Well, we’re all back from a quick trip to our respective rivers: Laura and Jon stayed at friends near the St. Lawrence in Gananoque while I whipped up to the Ottawa so that I could gain more respect for the river and those who ride it. Paul said I looked more confident this year, and I’m glad because I confidently missed my line on a couple of rapids, and ended up swimming a bit. Mind you, never in bad places.

Also tried to surf tougher holes, which means that most of the time I got a good sinus flushing and more swimming. Though I got to sit on a foam pile a few times, bouncing stationary on the wave or side-surfing. Twice my sit-on-top violently threw me off and then continued to surf the hole without me. Paul, Eric, Mark, Ian and Paul would reportedly then make all sorts of ooh and ahhhs to convince those who had missed my dumpage that I was still in there, surfing upside down. The sad fact is the boat did better without me.

It was something to go down the river with a group with such strong skills. Paul, Eric and Ian showed their stuff, and Mark made it look easy. Young Paul Scriver showed me how my boat can ferry with a competent pilot. All of them made me want to spend some hours bombproofing my rolls for next year–I know that I’ll still be dumping– but then I’d be able to just roll up and get back in line. Now that I’ve hit 40, having to haul myself back into the sit-on-top as it drifts downstream is losing its charm.

Mark had his camera with him, I hope to get some pictures of the fun at some point. In the meantime, there’s always images from last year, when I made my line…