I mentioned my paddle got broken on the plane ride home in my last entry or not, so it did. I had flown with it 5 times before and they never made me sign anything special. This time they did and of course they broke it. I got a new AT Eddy and am yet to use it. I borrowed Mike's extra when we went because it took forever to actually get my new one. I am excited to use it in the pool session I am going to have. Speaking of which I have since gotten pretty much everything set up for that. It was a heck of a lot harder and more complicated than I had anticipated. I contact the Virginia Outdoor Center (VOC) about renting them and at first was told that I would have had to have been a certified instructor but upon explaining my intentions and experience they decided to allow me to rent. I had been going through Ben, who was the manager at VOC. We had enough contact to figure out the details about what would be required and cost and whatnot but did not really set dates. When I asked Mrs. Wimble about dates I realized how difficult this would be. I had wanted to have a few pool/roll sessions on consecutive weekends but I realized that simply couldn't happen. For one, every other weekend the VOC has pool sessions at the YMCA and thus their kayaks are not available. From there, either we have the conference swim meet at our school or winter break or something until pretty much the middle of March. But January 17th worked so that was going to be the date for the first session. But when I tried to solidify this with Ben I faced some issues. First it just took a very long time to get a response via email so around December 22 or so I called VOC figuring someone would call back after Christmas or so. This happened as Bill Micks called and of course when we finally got in touch and were both home and able to discuss it I had an email from Ben. He was leaving on January 7th for 3 months but we were going to get everything settled, or so it seemed. However apparently Ben didn't get the message I left on his cell phone in time, so I called Mr. Micks again and we were figuring it out. He was really helpful and we have it set for the 17th. I just need to get waivers for the 5 people using the kayaks and 15 dollars from each of them. I actually thought from Ben it would be 15 each time but it is really only 15 dollars for each person for pretty much as many times. Also I will need to meet Mr. Micks at VOC at some point before just to figure out which boats and all and where/how to get them since they will not be open when I go to get them. That's about it but I will add to this entry after the 17th.
January 21, 2009
So I had my first ever pool session just this past Saturday the 17th. It went pretty well. In the morning I borrowed a friends pickup truck and picked up the boats and was supposed to leave the waivers there (I later realized I forgot them in my dad's car so he put them there). Everything else went smooth in terms of getting the boats and paddles and all. Oh and I sort of got offered a summer job at VOC when I met with Mr. Micks earlier this week (I just wanted to say this because I'm excited about it). I couldn't fit them all in the pickup easily so we just stuck mine and one from VOC in my dad's truck. We got everything there, got it inside, rinsed everything off like I was told I needed to do and were ready to go. My pupils I guess you could call them were Paige, Courtney, Raleigh, Evan and Nicholas. Mrs. Blashford and her husband Mike were there as well. I hadnt really thought much about the different levels of experience I had. Nicholas was rolling by the end of a pool session Mrs. Blashford did last year or the year before. Raleigh was there too but didn't get it as quickly. Evan has done some paddling but not in whitewater kayaks and Courtney and Paige have no experience. I demonstrated how spray skirts work and they all got them on and got in the boats with some help putting the skirts on the boats. Next each one flipped and pulled their skirt just so they knew how that felt and worked. Everyone did well at that which was comforting. Next I had them do some stuff on the wall with hip flicks and all. I realized I might have been in a little over my head with 5 people. It was just too many people with too varying of an amount of experience. It made it tough because will some were struggling just flicking their hips with the side of the pool others were ready to really get the roll. I felt split between who to try to help. Mike helped with those who were farther along leaving me to help the others. Everyone made progress which was nice. I think for the next time (sometime in March) I will try to get someone else in to help as well so that I can focus more on helping just one or two people and still be sure no one is left out at any point. It went well though. Everyone said they had a good time and they definitely all made some progress. That's about it for that. I have since changed my written document though. The blog just wasn't really working as I had hoped. Maybe it will be revived later, but for my senior exhibit written document I have now decided to write an editorial for the school paper and maybe even the Free Lance Star, who knows. I think I will focus on my troubles rolling on my trip and what I learned from that and applying it to life in general. I am excited about this article and hopefully it will be in one of the next few issues of The Falcon Flier. I guess that is about it for now. More to come...at some point, probably after my practice presentation to the teachers or maybe even after my full presentation. We will see, I'm leaning more towards the former of those two options though for sure.
And I will add pictures later...
