Feed from Alex's Blog

Make hay while the sun shines

In the last couple of weeks Adam and I have been paddling twice a week with improved results every time. Last monday we purposley stayed out longer, my reasoning being that the more paddle time he gets and the more exposure he has the quicker he's going to find his balance and begin to relax. It seems that's whats happened. Last monday we went in twice but over the course of a one hour paddle that was a considerablr improvement, mooching up and down the lock cut at Sunbury. The following Thursday, we ventured further upstream and came back, this time staying dry. We had a few wobbles but it was our easiest paddle since starting and we were both delighted to get back to the clubhouse without the need to take a swim. :-)

Last night we did our longest paddle to date, which was a straight out and back to Molesey and back. The outward journey was really good. The boat just felt so much better with Adam fully relaxed, not over-correcting and allowing the boat to move beneath us. We had a quick stop and stretch before coming back and within 10 minutes it was all going wrong. As Adam said later, it was effectively two different paddles. Both of us were getting achy lower backs and as a result we were tensing up and getting twitchy. I decided that we should have a quick break at half way and we pulled up to the jetty, only for us to roll as we touched the side. I told Adam that it doesn't officially count as a capsize as a) we were not paddling and b) I didn't actually go underwater. ;-)
We had a slightly better paddle after that, although we had another massive wobble as we were 100 metres from home, but I was able to get a splash support down. Adam is tensing up everytime we get near home because he's so desperate not to go in, and as a result ends up not thinking about his stroke and staying relaxed.

It's important to keep all this in perspective; 3 weeks ago we paddled less than half a stroke before pitching in and yet last night we did 6 miles and didn't. We've just got to keep paddling.

Posted by Alex Kew