Kent Ford comes to Yorkville!

Kent Ford.

We just completed a three-day whitewater Instructor Development Workshop (IDW) with Kent Ford, one of the most respected instructor trainers in the country, who has competed and won titles in international whitewater slalom racing, coached the US Olympic kayak team, published books and produced videos about paddling technique and instruction, and continues to coach paddlers at every level.

Despite all his credentials, experiences and accolades, Kent is a remarkably laid-back, open-minded guy. (Once again, we're struck by the fact that most of the rock stars of the paddling world don't let their prominence go to their heads.)

The course was hosted by Geneva Kayak Center and taught at the new Yorkville whitewater park, where Geneva just opened its new paddle shop and instructional center. Kent, no stranger to whitewater teaching venues, was highly impressed by both the shop and the park. "It's pretty darn amazing," he told us. "It's the most teaching-friendly of the whitewater parks I've been to, but there's still plenty for a real strong intermediate or advanced paddler. It's like five miles of class two river features jammed into 200 yards of city park."

We had visited the park earlier with our kids, who did find plenty to do with their considerable whitewater skills.



This IDW was our opportunity to get some formal training on how to teach whitewater paddling, as well as some top-notch instruction and critique of our own skills.

We're still processing the experience, but some things are already clear to us:

• Coming from our sea kayak background, some aspects of whitewater technique are familiar and comfortable while others are foreign and awkward. Both the similarities and differences are valuable, and build our paddling skills.


• As we develop as coaches and paddlers, we realize that being knowledgeable and capable in various types of boats is essential to becoming graceful and skilled in any type of boat. Certainly, the coaches who impress us most with their technique tend to paddle more than one craft.


• Geneva Kayak Center is poised to transform paddling in the Chicago area by being located at this great venue and offering all sorts of training opportunities in canoe, whitewater kayak and sea kayak for students and instructors. They brought Kent Ford to Yorkville! We're grateful for the opportunities they've provided and look forward to the ones to come.

Exam season - from the beginning...

It's exam season in Scotland. All the way from national exams taken by school students, up to university variety. The same advice helpfully provided by Blackwell's, the university bookseller in Edinburgh, holds good for all of them.

Essential revision material - past papers from previous diets. SQA = Scottish Qualifications Authority: the exam body in Scotland which covers all national qualifications except university degrees and some professional qualifications. This week my daughter sits Intermediate 2 French. It would be much appreciated if French readers of this blog could send French thoughts to Edinburgh.

Scarred

It has been suggested in some places that I am too cynical for someone of my age (28). Sadly, there are one or two other things that are happening too quickly for my liking too. A couple of weeks ago I pointed out that I was showing the first signs of skin cancer. Well, at the time I went off to see the doctor (who I'm going to start calling Frank, as in Zappa) and got the sunspot zapped. Most of it cleared up, but some remained, so I went and had the treatment again on Saturday. Now it appears to be gone completely, but it left a decent sized red mark on my face as a reminder.
I'm now beginning to suspect that this red mark isn't going to go away. I've seen people who have spent too much time in the sun when they were younger, and if it's a reliable indication, my face is going to look worse than a teenager with chronic acne by the time I'm 40. I guess that's the price I have to pay for my otherwise wonderful lifestyle. Perhaps it's not so bad though, I've never exactly been a big hit with the ladies, so it's not as though it's going to drive anyone away.
Still, it would have been nice had it waited for another eleven days -- as in after I go and see Sarah Blasko.

Windows Around the World

Something's Afoot...

Something's afoot... and... I've known about it for a week at least...
See... these things have shown up and blown up... day by day.
I feel left out...Note from Sammie's mom: Hubbie and I are about to celebrate our 4oth anniversary and we are going to Alaska for a couple of weeks. Sammie has a fabu nanny coming to care for her and guess what? There will be a mystery guest poster for Sammie in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned! Harroooooooooo! You will be able to keep up with her antics and quirks, so check in once in a while!Hugs and Licks from me, Sammie xo

Signs of Change

Leaves reminding us of North America's steady march towards winter.

Post from beyond the grave

As if I wasn't already making things hard enough for myself. Today I decided to ride a century in which all of the major climbs were on dirt roads. If that wasn't bad enough, the anticipated tail wind at the end didn't materialise because it swung around to the North halfway through, meaning that I had to finish into the wind, a problem if you've ridden the first half of the ride into it as well. It actually got quite nasty late on, I think next time I'll just turn around and go with the flow. If I end up in Hobart I might be able to escape this damn heat! Even the water in my bottles was hot.
October grey:

The initial part of the ride into the southerly wind early had actually been quite pleasant. The early cloud cover seemed to keep the temperature down as I wound into the hills backing the Tweed Coast, culminating in a crossing the Burringbar Range on the dirt Cudgera Creek Road. This is a very beautiful ride.

After this I wanted some more riding before heading home, so I continued south, eventually to Billinudgel, then across to Mt Jerusalem -- another tough climb on dirt roads.


I also had to play with the water a little carefully, as I wanted to make it to Uki without running out. I just about did it, refilled, and took on another two litres of water there.
It was a pleasant ride back through Murwillumbah, Urliup and so on...

... until I reached the coast, where the wind was a blisteringly hot north-westerly that I now had to ride into. All in all I estimate that around 75% of the ride was into the wind, and the water I had left was getting hot. It can be tough riding into a hot headwind, especially alongside the South Pacific which was by now looking very inviting.

Shortly after returning home, I tried to move a chair in my apartment and could barely pick the thing up. I'm not going to bother trying to take a pulse because I don't have one. That said, I still found enough to accelerate and overtake a car that was annoying me in Burleigh Heads (I love my temper), and I did attack the wind in the last couple of km just to make a statement. After a cold shower at home I was feeling a little better, so I can only surmise that the heat got to me once again. Someday I'll have to get used to that.
Incredibly, I only recorded a maximum temperature of 31 C today (incredible because it felt a lot hotter than that out there). Still, it's another 191km on the board, and the 24th imperial century of the year. Looks like I'm back on course to reach 30, if I can just learn to deal with the heat!
For the moment, however, I have to be content with posting from beyond the grave.