Day 2

I slept really well last night - I was tired. I'd only paddled twice this season before arriving in Arizona so my body was feeling it!

Back at the marina by 7:30 for our first morning paddling session. We went out with Jackie again and continued working on the technique Jackie helped us with yesterday. We were also videotaped (gasp) for a frame-by-frame critique that we would watch on Day 3. Just before they turned the video camera on, Jackie moved me to stroke seat. Yikes! Talk about pressure. My 2 biggest weaknesses are side collapse and not hinging forward enough. The side collapse is a new concept for me and I am working on it, but Rick always gets on my case about not hinging forward enough so I know that's a perpetual weakness. Having to wear a lifejacket while paddling doesn't help - but that's really an excuse.

At this point, let me just say that there is one advantage to paddling when you're fat. Your butt doesn't hurt as much because there is more padding! I wish I could show you the huge bruises and chafe marks I had on my bum on Day 2 ... only to get worse throughout the camp!

After the morning session, we all went back to the gym where Lynda gave a talk on Core Strength & Stability, relative to paddling. It was very interesting. Certainly made me realize that I have a lot of work to do with my core! No wonder I'm a side collapser and not "tight tight tight," as Jackie would say! Lynda showed us a test to evaluate our own core strength & stability:

Start in the plank (bridge) position - butt should be level with rest of body. Hold for 1 minute.
Lift right arm up. Hold for 15 seconds.
Lift left arm up. Hold for 15 seconds.
Lift right leg up. Hold for 15 seconds.
Lift left leg up. Hold for 15 seconds.
Lift right leg up. Hold for 15 seconds.
Keep right leg up, lift left arm, hold for 15 seconds.
Lift left leg up, lift right arm, hold for 15 seconds.
Return to normal plank and hold for 30 seconds.
(The entire test is 3 minutes long and runs continuously.)

Let's just say I failed miserably. Barely made it one minute and my abs hurt like crazy for 2 days. How sad is that?

No rest for the wicked. We headed straight back to the marina for an OC orientation with John. I've paddled OC-1, OC-2 and OC-6 before but I'm not very good at OC-1 so figured I could use a brush-up lesson. Extra people showed up, though, so I listened to his talk and then let the others paddle. Most went out in the OC-6, a few got to try the OC-1. I think I only watched 2 people (and John!) huli. Had I been out there, I would have hulied at least twice. Pretty sure I can now relate it back to my lack of core stability.

After lunch, we were back on the water with Lynda as our guest coach. She was working on catch with us - so getting the blade in the water and catching the heavy water. It seems like such an easy thing but it's not! Your blade is supposed to enter the water at a 45 degree angle, then should be at 90 degrees by the time it's fully buried. That is where you should feel the heavy water - as if you'd put your paddle into cement. Then the idea is to pull yourself to the paddle, as if you were going to pole vault over the blade. Finding that heavy water and then controling the blade through the pull is difficult but makes all the difference in terms of boat movement. I learned a few drills that I will be taking back to my STM teams, particularly Red as they need to work on their catch & their power. This session was good, but I don't think I fully understood how to incorporate everything until Andrea helped Valerie & I figure out our race rate - controling the catch and pausing at the front of the stroke to set up properly for that catch is key for us to keeping the rate steady & in control.

What a great day. Temperatures were in the mid-80's, so not as hot as Sunday but still hot and wonderful. As mentioned before, I have chafe marks everywhere and a ton of random bruises, plus the sorest muscles I've felt in a long while. My feet are incredibly dirty and no matter how hard I scrub, I can't get them clean. It's awesome!

I went for a 5K run in the evening. I didn't want to go too far in the heat, plus I was tired from the paddling earlier. It was good to get out there, though.

Day 1 of "Paddle the Desert" camp

Mornings are never fun - but I got up at 7:00 and prepared for the day. I got my gear together and headed to the gym for registration. We had to fill out the usual waivers and got a goodie bag with a water bottle and a cool max hat. Breakfast was provided - scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns & an english muffin. The coaches were introduced, an overview of the week was provided, and we met the other members of what would become "our team."

We had some top-notch coaches for the clinic who cared a great deal about each paddler and their strengths/weaknesses:

Andrea Dillon : False Creek Women’s Dragon Boat Coach, World Dragon Boat Champion
Jackie Webber : Solo - Outrigger World Sprint Champion, World Dragon Boat Champion
Kamini Jain : Olympian Flatwater Kayaker (2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens), False Creek Men’s & Mixed Dragon Boat Coach (2006 World Club Crew Champions)
Lynda Roberts : NCCP Level III Coach with 20 years experience coaching and racing sprint canoe/kayak, outrigger, marathon and dragon boat paddling.
John Roberts : Two time World Sprint Solo medallist (Hilo, New Zealand), 12+ World Masters and Canadian Marathon Championships, 25+ years of paddling experience in marathon and outrigger canoeing.
Jason Rusu : NCCP Level 3 Certified Flatwater Coach experience includes dragon boat and outrigger paddlers, 1999 World Championships Finalist K-4 500m (Gainesville, GA), 1992 Olympic Competitor K-2 500m, 1000m (Barcelona)



During the morning break, I walked up to the grocery store. I had a fridge and a microwave in my room so I wanted to make sure I had some healthy foods there, too. I bought the regular stuff, plus some "vegetable cactus." I never did figure out what to do with it.



Our first session was a talk by Jackie about stroke mechanics. I know Jackie fairly well because she runs my paddling club (Dragon Zone) and is a partner in Water's Edge, the company that put on the clinic. She's a very dynamic speaker and it made us anxious to get out on the water. I learned a lot from her presentation. Valerie, a paddler from the Portland team Wasabi, has posted notes about all the sessions here.

We had a lunch break, then headed to the marina for our first water session. It was between 30 and 33 degrees that afternoon, so plenty warm. And yes, I was actually using sunscreen! Jackie was my primary coach and she sure shook things up on the boat. We are all seasoned paddlers and used to doing things a certain way. Jackie really went back to basics and changed our strokes quite a bit. She explained everything in great detail and it made a ton of sense. It's hard to change your technique after doing it differently for so many years - and my muscles were screaming at me after just a few minutes.

It was so nice to be paddling in the sun, wearing shorts & a tank top!!

After the first day, I already had some good chafe marks on my arms and on my butt. These would only get worse as the week progressed. War wounds!

That evening, I went back to the marina and took a bunch of photos along the way. Tempe is a beautiful town and I love all the cactus & red sand.

Leavin' on a jet plane ...

I woke up bright & early to catch a 7:15 a.m. flight to Phoenix. My Dad picked me up at 4:30 and we headed to the aiport. (Thanks, Dad!) Everything went well checking in at YVR until I got to the final security gate. I'd packed a brand new bottle of sunscreen and a tube of my favourite hair gel - neither of which was in a tube smaller than 100mL. They took them away from me. Oh well, they're both replaceable.

The flight was delayed by 45 minutes, but I had a long layover in Denver so I wasn't the least bit stressed about it. I did some marking while I waited to board. I didn't have an assigned seat on my ticket but I got to sit by the emergency exit, so lots of leg room! It was POURING when we took off, so I was definitely looking forward to the warm weather I'd heard Phoenix was having. The flight was uneventful. I slept a little (though I can never sleep well on an airplane), read a little, and looked out the window a little. The view as we flew over the Rockies was great - I took a nice picture:

We landed in Denver and I walked through the long United Airlines terminal. It's a nice airport - well, the part I saw, at least. I had about 3 hours so I ordered a personal cheese pizza from Pizza Hut for lunch, then sat and finished my marking. What a relief to get it all done early! Denver must get a lot of tornados, since there are "Tornado Shelter" warnings all over the place:

We left Denver right on time, and flew for about an hour and a half into Phoenix. When we landed, we were told that it was about 95 degrees (35 degrees Celcius) - EXCELLENT! Maybe I would get that tan I was hoping for! My bag didn't come out with the rest of them onto the carousel, but I found it eventually. Had to take a shuttle between terminals and then the hotel shuttle came to pick me up. It only took about 10 minutes to drive back to the hotel (Country Inn & Suites), where I checked in and settled into my room.

I was ready for dinner and wanted to take advantage of the heat right away, so I changed into shorts & a tank top then went for a walk. N Scottsdale road is a main route so it wasn't long until I found a 7-11 and a Subway. You can get spinach at American Subways so I got some (and some green peppers) on my roasted chicken sub. I even took a picture so you doubting Thomas's will believe :-)

After dinner, I explored the neighbourhood a bit. I needed to be at both the marina and the gym the next morning so I figured out how to get there. The gym was only about 5 minutes up the street and the marina was about 8 minutes in the other direction. I knew that I had an early morning the next day, so after emailing a few people to let them know I had arrived safely, I went to bed.

Why a blog?

Hi everyone!

Why am I jumping onto the blog bandwagon now? I wanted an easy way to share my adventures and photos with all my friends, near and far. This blog was created after attending the Water's Edge "Paddle the Desert" dragon boat and outrigger camp in Tempe, Arizona. I had a GREAT time and made lots of amazing friends.

I'll break this up into one post per day. Photos will be added when I get home, since I didn't bring my USB cable to Arizona with me.

I hope you enjoy my ramblings and silly stories! Leave me a comment & let me know what you think.