After the faulty toaster like shock of the fun day we were back in the boat again within a few days.
Hayden was quick to tell us that we could have done better. Well done, here, have a shiny shilling you eagle eyed Baker Street Irregular. Of course, no one disagreed, especially not those that didn't turn up for practice. No matter, we were a happy crew of 17, which required a bit of jigging around to balance the boat. Rach was put one row forward of her normal spot; this meant she got to kneel for the first time (the back row being too narrow to facilitate such a stance) so she got to use her knee pad for the first time (I hate to think how much kneeling would grind me down without a good thick volleyball kneepad on) and smash her shin of the seat in front (which seems to be the expert technique). Dave and myself (normally in row 7) swapped with Robin and Kent, so me and Rach were in consecutive rows for the first time - she got told off fairly quickly for touching me on the back "Any more of that and I'll separate you two!" said Hayden, even though he put us that close in the first place. I expect he was half joking, but he has the oral equivelent of a poker face, so I will never know.
Being shoved back in the boat had a big benefit for me: Robin sits a long way foward, which, as I have mentioned, creates high tension (fear) if he's behind you. I too like to sit quite far forward, which might just be an attempt to run away form Robin, and this hasn't always keyed in with the person in front of me, resulting in the odd bit of impromptue back stroking. But with Rob in the seat in front I had plenty of space to reach forward under his outside arm when plunging my paddle into the water. More importantly, Rob wears nice soft diving boots and keeps his kneeling leg away from the side of the boat, which allowed me my most solid resting position yet for my forward foot. Better still, the tight squeeze between Rob's foot and the side of the boat meant my foot was going nowhere, and neither was the rest of me. I felt a little stretched but, for the first time on the right hand side of the boat, I felt genuinely locked in.
Going full out for a race length (which is just short of infinity, it seems) I got to really focus on my paddling, rather than how much I was slipping around the boat, which was awesome. However, I'd just like to make it clear that my poorness at locking in against the side of the boat is not the reason for my previous failings, indeed it might simply be a symptom of my general failness. To illustrate: Even though I was locked in, towards the end of one of our practice race lengths (actually, quite a long way from the end but I'm sure it was past halfway) I ended up panting like a chain smoking beagle after a trip through duty free and a vigorous walk to the terminal exit. I was gasping hard. I must have sounded bad because Robin leant back and Rach leant forward, both worried I was going to fall out of the boat, or need resucitating, or both. Lock or no lock dragon boating never gets easier but, even with the hyperventilation, this was the first session where I didn't collapse before we were told we were allowed too. I was pretty pleased with this, as we did some hard work and the stupid third finger on my right hand was murder.
After every training session the team goes to the pub, in fact they go to the pub that sponsors us, the Four Kings. However, things generally don't line up for me and Rach and we have to scurry off for some reason or other. Despite this, bumping into team mates seemed to be the thing for days after February's first outing. First I was looking at salad in the supermarket when I heard a "Hello" behind me. That's a familiar voice, I thought, so I turned around but I couldn't see anyone I knew. I must have had a rather blank look on my face... for a while... it seemed liked several... seconds... passed... Then I realised Siobhan was in front of me. She probably did a little wave and said hello again to draw my attention. This might sound pretty stupid of me but she was in disguise: She was wearing normal clothes, her hair was down and she wasn't carrying a paddle. It was an impressive transformation, worthy of the Saint. Then we bumped into Siobhan again, plus Captain Claire and Lorna (the only new starter who doesn't seem to get told off) at Wellington's One Love music festival, we knew they would be there but we didn't actually expect to see them. According to Claire we "look so different outside of training", which made me think the same as Siobhan when I didn't recognise her: God, I must look rough when I'm dragon boating!
Hayden was quick to tell us that we could have done better. Well done, here, have a shiny shilling you eagle eyed Baker Street Irregular. Of course, no one disagreed, especially not those that didn't turn up for practice. No matter, we were a happy crew of 17, which required a bit of jigging around to balance the boat. Rach was put one row forward of her normal spot; this meant she got to kneel for the first time (the back row being too narrow to facilitate such a stance) so she got to use her knee pad for the first time (I hate to think how much kneeling would grind me down without a good thick volleyball kneepad on) and smash her shin of the seat in front (which seems to be the expert technique). Dave and myself (normally in row 7) swapped with Robin and Kent, so me and Rach were in consecutive rows for the first time - she got told off fairly quickly for touching me on the back "Any more of that and I'll separate you two!" said Hayden, even though he put us that close in the first place. I expect he was half joking, but he has the oral equivelent of a poker face, so I will never know.
Being shoved back in the boat had a big benefit for me: Robin sits a long way foward, which, as I have mentioned, creates high tension (fear) if he's behind you. I too like to sit quite far forward, which might just be an attempt to run away form Robin, and this hasn't always keyed in with the person in front of me, resulting in the odd bit of impromptue back stroking. But with Rob in the seat in front I had plenty of space to reach forward under his outside arm when plunging my paddle into the water. More importantly, Rob wears nice soft diving boots and keeps his kneeling leg away from the side of the boat, which allowed me my most solid resting position yet for my forward foot. Better still, the tight squeeze between Rob's foot and the side of the boat meant my foot was going nowhere, and neither was the rest of me. I felt a little stretched but, for the first time on the right hand side of the boat, I felt genuinely locked in.
Going full out for a race length (which is just short of infinity, it seems) I got to really focus on my paddling, rather than how much I was slipping around the boat, which was awesome. However, I'd just like to make it clear that my poorness at locking in against the side of the boat is not the reason for my previous failings, indeed it might simply be a symptom of my general failness. To illustrate: Even though I was locked in, towards the end of one of our practice race lengths (actually, quite a long way from the end but I'm sure it was past halfway) I ended up panting like a chain smoking beagle after a trip through duty free and a vigorous walk to the terminal exit. I was gasping hard. I must have sounded bad because Robin leant back and Rach leant forward, both worried I was going to fall out of the boat, or need resucitating, or both. Lock or no lock dragon boating never gets easier but, even with the hyperventilation, this was the first session where I didn't collapse before we were told we were allowed too. I was pretty pleased with this, as we did some hard work and the stupid third finger on my right hand was murder.
After every training session the team goes to the pub, in fact they go to the pub that sponsors us, the Four Kings. However, things generally don't line up for me and Rach and we have to scurry off for some reason or other. Despite this, bumping into team mates seemed to be the thing for days after February's first outing. First I was looking at salad in the supermarket when I heard a "Hello" behind me. That's a familiar voice, I thought, so I turned around but I couldn't see anyone I knew. I must have had a rather blank look on my face... for a while... it seemed liked several... seconds... passed... Then I realised Siobhan was in front of me. She probably did a little wave and said hello again to draw my attention. This might sound pretty stupid of me but she was in disguise: She was wearing normal clothes, her hair was down and she wasn't carrying a paddle. It was an impressive transformation, worthy of the Saint. Then we bumped into Siobhan again, plus Captain Claire and Lorna (the only new starter who doesn't seem to get told off) at Wellington's One Love music festival, we knew they would be there but we didn't actually expect to see them. According to Claire we "look so different outside of training", which made me think the same as Siobhan when I didn't recognise her: God, I must look rough when I'm dragon boating!
Finally we bumped into Lucy, although we didn't know her name was Lucy until after we all broke down in a big old mutual 'I have no idea what your name is' group apology. We were all mighty relieved to be in the same camp and Rach and Lucy ended up showing each other their boating bruises - Rach had a wicked one on her right side, caused by hitting the gunwale as she reaches forward with each stroke and Lucy had one on each arm, from playing the 'six inch punch game' with Robin! It was like a really tame, not shark related version of the scene in Jaws where Quint and Hooper are comparing scars.
I mulled over my own war wounds and took the Chief Brody part.
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