Deerfield

The last two days, the AMC course hit the river. Saturday, we did a very short run on the Deerfield with lots of drills. Lots of eddy turns, which was mostly review for me. The others got their swims in right away. We did a lot of S-turns in between mid-river eddies, then ferried back across to the first eddy and went up and did the S-turn again. When the water came up (this section is dam-controlled), we went downstream, catching every eddy available. I finally flipped on a wave, much like I did on the Spokane. I'm glad I got mine in because at the very end there were two people who hadn't flipped and they were forced to by the instructors. The very last thing we did was surfing on a wave, which required crossing a fairly strong eddy line. I got on the wave, which was a blast and I was proud of myself for not flipping getting out of the eddy. With all the drills, we only did about a half a mile of river all day.

Sunday, we did the whole section, with plenty of drills along the way. The first rapid was called Hangover Helper. The water gets squeezed into the middle by rocks, so the current was very strong--perfect for ferrying drills and beginner carnage. Fortunately the rocks that squeeze the current form big eddies on either side so you have a big target to swim into if you flip--in theory. I flipped going across and managed to swim all the way past both eddies and had to work quite hard swimming against/across the current to get to shore. I need a roll!

The rest of the day was fun, with numerous surfing opportunites. It's really fun to have the water rush under you while you just sit on top of the wave not moving. There are all kinds of tricks that you can do on top of waves or in holes, but they are way above my level right now.

I was very tired at the end of the day when we took out just above a big rapid called Zoar Gap, or just "The Gap." It was lots of fun to watch people go through this rapid including our instructors and one of the students (who had a roll-a ringer). A very good weekend with much less anxiety than the Spokane.

AMC Class

Alright, back in Boston now. For my birthday, my parents signed me up for the AMC beginners' kayaking course. We had two pond sessions this week, Tuesday and today.

The Tuesday session was basically a review of what I did out West. Wet exits, strokes. Tonight we did some more advanced work with bracing, more than what we did in Idaho. A brace is simply a slap at the water designed to counterbalance your boat tipping over on the same side. You brace on the low side of the boat, the one that's going under water. When practicing, you do the tipping yourself with your hip pads. There are two kinds of braces, the regular slap and the sculling brace. In Idaho, we were not taught the sculling brace. Unlike the quick slap, the sculling brace can last indefinite length of time, allowing you to maintain your lean without flipping. To do it, you reach out with your paddle and with a lot of wrist torquing, push the paddle forward and back, with the open face leading the way in both directions (which is why the wrist works so hard). I thought this was really cool, but I'm sure my wrists will be sore.

Saturday and Sunday we will be on the river. I'm sure a lot of the first-time anxiety will be gone and I'll have a good day on the river, which is the Deerfield in western Mass.