Further Exploration

Ever have those moments (or week) when you just can't wait do something again? Well it didn't take Robyn long to book her next Greenland rolling session with James Manke as we were back at the All Things Qajaq training center yesterday afternoon. :-)

The goal for this session was to transfer the skills that Robyn learned last week in a Greenland kayak to her P&H Delphin. For me it was another opportunity to watch James' teaching methods as becoming a kayak instructor is on my radar for the future. I also took the opportunity to further explore some of the features of the Fuji XP50 cameras that we have been using the past year with some frustration.

OK ..... How many of you guys (and maybe some ladies too) out there don't read or just skim through those annoying little multi-language booklets or papers that come with new items that you buy? Helloooo ...... they are called instructions! They are meant to be read (no matter how boring) and then that knowledge is meant to be used to explore your new item.

Back to Robyn. While I sat very comfortably in an Adirondack chair on the the dock at the ATQ facility, Robyn and James did some refresher work in his Tahe Greenland kayak to review what they worked on last week. It was then time to use those skills and transfer them to her own kayak and make the subtle adjustments needed to compensate for the design differences. 

Static Brace in the Greenland Tahe

  

Static Brace in the P&H Delphin

The same skill set being used for the static brace but just a different environment (kayak) that they are being applied in. 

 

Sweep Roll 

Now it's just time to practice in various open water conditions to further develop these skills and build confidence and make them bullet proof so to speak. Somebody out there once said that you have to do a particular skill 10,000 times to perfect it. OK Robyn, only 9,930 or so more static braces to go and then you get to work on the other side! :-)

For me ..... I just read the my camera instructions and finally figured out my frustration wasn't with the camera. Go figure! What did I learn? Well, that Auto shooting mode that most cameras have is only good for one thing. Taking bad pictures. My camera has 21 other shooting modes each programmed for certain conditions so guess what? I selected the Sports mode since my target (kayak) was moving all the time, turned off the digital zoom as all it does it take really 'grainy' pictures and used the Continuous Shooting mode to capture 12 pictures pictures (4 per second).

325 pictures later ..... finally a big improvement in the picture quality and what a great way for Robyn to see things that she can build upon in her rolling skills.

It's almost like James is saying ..... "It's just that easy when you learn the skills" ;-)

2013 Paddle #59 Rolling Pictures

Distance:  Zippo nm ( Zippo km)

YTD:  328.35 nm ( 626.51 km)