Skills

Story by Michael Walmsley

One of the unique opportunities present when kayaking is the ability to close ones eyes and shut out the sense of vision. This is not highly recommended in such other recreational pursuits as riding a bicycle or inline skating – one would certainly be better off knowing what lies directly ahead in those activities. Kayaking, however, puts you onto open water where the chances of an immediate need for an altered course is not quite as prevalent. The next time you are paddling open waters, take a few minutes to have a prolonged blink. It is truly amazing at the transformation that occurs.

Without relying on your sense of vision, your other senses awaken to a deeper level of interaction. You begin to time your paddle strokes to the sound of the blade entering the water. The slicing of the blade edge into the liquid produces a distinctive "shoosh" followed by the slight splash of the blade's following movement. With a little focus, you are able to assess the effectiveness of your strokes according to the strength of the "shoosh" and the lessening of the splash. This gives you a wonderful opportunity to hone your skill by not being distracted by the multitude of images impinging on your being when sight prevails.

You begin to paddle with your ears, so to speak. The focus becomes deafening as you play with the blade angles or apply more or less pressure on your pulls and pushes. Even the boat begins to speak to you in tones maybe not heard before. The slight creaks of the foot pegs tell you the amount of effort your legs are applying to the movement of your vessel. The lapping of the waves along the hull whispers to you of the speed that you have attained. Your oneness with your craft becomes, somehow, ethereal as you rely on mere sound to guide your movement. The odd peek to ensure that no freighters have emerged into your path rewards you with the confirmation that it is your stroking of the paddle blades rather than reliance on your eyes that keeps you going in that ever-elusive straight line of kayaking.

Next, pay attention to your sense of touch. The tactile domain emerges as another often-overlooked part of paddling. The feel of the paddle shaft in your hands recalls those words of caution shouting out of every kayaking manual, "Don't squeeze the paddle! Let your fingers define its motion!" You now become aware of the actual play between your digits and the shaft. Even the paddle's minute battle scars begin to talk to your fingers as they rotate in contact with your skin. It is amazing what details find a way to communicate when given the chance to emerge. Even the wetness of your chosen recreation now assaults your skin with newfound insistence. The drips from the paddle blades moisten your palms and play a cadence on the bill of your hat. Your face is caressed with the fine spray of the morning mist and you come to understand the real meaning of freshness. Even your knees get into the act of coming into focus as they let you know that their contact with the deck's underside had better be recognized. It is the deft applications of knee against boat that gives you control over the forces intent on tipping you into an even greater assault of wetness.

In your blind state, those applications can be focussed upon and played with to reinforce that sense of oneness with your vessel. The pressure points of contact between knee and boat teach the lesson of tactile mastery. A lift here and a push there and you take the lead in this dance over the waves.

As you continue to paddle in bliss and darkness, the trees standing as sentinels on the passing shore announce their presence with a pungent aroma. Funny, they never seemed so alive as they now do! Could it be that, before closing your eyes and opening yourself, you were blinded by the ordinariness and predictability of their existence? That which we often see is taken for granted. The emergence of a smell has moved an entire forest out of its usual background and placed it in your consciousness.

As you arrive at the dockside after a long and taxing paddle and slide your kayak into place for a welcomed exit, dare to close those eyes one more time. Feel the pleas from your legs to be unfurled and put into less confined motion. Pay attention to the renewed vigour that your arms and shoulders now boast from their ministrations of the paddle. Listen to the heretofore innocuous sound and feel of the paddle shaft as it locks into your cockpit's coming and signals your time to depart. Remember the focussed world that you entered when your eyelids shut. Remember those heightened senses and their take on the world. Sometimes we miss so much of the beauty when we only see it.

MICHAEL WALMSLEY owns and operates Inukshuk Kayak - your landmark for the culture of kayaking including kayaking seminars. He can be reached at inukshukkayak@rogers.com.

PHOTO: Courtesy Point 65 Kayaks.