Sunday, March 11, 2012

Anticlimax

Last Saturday, one week before the Buffalo Bayou Regatta, a group of us made a test run of the course. The weather was beautiful and the current was slow. The rapids and strainers that plagued me on my prior upstream paddles barely slowed us down. Bring on the Regatta!



But Mother Nature had other plans. The clouds let loose the next Friday and the bayou started to rise. The weekend forecast didn't look much better but I wasn't going to let that stop me. On race day the first thing I did was check for updates. The regatta was still on, so I packed up and got ready to leave. I was just about to hit the road when I got word that the race was cancelled due to weather and water conditions. What a letdown!

Still, the weekend wasn't a total loss from a boating standpoint. On Sunday a hardy group of us braved the rain and met at Buffalo Run Park to work on our kayaking skills. Among other things, we voluntarily dumped ourselves out of our kayaks to practice solo and assisted deep water recovery. Let me tell you, the water was cold and the air wasn't much better once we climbed out!

Still, I learned some new tricks that should help me stay upright in the kayak, and got some good practice on recovering if needed. When and if they reschedule the Regatta, I'm ready!

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