Going round in circles
Published: Fri, 11/15/13
Many years after I had left the Venture Scouts I had another
encounter with canoes. As I recall the occasion was a families
weekend organised by my TA unit. There were a number of activities
including rafting and canoing. I thought I was competent to manage
a canoe but there was a difference this time. The craft we built
ourselves in my Venture scout unit were solid and heavy fibre glass
battleships. Virtually indestructible but quite hard to maneuver
in the water. On the TA weekend the single canoes were modern (at
the time) plastic racing Kayaks which are as light as a feather and
sort of skate on the water like some kind of giant water beetle.
As a result these little boats respond to every touch of paddle to
water and will spin all over the place. I was getting nowhere and
in the end I had to ask the instructor what I was supposed to do
with one of these new fangled Kayak things. The advice was very
simple, just keep focused on where you want to go in the distance
and let the canoe take you there. Of course he was right, so long
as I was watching the prow and trying to make it go where I thought
it should be it would spin all over the place. Once my attention
was way down river then that is where I found myself headed and my
Kayak was happy to take me there.
Got to keep it short this morning, we are heading up to the
Midlands this afternoon ready for the course tomorrow. Looks like
we have 9 or 10 people coming and I am sure it is going to be a
great day. Not to late to come along if you want to, pre-booking
is best at http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/forthcoming.html but if you
want me to send you directions so that you can turn up and pay on
the day then just reply to this and I will take care of it.
Have a lovely weekend whatever you are doing.
regards
Graham
P S I am going to be teaching at Fightcamp again in 2014, Matt
Easton has accepted my offer to teach a seminar on the fundamentals
of training with pole weapons (staff, spear and halberd).
http://www.fightcamp.co.uk and it will be held on the 15th to the
17th of August.