lake is getting warmer, sort of

We had only three people confirm for practice last night so we decided to opt for an OC1 practice. Funny, looking at all the OC1 paddlers we had we could have taken an OC6 out! There was Meilee, Lianne, Tom, Kyle, John, Kevin, me, and Bromley on the surfski.

We have enough women on the team now that we are going to have to do a time trial to select the crew for the Gorge race in July. Our time trial will be from SSP across the lake to Denny Park and back. Meilee, Lianne, and I decided to paddle the time trial course to get a little practice. I got to Denny Park first in just under 15 minutes, Lianne came in just over 16 minutes, and Meilee, who'd said she planned to paddle more leisurely, arrived in just over 17 minutes. As we were regrouping we saw John headed our way, we didn't realize he was planning to paddle the course with us as well so we waited for him to get to Denny Park before we headed back.

We decided to take a more relaxed trip back, paddling and chatting and working on technique. When we got most of the way back to SSP we met up with Tom and Kyle and Kevin and Bromley. There were a few bumps (small waves caused by boat wake) that we paddled and tried to catch! That was lots of fun.

Kyle, at 12, has already got awesome technique. Not surprising with an awesome paddler like Tom for a dad! Lianne has got some mad skillz, too. Tom was giving us some tips on how to fly the ama. I went over in fairly short order! The lake is not as cold as when we huli'd the OC6 a few weeks ago, but it certainly isn't as warm as a late August swim would be either. A little later Lianne was working on flying her ama and went over, but not quite as spectacularly as I did, she slid off her seat and didn't even get her hair wet! Right after that I went over again, too. At that point I decided that I'd probably had enough for the evening, but it was fun and worth it.

Saturday we have a big paddle lined up. We are continuing our training for Gibson's by paddling from SSP down to the I-90 bridge, the western side, and back. It should be about 15 miles! Looks like the weather should be pretty nice, too! I plan to bring my camera along and get a few snaps while we are out.