Today was the first day of the kayaking part of my trip. It was Foster, Foster and more Foster.
The day started a little strangely. During breakfast at the hotel, another guest started yelling angrily at the hotel staff for having called the police on him the previous night. Apparently the police visit at 1 AM upset him so much he got no sleep all night! Ummm, maybe carousing loudly at 1 AM had something to do with your lack of sleep too. Surprisingly, he isn't in the room next to mine.
After breakfast I drove over to James Island Park, the site of the kayak festival. The main festival starts tomorrow, and so things were just getting set up. the woman at the entrance gate had no idea where the Thursday classes were being held, but it wasn't too hard to find the right spot.
My class was an all day session with Nigel Foster, who is one of the best known names in kayaking. This is the kayaking equivalent of spending the day tossing a football around with Peyton Manning, or hittin' some balls with Tiger Woods. The class was small - just Nigel, 5 students, plus an assistant from the park. His method of teaching is via discovery. He gives you different little exercises (e.g., "try these four different combinations of boat position and paddle stroke, and tell me what you notice about how each one makes you turn"), then explains the results. It was a very informative, enjoyable session. The day concluded with a few tricks out of the "Fun with Foster" bag - moving backward while appearing to paddle forward (the kayak equivalent of moon-walking), standing up in the kayaks on the water, etc. I wasn't sure at the outset how a full day of such a class would be (Foster frequently teaches two hour sessions at these events), but I must say, the time really flew by. The perfect weather helped make the day even better. It was still cold when I left Virginia and so I came prepared for cold weather and cold water. I think the whole East Coast warmed up this week, and I'm 500 miles south of home, so let me tell you, there is no cold weather here this weekend. I wore my wetsuit because of the slightly chilly water, but I was shvitzing. During the peak heat of the day I had to do a few sculling braces (dipping my upper torso in the water without capsizing) to get wet and keep cool.
My one disappointment of the day was that I had hoped to be able to meet up with some friends who were due to arrive at the festival today. Unfortunately, when I got off the water at 5 PM they hadn't yet arrived, so I headed back to my hotel in Mt. Pleasant. I was bummed out all through the drive, but my disappointment was eased by a return visit to the Boulevard Diner. Man, that place is good. Tonight I had tilapia with a cajun sauce over fried grit cakes, with sauteed snow peas and corn, served with corn bread. More delicious Southern cooking. If I had been served this food at Georgia Brown's in DC at twice the price, I still would have been thrilled. As it is, the place is a steal. I controlled myself once again and didn't order dessert, settling again for a free Hampton Inn cookie and some decaf.
Now I have got to pack up my stuff so I can get an early start back over to the festival grounds tomorrow.
Tomorrow and Saturday I'll be camping at the festival, so I'm sure I'll start to run into more people I know. Exploring on my own is fun, but it gets a little lonely after a while.
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