Changing times

It has been quiet... at least in my blog.
I have moved house and I no longer have 'my beach' 5 minutes from home. Now I need to drive at least 30 minutes to get open water. There is flat water 5 minutes from home now but I get bored in flat water so I rather drive.

"My beach", which is not mine anymore, in a rough day

After we finished the change of address winter hit our part of the world. As usually happens at this time of the year my kid brought a bug from school. Soon the bug discovered my body to make its house for a couple of weeks...with the side effects for me... ugly weeks.

My attention was also focused in a different kind of paddling lately. I have been leading trips for novices into open water, paddling far from rocks or surf. This kind of paddle gives me a different kind of rewards. Watching transform a face from consternation and almost fear at the beginning to all smiles at the end of the paddle.

Raft up, a good practice for not forward strokes and confidence to rest in moving waters.



I will do more of those but I will not abandon the other kind of fun I have on the water.

White foam and rocks near by, yeah baby!!

Last time I managed that kind of paddling, the nos so gentle one, was like 1 or 2 months ago. A day with lowish swell that allowed us to play in a part of the coast I have not played before. We managed to practice some seal landing and launches, some dodging rocks and payed some rebounds. The funny thing is that part of the coast is where I used to paddle when just started going out to sea, Of course, during those early paddles I never went too close to the rocks and when I had the confidence to play harder I had never went back to paddle that area.
Below is the video that Josh took and compiled from that day: