A Very Wet SK102

I have written about SK102 in past years and so I won't write a long post here. I'll just mention that this year's event was unusually cold and rainy. I remember last year perspiring on a warm and sunny Friday as I set up my tent. In contrast, this year I brought my down jacket along and made good use of it Friday night - the temps got down into the high 30's overnight! Actually, Friday afternoon was quite pleasant and I had a chance to go out and do some rolling practice; it remained pleasant for the Friday night paddle. It was later in the evening that the temperatures began to plummet. After the paddle folks hung out and socialized for a bit, but as the cold set in we all retreated to our tents. Not being an "early to bed" type, I stayed up and wrote a blog post on my iPad about a recent cycling adventure before I turned  in.

Friday Night Paddle (Ron Tucker's photo)

 After a cold night Saturday morning was, of course, chilly. I assisted Ed Schiller in teaching rescues and towing. Ed is a professional instructor - a great instructor and a really nice guy. I learned a lot from his teaching. As is typical for the assistant, I demonstrated a lot of the rescues. I was wearing my dry suit and the water was warm, so it shouldn't have been a problem. However, something about the way I was wearing my watch was pushing against  the wrist gasket of my suit, which caused it to leak. By the time I finished the class I was soaked and really uncomfortable inside my suit. At lunch break I stripped out of my suit and dumped out probably a quart of water. Ick. It was at this point that I also discovered I had forgotten to bring the bag with my lunch food (fortunately I had plenty of other food) and I found out that Valerie was in a panic looking for me from home. My phone lost coverage half a mile off I95 on Friday (another reason I'm very dissatisfied with T-Mobile) and I hadn't contacted her - and from her perspective was missing in action.

That was a low point, but I solidered on. In the afternoon, freshly re-bundled up and back into my maybe-dry suit I assisted the same rescues and towing class with Jan Sheehan. Jan is a relatively new instructor and it was a contrast from teaching with Ed. Once again, it was my job to demonstrate various rescue techniques. After the morning's experience I was initially hesitant to get back into the water but the good news is that my wet suit worked (no wristwatch!) and I stayed dry. Realizing that I was staying dry I was happy to jump in and demonstrate whatever they wanted. We joined up with another section of the same class which had only a few students (a certain number of people opted out of getting wet because of the cool weather) and the instructor from that class did some demonstrating too. Jan never got into the water - but all our students did, and they did very well.

As we were finishing up the afternoon session it began to rain. And rain. And rain. So much rain that the the grills were dragged up the hill and evening BBQ was relocated to under the pop-up shelter "tent city". The bonfire and entertainment were cancelled. Not long after dinner I retreated to my tent. A movie on my iPad (first time I had ever watched a movie in a tent, which somehow seems wrong) and a glass of cognac to counter the cold and wet and all was right with the world. I was camped adjacent to Susan Green - close enough to talk tent to tent. While I was watching a movie, she was reading a book using the Kindle app on her phone. The guy in the next tent, also within earshot, piped up that he was reading on his tablet computer too. We've come a long way from the days when tent time meant reading damp paperbacks by the light of a dim, flickering flashlight.

Sunday morning the rain began to taper off. Activities went on as planned, but many of us began our exodus early. Waking up cold and damp just makes me want to head for the great indoors. I packed up in the mud, throwing all my stuff into the back of the car to be dried off at home. Needless to say, as I drove home the weather cleared and after a weekend outside in the cold and rain I arrived home to gorgeous, sunny weather - perfect for airing out my gear in the backyard :)

SK102 is always fun. This year, maybe a little less than usual due to the weather, but still fun.And look, someone gave me a shout-out: http://www.cpakayaker.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8805#p31659