Kayaking 101

Friday, September 16, 2011

It was the beginning of what was going to be a very busy nine days. I was scheduled to attend an Kayak Instructor Certification course offered through the American Canoe Association and being taught by Instructor Trainer, Dave Herpy, of Kent State University. The program began with a classroom session on Friday for five hours to be followed with two eight-hour sessions on Saturday and Sunday at Mogador Reservoir about 10 miles south of Kent. I’d be working Monday and Tuesday and then leaving for five more days in the Adirondacks. Some where in there, I needed to get in some good workouts. I knew it would be tight so I planned to make any time I did get really count.

I hit the park after work for a Survival Workout and started with an all-time push-up high of 62. Starting this way drives me harder throughout because it makes me feel like if I push, all my numbers will be higher. I don’t really know all of my numbers…it’s hard to gauge if you’re lifting more when you’re lifting odd rocks along the trail and that is on purpose…but I know my push-up, pull-up and pole climbing numbers well and managed to bust them all. I finished my last set of push-ups with a 59 which broke my two-day old record for three sets by nine and it now stands at 175. I suppose I should start thinking I can take it to 200 and get the one-set record up to 70, but that’s hard to imagine right now.

I figured the kayak training and certification would be difficult for me. Though I’ve been kayaking for 13 years, I’ve never used a sea kayak, don’t know all the strokes or the nomenclature, have never rolled and will be with people who live to kayak, I think. I like the sport and would probably do a lot more of it if it was easier to access. It takes about an hour to load and drive to any really good kayaking spots, and with limited time to work out, that usually means I’ll hop on the bike or go to the park 10 minutes away to get in a workout. Still…I wanted to learn as much as I could about the discipline and believed taking a crash course designed to make me an instructor to teach entry-level kayaking would improve my skills and knowledge base tremendously.

Once at the class…there were 12 other people…and hearing everyone’s level of experience, I no longer felt quite so intimidated. I surmised that although all of the people had time in the water with kayaks, none seemed to have done and extended trip kayaking…something I had done often…and so I at least had practical experience that would match or exceed half of the folks in the group. The down side was I was teaching two different things for evaluation to the group…the ‘pivot’ stroke and something on the topic of ‘balance, posture and trim’ as it relates to kayaking and knew almost nothing about either one. The course would be testing my ability to gather information quickly and turn it into a presentation that made it sound like I knew what I was talking about…you know…bullshitting. If it came down to that…I had nothing to worry about. After all, I have my PhD. in it already.

Survival Workout duration: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100 to 150 bpm.
Calories burned during workout: 600.