Topic: The Esopus…day 6 of new streak of goodnessf
I got up nice and early Sat. morning, 5:45am, grabbed a train to NYC, subway to the UWside, and caught a ride w/ another kayaker up to the Esopus Creek River, near Phoenicia NY.
There we were met by a large group, about 13 or so other paddlers. It was 10am, we did quick intros, ran vehicle shuttles to the river take-out, and by 11am were on our way. Compared to the Deerfield River I ran last week, this river was a bit quicker, but still a class 2 river.
The first rapid I banged into another paddler, couldn’t quite brace myself, and flipped. I nearly had my roll, but my knees accidentally popped my skirt, and I was swimming. I also passed off my paddle and had to wait a while to have the paddle returned upstream to me.
The rest of the morning was somewhat frustrating…a lot of time spent sitting in an eddy, watching the more experienced paddlers surfing waves. After lunch I was determined to start practicing my roll, which I knew I could do on flatwater, and simply had to regain some confidence so I could start hitting them whenever necessary.
After lunch we came to a drop, which we called The Ledge. We got out to scout the short rapid, which involved a 4ft. somewhat gradual drop into a nasty recirculating hole of water. We watched many tubers float down, and as they slid into the hole, 100% of them slowed to a halt before being shot backwards and flipped upside down. The more riverleft a tuber went, the better their odds of making it through upright, but few did.
So…I went down this rapid, paddling frantically towards the left, the current pushing me right. I hit the hole, and found my fate the same as the tubers. Only…I didn’t panic, waited a few seconds till the hole flushed me out, and went for my role. Sweeping my padle to the surface, and then uncorking my body (describing a roll in nearly impossible to someone who has never seen or tried one). Next thing I knew…I was upright. My first “combat roll” or, roll hit in real action!
That was my first big accomplishment. By Monday, my 3rd day running the river, I was at a stage where I knew I could hit my roll anytime. This allowed me to be a lot more aggressive, running The Ledge 5-times, learning to surf waves, ferrying across strong currents. I went from a D to a B paddler this weekend, but am not by any means feeling cocky or overly confidant. As another paddler, who paddles Class 4 rapids and walked away last week from one w/ a black and blue upper thight and swolen ass cheek that looked like it was actually a 3rd cheek, “If you mock the river, the River God will strike you back down.”
The weekend was a success largely due to the people I was w/. Another Dan, about 60 years old, was the only other person to paddle 3-days. We camped out together, and he had tons of guidance to give me.
The most important thing I learned was to “slow the river down.” To try to be the last person down a rapid, because I was spending my time catching eddies, and riding through a wave train sideways to slow the boat. We would spend sometimes 10min. on the same section of water, practicing skills. Some of the freesyle kayakers would do cartwheels and other moves I’d never thought possible in a kayak.
I think this idea of slowing down the river hits me on a few levels. For paddling, it allows you to see things you wouldn’t otherwise see, to try new things, to learn more, to practice more, and to think about the river in a different way. A tuber can go straight down a river and have a great day, but a kayaker will go down that same river, and recognize and understand how the river works. Experienced paddlers describe to me how they start seeing lines immediately where they want to go.
I met tons of great people, after paddling we’d go out for food and drinks. One couple brought up fresh Canadian salmon for breakfast. Weather was great. No stress. Learned a lot. Was active, outdoors, just great.
Tonight I’m gonna try playing kayak polo. Never even knew it was a sport…if goes well, will likely give me something to do in the winter since they play in a pool.
Plot is thickening a bit in YSKOV. Will and Hand lost a good friend in a car wreck, that’s part of the reason Will wanted to go on this frantic journey. Their methods for distributing Will’s cash get funnier by the moment, including taking cabs one block, giving them $50, then calling for another cab to bring them back, and giving them $100. To them, it becomes almost a form of modern art what they’re doing. Another part involves them haggling for trinkets, but instead of haggling down, they haggle-up the price. None of this info will take-away from someone reading this book…there is much more to it than I can begin to describe.
Now that I’m just starting to feel comfortable in NY, I’m not as certain about my future plans. As I discovered travelling, I liked or disliked a place mostly because of the weather, the people, or other intangibles. Growing up…the thought of living and working anywhere near Long Island, including NYC, was not something I ever wanted. Now…it doesn’t bother me at all, since I’m getting away on the weekends, I spend the majority of my day making kayak plans, reading, and not feeling too much stress.
A lot of the career path I was thinking about was still a result of my bitter experience in college. I don’t think I was doing many things in life that didn’t stem out of that experience. Going to SA, writing College Daze, Outward Bound, I think those things for me were partly “to get back” at college, to show them that they were wrong and those things were right. I realize now that that is not the case, and I realize now that getting back at people or institutions tends to have a negative effect on me, rather than having the cathartic or growth experience that I often strive for.
Even my desire to go into counseling, I believe to be somewhat stemming from my distaste for my schooling experiences. I obviously can’t tell how much of this is conscious or not. I also know that from a practical standpoint, I’m really not all that prepared to tacklet grad school. I sitll know little about the type of work they do, I know little about a lot of things.
I also feel the need to maintain flexibility and control over the major choices in my life, so I feel completely free to completely abandon this pursuit. I now feel like I can stay in my current situation for 1-year, and by then will have a bit more financial freedom to consider other things…although I know a lot of the options I may want to take will require me to get started months in advance.
I could still teaching English abroad for a year.
Maybe I could go for further WW kayaking training and make that stereotypical dream job of becoming a river guide come true.
…………..
-dan
