Monday, October 29, 2007

Garba/Dandia Raas

Weekend of October 20th

While Isaac & Ross went climbing to celebrate Ross' birthday, Stephanie & I went to a dance event hosted by the India Cultural Club of Vermont. It was held to celebrate a multi-day holiday. I'm not completely sure what the holiday is about - I spoke with three people and got three different answers: harvest, fertility, and celebration of good triumph over evil. In India, thousands show up for dancing each night. I wish I had taken pictures, but Isaac had the camera for the day. When I get pics for others I will be sure to post them - it was a blast!

On Sunday, Isaac & I were supposed to go to the Lake George area to paddle some whitewater. We were going to meet Adam, who is a moderator on cboats.net. He has a bit of a c1 museum at his home - about 30! The goal was to paddle a few on whitewater to see if there were any I liked - Debby needs a new boat. Unfortunately, my body was beat from 4 hours of dancing the night before, and I didn't feel up for whitewater once we got there. I paddled some different canoes on flatwater instead, and Adam helped Isaac and me learn how to roll.

Canoes I liked:
Canoes that weren't my favorite:
Canoes I wish I could try but he didn't have:

We tried the Oxygen, even though we are not interested in squirt boating, because there were only 11 made. Squirt boats are extremely low volume c1's and kayaks, and this low volume allows the paddler to do various tricks that involve sending parts, or all, of the boat underwater in a river. There's even a 'mystery move', where the entire boat & paddler disappear underwater and reappear downstream. Squirt boats are hard to keep upright to begin with, and the Oxygen is the least stable of them all. With this in mind, Isaac still seal launched the thing off the dock. He managed to stay upright - how I don't know - and paddled it straight for shore. If you look at the blown up version of the picture below, you can see his cheeks are blown up like a puffer fish - and rightly so - that was one scary boat to paddle (even on flatwater).

Isaac seal launching the Oxygen
(look at it dive!)

I was less brave and started out on shore. I was able to shift my weight back, sinking the stern & pushing the bow up into the air.

Deb hanging out in the oxygen

Adam was super nice to help us with our rolls. It was a beautiful fall day, but he still had to put on dry gear get in the water. Neither of us got our rolls, but we're off to a start, anyway.

Deb getting ready to try a roll

Isaac trying to roll

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