China’s Eastern Rivers

A request for help at the bottom from you experienced kayakers.

Angel nailed 3 for 3 on her rolls! Normally I wouldn’t let her roll over already setup but since it had been many months for us since we’d been in the water and the water’s temp was unlike anything she’d felt before I let it slide. I talked to her about later as we reviewed the photos and she’ll practice rolling without being setup in the future.

Those are the adjectives I remember most when I rolled up the second time at roll practice in the local lake here in Wenzhou, China. The water was freaking C O L D! =) Nothing compared to you far northern paddlers I’m sure but darn chilly here. The swimming club’s thermometer showed the temp was about 9.6 degrees Celsius but I really doubted it. I felt like it much colder.

I’m seriously perusing leads to growing kayaking popularity. To do it I’m gonna have to suck it up and do a lot more roll practice all winter and hope to interest others. Angel did well this summer learning her roll and she’s super ambitious about it too! She spent the first part of our time there showing videos on my laptop and explained about kayaking. Yes, those are stickers plastered all over the back of my laptop. I need more stickers!

We started with some footage of her on NanXi Jiang. Then we showed them some headcam footage from the Web and finally I pulled out the trailer for Teva’s movie, Dynasty. They were blown away. While they talked I suited up and carried my Hoss to the diving board. It is about 8 feet or 2.5 meters. I dropped in too straight shot back up on an ender and hit the dock behind me. Opps! *BIG GRIN* I did four or five rolls for the small crowd that had grown on this dock and another one nearby. Angel explained while I paddled on edge a few times and finally when I had worked up a sweat I hoped out.

Next Angel got ready and I couldn’t convince the guys to give it a try. We both seal launched from the concrete dock side and I asked one of the guys to take some pictures for me. Enjoy the bit of footage from Wenzhou, China 温州冲国.

It’ll be a weekly event starting this upcoming weekend. We’re happy to have the support of the swimming club. They kindly invited us to come any time and refused my offers to join and pay for membership. =)

Help me with this one though please! Angel’s ShredReady helmet always slips down over her eyes. It’s a real problem for her on the river. I’ve been meaning to ask others about this since summer but we were so busy having fun I completely forgot. She’s got short hair, no pony tail in the way. Actually she had a pony tail in the summer and had the same issue. We tightened the strap around the back of head (tightened it evenly, I double checked). I don’t know what else to do?

I look forward to your replies!