2013 SK102

Many, many kayaks

SK102 is The Chesapeake Paddlers Association's annual skills training event down at Lake Anna. I attended this event in 2001 as a student and, if Brian's records are right, in 2005 as an instructor. In addition, one year I trespassed on Saturday night to join in the bonfire and add accordion music to the festivities. In any case, when I volunteered to instruct this year it was a return after a long absence. The event is an awesome gathering in many ways, perhaps most amazingly because it is held at someone's house - yes, a pair of CPA members have for each of the last fifteen years opened their property to 150 strangers for a group campout and skills weekend.

My biggest concern wasn't my ability to teach, anything about camping, or even getting there on a Friday through the inevitable traffic. Rather, I was concerned about instruments. Having just this past year put hundreds of bucks into undoing years of accordion abuse I was a little leery of bringing the squeezebox camping. My only option in terms of battery-powered keyboard was my 1990's vintage clunker. I even went shopping to look at what's on the market now in the area of decent portable keyboards but eventually wound up sticking with what I have and loading up both the old keyboard and the accordion - as well as a full load of camping and kayaking gear. I had a last minute temptation - stopped at the Guitar Center in Fredericksburg, thinking of doing a just-in-time gear upgrade, but they didn't have the keyboard I was looking for.

SK102 is a carefully and expertly choreographed event. Friday started with a quick pot-luck among a subset of friends, followed by the night-time paddle (moved earlier this year so that it was more of a sunset paddle).

Saturday morning meeting, students on the left, instructors on the right

Heading for the water

Saturday is the really fully day of the event. My way into the day was eased by an change since I had last been there - coffee for the group, courtesy of a very early rising coffee crew. I just had to Jetboil a little water for my grits, grab some coffee from the lakefront urns and I was good to go. The official activities of the day start with a group meeting of all instructors and students, after which everyone split up for their morning sessions. I was paired teaching rescues with Jim Z.,who had prepared a detailed and very full syllabus for the session. As assistant instructor my role was to demonstrate all the rescues and so I got to fall out of my boat and get back in again and again - paddle float, cowboy, T rescue and scoop. I even got to demonstrate re-entry and roll, though there was no one there to see it. At one point I was still in the water when Jim decided to take the group over to the next cove to start talking about the next rescue. Finding myself left behind I did the quickest solo reentry I knew to get back in my kayak so I could catch up with the group.

Teaching partner Suzanne (at right)

Teaching partner Jim Z.

After a quick lunch break I headed out to teach the same class again, this time paired with Suzanne, who did not have a printed syllabus but still had a good idea of what she wanted to cover. I did a lot less demonstrating in the afternoon, as several of the students were experienced and were eager to try out their rescues by serving as Also, while Jim and I did one demo and then had everyone practice in parallel, Suzanne had people pair up and work in a supervised fashion one pair of students at a time. Suzanne's serial method meant that less material was covered; on the other hand, everyone got individual attention.

When the afternoon classes were over I mucked around the waterfront a little, trying out a few boats (the P&H Cetus LV and MV models, in case you care), watched the impossibly graceful Alison demonstrate some Greenland rolls and then headed back to the tent city to relax a little before dinner. Saturday night's dinner is provided as part of the event, this year featuring an upgraded menu of burgers (no horse meat this year), beans (the kind with $%*@ bacon),salad and lots of sides.

Saturday night also features a group campfire and a demonstration of how signal flares work. I had organized some music for the campfire; Jen, Manuel, Paul C. and I muddled our way through some tunes, with occasional singing help from Reggie and others.

Caterwauling

Sunday is more informal than Saturday. After hearing it was going to be really crowded I decided to skip the early morning yoga class in favor of an extra trip to the coffee urn. I then hit the water, this time as a student, to get some wing paddling tips from Bill and Kristina. That was a good class, with participation from both wing paddle experts (like Susanita, paddling a surf-ski with a wing) to newbies like me. With this class and coaching from both Brian and Cyndi on Thursday night paddles I have the good fortune of being able to tap a lot of real wing experts.

Lead singer Reggie

Sundays at Lake Anna are famous for rain, and though there was none in the forecast it did start to rain lightly around mid-day, hastening everyone's departure. So, around noon, after lots of hugs I headed into the northbound traffic for the ride home.

"Frankenpaddling" with the wing to get the feel of proper torso rotation