Yesterday I participated in the Chesapeake Paddlers Association Gear Day, billed as "A club show-n-tell, in the spirit of Sunday morning at SK102, to check out and learn about the incredible array of gear we accumulate for sea kayaking."
There was a full schedule of talks covering equipment, technique, stories of expeditions, and safety. I volunteered to give a talk about kayak photography. In the end, my talk and about half the others wound up being informal chats around the table rather than formal talks but that was OK.
I had been to Gear Day once before when it was held in Virginia. I have to tell you, Annapolis is the much more successful location. CPA tends to be more Maryland-based and lots of members showed up to just hang out and socialize. Plus, I think people were lured out by the perfect weather we were lucky enough to have, along with the setting at Truxton Park. Truxton park is located up in Spa Creek, and like much of Annapolis the area is filled with boats, boats and more boats. Very cool.
At one point my friends Dave and Cyndi invited me to join them on a quick trip over to "Ego Alley" - the area of the Annapolis waterfront where people go to show off their big, fancy boats. I should mention that last weekend Cyndi and her paddling partner Ben competed in the General Clinton 70 mile kayak endurance race. Not only did they win their category, their time would have won most of the other categories too - and this despite the fact that they missed a turn and as a result paddled an extra four miles. 74 miles in a bit under 9 hours. Thats over 8 MPH, even factoring in breaks. And today Cyndi was paddling the same racing double kayak she used in the Clinton, this time with Dave, who is a pretty strong paddler himself.
As one might expect, Jesse in his plastic Tempest (average speed 4 MPH) was no match for a double racing kayak (called a "K2"). So all the way there and back Dave and Cyndi would sprint ahead, then wait up for me. However, the sprint boat is incredibly tippy. I can bounce around all day in my Tempest, but the two of them had to work to stay vertical when they were sitting still in the K2, and they weren't willing to go very far out of the protected waters of the creek. Despite this total mismatch between boats, we had a good time checking out downtown Annapolis and I got quite a workout trying my best to keep up with them. On the way back I bumped into my friend Tom, who was giving instruction on wet exits and assisted rescues. I wound up hanging out and assisting him for a while.
The only bad part of the day was my drive home. My route home from Annapolis takes me past Nationals Stadium. This has never been a problem before, but I happened to get there just as a game was letting out and the game traffic added an hour to my trip home. Grrr. Lesson learned: check the Nats schedule along with the Tides and Weather when heading out that way ...
There was a full schedule of talks covering equipment, technique, stories of expeditions, and safety. I volunteered to give a talk about kayak photography. In the end, my talk and about half the others wound up being informal chats around the table rather than formal talks but that was OK.
I had been to Gear Day once before when it was held in Virginia. I have to tell you, Annapolis is the much more successful location. CPA tends to be more Maryland-based and lots of members showed up to just hang out and socialize. Plus, I think people were lured out by the perfect weather we were lucky enough to have, along with the setting at Truxton Park. Truxton park is located up in Spa Creek, and like much of Annapolis the area is filled with boats, boats and more boats. Very cool.
At one point my friends Dave and Cyndi invited me to join them on a quick trip over to "Ego Alley" - the area of the Annapolis waterfront where people go to show off their big, fancy boats. I should mention that last weekend Cyndi and her paddling partner Ben competed in the General Clinton 70 mile kayak endurance race. Not only did they win their category, their time would have won most of the other categories too - and this despite the fact that they missed a turn and as a result paddled an extra four miles. 74 miles in a bit under 9 hours. Thats over 8 MPH, even factoring in breaks. And today Cyndi was paddling the same racing double kayak she used in the Clinton, this time with Dave, who is a pretty strong paddler himself.
As one might expect, Jesse in his plastic Tempest (average speed 4 MPH) was no match for a double racing kayak (called a "K2"). So all the way there and back Dave and Cyndi would sprint ahead, then wait up for me. However, the sprint boat is incredibly tippy. I can bounce around all day in my Tempest, but the two of them had to work to stay vertical when they were sitting still in the K2, and they weren't willing to go very far out of the protected waters of the creek. Despite this total mismatch between boats, we had a good time checking out downtown Annapolis and I got quite a workout trying my best to keep up with them. On the way back I bumped into my friend Tom, who was giving instruction on wet exits and assisted rescues. I wound up hanging out and assisting him for a while.
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| Cyndi & Dave, Ego Alley |
The only bad part of the day was my drive home. My route home from Annapolis takes me past Nationals Stadium. This has never been a problem before, but I happened to get there just as a game was letting out and the game traffic added an hour to my trip home. Grrr. Lesson learned: check the Nats schedule along with the Tides and Weather when heading out that way ...
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