Beth Powis

Several of us decided to go to Hansen Dam Recreation Area on Saturday to practice our rolling in the WARM water there. Patrick Martin called me at 0830 wondering where I was. Somehow, the communications got a little screwed up between us, because the rest of the group was meeting at 1:00 PM.

Patrick said not to worry, because he brought a friend (Charles Rhodes) from work who had taken one rolling class. Unfortunately, Charles does not have a boat, so he does not get to paddle very much. Fortunately for him, Patrick has a fleet and was able to bring one for him.

Beth Powis, Chris Wood, Paul Jonason, and I joined the group at the scheduled time. Patrick then announced to us that he had broken the water because his off side roll did not work. Beth and I both noticed that without nose plugs (she forgot hers and I frequently don't wear them), something was causing massive headaches every time we came up. Later one of the lifeguards mentioned that he thought it was because the warm water had caused an algae bloom and that was causing it.

Paul, entertained us with his balance bracing skills as he just kept laying on the water for extended periods of time. He also managed to get his off side roll working. Finally, he introduced my storm paddle to the art of rolling and did several rolls with it.

After I blew my first attempt, I decided to try something that Peter had mentioned concerning my hand placement on the paddle and Patrick noticed that although I was sweeping far enough, I stopped having my eyes and head follow the blade to til the end. As soon as I incorporated both Peter and Patrick's two suggestions, my roll was working.

Chris was not to be outdone by Paul and he tried my storm paddle and rolled up in about 1/2 a second. He was really surprised with how quickly he came up. Of course, his joy was short lived as he tried twice more and blew them both.

Patrick finally managed to get his off side working again, but the real star of the day was his friend Charles. Having had only one class, no practice, he was out here rolling. He probably completed about 70% of all of his attempts. However, Neptune of the Lake,wouldn't let him get too cocky; as he was exiting his boat at the launch ramp, he promptly fell into the lake. This stunt earned him a new to CKF award. Since this was not salt water, the award for lakes is now officially the "Pond Scum Award." and Charles Rhodes is the first recipient of it.

Afterwards, everybody but Paul headed too a local restaurant for a late lunch/early dinner. Chris did mention that the water in the lake tasted funny---it needed salt.