Our final intermediate clinic of the season was serenaded with summer sunshine, sweet smiles and so much Torso Rotation! Our ladies traveled from Kentucky, Georgia and South Carolina to convene on the French Broad where we worked the rivers current and got intimate with her many eddies!
Saturday we reviewed strokes, emphasizing using torso rotation in each of them. We had fun with a number of drills (or should I say sweet river dance moves??) that left us all feeling like we’d done the robot (Torso rotation in boat maintaining paddlers box), the lawn mower (Cross tap front of boat, forward stroke) and the reverse shopping cart (stern Draw). We also practiced catching and peeling out of eddies, stern draws, ferries, ferries with eyes closed and backwards ferries to fully get in the flow and perfect our trust in our river dance partner.
Sunday Anna started us off right, giving us a good joint warm-up and reminding us to do stretches that open the front of our chest and shoulders, such as cactus pose with resistance to palm of hand against a tree or other solid object, the opposite of the position we so often find ourselves in for kayaking. On the water we reviewed even more Torso Rotation, adding “The Frankenstein” to our on water dance mix and focused on ferries, re-worked rolls and introduced draw strokes! Our ladies lead us down the rapids, practicing picking lines. The good times on the waters were complimented by pleasant temperatures and the surrounding greenery. Our delicious lunches from West Village Market and Deli provided some good energy to keep us going throughout the day as we scouted and successfully ran Pillow Rapid, catching eddies and challenging ourselves to ferry with the stiffer currents.
Thank you to all the ladies that joined us in out Intermediate Clinic! It’s always amazing how unique connections get made in the brief two days together, but the inclusive communities we make, albeit briefly, we take with us into all other paddling practices in our lives!
If you haven’t got your summer water fix in yet, we still have Introduction to Whitewater clinics and Private instruction available!
