A week of rough water on Lake Michigan

It has been an amazing week of rough water along the Chicago shoreline. Day after day of 25 to 30 knot winds out of the north and northeast have given us large waves, massive clapotis and loads of fun.

Sharon, Bonnie and Scott playing in the clapotis near Foster Ave. beach.

The key to having fun in conditions such as these is knowing your own ability and having friends who are skilled paddlers. We were fortunate this week to get out on our own and also with our paddling partners Scott Fairty, Aaron Litchfield and Bonnie Perry.

Today, the wind had dropped. The forecast promised waves of 4 to 6 feet, but in fact the lake was much calmer. At first, we were disappointed; the lake looked relatively flat. Waves of 3 to 4 feet were still rolling into the beaches, but we felt let down. Still, there's always fun to be had if you know where to look, so we set out for some areas where the waves reflect off of hard surfaces and create chaotic conditions.

The lake was relatively calm, but the area near the break walls was rough enough. Here, Alec is practically airborne.

Bonnie amid waves.

Scott--or at least part of his boat.

Sharon--or at least her helmet and paddle blade.

Thomas Merton and Solitude

I've long been interested in the works of the Cistercian monk Thomas Merton. I've read Thoughts in Solitude and have in my library but haven't read The Seven Storey Mountain and The Secular Journal of Thomas Merton. I hope to read them both soon.Now I'm reading The Value of Solitude, The Ethics and Spirituality of Aloneness in Autobiography by John D. Barbour, and he devotes a chapter to Thomas Merton. The above image is from this book.There are an amazing number of opinions on solitude held by as many people. Some crave it and some are repulsed by it calling it the utmost in selfishness. I fall into the first camp. How about you?

Yellow Daisy

Sorry for the unexplained abrupt halt. I was busy preparing for and then attending the Yellow Daisy craft show.
We had a good show - the weather was warm, but thankfully not in the 100s and not too humid. And I got to meet Dr. Flowers in person!

I should have gone out in the evening and taken pictures of Stone Mountain, but my feet were always too tired by the end of the day. I did make it to the A-loop stage area one afternoon to watch the cloggers for a few minutes.

Girls of the flying feet.

Hillbilly themed dance.

Early Morning

"The early morning was very nice. It was lovely to see the world all misted over with the dreams of the night. The dreams that people dreamed were not visible when they came down to breakfast, except sometimes as a shadow in their eyes, but the dreams of the earth clung about her till the sun was up, soft and filmy and rainbow-tinted. What did she dream of? Perhaps of the days to come when men would have eyes to see her beauty and minds that would not pollute it." From A City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge

Autumn Rolls In...

Autumn started last week with a heat wave. High freezing levels and cloudless skies brought the temps up and the climbers out. Plenty of guided parties and independent climbers summitted last week. As the snow continues to melt, interesting objects around the mountain have been appearing. Climbing Ranger Cliff came upon some old aviation wreckage on his patrol last week.
The conditions are still okay for late September. Approaches to the standard routes (Disappointment Cleaver and Emmons/Winthrop) are icy and have crevasses, but are definitely passable. Wintry weather can change climbing conditions quickly. The National Weather Service forecast read "The first storm of Autumn will begin to affect the region late Monday with cool and damp weather lingering through most of the week." Hopefully a week of stormy weather will bring decent skiing conditions.
Sunday, September 27th is the last day the Climbing Information Center will be open for the season. Self-Registration in Paradise will be open through the winter.

The Hippocratic Oath* of coaching: First, do no harm

Perhaps anyone with the power to help also has the potential to harm. Certainly that's true in paddlesports, where harm can take many forms, from diminishing skill acquisition to squashing enthusiasm to causing physical injury.

We've been paying close attention to the P-P-T-T of coaching lately. Those letters stand for:


They are standard considerations in sports psychology, applied to both preparation for competition and to assessment of obstacles to performance. In paddlesports coaching, they are considered and accommodated for students' long-term paddler development. But it strikes us that they these four elements are also the key to doing no harm.

Physical risks are probably self-evident. Good coaching requires proper biomechanics to prevent physical injuries. For example, shoulder injuries are among the common physical risks in paddlesports. Emphasizing good posture, torso rotation and the "paddler's box" develops habits that help avoid shoulder injuries.

Psychological risks may not be quite as obvious. But think about the number of people who've confessed that they or someone they know had a bad experience and swore off kayaking forever. Or think about people with phobias and anxieties borne of a past bad experience in the water who won't take any risks because they are terrified of capsizing. Being aware of students' existing anxieties, and being careful not to create new ones, helps them progress.

Technical skills learned well set students up for success. For example, learning effective, efficient ruddering strokes enables a paddler to enjoy surfing waves. Learned incorrectly, they set students up to spend endless hours with a different coach unlearning poor ruddering techniques and learning better ones.

Tactical skills are the strategic use of technical skills in context. Edging the wrong way upon entering an eddy may lead to capsize regardless of the student's ability to edge. It's a matter of timing and appropriate application of technique. Again, doing no harm means coaching these skills correctly the first time around to help students avoid frustration and failure.

All four of these are intertwined; to focus on any one of them in isolation is to miss the bigger picture of coaching the whole student. When we worked at Body Boat Blade this past summer, Shawna and Leon reminded us to incorporate P-P-T-T into every lesson plan. We continue to focus on each of these elements every time we plan a course or session, or evaluate our students' progress--not only because doing so will help them progress, but because failing to do so can actually harm them.

Learning to paddle in an intimidating environment requires attention to physical, psychological, technical and tactical factors--and doing so makes it fun, not stressful.

* For the classical scholars among you, we realize that the phrase "First, do no harm" does not actuallyappear in the Hippocratic Oath itself, but rather is how that oath has been popularized. It's just so much catchier than, "I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous."

Spam … On the Rise Once More

It’s been a while since I turned off word verification and comment moderation on my various blog sites.  After the change, I was averaging 5-10 spam comments per week.  Most of them were on my ‘original’ blog, Two to Travel.  This is the blog where I recount our non-Phaeton travels.  It has an international readership, which, I believe exponentially increases the chances of receiving spam comments.  The good news, all of the spam comments were caught by the Blogger filter.

The spam comments tapered off to almost nothing for a while, but now they seem to be on the rise again.  And this time, Phaeton Journeys seems to be the target.  Why?  Who knows; my mind doesn’t work like a spammer’s mind works.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Two to Travel has been on hiatus for a while.  That’s about to change, however, so we’ll see what happens then.

All spam comments are being caught by the filter, and I have comment moderation turned on for any post that is older than 14 days.  Overall, I’m a happy camper — though I can’t help but wish that spammers had something better to do than to flood the www with meaningless words.

If you don’t have comment notification turned on, you might consider checking your spam box every once in a while.  To do so (in the new Blogger interface):

1. Go to your Dashboard.
2. From the list on the left, select Comments.
3. Click the Awaiting Moderation and Spam boxes individually to see if there are any comments in either box and take action accordingly.  (I usually report them to Blogger as spam and then delete them.)

By the way, a more important reason to occasionally check your spam box — to make sure legitimate comments have not been filtered as spam by Blogger.  I’ve fished quite a few out of the spam box and restored them to their rightful place in the blog world.