2004-06-01 – Tippy canoe and Ed Arenz too

Lee Jarpey & Keith Canny, Eric Canny & Todd Johnson, Rick Lorenzen & Ed Arenz paddled at 5pm from Anoka Fairgrounds once again.  It was cloudy but finally not raining anymore on what turned out to be the last of 12 consecutive days of rain.  Ed had called to ask me to canoe, but he waited until we were getting in the canoe before he told me that he had hurt his ribs tipping over in the rapids at St. Francis the previous Sunday.  I had paddled with Ed before and we had not had any problems that I remembered, but he had been in the bow and I had been in the stern.  This time, I was in the bow and Ed was in the stern. We quickly discovered that our canoe was very tippy.  Though we were both experienced canoe racers, it felt like I did when I had first started racing years ago.  This has not happened with many different canoe racers I had paddled with for several years, even the when they were in the stern like today.  Why were we having this problem now?

I understood now how Al Dubois must have felt when I couldn’t keep the canoe from flopping when I was in the stern and he was in the bow.  Al believes the canoe should stay level as much as possible because he believes that leaning changes the shape of the hull in the water and makes it less efficient.  Ed said he was trying to steer the canoe by leaning and that I was resisting his leans.  Ed was right.  I did not trust him to keep us from tipping all the way over with his quick, and for me unexpected, leans. 

Another problem we were having was that we disagreed about where the canoe should be going.  Ed did not mind if we were in the faster current nearer the middle of the river going upstream while riding other canoe wakes.  I had some very definite ideas about where I wanted the canoe to be at any given time and Ed was happy just as long as the canoe was somewhere near the others.  Ed was calling switches (huts!) every 12 or 15 strokes.  I was used to 7 or 8 strokes on a side.  I might be putting to much power on the paddle, so my arms need the switch so some of the muscles can rest. 

Since Ed wasn’t calling huts as often as I liked, the extra effort of paddling against stronger current nearer the middle of the river was taking more of a toll on my mind.  Several times we actually lost a ride because I showed my frustration by stopping my paddling when the canoe veered away from where I wanted it to go.  I remember that Kenn Ketter had done the same thing to me from the bow during practice runs with him.  Al Dubois had even done that to me in the General Clinton race when I flopped the canoe while we were on a good ride.  Now I know how frustrated they must have been.  I also know how crappy that feels when the bow paddler stops paddling.

Ed was laughing at me for not leaning and for stopping paddling.  I was ranting at Ed so much about where I wanted the canoe to go that Keith called us the Bickersons.  Sarah Kueffer and Becca Heath passed us coming back down river in C1 racing canoes.  I couldn’t convince the others to follow them back down even though they would later paddle past the landing to get another 20 minutes of paddling to make it two full hours.  We gradually got a bit smoother going up to the sandbar island.  We stopped just below it and discussed why we were having problems while we waited for the others to circle the island. 

The trip back went a bit better, but we still had not completely worked out the kinks.  I needed to let Ed have control of the canoe and to stop fighting his leans.  To do that, I needed to let go of my ideas about where the canoe should be and just focus on my paddling strokes and enjoy the extra workout if we didn’t go where I thought was the most efficient path.  I would have to work on this some more and I’m glad that Ed would give me another chance on another day.

We are getting in better and better shape and the bridge sprints are getting longer and longer.  We also found out that where the bridge sprint finishes depends on where Keith’s canoe is in relation to the other canoes when they go under the bridge.  Sometimes it’s the front edge of the bridge, sometimes it’s the back edge of the bridge, and sometimes it’s the middle directly under the bridge.  It all depends!