Jade taught the introduction to playboating for women class and had five amazing women to share her passion for rotating the kayak in three dimensions. I'm almost kind of envious of her class. Wish mine was as fun.
Jade's class at Ledges putin.
My class had four students. Steve was the most skilled but hard headed, Sonia and Bob are about equal skill and absorbed instructions like sponges, and Chip is just on a whole new level of not fit for paddling. Ok, I get that kayaking can be appealing to people who are not fit, since you do everything sitting down. How hard can sitting down be? Let me show you this video of this kid Dane sitting in his kayak:
Nothing Dane did in this video happened by accident. Kayaking at Dane's level requires super strong core strength, flexibility, not to mention ability to not breath for extend period of time and fearlessness. Chip weighs about 280 lbs and is 5'10. He's out of breath and strength simply from draining water of his kayak and trying to get back in the boat. I can teaching kayaking, but I can't teach fitness. While majority of people are fit enough to benefit from paddling instructions, Chip will benefit far more from losing a few pounds and enroll in some kind of work out program.
I still enjoyed the weekend immensely. I simply wish people will realize there is no magic formula. To be good at kayaking or anything, you have to work hard at it, and that includes working hard at being fit.
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