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.