A Widow Dip

How Karen Got Her Groove Back

Have I left you all hanging long enough? My off-season cross training activity is... drum roll, please... hip-shaking, chest-rolling, belly dancing! I stand in front of a mirror and make peace with my jelly, and hopefully as we become friends we can do a each other little favour: I show it off and it shall tighten up. There are muscles to whom I havn't spoken in a while, and I am challenged by making them move in new ways.

It's amazing how reserved and stiff we can be until we are moving our bodies with other women, showing off our bellies, and jingling scarves around our waists. We learn how to loosen up and giggle while we jiggle... Bill Cosby, eat your heart out! I seriously need to loosen up, though. I will be practicing in the car, doing dishes, taking out the trash, talking on the phone.... I hope that by Christmas I will be jingling my bells around my hips.

I'm fall-ing in love...

...with the most WONderful season of the year! The air is crisp and full of more smells than a high school, and the trees are as colourful as the well clad folk walking under them. I love the knit sweaters, the knee high boots, the scarves, the wool jackets, the hats.... Apples taste better than in any other season, wineries reveal their latest vintages, and a homemade stew warms the heart, soul, and body.

Fall prepares us for the cleansing of the winter in order to bring us the new birth of spring, an even though the leaves and the grass seem almost dead at my feet, I feel most alive knowing the fall marks change for me. Death brings new life, and grief should stir change and hope in us. The end of a year is approaching and I feel a confidence and motivation stirring in me to begin setting the table to voraciously take in the possibilities laid out for me. I shall raise a glass of a 2005 Sumac Ridge Cabernet/Merlot and with a tear toast the past with all of its memories of joys and sorrows, and drink to the year to come.

Now, if you will excuse me.... I am going to make myself a cup of tea, dust off my TV for the first of a few long anticipated season premieres.

Let it Ride....

Tonight, I hang up my paddle and PFD after a glorious season of dragon boating. We paddled up and down the river tonight, as normal, but it felt so final when we pulled the 6-16 (type of dragon boat we use) out of the water, portaged it up to the boathouse, and parallel parked it next to the other boats. I reminisced how we paddled through the then high and raging waters, then to the low and calm waters now. We paddled through clouds of mosquitoes and waves created by careless boaters. We paddled through rain, hail, and heat.

Memories of the teammates, beer, burgers, chants, belches, and so much more will stir me to smile. Not to forget the accomplishments of five regattas, three medals, and one ribbon! I am unsure whether I will be paddling with this team next year as I start to plan for the rest of my life, but there is no doubt that dragon boating will be part of those plans!

There IS one more practice on Thursday as there is one boat still in the river for winter training, but I will not be attending. I have other plans. Should I share? Or should I just leave you all hanging until Thursday night? I will give you a hint: It focuses on core strength which is a great cross training exercise for the off-season. Oh yes, and it requires some... rhythm.

I will miss my team, pub nights, and yes, I will continue to miss my cute hat. I still keep an eye out with the hopes that one day it will find its way back to me. Like a message in a bottle, it drifts with my heart to some far off land where it shall rest, and frolic with other cute hats. I digress...

FINISH! IT! NOW!......Let it ride.... Cheers!

Huli Happens - A lesson in leaning

The Fraser River might have been a little chilly and icky, but some conditions just don't stop us paddlers! Take this weekend, for instance: we had our final regatta in Kelowna and while Saturday was gorgeous, Sunday was treacherous with 2 foot swells-- and we paddled anyways. We accept that dragon boating, canoeing, kayaking, and doing dishes are all water sports.

The Fort Langley Canoe Club just bought an OC6 (an Outrigger Canoe that seats 6 paddlers), and we have all been excited about paddling Hawaiian style in the Bedford Channel. An OC6 is a much skinnier canoe with a beam on one side and consequently has a propensity to flip, or "huli". So in order to have permission to take this new toy out, we must attend a huli clinic.

The anatomy of an Outrigger Canoe:

Yesterday, we portaged the OC6 down a few blocks and launched it into the river. We stood in the rain while we learned the what's-its and who's-thats of the vessel and then we piled into the canoe and paddled out to the middle of the river to huli and recover. Brrr! We leaned to the right, grabbed the left gunwal, and over we went! Seat 1 collects the paddles, seats 2 and 5 straddle the bottom of the boat, seats 3 and 4 hang onto the ama while 2 and 5 flip their legs around and stand on the mukus. They reach over the gunwal and grab the iakos and as 3 & 4 give the ama a push, the weight redistributes, the ama flips around and hits the water with a loud THWACK, and Bob's your uncle. We climbed in, we bailed, and paddled like hell. Just to make sure we had the technique down, we rinsed and repeated 4 times. OK, it was a shivering good time! Exhilarating! Some of us couldn't get enough of it! In fact, I hope to catch the next clinic just so that I can do it again! I plan on having my personal photographer, Krista, there to document it.

To learn more about Outrigger Canoes and hulis visit Pogue Sports Canoe Club. There are pictures of the huli, and the canoe in the pictures is identical to the one that we flipped.