On Average.....

[Ocoee Boater]

Im just comparing to see how much practice everybody gets cuz my time is minimal (like pretty much the weekends only)

My Question is (to everyone),,,

How often do you paddle and how close is your 'closest' spot?
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[the great gonzo]

During the winter, I pretty much only do pool sessions (it's kinda hard to paddle on ice ).

During the spring, I try to paddle on the weekend and, if local water levels permit, the odd evening after work. The closest WW is about 1 to 1.5 hours away.

During the summer, I paddle on the weekends and one or 2 evenings, but evening paddles are usually, due to lack of local white water at summer levels, limited to flatwater. The closest WW is about 2 1/2 hours away, put i usually drive 4-5 hours on weekends to get to bettes spots.

In the Fall I paddle only on weekends. Closest paddlespots are, if there is enough rain, 1 to 1 1/2 hours away.

martin

[Joey]

i am kind of spoiled because i live about 1 1/2 miles from a class 3-4 run. the james has been called the best urban whitewater in the US. i usualy get out about 4 days a week. in the summer its not uncommon for me to go 10 days with out a break. because i have water so close i tend to not want to drive far for water. the closest consistant water to my house is 4 1/2 hours, and there is another river about 2 hours away that runs often. i guess i am a little obsessed, but i can think of worse things. --- joey

[sbroam]

At the height of my paddling career, I was getting in 2-3 evenings per week on our local II-III(IV+) run with a od park and play site and 1-2 days on the weekends, either locally or in the SC/NC/GA mountains.

These days, with three kids, a wife, a job, a commute that has gotten worse, and parking in a garage that complicates toting a boat (dang low ceilings!), I'm down to ~1 day a week... But this, too shall pass.

[Kirill]

November-March -> pool sessions only, about once a week.
The rest of the year..... Well, it's a sad story
The nearest decent playspot is about 5 hours from me and it works only during spring time. I'm there almost every week-end.
In sumer we have to travel a lot- from 12 to 23 hours drive. And having gone that far, we spent there at least a week.
Probably, I should have gone in for some other hobby

Cheers,
Kirill

[Timzjatl]

when there's water I usually boat on rivers 2-3 days a week, and one evening at the pool. If there's not much running I'll cut back to 1 day a week plus pool time. The nearest spot to paddle is the Metro Section of the chattahoochee, which is class II, and the takeout is 100 yards from my apartment. It doesn't have much but some eddyline play, and a few small waves of sidesurfs, but I could forseeably get in an hour or two just about any time I wanted...

[Ocoee Boater]

When you all paddle in the pool what do you practice? Its hard for me because there's only one other kayaker here and I dont know what to practice. Any videos recommended or just keep practicing that forward stroke and back deck roll? Oh and i know people practice flips and cartwheels in teh pool but i have no idea how to do that stuff!!!!!!!!

[wayne]

Well I live about 5 minutes walk form the Wanganui River but it is flat, I would paddle on it about once a month, if it is flowing high than when ever the eddy lines behind the bridge pillers look like they will not eat me and my AMP. I paddle in a pool about the same. As for white water will it is from one hour away, normaly I get to paddle it once a moth, I would love to paddle it more but no one else seems to want too (stupid kayakers).

For flat water I normaly do cartwheels, rolls and just paddle around showing up all the kayakers and try teaching them how to do all the moves. As for trying to explane how to do flat water cartwheels I will try my best but I hope some one else knows of a good web site which shows how to do them, it is easier to show how to do it than try to explane it. Any one know of a site where you can up load videos of people doing moves like this? What kind of boat are you using?

Any way for a flat water cartwheel:
Paddle foward at an average speed
edge the boat to your on side and put in a normal stroke but do not take it out or sweep around for a J stroke, this should make the bow lift up a bit and the tail sink.
Now aim to slam the boat nose into the paddle with your hips and knees, (if you have an old kayak aim to take those bumps (feet?) at the bow off with your paddle.
If this is done right you should be up right now on your nose.
Quickly slice your blade out of the water so as not to pull or push yourself over and than wind up at the hips and look over your shoulder (I can't tell you what one cause I can't think whice one on land) and watch your boat tail go into the water.
Than as it hits the water quickly unwind your body and your tail should cut throught the water if you have the right angle on it
Than quicky set your self up for your next front end with your paddle behind you on top of the water.
Than with any luck you are cartwheeling

This is the way I do it any way I taught myself how to do it so there may be easier ways out there to do it if there is someone tell me. If you don't under stand any of it let me know and I will try my best too explain it better.

I hope it helps you out a bit. Sorry about all the spelling I am not in a mood for being a spell check tonight.
Wayne.

[NZMatt]

Well, it really depends on what's happening in life in general. Generally through the summer i paddle every weekend (atleast one day, normally on whitewater, but sometimes I can only make it to flatwater). I live right by a lake, so there's plenty of flatwater to play with, but we only have local whitewater (various creeks, most frequently run is class II, although it has harder sections too) when we get a lot of melt or a lot of rain. Of course in that case, it's five minutes to the putin and I can get a run in and still be at work by 9 or 930. During the summer, the nearest reliable river is 1.5 hrs away (scheduled releases, but they're pretty bony) and we typically drive between 3-5 hrs for the weekend. It's about 6hrs to the putin on the Ottawa. I've given up on day trips that are more than 3-4 hrs away

In the winter, there's a local eddy line we sometimes go to (power plant outflow so it's warm) about 30mins from here, but other than that it's just pool time - maybe once a week if I'm lucky.

What do I do in the pool - mainly try to figure out how to throw flatwater tricks. The best boats for learning these (I think) are long slicey, low volume ones, eg. a XXX or a squirt boat. I finally got my Acrobat in the pool two weeks ago and am loving it (although I discovered last night that too much enthusiasm in the shallow end can result in damaged tips ). This is the first boat I can throw around just by thining about it - it's great. I really recommend finding a squirt boat for flatwater practise - just to get the feel for how the moves work. Once you get the feel for it, it then becomes far easier to throw bigger boats around: atleast that's the theory. I also use the time to work on different rolls (off side rolls both with my normal padlding grip and with my hands swapped for offside paddling) - haven't got those yet. It's also a great time and place to teach friends and get them enthused about paddling C1

Cheers

[PAC]

Not quite as close to water as Joey....but the Slip (Slippery Rock Creek) is 45 minutes from work and the Lower Yough is 30 minutes from our cabin (1.5 hr from the city house). So I'm fairly spoiled.
I get out at least one a weekend and sometime more over the sumer and fall. During the spring I get one everyother week after work.
I need all the time I can get to correct my style!
Kids and family have cut down on paddling but I'm working on getting the lad out to increase family time... on the river of course!

[KNeal]

...I live about 2 minutes away from a section of the James River called the Pony Pasture. It has class 2/3 rapids (higher in high water and flood stages). I went out there today between my work for 1 1/2 hours and had an absolute AWESOME time paddling ! I met Mike Elsea and we worked the width of the river (over a quarter mile wide at that point) and up and down through the rapids for a really nice workout, which included surfing...of course ("It's ALL about the surf" ). Then I jumped back in my Cherokee and I was home inside of two minutes.

What a nice time .

KNeal

[Mike W.]

In '02 & '01 I paddled over 100 days each year. I won't make it this year as I'm only up to day 65. I'm 15 minutes from a II-III park & play spot at low water. There is something to play on there at all flows from 1,800 to 35,000cfs, though the best surfing wave is at 1,800 to 2,200cfs.

Mike W.

[Jan_dettmer]

weekends for whitewater...
We suffer from low water levels quite a bit. But all in all the boating is good and landwe can do some ocean surfing. Everything in the winter. The main is good in the summer.
During the week I do some training in marathon canoes and outrigger, twice a week. I hope to get my Delirious out on the water during the week for flatwater, too.

This summer, I had 65 consecutive paddling days

Since I had a back injury I have to go to the gym the rest of the days

Cheers, Jan