Thursday, December 29, 2005

2006 Plans & Pipe Dreams

So the end of the year is just around the corner, my first paddle of 2006 is shaping up nicely thanks to Goofy...

And of course I'm already mulling over what to do next year! Already set - teaching at Sarah Lawrence, and teaching at the Hudson Valley Kayak Symposium again (man, that was fun last year). Yay. I tend to reverse the normal pattern - most seasonal kayak instructors teach when the weather warms up - not me, the way things ended up being I seem to do all my teaching in the winter and spring. In pools. Very odd indeed but that's how it is.

Beyond that...well, Sweetwater Kayak's BCU week (not really a week they just call it that) is looking awfully tempting right now. My Greenlandic heroes Cheri Perry & Dubsides are teaching a rolling class there, plus Nigel Foster is doing "Fun with Foster" classes & I took a lesson from him once that was really good, plus there might be a chance to brush up on my rusty dusty surfing skills (I've surfed & loved it, we just don't get much more than ferry wakes in my piece of the Hudson), and then, well, it's Florida - ok, Florida in February, people who I know who've gone have been glad to have their drysuits, but it's a pretty safe bet the water will be entirely liquid which is more than you can expect of the Hudson that time of year. Plus I suspect I'll teach better at the symposium if I can get in some time on the student end of the equation this way - I tend to look at learning & teaching as two halves of a circle. Right now the me-learning side of the circle has been neglected for a long time.

I have also said something to somebody about maybe if it would be at all possible I might be interested in guiding for the Great Hudson River Paddle but of course that's only if they have space & I would actually be of any use...ok, in other words I'm not getting my hopes up, I'm definitely a Bonnie-come-lately (HA HA HA! I crack me up!) and they have a good solid set of guides who tend to come back year after year which is one of the keys to the success of the event, which I hear has been more and more fun every time they do it...we'll see.

and of course getting out to Hawaii next year would be nice...but then it would also be nice to go back to the BVI's if Kat invites me again...and I have a friend who has moved to Nova Scotia (and for that matter other friends in other places that would also be fun to visit). Oh my. So many fun things to do, so little vacation time. Unfortunately there is no way I can do all of the things I just listed - decisions will have to be made. But once again it's the same kind of pleasant dilemma as I had last year when I had to decide between a paddling excursion in Nova Scotia or the sailing trip in the BVI's. Everyone's life should be so difficult!

p.s. Oh my, I just went over & browsed through the Hudson Valley Kayak Symposium pictures - absolutely cracked up to see a series there of me and my Greenland mentor (there are heroes & then there is Jack Gilman who's taught me most of the Greenland stuff I know, great guy & so low-key about all the people he's influenced around here) - we got into a double & just started horsing around & it would seem that somebody got the whole series(use the arrow to the right of the thumbnails to scroll through the thumbnails - we're the last 5 or 6 shots). That was FUN.

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