A Week Away from The Cheat!

Thursday March 24: The Team Gives it All!

On Thursday, Ben, Liam, Jonathan, Zach, Tom and Sandrine met at Angler's for an attainment workout.  It all started with a "gear explosion".  Gear and clothing were found in a 50-yard radius around our changing spot.

A careful inspection of the scattered items led to the discovery of one black sock and one white one, which were suspected to form a pair. Of course no one was daring enough to get too close to those evidences but we all had a pretty good idea of the identity of their owner...  The black/white mismatch CLEARLY pointed to one person in particular!! (Need a clue? See the previous pages of this blog) :))

 


Before getting on the water, Zach "insisted" to demonstrate his dancing (I think?) skillz, while Liam kept proudly flexing the powerful muscles he developed after three weeks of Cheat Training.
We finally made it to the water.  The river level was about 4.5 feet. A rather challenging level. 
After working on ferries (including back ferries), we tried to attain on the Maryland side.  The ferry required to reach river left was arduous but everybody gave it a good try.  Those who made it showed extreme perseverance to make a tricky attainment move along the wall on river left and came very close to succeeding. 


We ended up paddling to Center Chute and doing a very long ferry almost all the way to the Virginia side.  We tried to attain at Virginia Chute and Center Chute but the Po' was not in a cooperative mood that day and the Dream Team was compelled to portage over the rocks between Virginia- and Center-Chutes before attaining farther up the Gorge.

On the way up the gorge, Ben decided to make friends with a goose, who did not seem so interested in socializing.  However, her standoffish attitude never discouraged Ben, who did not hesitate to ferry to the other side of the river and to even back track to keep chasing her.  Or maybe was he simply practicing his ferry technique?

After an hour and a half of hard work, the Dream Team ended up gathering by a pierced rock on river right before using their last bit of energy in a final sprint back to Angler's.  Ben asked for a head start to try and find is favorite goose but she had vanished without a trace... most likely traumatized for the rest of her life by Ben's chase "a la Pepe Le Pew".  Zach held his ground in a sprint against Tom and was the first of the group to reach the take out but everybody paddle very hard to the end.

Everyone did a great job and tried their best that evening.  The Dream Team showed it deserved its name!

WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND?

Those attains and ferries taught us a few important things:

1. Momentum is important when crossing an eddy line or when paddling over boils.
2. Maintaining a good angle between our boat and the current is key for a successful ferry and also to make most attainment moves.  To do so,
1. Avoid opening your angle too much when you "hit" the fast downstream current.
2. Maintain and correct your angle with stern sweeps (since you are pointing upstream.  You will use bow sweeps when you travel downstream)
3. You want to alternate your strokes and engage your torso (and not just your arms) in order to not lose too much ground when ferrying and to overcome the downstream current when you attain up

Saturday March 26: Last Slow Grinding Death

We all met on Saturday on the Maryland side of Great Falls National Park for the last Slow Grinding Death of the season.  Fortunately, the boats made it there too, despite a somewhat dubious tying job. :))


 The guys did not seem too enthused  by the idea of a 7-mile paddle to Sycamore Island. So they came up with all kinds of creative alternatives to the Slow Grinding Death, most of them involving "playing at Center Chute" and "Taking out at Angler's".  After considering these propositions for about a tenth of a second, Ashley and Sandrine agreed there was something very wrong with this picture and that it would probably be better to "stick to the plan". 

We carried our boats to Sandy Beach and warmed up with some ferry and peel-out practice as well as a nice challenging attainment move leading to the bottom of the Fish Ladder. The level was around 5.2 feet and the current was fast and powerful in the main river channel.

We made it to the bottom of Rocky Island by paddling down the tight channel directly across from Sandy Beach. Everybody did very well.


From there, the plan was to paddle all the way to Sycamore Island and to time ourselves.  Will and George asked for a head start in order to "pay a visit" to Center Chute hole.  The rest of us would go down the Maryland side.




The boils below Rocky Island were massive and treacherous.  This caused a little misadventure to Jonathan, although he may only have been testing the quality of his dry-top and neoprene pants. In the meantime, Ashley had paddled down to meet with Will and George, and Liam was a few eddies down, waiting for Jonathan and Sandrine to catch-up. 

Jonathan, Liam and Sandrine were making their way downstream in an attempt to catch up with the rest of the group when, after passing Maryland Chute, the weirdest sight caught their eye...

Ashley was in the middle of a rather peculiar rescue.  She was pulling George's boat, but his boat was hooked to her's with... HER HELMET!!  With this rig "a la MacGyver", Ashley managed to tow the boat all the way to Center Chute, where George was waiting after having spent some "quality time" in the hole.  A few minutes later, George got back in the saddle and the Team was reunited.  We all paddled down non-stop to Sycamore Island for one last time before the Cheat.

GOOD JOB TEAM! YOU DID IT !

WHAT TO KEEP IN MIND ?

1. Always keep an active paddle blade in the water!!  This will make you more stable.  This is especially important when running rapids and when driving over sneaky boils! Just KEEP PADDLING!
2. Holes loooove long boats!! Once they grab them, they do not always want to let them go!! :))

March 19 2011: Spring Has Sprung

It All Started in An Almost Normal Way...

This Saturday, the Potomac had returned to the more reasonable level of about 5 ft, which allowed us to go for a second edition of the "Slow Grinding Death" going from Angler's to Sycamore Island. 

The team (minus Liam and Thomas, away on a backpacking trip) met at noon under sunny skies.  Spring was in the air and the balmy temperature caused a smidgen of confusion among the members of the Dream Team. Could they be the victims of a mild collective heat stroke?  Maybe! But they were more likely perturbed by the sharp contrast between the chilly temperatures of the past few weeks and the 70+ degrees we experienced this Saturday.  As a result, the first half-hour was spent discussing wardrobe issues.  "What to wear or not to wear?  Dry top? Too warm! Fleece? To cold!  Splash top? Disgustingly sticky! Neoprene or neoprene+splash top? But it is too warm for that today! Yes, but the water is cold!" And on goes the dry-top.  "But we are going to work hard and sweat!" And off goes the dry-top. 
After some animated discussions and debates everyone made up their mind and the group ended up with a whole range of river apparel going from bare arms to full-on dry-top/neoprene combination with, in between, the fleece only outfit and the "almost dry-top" option.  Ben won the price of the "Most Laid-back Paddler of The Day" with a casual "Socks-only style" -- yes, that means no shoes :) -- tastefully enhanced by a white sock-black sock combination.

Eventually, we put on the canal to practice some drills while working our way up-river.  After taking out at Canal Falls, Ben realized in horror that he had been giving a ride to a colony of ants (see little black fuzzy things in the picture), which decided to call "home" his very cozy blue Pirouette S. The squatters were promptly drowned in the Potomac as soon as we reached Sandy Beach.  The ant extermination turned out to be quite an undertaking but the inside of Ben's boat ended up squeaky clean.  In the meantime, Sandrine, whose boat was filling with water so fast that she was paddling "a bath tub", found multiple cracks at the bottom of her boat and patched them with some Gorilla tape, hoping she would not sink before reaching the Sycamore Island take-out. 

After a couple of other misadventures involving a little bit of "cross-training" for some of us (i.e. some rolling, a little swimming, a touch of rock climbing, some heavy boat lifting...etc) we paddled downstream in an eerily uneventful way.  Our down-river paddle was broken down in several stages and we practiced paddling at different paces.  Hopefully, everybody also started to understand the importance of reading the water in order to work with the river instead of fighting it and muscling their way around.

Here are a few tips, that might be useful on these long stretches of paddling, during a race or simply while running rivers.

How to Cheat the Slow Grinding Death

The down river paddle to Sycamore Island better known as "Slow Grinding Death"  will not seem so "slow" nor so "grinding" if you apply a few simple tips:

1. Focus on your strokes

1. Make them as efficient as you can by engaging your torso muscles rather than your arms only. Here is a link to a video that Tom put together to illustrate the forward stroke technique.
2. Avoid back-strokes to correct the angle of your boat but prefer sweeps, draws and even rudders.  Back-strokes kill your momentum... Not so good, is it? 

2. Use the water! The shortest time between two points is not always achieved by following a straight line.

1. Read the water (color, texture...etc)
2. Follow the fast moving water
3. Avoid going through waves and holes.  They will slow you down considerably.
4. When you can, use whirlpools to pick-up momentum and get your boat to glide. It is a very cool feeling, too!

3. Do not go all out all the time.

1. First: CONTROL.  It is better NOT to take a stroke than take a stroke that will not propel your boat where you want it to go.
2. Then, POWER.  Only put the "pedal to the metal" when you know you have total control of your craft.  This will prevent you from spinning out of control and have to struggle to get back on track.

These simple tips are a good starting point. 
Try to keep them in mind next time you are on the river. 
Hopefully they will work for you!! =o)

Saturday March 12 2011: Zee Team Hits the Town

With a river level close to 11 feet, "Zee Team" (minus Zach, who had to be on a SAT mission) hit the Capital.  The exercise was a bit different from "the Slow Grinding Death" you experienced last weekend.

We zoomed from Fletcher's boathouse to the Key Bridge in less than half an hour. The water was moving fast!!  You all noticed the huge boils and whirlpools we encountered, especially after peeling out of our starting eddy.  And even if nobody had to experience highly technical moves such as the "refrigerator boof" or the "washing machine dodge", you saw that the Po can sometimes move some pretty large and not so friendly objects.   The River certainly showed us a different personality yesterday.

After paddling on river left past Roosevelt Island and past the Memorial Bridge, we attained back up on the river right side of Roosevelt Island.  Everybody seemed to absolutely looooooooove paddling upstream -- or not? --  In any case, you all did pretty well, despite the despair that started to show at times.  by the way, keep focusing on your forward stroke! I already noticed some improvement!


Despite the enthusiasm that gained the group during the attainment up river, Ashley and I (after much begging and pleading) managed to get you all to finally paddle downstream.  After a nice sprint to the finish line, we took out at the Washington Canoe Club, where another set of activities such as stretching, chatting, trash talking, wrestling....etc took place.  You guys are certainly a fun crowd!!

It looks like this workout opened Liam's appetite!! Or is this an ad for Clif Bars?

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND GOOD SPIRIT !


 SEE YOU ON THE RIVER!