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| The chronicles of Sanjeev Dwivedi |
With all the kayaking in the sun, this is how I am getting to look like.
One time when I was on a river kayaking with WKC folks, someone said, "When you start whitewater kayaking, you are scared as hell and you keep trying and keep falling and swimming and one day it just clicks." Essentially, what happens is that a light bulb just goes on into your head and your muscles just understand what it means to lean at the right moment, your heart understands that it does not need to beat that hard to supply the body with the blood needed for the job at hand. So, eventually that happened when I went on the last club strecth trip. At the very onset of the trip, I tripped at an eddy line, fell, could not roll up, had to bail, had to have my ass saved by someone. Then, all of a sudden, all the tension left and like one of those times, when you get an out of body experience, something like that happened. After that, through the slow water, through the rapids, through everything else, I just calmly sat down and observed myself paddling. Two more flips, but rolled back on both of them. So, I came back and started practicing on the lake. Whenever there is the slightest wind, the lake gets itsy bitsy waves. Also, when the sun is shining, a lot of people with motorboats come down on the lake and when they pass close to me, there are large waves in their wake. So, I started getting hit by those waves and started using my hips to lean one way or the other. Also, on the Club Stretch run, people noticed my grip on the paddle as being too far, so they suggested me to move my hands closer. I did that and voila, all of a sudden all the roles became easier. Also, since then I have been practising rolls with flips the way they happen in the river i.e. paddle aggressively for a few strokes and then flip over, flip over with paddle in one hand, rock the boat front and back and then fall. Seems like I am very close to getting it reliably. Also, I tried rolling on the other side today, the muscles just don't understand what to do on that side, so after each failed try on that side, I kept rolling on the right side only.
| sanjeev@pratapgarh.com |