Yonkers Paddling and Rolling Club...

Kate Helps a first time kayaker at the Sara Lawrence pool

The Second YPRC pool session of the year has begun! Over the course of the last class, with Jack's instruction, I became very comfortable with the forward sweep roll and the storm roll. I'll use these more often than the layback rolls because my kayak has a really high back (and they feel really good). This time I get to help out with instruction. The experienced instructors are really great and I've learned a lot already by observing their teaching techniques.
Also, I ordered Dubside's rolling video last week. I can't wait!

In the Shadow of the City

Here is a great, and very funny, true story about some guys on a "yatch", and their adventure of being shipwrecked on an island in Jamaica Bay last spring. Listen and find out how Alex Zharov ends up "stranded and bleeding within view of the Empire State Building". I really like the story and I plan on paddling out there this summer to see the ruins on the island and camp out... I don't want to give any of the surprises away, you really have to hear it to believe it. It's the first act of an episode of "This American Life". There is a short intro story about Chicago, and then the story titled "Brooklyn Archipelago". Here's a link to the TAL website where you can download the story. http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1174 I got it on itunes as a podcast for free.

Hook Mountain

I'd forgotten how turbid and brown the Hudson River is most of the time. It's normal for the Hudson and part of it's character. Early spring colors on the river are brown and blue. Soon we'll be soaked in green. On Saturday we paddled from a park in Nyak along the west bank up to a spot across from Croton Point and back. The air was warm, but the water's only 40F. The wind picked up as the sun set and it got a little choppy. We fought it for the last mile or so. Good use of a March afternoon.