Saturday March 24: Let's Bend the Rule!

This Saturday, only Ben and Zach decided to brave the rainy and rather chilly whether to meet with Sandrine at Great Falls National Park. 



As a first in the history of Cheat Training, the Slow Grinding Death was going to be replaced by some fun surfing time at Rocky Island.  The river level of 3.9 ft was perfect for our long boats.

With the help of Zach, Ben (who had originally put his dry-top front to back, which would only count as one more of Ben's wardrobe-related anecdotes in the history of the Dream Team) managed to get dressed.  There is nothing like team work! Way to go guys!

We unloaded the van, and headed to Sandy Beach.  Without any warm-up, we jumped in the "jaw of the beast" by doing the hairy ferry below the fish ladder before heading down river.



 





Zach proved he had not lost his touch when came the time to work his way upstream against the canyon wall in extremely boily water to catch a few good surfs in the hole at S-turn.  He made this hard move look like a breeze.


After a few minutes of play around S-turn we moved down to Rocky and there...  what a delight it was to carve turns on this big first glossy wave!  We spent over an hour there, surfing and paddling back up ceaselessly, until our muscle could hardly respond anymore. This turned out to be quite a workout! 



We had Rocky for ourselves for almost the whole time we were there, and we felt quite lonely and bored, as you will be able to tell after watching those videos:
 

Zach Rockin' Rocky

Ben Getting a Good Taste of the First Wave     

When came the time to return to Sandy Beach, we realized that the river was too low to simply attain up.  We were about to experience a different type of workout.  Some walking or "boat rock climbing" / knuckle dragging would be required to go back to our starting point.

For some impossible reason for Ben and Sandrine to comprehend, Zach decided to be smart and get out of his boat to simply portage "sticky spots" that were impossible to attain.  Why in the world would you do that?! Ben and Sandrine, however, decided NOT to get out of their boats and to claw their way up the rocks: forward backwards, sideways but at no time their skirts would come off... NEVEEEERRR!!! Plus it is great fun to practice rock climbing with a 30-lb boat attached to your waist!!! Try it sometimes!  This must have been somewhat fun for Zach to watch too...  or maybe was it pathetic?  He may even have shaken his head few times. :)

Finally we made it passed the shallowest part and attained up to Sandy Beach, after a short pause at a small water fall the recent rain had revived in the back channel.  This is the perfect example of the little treasures the Potomac only reveals to kayakers: impossible to get a good look at this little jewel if you are not on the water.  Yes... that's how privileged we are!  Let us not forget about it.

This workout broke the tradition of Cheat Training in many respects but what a great time we had!  It certainly put smiles on our faces.  And it is not impossible that there could potentially be a slight chance that we might even do it again sometimes... maybe... Who knows? 

Thursday, March 22: A Logistical Conundrum

How to bring seven boats to the river when you have only four straps and none of Tom's vans are available?

This is the conundrum that presented itself that Thursday.


First we waited hoping that Tom was going to show in his big white van (after his Atlanta adventure, the Little Gray Van was getting pampered at the repair shop).  About half an hour before our meeting time at Angler's, we started to think about alternatives.... they were scarce. Ten minutes before the meeting time, all hopes of seeing the van appear were lost.  Time to move and do something about this!

We loaded four boats on Sandrine's car with the expert help of George and Liam, and Ellen was going to save the day by stopping by the office to take three boats on her car.  

There was one more hoop to jump through: how to tie those three boats with no straps?! Hmm... yeah... how about throw ropes and... lots of knots? Should work!?  That was a task for Ashley, George and Liam! That was going to be done in no time.  Yes but wait a minute... it is not all that easy... too much slack, no anchors, what's that knot already: "a double half trucker's hitch or somethin' "? After multiple, knotting, "unknotting" and "reknotting" the boats were somewhat tied on the roof... at least they looked like they were and with a little faith, we were going to keep them there all the way to Angler's.

Sandrine and Liam followed Ellen in case she would lose some of her precious load (Yeah! That's how much confidence we had in that tie job... and you should have seen the look on Ashley's face when we left the office...I think it meant "good luck with that!")


The ride to Angler's was long and stressful.  Liam and Sandrine saw the boats shifting around in every turn and they were just waiting for the moment when they would actually fly off.  They did not!  Yes, we witnessed a miracle!  We made it to Angler's and the seven boats with us... We even have pictures to prove it.  (Note the position of the top Pirouette at the office and at Angler's.... see any difference?)

There, Ben, Taylor and Zach were patiently waiting for us.  Yes, Zach is back!! We thought he had abandoned us but there is little doubt he was missing our back breaking workouts way too much to give up on this year's training. 

Welcome back Zach! It is great to have you back!

Incidentally, after we pulled in the parking lot, someone told Sandrine she was "the coolest Mom"!!!??? Hum... the "cool Mom" of SIX teenagers... REALLY?!?!  "Big sister" would have been a compliment, but MOM!?!?  That was a bit hard to take.  Better leave this comment behind and go paddling. :)

Since our little misadventure cost us some training time, we decided to go straight to the point and paddled straight to Wet Bottom.  Ben, Zach and George (who had traded his Wavehopper for a Fox) even spent a few minutes at Rocky, while Ellen, Liam, Taylor and Sandrine practiced ferries in the fast current below the rapid.  


This was a gorgeous and warm evening on the river and even though the training was shorter than usual, everyone seemed like they had their fare share of work.

Two Weeks Into Cheat Training

We are now two weeks into Cheat Training and the new team already proved very strong.  It appears like Sandrine will have to come up with some good challenges for our new paddlers.

Every Thursday, the team meets at Angler's for attainment workouts.  So far, we made it twice to Wet Bottom and a few of us even attained passed it to go surf at Rocky Island.  Attaining Wet Bottom can be tricky, since it both requires good boat control in swift current and swirly water, combined with enough stamina to be able to paddle hard and negotiate the random boils the river keeps "throwing" on the way. 

Last week, Ben made the attainment for the first time and only someone having succeeded at this move at some point could understand the way he felt at that precise moment.  Although this picture of him speaks rather loud. :o)

 On Saturdays, we meet on the Maryland side of Great Falls National Park before walking to Sandy Beach and paddling over seven miles down to Sycamore Island for the infamous Slow Grinding Death.  We usually break down this long paddle into sections and work on various aspect of our paddling: forward strokes, pacing, sprinting...etc.


A few Saturdays ago, our wildwater team joined us for the long haul. As they were zooming past us in their Wavehoppers, we wondered for a second if we were even moving.  We were not, though! Far from it!  Ben and Taylor could confirm that we were working pretty hard!  We essentially worked on sprints and we made very good time down the river.

LAKS Racing Team Kayak Camp in Atlanta

 On March 3-4, George, Will, Tom and Sandrine drove to Atlanta, GA to attend a wildwater training camp led by former head coach of the US junior wildwater team, Maurizio Tognacci. 

We left DC on Friday afternoon ready to let Tom's Little Gray Van take us to Atlanta.  Unfortunately, about an hour from DC, the Super Van decided it would not cooperate.  It did not quite appreciate the heavy rain, which poured on us for most of the way.  Every time the engine would stall, the silence in the van seemed to be screaming: "Is this the end of our trip?" But every time, after a few minutes of rest, the car would start again, allowing us to slowly and gingerly make headway towards our goal.  After more than thirteen hours on the road in dreadful weather conditions we made it to our campground. It was 2:30 am.

Smiley and Smiley

Despite a short night under nothing but a pavilion to "protect us" from the pouring rain, we woke up ready to meet Maurizio and start our weekend of training... but not before celebrating the most important event of the day: Tom's birthday!!  


After a (very) short morning celebration we headed towards our training location.
We were on the water shortly after meeting Maurizio and Tom O'Sullivan, who helped coordinating the clinic.  From then on, the focus was on learning, absorbing, practicing all the techniques, tips and racing strategies Maurizio shared with us.

George Boss, Tom O'Sullivan and Will Harris.

 We covered some wildwater paddling essentials such as Arms-Legs-Torso synchrony technique, fast turns...etc Maurizio also emphasized the racing dimension of the sport (starting a race, race strategy...) and provided guidance in terms of workout improvement.  We also did sprint trials and our various practice drills were filmed and analyzed.  


Over the course of only two days, Maurizio shared with us a myriad of training tips, technical information and racing strategies, and his enthusiasm and zest inspired all of us.  George and Will, in whom he saw some promising talents, came back to DC more motivated than ever to nurture and grow their potential with some hard (but fun) work and practice.

Overall, these two days of training were an invaluable learning experience for our freshly born "Wavehopping team".  It was well worth enduring the long haul and the moodiness of the Super Van and we all made it back to DC ready to take on the racing season.

Maurizio Tognacci surrounded by the LAKS team.