Beginners skills pactice paddle
| River: | Dan |
| Skill: | Beginner |
| Trip Date: | 09/23/2012 |
We had a few last minute cancelations but ended up with 4 paddlers. Jack & Paula Conrad, Pam Maynard, and Will Truslow. We took advantage of Saturday's Kibler release catching that water further downstream on the Dan River between the Snow Creek confluence and Hemlock Golf Club access on a beautiful day with nice temps and clear blue sky. Thanks Will for showing us the cave that some Confederate soldiers holed up in. This has to be one of the most beautiful sections of the Dan River.
We practiced catching eddies, ferrying, peeling out and surfing as well as our rolls and strokes. Did you ever try ferrying with your eyes closed? Really lets you feel what the water is doing to your boat. Or peeling out using only 1 stroke, and then only 1 stroke to catch the next eddy. Or catching eddies by edging your boat with no paddle strokes. I am so proud of how much my wife's paddling skills have improved this summer. I think much of that improvement is from these Sunday skills practice paddles.
We hope to do more of these paddles next summer, hopefully, on most of the Sunday mornings following the Saturday releases at Kibler. In order to catch the Kibler water, we have to meet at 9 AM. Pam & I schedule these paddles. At the present time neither of us are ACA certified instructors, one of the reasons we call these trips practice sessions instead of workshops or clinics. I am tentatively scheduled for a Coastal Kayaking IDW/ICE this winter in FL while we are home and will probably be looking into a Whitewater Kayaking IDW/ICE next Spring when we get back to NC. Jack