Channel16


Master masquer, or just a brilliant disguise? PHOTO: VINCE PAQUOT


EDITORIAL


Dating Secrets for Sea Kayakers


My first kayaking mentor called them Dates from the Dock. Paddling moves so eye-catching, so linger-


and-watch-awhile eccentric that some didn’t even involve paddling. Skills that were strange, but in a good way, like Ellen Page’s deadpan quips in Juno or Reese Witherspoon’s legal methodology in Legally Blonde. Preoccupied with the only relationship that


mattered just then—between the kayak and myself—waterfront seduction was furthest from my mind. Still, I practiced diligently. Awkward, one-armed high brace turns


eventually transformed into gracefully edged parabolas while I waved coquettishly to imagi- nary suitors. I sculled ever closer to the water until I could dip all the way down for a drink and then, lips pursed and cheeks puffed, squirt it skyward like a Roman fountain. My angel roll approached something almost angelic. Ve- nus de Milo riding a kayak instead of a seashell.


10 ADVENTURE KAYAK | SUMMER/FALL 2011 Since those early revelations, I’ve heard


messing around like this in your kayak called many different things, and seen it taught and practiced by some of the best instructors and paddlers. BCU Senior Coach Derek Hutchinson is a


proponent of moves like the aforementioned, one-armed high brace turn (a.k.a. Hutchin- son Turn) because, he says, they get paddlers “beyond the cockpit” and experimenting with greater boat lean and edging. The legendarily dogmatic Hutchinson (see “Elder Speaks,” Spring 2008,


www.adventurekayakmag.


com/0018) should know—he penned the first book on sea kayak education (The Com- plete Book of Sea Kayaking, now in its 5th edi- tion), has designed over a dozen kayaks (may- be even yours—paddle a Current Designs Gulfstream, Sirocco or Andromeda?) and is regarded by many as the Father of Modern Sea Kayaking.


Sea Kayak Baja Mexico and Columbia River


Kayaking owner/operator Ginni Callahan advocates jousting with pool noodles whilst standing in cockpits. “Games are a great way to practice skills and get more comfortable with the water,” she says, “as well as good exercise for the paddling and laugh muscles.” Case in point: For the better part of a de-


cade, Michigan-based instructor, kayak impre- sario and occasional stand-up comedian Kelly Blades’ kayak play workshops have drawn eu- phoric crowds at symposiums across the coun- try. Participants take a break from bracing drills, video analyses and stroke improvement clinics to clamber around on the decks of their kayaks, spin around in their cockpits and—a move too often shunned by serious sea kayakers—splash frequently and spectacularly into the water. I realize now that Dates from the Dock


was just a ploy to divert my attention while the practical skills underlying each party trick developed unbidden. On page 31, we’ve called them “Fancy Moves You’ll Never Use,” but as you now know, this isn’t exactly true. Perhaps the only thing such shows of pa-


nache haven’t succeeded at (in my experience, at least) is seducing an actual date off the dock.


VIRGINIA MARSHALL is Adventure Kayak’s senior editor.


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