Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1998 14:05:05 -0700 (PDT)
Message-Id: <199807252105.OAA10121@ns.intelenet.net>
To: baidarka@lists.intelenet.net
From: redcanoe@pangea.ca (Douglas Ingram)
Subject: Re: [baidarka] paddling
Gene,
Here! Here!!
I agree with you completely. Though, in terms of the windmill thing, there
are windmills, and then there are windmills! It is correct that there is a
cadence which is quick and efficient, but I was actually referring to what
happens if you go beyond that pace. A comfortable cadence for me while
paddlign my canoe is 45 + strokes a minute, I feel like I am always telling
my paddling partners to paddle faster! They just don't get it- shorter
storkes more often...
In terms of being critical over our paddling technique, I think that we need
to balance active critical examinations with that period of "mindfulness",
otherwise, we have nothing to compare with.
A repetitive activity
>tends to lull the conscious mind into inactivity and allow the intuitive
>mind to take over. I think Kirk Olsen's idea of "listening" to the paddle
>is a very good one - and not just with your ears, either. "Listening" is a
>particularly nice metaphor for the process because when the information
>being transmitted is "quiet" it is easily obscured by "noise". What I'm
>hearing from those who are much more experienced paddlers than myself is
>that the paddle is constantly "talking" to you, and the trick is to learn to
>"hear" what it is telling you.
>
>Gene Smith
>
>
>
>
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Douglas Ingram
Red River Canoe & Paddle
P.O. Box 78, GRP 4, RR 2
Lorette, Manitoba
Canada
ROA OYO
(204)878-2524
URL: www.wilds.mb.ca/redriver
e-mail: redcanoe@pangea.ca