While I was getting my boat to the water, Kathy Stark, a prospective new CKF member whom I met on the 4th at Westwood Beach called to say she was peddling as fast as she could. We all waited and Kathy arrived. She started unloading her new rotomoulded tandem SOT, and noticed that one of her straps had cut a thin cut completely into the boat.

A quick repair was made with Duct Tape and we all launched to play in the pond for a while. Kathy has almost no experience, but a fantastic attitude. She was doing so well in the pond and the conditions were calm enough that we asked if she would like to go around the outside of the breakwater. Without hesitation, her answer was "YES!"

As we cleared the breakwater, I heard a splash behind me and saw that Kathy was swimming. I quickly back paddled but Mike Kory got there first and started an assisted re-entry. Soon after, there was nobody in the water and Kathy continued to paddle around the breakwater laughing and joking about swimming.

After we got back to the pond, Kathy then wanted to try some surfing in the small waves in the shoals. She did beautifully and had a great instinctive brace that I saw as she got hit by a breaking wave from behind. The wave broke, but Kathy stayed upright.

The best thing about this day was that there was a student - instructor ratio of 1 - 8 and the second best thing was our usual lunch/brunch at Daddy-o's.

    Steve Holtzman