September recap

I suppose September was the month for me to be the designated Delinquent Blogger. So I'll recap the month weekend-by-weekend with this post:

Labor Day Weekend - I spent 3 days on the South Fork American. Saturday we had a nice easy Class II run. Then on Sunday a group of 8 headed did a Gorge run. What was special about that is that for 4 of the people it was their first time running Class III, and they all did great! I didn't much care for the Gorge when I first started running it, mostly because of the 2-mile flatwater paddle into Folsom Lake at the end of the run. But this year the lake level has been so low that the river has been flowing all the way to the take-out, plus there are at least 3 new beefy rapids at the end (or old rapids if you consider the river in its natural state before dams were put in).

September 8-9 - This was the "Grand Opening" weekend for Golden Gate Kayaking, the new kayak school that I'm starting. I had been teaching through a local shop the last few years, but since they closed down at the end of last year, I had been planning to start teaching on my own. On this weekend, I held a couple free clinics for the local club as well as a paddle out to Angel Island.

Setpember 15-16 - The Moke Races! The races consist of a downriver and slalom race organized by the local whitewater club on a fairly gentle stretch of Class II river. Once again I used my sea kayak for the downriver race, although this year there were some genuine race boats that outran me. On Saturday I was using my old-school whitewater boat to practice on the slalom course when one of the club members offered up her slalom boat. Of course I couldn't refuse, even though thoughts of accidentally smashing a borrowed glass boat into the rocks ran through my head. I ended up racing in the slalom boat, but in the end it wasn't enough to break out of the novice category. For the second year in a row, I missed first place by less than 2 seconds. But on the plus side, I took second and had a lot of fun. And now I'm shopping for boat number 11.

September 22-23 - On Saturday, I held Golden Gate Kayaking's first "real" class. Though I had only one student, it went well. And on Sunday a group of us did a tour of the bay, starting at the north end of the Golden Gate, heading south toward San Francisco, then along the waterfront, then back north around Alcatraz, continuing up to Angel Island. After lunching on the island, we completed our circumnavigation and headed back.