The Long Curve of Summer
A guest newsletter by Deborah de Lorenzo

Bruce kindly invited me to write, or maybe it’s just this busy paddling school director and multiple paddling sports gear rep takes any help he can get in peak season!

About me: Jersey Girl, kinda waterlogged since childhood, novice kayaker heading into the summer of her first full season. Last July I rented kayaks at Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. In the middle of last August came a Hurricane Tampico 135S. I had demo’d this kayak twice (always demo before pulling out the plastic) and so was sure this was no transient affair. After a roundtrip of 180 miles to get her, we (the kayak and I) stopped off on the way home from the dealer in Kalamazoo and went right on the Huron River at Bandemere Park, shiny sticker ‘n all.

Two hours later we were just clipping along. A man who belonged to an Ann Arbor rowing club called me over to the dock and asked if I wanted to join. I thanked him and smiled, knowing I am just too damn independent for group sports. That’s probably another reason I love the freedom of the kayak. God bless the Child that’s got her Own.

If any of you have fallen in love with a boat you know the feeling: somehow this inanimate object responds to you, that together you ride in the water much like leaning into a turn on a bicycle, carving a turn on skis, or even a brisk morning workout on a responsive quarter horse. Being sweetly in tune with a kayak seems like that.

A week later it occurred to me to take a lesson before too many bad habits became ingrained (like the vicious tophand on my forward stroke, which Bruce tamed) so I went to QWS.

Since then the “Yellowbird” and I have been out over 50 times, in every month but February. This meant making a deal with myself: if I chose to paddle in winter conditions, I’d wear a drysuit and layers, from skullcap to Chota boots, and that pool sessions would freshen my rescue and re-entry skills. It’s this deal that kept me safe over the winter and ready to enjoy summer paddling.

Whatever your level of experience - try pool sessions in the cold months – they’re not just for the hard core! Pool classes give you a jumpstart into late spring and summer paddling with old skills reinforced and new skills ready to be practiced in freshwater, either with paddling clubs, experienced co-paddlers or a qualified paddling school. Maybe I get to write again for that, huh Bruce?

About that long curve:
Last season it seemed that no matter how much I paddled (most weeks 2-3 times per week) that the summer flew by. Seemed I was just easing into the “Kayak Groove”, as the men of QWS dub it, when the end of September loomed with colder water, shorter days and less outside practice. Come to think of it, I did my first wet exits at a deserted swimming beach in the last weekend of September, with a spotter. We will both testify that even with wetsuits the water was, shall we say, bracing?

This spring I went into (that’s into, not on) the water in May. Now the strokes and the self-rescues seemed more natural and efficient. Some of the old lessons reverberated with greater clarity… so this is what edging really is . . . .vaulting onto the kayak stern without the paddle outrigger really could be done . . . . loading up and doing a gear check became swifter and more of a habit, less of a chore.

After a three day kayak symposium over Memorial Day weekend (wmcka.org for details) came more practice, reinforced in the friendly confines of Camp McGregor at the SSKS. Those of you who were lucky enough to get in know what a great environment it was for fun and learning.

All of us should never pass up one-on-one time with an instructor – get wet, get smarter, and tap into that knowledge. Use that expert eye to assess the small things going right or wrong. You can’t really watch yourself wet exit, right? The most skilled veteran paddlers who have taught me have also been the most generous and understanding. Because of their quiet confidence, my own confidence grows. Paddlers like that are indeed the best ambassadors for our sport and so, in time, we all do become as kin.

So here I be, the summer solstice not yet a week’s past. I’m feeling humbled by what I want to learn, yet encouraged by what I do. New friends have been met, and old doubts banished. There will be new waters to explore and favorite haunts to return to, no longer just names on a map. I know when the great blue herons fish on a certain stretch of the Huron, and can pick out the trumpeter swans nests on the islands of Kent Lake.

The siren song of the kayak is calling me over and over, across the long curve of the summer. May you hear the same voice in your own way, in your own time.

June 26,2007

About the kayaks:
Without them none of this would be possible!

The Tampico remains my trusty favorite, the one I practice my skills on first, and a wonderful kayak for kickback time on favorite paddling places. You will see her sisters at QWS classes, including big bro Tampico 135L and the new kid, the Tampico 140S. If any of them are a good fit, give ‘em a try. They are in that “sweet spot” of kayak length, stable enough to be user friendly, sleek enough to be user fast! I endorse the kayaks and the company wholeheartedly, no strings!

Last December I succumbed further to kayak fever and from San Francisco came a classic British fiberglass seakayak, a North Shore Fuego. If you went to the SSKS you would’ve have spotted her: fiery red deck over white hull, low and sexy like a sport coupe. Her name is Hot Sauce. We are still getting acquainted. She loves to poke her dolphin nose through the waves, sulks a bit when held to a slow pace, and pitched me over once on a high brace gone wrong, but that last bit was all me, wasn’t it? ;-)