Just returned back from marathon presentations and teaching at the Charleston Symposium. Got to see lots of old clients, stay up too late with Nigel Foster and Russell Farrow and my friend Wendy and generally have a great time with my real family. Mood was optimistic and lots of good energy about paddling this season. One thing did not escape notice though…we’re old. C’mon…sea kayaking is way fun…how bout some young blood? I’m throwin’ out the gauntlet here….Hannah B-P is certainly an age exception,but how about she recruit some of her peers into this awesome sport. Hannah, we need you and more like you. : )
Join me April 24 and 25 at Adventure Crafters on the Chesapeake for an expeditioning class. Learn how to plan, pack and camp out of your kayak. How do you get it all in there and do it with a little style? Learn how.
http://www.adventurecrafters.com/whats-new.htm
You can fret about tax day coming this weekend or you can head on down to the East Coast Canoe and Kayak Symposium April 16-18 in Charleston, SC. Join 1500 other paddling enthusiasts for great classes, all the newest gear and fine low country hospitality. I’ll be teaching 6 different courses.
Its 4 am and in retrospect, I’m think that arriving back in the US from mananaland aboard Taca’s flying chicken bus in the wee hours is a good thing. Maybe it’ll keep me from grinding gears into a soul crunching upshift into a high speed, 4 G-force pace of life. Need to merge into that gradually. I normally have more difficulty readjusting back to the pace here, than I do downshifting into island time. Sure, I miss being able to walk into a supermarket and actually buying things that you have on your list vs, making your list up based on what the store has that day….island style. I may miss that, but seriously, learning to adapt and shift sideways at a moments notice has served me well in both my work life and my personal life; if there’s a really a difference in my case. Sure, I can order anything I want with a number off a piece of plastic and they’ll ship it right to my door…from Zingerman’s bread, to books, to mass media to Vietnamese Cinnamon. Think it up and you can usually find it on the web somewhere. When you remove all that access, what’s left? You get inventive. You watch the sunset, make a shrimp and gorgonzola omelette, give a puppy a life changing belly rub, you make no words…you just be in the world watching diamond sparkles on water from a pregnant moon. Gheckos talk, guavas storm and puppies snore if you just quiet yourself enough to hear. Dat ghecko even tole me, the weather gonna change. No kidding, I have to wear shoes and socks here in Dullest airport and its mighty nippy out there on the tarmac.
Looking back, its been a good two months on Roatan…got a book off to the editor, led 19 days worth of trips, got to work shoulder with a new awesome assistant and stayed mostly out of a Colombian drug war in the front yard. Through careful management and hard work, I even managed to break even financially…and these days breaking even is the new getting ahead. All in all a good season indeed.
Alaska