Days 19 & 20: Rough Rider Reunion on Lake Ontario

Yesterday evening turned into Rough Riders Reunion 2014. In the wise (and paraphrased) words of Mike Peet: "Paddling like it's 2009!" The turn-out was fantastic (26 boats!), and the waves were apparently the largest of the summer. It was a perfect evening for rock gardening and practicing towed rescues. A bunch of the original Rough Riders were present, including Jeff H, Mike, Steven, Dan, Jeff B x 2, Rita & Garnetta, Sue, Ann-Marie, Nick, Dave, and I. It was also fun to meet some newer (i.e. in the last 3 years, so maybe not so new) members. Matt from Brooklyn was in the area for a couple weeks and recently bought a boat from BayCreek. I'll be in NYC on Monday to visit friends, and he provided some helpful tips for kayaking around the City. 

So many boats!

Dave explaining the plan for rock gardening and rescue/tow practice

The Rough Riders - a BayCreek Paddling Center group - has been around since 2008 and meets at Durand Beach on Lake Ontario every summer Thursday evening. Yesterday's excellent turnout resulted in a late (6:30pm) start, but everyone launched successfully into the breaking waves and we were soon on our way. We paddled 1.5 miles to the jetty at the mouth of Irondequoit Bay. We were paddling with a rear quarter wind/waves, which means that the waves and wind were at our back, but at an angle. This is one of the trickiest conditions to paddle in. With each stroke the boat turns very easily, making it difficult to maintain a straight course. Since we were in a large group, boats were swerving and bumping into each other all around. 

The launch site at Durand Beach

Dan, Matt, and Jeff bouncing around in the waves

When we arrived at the jetty, Dave managed to split us into two groups and explain the exercises over the sound of wind and waves. The first group practiced rock gardening by kayaking along the outside of the jetty. Here the waves crashed most intensely since they were coming from the NW. With each trip up and down the jetty we found ourselves daring to get closer to the rocks. I was immediately aware of the wave frequency. On the west coast, there is typically between 9 and 15 seconds between waves, providing lots of time to adjust and anticipate each wave motion. Here on Lake Ontario (which is a much smaller body of water than the Pacific Ocean), the wave period is shorter, so waves were arriving every 4 or 5 seconds. Sometimes your boat would be touching two waves at the same time, which leads to very different boat behavior/handling. It also made it harder to predict what the waves would do after they crashed into the jetty and reflected back.

Rock gardening along the jetty

Mike testing his boat control skillz

The second group practiced deepwater rescues with towing. When someone capsizes near rocks or other obstacles (which is quite common since these areas can have confused waves/currents), it may be too dangerous to rescue them in place. This rescue involves two rescuers: one person who performs the standard assisted rescue and another person who tows the rescuer's boat towards safer waters. Usually it's best to have the capsized boat empty and parallel to the rescuer's boat before towing, as the process of emptying can be difficult while in-tow. 

Pink helmet selfie

After some practice, the groups switched. I did a rescue with Dan and a newer member who was feeling a bit sea sick. I was the rescuer and Dan towed. The rescue went pretty smoothly, and she was back in her boat in a couple minutes. However, I stuck both our paddles under the front decklines and found that I was not able to extract them at the end of the rescue. The paddles get thrashed around in a wavey rescue. Next time I'll stick them through decklines closer to the cockpit.

Paddling back into the Lake Ontario sunset. Mark, Dave, Janet, and others in the distance

In true Rough Rider fashion, most of us went out for drinks and dinner at Salvatore's, which is just up the road from the kayaking shop. It was so fantastic to see everyone again, even if only for a short while.

Date: August 7th, 2014
Distance: 3 miles + (exercises at the jetty)
Duration: 2 hrs

The Non-Kayaking Portion: A lot of driving and work happened on Days 19 and 20. I'll skip these parts and just say that after Traverse City we drove to Ann Arbor, spent the afternoon in Amer's (a popular student cafe), made a quick visit to the Arboretum and law library at U of Michigan, and met up with Julia for dinner. Julia's first day of classes was the next day, so we had a quick dinner at Blue Nile, an all-you-can-eat Ethiopian restaurant. Yummy!! We also drank Michigan beer (Bell's Oberon - so delicious) on Julia's new porch with Alex, another Cornell ski-team alum and the local groundhog:

Julia and the groundhog

Majestic Clay Cliffs at Chimney Bluffs State Park

The tired wipers pushed aside the sleet clumps and rain drops landing on my windshield. My toasty seat heater made it hard to believe the thermometer that bounced between 35 and 39 degrees as I made the two hour trip north from Ithaca to Sodus Bay.

The plan was to meet the rest of the Surf Rangers at a launch site just east of Chimney Bluffs State Park at 10am. We shivered as we pulled on our extra warm kayaking gear. As the only one without a dry suit, I was lucky that Dennis had an extra one. Although it was meant for surfing and looked goofy next to the kayaker-specific dry suits, it fit well and kept me quite warm!

The eight of us (Dave, Morgan, Jeff Berry, Jeff Houck, Heather, Sue, Dennis, and I) launched into Lake Ontario around 11am. The waves were about 3 ft high - enough to make it interesting, but not enough to make it nerve-wracking since all the paddlers present are very comfortable in medium surf conditions.

We paddled about a mile east, around the point and towards the entrance to East Bay. Last year when we paddled the same route the point created some interesting interference patterns - with the 6- 7ft waves breaking farther from shore. It was much calmer this time around.

The entrance to East bay was mostly closed (it gets filled in at the end of the season every year), so we beached and portaged over to the bay-side. Here's a picture of Sue and Morgan coming into shore in the surf. This is seconds before Sue (who almost never capsizes) flipped over as she was trying to keep from running into Morgan...

The wind was much calmer on the bay. We paddled as far as possible through the wetlands - until we reached a bridge blocked off by a beaver dam. At this point we stopped to warm up and have some lunch. It was still drizzling slightly, so some of us huddled under Dave's emergency igloo and snacked on Morgan's delicious cookies to stay warm!

On our way out of the bay we decided to try and shoot through the small opening in the wall. A quick turn into the surf and we were all safe and bobbing out on lake again. The paddle back was enjoyable - it was warming up slightly and the rain had stopped.

We continued past our launch site to check out the Bluffs from our boats. Chimney Bluffs is a set of jagged clay cliffs lying on Lake Ontario's southern shore. Over time, rain, wind, and waves have eroded a glacial drumlin (see Wikipedia for a good description) to form the cliffs. As time goes on, they get smaller and smaller.

In true Rough-Rider style, we finished our paddle with some fun group pictures:

Once we were all dry, changed, and packed-up, we headed up the trail to check out the cliffs from the rim trail. By this time the sky was clearing up and the sun was shining on the cliffs, making for some very majestic views.

We walked back along the beach. The pebbles on the beach have been polished and rounded over thousands of years, resulting in a very beautiful mixture of colored stones. Dave and I had a strange urge to sort the beach into different colors...

We all headed to a Heather-recommended Mexican restaurant (El Rincon Mexicano) in Sodus for dinner. The food was spicy but delicious. Jeff, whose specialty is Salsa dancing, taught some of us to dance Salsa! This also happened to be the day the restaurant was celebrating El Dia de los Muertos, so we were entertained by a bunch of dancing children!

After a fun-filled day of wintery kayaking, I decided to invest in a pair of paddling gloves and pogies. With these and the dry suit that Dennis is letting me borrow, I will continue paddling into the winter. I won't let kayaking season end!

Date: November 6th, 2010
Distance: 8 miles
Weather: 37 degrees, a bit drizzly, a bit sunny

Rough Riders - Forward Stroke Clinic

After a long drive from NH with an overnight pit stop in Ithaca, I made it to Rochester in time for Thursday night Rough Riders. Due to Big Purple's poor fuel economy when suspended in the air (the fuel economy on the water is infinite!), I was without my boat this weekend. This forced me to continue boat shopping by trying 3 new boats. For this paddle, Heather kindly lent me her beautiful low volume Romany. The deck is a lot lower on this boat than on my Avocet, which made my legs fall asleep. My knees need their space! The Romany also has a much flatter hull (bottom) than my boat.

 

Racing Jeff to the lake. This must have been minutes before his boat nearly fell off the car.

Forward stroke was on the agenda for this week's session. While it may sound simple, the forward stroke is where many otherwise great sea kayakers have trouble. Balancing the correct amount of torso rotation, leg strength, and arm motion is a complex science! Dave had us practice with chunks of PVC pipes on land before heading out to the lake.

Boatloads of sea kayaks. Purple seems to be missing from the spectrum.

  

Although they looked small from shore, the swells were surprisingly large once we got out there.

After splitting into three smaller groups, we headed a ways out into Lake Ontario to avoid the brown murky water from the river. We paddled into the waves head on (paddling northwest), into quartering seas (paddling north), with a stern quartering sea (paddling south), and finally, in following seas (paddling southeast). It's definitely hardest to keep your boat going straight in a stern quartering sea! Dave had us try paddling with our eyes closed to focus on the motions of the forward stroke. Very unnerving in a wavy lake!

 

Sue surfing into shore. Ken on a stand up paddleboard in the background.

 

Sessions never fail to end with a gorgeous sunset.

Rough Riders meets every summer Thursday at 6pm at Durand Eastman Park on Lake Ontario. Go to their website for more info!

Date: Thursday, July 29th

Distance: Negligible - practicing skills!