Summary of BCU 3-Star training in Astoria, OR

Although it’s been a month or so, I wanted to give you a report on the kayak training I took down in Oregon this October! There are a couple of organizations in North America that do paddling certifications, both for paddling skill and instructor/coach: the American Canoe Association, and the British Canoe Union (North America). There’s a great kayak shop down in Portland called Alder Creek, and they hosted the 1st Annual BCU Week in Astoria, OR. BCU coaches from around the US and the UK all converged and conducted a number of training classes and certification assessments. In the BCU scheme, for paddling skills there are 1 through 5 stars. This class I was taking was for the 3-star. But there were also people there taking more advanced paddling and coaching classes, so it was great to be around so many experienced paddlers.

I *totally* enjoyed the class: the material, the coaches (Jeff from Liquid Fusion Kayaking and Malcolm from AlderCreek), the other students, and heck even the weather! We had a lot to cover. Here are some of the highlights and things I learned.

  • On Day 1 probably the biggest factor was weather! Even though we were only on a lake, we were at the upper limit of what a 3-star paddler would be expected to perform in. We’re talking heavy [side-ways] rain and winds at 20+ mph and  higher gusts. And we were doing exercises  in the wind!
  • As I eluded, we did a lot of different types of tows and rescues. A lot of Eskimo rescues.
  • For strokes that day, the big new one for me was a much improved sculling draw stroke! And we had some fun in the wind with a surfing (turning) stroke. Worked on high brace too.
  • Got to finish the day by swimming and towing my kayak the last ~100 yards to shore.
  • Day 2 was on the mighty Columbia near the town of Hammond, OR. And it was sunny, by the way.
  • A lot of this day was focused on navigation, collision avoidance, using a radio / contacting the Coast Guard, paddling as a group.
  • Ever try to paddle in a straight line backwards using a transit/range? A good challenge!
  • We ended the day practicing turns in current and combination turns, good stuff!
  • Day 3, our last day, was in the harbor at Hammond doing more rescues  (which I enjoy), like solo/cowboy and assisted rescues.
  • To build on the Eskimo rescue in day 1, we worked a lot on how to come in as the rescuing boat as well as the best way as the “victim” to find the rescuer’s boat from underwater.
  • We also worked on sculling for support, where you’re basically keeping yourself parallel to the water by sculling. Funny story on this: when we were practicing, my job was to keep my partner Andrew’s boat from rolling over while he practiced sculling. He’s a big, tall Rugby-player kind of guy, and I wasn’t able to adequately counter-balance. But I wasn’t going to let go! He pulled me and my boat completely out of the water, momentarily. Fortunately our coaches were nearby to assist.
  • And finally, some balance games like kiss your bow (I can) and spin in your seat (I can). There’s a couple I can’t do yet like standing on your back deck and standing on your head. Someday I will!

 

Paddling

A list of firsts from Body Boat Blade 5-day kayak class

I just got back from a 5-day kayak class in the San Juan Islands by Body Boat Blade International. WOW! I absolutely loved it. The instructors are world-class, fun-loving and great people. I had a blast and learned a *ton*. On the ferry ride home yesterday I started writing down all the firsts from the trip and thought I would share them with you. Here goes: this week was my first…

  • Quick launch! from shore and from dock
  • Eating kelp! (crunchy delicious)
  • Standing on my back deck and other kayak games like kiss the bow, sit on stern, spin in seat, spin on back deck
  • Roll (back deck roll via static brace)!!! It needs some work, I rolled twice but I think they were fortunate accidents. Many (many) more failed attempts, fortunately with Matt and/or Shawna standing close by.
  • Static brace
  • High brace
  • Circumnavigation of Obstruction Island (check it off!)
  • Bow rudder stroke
  • Cross-deck bow rudder stroke
  • Cross-desk bow pinch stroke
  • Forward stroke ‘cycling’ motion AKA power transfer
  • On-water navigation using time/bearings and fixes
  • Using tow-belt
  • Conducting multi-factor risk assessment process prior to each trip
  • Paddling all kinds of different boats: 1) Nigel Dennis Kayaks (NDK) Romany kayak, 2) homemade (by Shawna) skin-on-frame traditional Greenland-style kayak and paddle, 3) Valley Rapier 20′ racing kayak and 4) Matt’s Pyranha Burn creek boat. But NOT the canoe (whah)
Paddling

Jake the dog turns 12!

Well everybody, say Happy Birthday to Jake today. He turns 12, and that’s in human years! And no, he doesn’t have a Facebook page. He’s slowed down a little bit, not much, but he still loves to go on walks and play Frisbee, and in general get lots of attention from everybody he meets! We got him when he was about 6 weeks old, shortly after we moved back to the Puget Sound from Wenatchee. What’s the saying — my, how time flies!

Family

Original recording for WSDOT

Listen to this! I was asked recently by my company, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), to create an original recording for use with their phone on-hold system. It was a lot of fun, and when you listen to this first preview see if you can pick out the following themes. In thinking about the project and the types of work that goes on at WSDOT, I created three distinct sections of the song:

Winter — the snow is falling lightly in the Cascade Mountains, the snow-laden firs stand tall and the massive, majestic peaks rise up above you as you pass through them

Summer — it’s workin’ time! Let’s get out there and build some roads. Hammers clang, machinery belches, and we’re driving forward!

Ferries — it’s another beautiful day as you cross Rosario Strait on your way to the San Juan Islands. The sun sparkles off the wave-tops and the brisk wind comes straight at you. The waves lap up against the ferry as it’s underway and creates a natural rhythmic pattern. Seagulls overhead match pace with the boat, and in the distance you see a harbor seal pop its head out of the water to keep an eye on you.

https://www.chuckandbrandi.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/WSDOT-hold-ver11.mp3

Music

No more binary days? Do not despair!

If you’re like me you’ve enjoyed the times this year when a date consists of all ones and zeros, called a binary day, and then if you’re really a geek you figure out what the corresponding decimal value would be. But since there aren’t any more this century, and detractors would point out that it didn’t work if you used the 4-digit year, I’ve had to continue my search (did I mention I work in the Information Technology field? Geek Alert.) Enter ternary days!! You can read all about it on Wikipedia, but it solves both problems: it works great with a 4-digit year like 2011 (or 2012!) and provides many more opportunities for ternary dates in the next two years. Ternary is the base 3 numeral system, where each bit can have three values: 0, 1 and 2. That means that today [11222011] would equal 3622 in decimal! I cheated and used a Base-N Calculator I found online.

So there you go: ternary days. Expect a tweet from me on December 1st…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_numeral_system

http://www.efunda.com/units/base_n.cfm?base_from=3

 

Technology

Ever been tempted to skip a meeting?

I was today. I co-lead our company’s tech review team, and it wasn’t my turn to facilitate the meeting. We’ve rebooted the process recently and it’s been going really well. Attendance (largely developers who choose willingly to come) has been growing. All good things. Well today I’m tempted to skip it in lieu of another project I’m working on — that one is a ‘big deal’ and requires a lot of research in a relatively short amount of time. So I think “I can skip tech review and work on my research project”. Well I’m really glad I didn’t, and it was a good reminder for me. After the meeting I had somebody come up to us, the facilitators, and thank us for getting the team going again. The reminder: skipping a meeting when you’re busy is one thing, when you lead something you need to invest in its success and growth at every opportunity. Don’t be overly distracted by the urgent things and not get to what’s important. That’s something I learned from a little (30 page) book I read in college called The Tyranny of the Urgent. It’s a Christian book, which makes sense I suppose because it was a Christian college, so it ties in faith as it makes its point. But the point of taking time to do the important thing, especially as a leader, has stuck with me.

Faith, Technology

C & B and the Champs Elysees

image

Brandi and I went to France for our 10th wedding anniversary in March 2004. What a fantastic time! I took a photo of us standing in front of the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysees and photoshop’ed it to make it look like an impressionist painting. It now hangs over our fireplace in our home. So this is a picture of the print (of the picture).

Family, Travel
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