Good Enough

Sleek modern round design with matt black finish enhances enigmatic mystery. Barelli.

If you can tell me what that not-quite-a-sentence means, I salute you.  

This morning we paddled from our home beach up to North Head Beach. This is a great little run for us if a northeasterly wind is forecast. If we want to train paddling into the wind we leave after the wind comes up and paddle across to North Head and then up the Murramarang Coast. When it is time to come home, we get a quick and fun downwind run.

Previous to getting some tips from Nick, I could not catch runners without my sail up. Various people had tried to explain how to catch runners, but they all did this with their sails up and no-one seemed able to explain the concepts and technique in clear enough terms for me to grasp the skill and catch runners without cheating and using a sail. Most people told me to paddle hard as I felt the boat lift up which is actually way too late, and, after observing other people, I noted that many other paddlers were actually going too slow to catch runners anyway.

With summer coming on, it is time to get back into kayak training and, most particularly, I need to get back into the habit of improving my skill set. It is a common pattern with humans, whose default position is to minimise both mental and physical energy output, to get good enough at your chosen sport and then cruise along there without really becoming an expert. I am as guilty as anyone at settling for good enough, particularly as I always have so many sports I am trying to improve at.

There is a reward however, for continuing to push your skill set. In rock climbing, there are just so many more routes you can climb if you can push your grades up even a little bit. Similarly, in ocean kayaking, you can really start to have fun in more challenging conditions rather than just enduring, or, as many folk do, not going out at all.

The run home from North Head was fun. I am not sure how long it took us, but my tracking program clocked my top speed at 13 km, which is almost twice my normal paddle speed. Still, way under the speed fitter, more skilled ocean kayakers would hit on a downwind run, but about a doubling of my usual pace.