Yes it is true… for the first time in several months I had to pull the cord last night in my boat. The incident occurred at our local pool session to beat it all! It is amazing how humbled you can become after screwing up 3 hand roll attempts and trying to wait for someone to come and bow rescue you.
I was practicing my hand roll last night in a couple of different ways and I was getting way over confident. I got a little discombobulated while under the water on one attempt and I had a bad hip snap. I tried to set up again for a second try… no luck. I tried a third time and I found myself lifting my head and gasping for air. I flipped back upside down. I thought to myself, “Holy crap I am all messed up and running out of energy.” I began pounding the sides of my boat for a bow rescue and my buddy Matt, who is just learning to kayak quickly paddled over to me for the rescue. He was so frantic to come and help me that he flipped on his way to get his bow to my hands. I saw him from underneath the water and I knew this was not working in my favor. Fortunately he pulled off his sweep roll and did not have to swim either, but at this point I was beginning to wonder if anyone else was coming to my aide. I gave up hope and out I came to final get me a fresh breath of air.
Needless to say all my roll students were having a field day at this point that their Jedi Roll Master had took a dip. We all had a good laugh for sure about the incident… good times, good times!
Exit confession post… Have a nice day and I hope to see you on the river!
Wesley R. Bradley
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