Monday, June 11, 2007

Upcoming Events - Greenland Paddling & Hidden Harbor Tours

I am resisting the temptation to take a lunch break today to do a weekend report. It was a darned good weekend, started with a dinner date, then went on to replace decklines (overdue), plant some mesclun (how's this for smart - there are guys at the Union Square Farmers who will sell you dandelions, yes dandelions - I did not buy that mix, I will not pay money for dandelions even if it meant I ended up having extra lettuce, I gave that away), paddled around Ruffle Bar (somewhere around 8 miles), and then yesterday I think I became an official member of the Flying Scot fan club, what a nice little boat, had a lovely day at the Miramar Yacht Club's Seek and Sail. What a nice bunch. The wind started out like a good pie crust - light and flaky! - but it did fill in somewhat over the afternoon and it was just a nice nice day...can I say "nice" again?

Too much to do to take a full lunch hour in the library to do pictures and everything though.

In the meantime - OOOH! My favorite Greenland instructors, Cheri & Turner are going to be doing a number of things in the area over the next couple of weeks. I don't ever mind plugging for them, they are worth it!

First up - on June 21st, they'll be giving their wonderful FREE presentation on Greenland kayaking at The Small Boat Shop in South Norwalk, CT. I went to see this when Yonkers hosted them earlier this year, and I just can't recommend it enough. Aside from seeing some beautiful pictures, the story of the evolution of Cheri's approach to the style is quite fascinating - she started out with a sort of typical American competitive approach, focused on winning - and then - well, turned out the big national kayaking competition in Greenland is a lot different from any US athletic championship. Listening to Cheri talk about what she learned from her first year there, and how much richer her second trip was because she approached it with such a different attitude - well, it's cooler than CGI surfing penguins.

And Turner is Santa Claus!

Next, the weekend of the 23rd & 24th, Turner & Cheri are going to be the head instructors, joined by a posse o' "mentors", at the 3rd (or was it 4th or 5th?) Annual Hudson River Greenland Festival. It's going to be wonderful; I was invited to join their team of mentors (which will include my original Greenland mentor Jack Gilman, some of my other friends from Yonkers, and I think my friend from so many good paddles & rolling sessions last winter, Stevie (Stevie, that's right, right?). I was invited but it was the same weekend as the Sebago Canoe Club's dinghy sailing intensive, plus it was at the end of a long string of Weekends with Major Plans, all of which involved major schleppage of gear - so I decided to be easy on myself & stick with the plan that let me stay in Brooklyn for an entire weekend. Ah, Brooklyn.

Anyways, it's just going to be so darned nice to be able to turn around and be a total, know-nothing beginner, in the midst of all of this work aimed at getting myself back up to speed as a kayak instructor (good grief does THAT need a post or four)!

But for those who haven't been running themselves like crazy people trying to tick off prerequisites - that will be marvelous.

The one other thing that made the choice relatively easy is that I had already signed up for another workshop with Turner & Cheri - they are running a series of workshops through The Small Boat Shop, yes, same place as the slideshow! These workshops aren't free - in fact they may look rather steep - but the classes will be small, lots of individual attention, and of course you get to work in one of Cheri & Turners hand-made Greenland kayaks, in the very lovely Norwalk Islands. I'm really looking forward to it!

Finally - for those of you who might prefer boats of the type that lets you stay right-side up, dry, and in street clothes - the Working Harbor Committee has a couple of Sunset Hidden Harbor Tours coming up! June 20th & July 19th. I've never managed to go on one of these but I've heard good things about them. For just twenty bucks, this is a great way for anyone who's curious to see some parts of NY Harbor that most tour boats never visit!

No comments: