![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Swimming lessons
Sep. 12th, 2017 09:14 amSo, it finally happened. After 21 years of rowing, I finally flipped a 1x and fell in the water.
All things considered, this happened under the absolute best possible circumstances. I'd been in the middle of a set of interval pieces with the Serious Double, and Captain J had just called for us to spin our boats. I threw my oar in the water, and then the handle just kept on going, and pretty soon, I was in the water, too.
Upon discovering what had happened, the Serious Double stopped nearby to ask if I needed any help. More specifically, Iz asked, "Have you ever gotten back into a single before?" This was no time for false bravado. "No," I said. So after I got a whole bunch of random flailing out of my system, she coached me through the correct way to get back into a flipped 1x.
I decided that, at that point, it would be best if I just rowed back to the dock and wrapped up for the morning. Part of me really wanted to be the kind of person who rows to the dock, tips out the water, and keeps on rowing. But another part of me informed myself that the flip was an indicator about how I was feeling that morning, so I listened to the second voice instead.
It wasn't until I was leaving the boathouse and heading up towards work that I finally figured out why I'd flipped, and this lent some weight to the decision to call it quits for the day. I hadn't been in the Kaschper in a couple of weeks, between going up to Petaluma for practice and then the marathon, and getting to row in the 2x with Pan Am last week. So when I got the boat set up to go out on the water this morning, I had to make a guess as to where to position my footstretchers. Once I was on the water, I determined that my guess was slightly off. Not wanting to hold up the Serious Double, which had a serious practice plan (46 minutes of intervals, total), I really quickly repositioned my footstretchers. Except I wasn't fully awake, so I repositioned them in the wrong direction - moving them further towards the bow. This created extra clearance at the release, which is what made it possible for the oar handle to swing past my body when I attempted to spin the boat.
So, now I have gotten that out of the way. Better to have it happen during warm weather and during practice, rather than during a race. I'm also relieved that I didn't go in in one of the weird smelly, murky patches that have appeared recently on the BAP. That would have been tremendously disgusting.
So anyway - if you need any lessons on how to get back in small watercraft, come have a chat with me and I can now give you a few pointers.
All things considered, this happened under the absolute best possible circumstances. I'd been in the middle of a set of interval pieces with the Serious Double, and Captain J had just called for us to spin our boats. I threw my oar in the water, and then the handle just kept on going, and pretty soon, I was in the water, too.
Upon discovering what had happened, the Serious Double stopped nearby to ask if I needed any help. More specifically, Iz asked, "Have you ever gotten back into a single before?" This was no time for false bravado. "No," I said. So after I got a whole bunch of random flailing out of my system, she coached me through the correct way to get back into a flipped 1x.
I decided that, at that point, it would be best if I just rowed back to the dock and wrapped up for the morning. Part of me really wanted to be the kind of person who rows to the dock, tips out the water, and keeps on rowing. But another part of me informed myself that the flip was an indicator about how I was feeling that morning, so I listened to the second voice instead.
It wasn't until I was leaving the boathouse and heading up towards work that I finally figured out why I'd flipped, and this lent some weight to the decision to call it quits for the day. I hadn't been in the Kaschper in a couple of weeks, between going up to Petaluma for practice and then the marathon, and getting to row in the 2x with Pan Am last week. So when I got the boat set up to go out on the water this morning, I had to make a guess as to where to position my footstretchers. Once I was on the water, I determined that my guess was slightly off. Not wanting to hold up the Serious Double, which had a serious practice plan (46 minutes of intervals, total), I really quickly repositioned my footstretchers. Except I wasn't fully awake, so I repositioned them in the wrong direction - moving them further towards the bow. This created extra clearance at the release, which is what made it possible for the oar handle to swing past my body when I attempted to spin the boat.
So, now I have gotten that out of the way. Better to have it happen during warm weather and during practice, rather than during a race. I'm also relieved that I didn't go in in one of the weird smelly, murky patches that have appeared recently on the BAP. That would have been tremendously disgusting.
So anyway - if you need any lessons on how to get back in small watercraft, come have a chat with me and I can now give you a few pointers.
