kayaking AGAIN and stupid keys! and intro to Windowshadding

I'll start with last weekend (8/3). I went kayaking of course, big shocker!! It was an arranged weekend sponsored by the local paddling community, Colorado Whitewater Association. They have several weekends a year on different rivers to offer instruction and support for new paddlers. We were at the Colorado river which at these water levels is almost ALL beginner runs. There's one short stretch which is called Shoshone and it's is a class III run. It's very short and the take out is also the put in for a much much easier run which is where we meet up with the beginners we're going to take down the easy stretch. Last year I ran Shoshone and ate shit several times. I think I swam more of the run then I was actually in my boat. THIS time however it was AWESOME!! I made it through all the rapids upright and solid!! I was so stoked. Then the trickiest rapid of the run is called Tombstone. It's tricky because there is a gigantic rock on river right, but you enter on river right, so it's a quick move left to avoid the rock then another right to avoid another obstacle a few yards away from the rock. Normally it would have been fine but I did not start cutting over until too late which caused me to hit the rock (hard) and then my boat flipped upside down. I waited for a few seconds until I felt my paddle catch on the surface and then rolled up. I have this on a head cam video but I can't seem to make it load onto You Tube. Anyway the head cam isn't the greatest but the audio on this is classic. You see the rapid ahead, then hear a distinct grunt as I hit the rock, and I tip over under water and then you hear what it's like to be under water in current which is cool. The last part is me flipping up and you can hear everyone in my group screaming 'YEAH...NICE JOB...THAT was AWESOME!!'. I'll keep working on the videos to post. All in all in was a great weekend. All my paddling girlfriends were there and we had a great time hanging out around the campfire and chatting with the huge group of people that were there :) We even went skinny dipping....one thing's for sure Colorado rivers are COLD!!! VERY VERY COLD! It was a bad idea but we were already in the water before that started to make sense :) BURRRRRRRR! The whole weekend was a lot of paddling...the beginner runs are really flat so you have to keep paddling if you want to move any faster. My shoulders, arms and torso were so sore on Sunday night. I love that feeling of just having made your muscles work extra hard. The cardio comes in when we have to hike boats in and out on our shoulders...I have a creek/river running boat which means it's heavy and bulky. It may not sound like a workout, but it is..there's sweating involved, heaving breathing, raised heart rates.

I got back on Sunday pretty late. On Monday I had the day off so I ran some errands and took the dogs for a walk. It was pretty muggy from all the rain lately so it was a shorter walk than normal. I got on the treadmill afterwards and hiked up the incline. I'm still a little nervous when walking Olive I don't want to trigger anything. She's was fine...very happy and energtic, so I should probably stop worring about it.

The week went by and on Thursday I met Laura and Chad for a surf lesson at Golden Play park. There are several whitewater play parks around here that are mostly occupied by play boaters and stupid teenieboppers who ride an entertube (sp) down it without life jackets and in their bikinis without shoes.. STUPiD!!!!! I have only ever done river running and creeking which requires large volume boats and lots of rapids and moves. Play boating requires short tiny boats and you are usually getting on a wave to surf if and do tricks. So we started pretty high up on the course (they held the junior olympics on this run a few weeks ago). We went down the first couple of holes until we reached the 'library hole'. Holes are tricky...some are sticky, some are keepers and some will just flush you out, but in these parks there's a big wave to ride just at the bottom of the hole. I wish I would have taken pictures..it's hard to explain it. Anyway, we waited in swirly eddy's for our turn on the wave. Since it was my first time I just ferried accross the wave to get the feel for it. By the end of the day I had gotten flipped about 4 or 5 times, but managed to surf for about a milisecond. I was happy with that :)

I was happy because just a few minutes prior to my milisecond on the wave was my introduction to watching windowshadding. It happens when the wave catches an edge just right on your boat which is caused by doing something wrong. the result is a violent and very audible smack when the wave literally whips you upside down and smacks you back to the water. It's incredbily painful to watch and you hear the commentery from the other boaters in the eddy all scream at the same time 'OHHHH that's gotta hurt'! Thank you, but I prefer to not be windowshadded if I can help it!! :)

We started to get a little cold and tired, so we got out and headed back to the cars which is a very long walk while shouldering your boat. I was in pain by the time I saw my car. I took out my key opened the door and put the key in the change holder so I wouldn't mis place it while I dried off. I hit what I thought was unlock so I could get into the back and then closed the door... Opps, it was lock instead of unlock. So now I am locked out of my car soaking wet in my gear and it's starting to get dark. I called a locksmith and my kayaking buds hung out while I waited. Laura decided we needed to try and unlock it ourselves. So about an hour later while there was a kayaking paddle shoved into the seam of my car window, and from a borrowed spool of wire we made a hook like device that was also shoved into the small opening the paddle provided, we all stood with flashlights and commentary, to try and get the door to unlock. The locksmith guy finally showed up, reaking of alcohol, bloodshot eyes and stinky aroma from smoke and liquor (so glad he drove there to do this). There were approximately 6 or 7 people gathered around my car window and we all asked if I could get a discout because we had ALMOST gotten it open :) He said yes and I gave him a little less cash under the table and I was in!! These people hung out while it was dark and the monster misquitoes attacked violently all while giving 100% effort to try and beat the locksmith. Great friends, this is why I love this little community of boaters. It's filled with genuinely good people!! Anyway, I'm investing in a hide-a-key box and lots of extra keys! First and last time it will ever happen!!

So Mike...Mr. Matchmaker... where's my hook up? I'm single yet again, maybe I should try and find a firefighter? I'm not sure I could date anyone else from Goex though....crazy Matt was enough!!

OK after work today (yes I'm at work), I'm heading up to Buena Vista to camp out with friends and paddle something on the Arkansas river on Sunday. My goal next week is to post again with actual hours on the treadmill RUNNING!! ....and maybe a few videos and pics from the last few weekends.