Making the Most of Guide Training

With a half-inch of rain in the forecast and an expected high temperature of only 52 I hesitated as I walked towards the Jeep in the 6am darkness.  I could just turn around and walk right back inside, I thought.  It would be easy to log another training run another day, I thought.

In my years training and working as a ski instructor I learned that the trainers and bosses never canceled because it was snowing.  So this morning it never occurred to me that these veteran guides would cancel because of rain.  I aimed the car at Pennsylvania and resolved to willingly accept my fate.

This is the scene that greeted me as I pulled in.

Notice the low, low clouds.

And as fate would have it - it wasn't so bad after all.  I had been invited by the trainers to bring my "hard" boat, that is, in contrast to the rafts and other inflatables.  I was stoked that sight-unseen they had enough faith to make this suggestion.  I knew we were slated to do the "easy" section, but this still included one class III rapid.  Fate, again, stepped in to outsmart me, and instead of putting-in at Glen Oko we put-in two miles lower in town and skipped the class III.

Putting-in at Jim Thorpe.  That's my orange kayak in the middle of the photo.

It drizzled a bit during the first twenty minutes but mercifully the skies lifted a bit for the duration of the trip.  We had a pleasant and fairly chatty, social paddle, pausing only occasionally for actual "guide stuff".  It was so great to be inside my kayak, snug and dry and warm rather than sitting in an open raft with my feet tucked under 4" of cold bilge.

As soon as I get a waterproof camera I will bring you more action shots. 

I'm off from training for the next couple weekends.  During that time I will complete the First Aid and CPR portions of the requirements.  I'm schedule to return May 15th, the first scheduled Dam Release of the season and the official kick-off.  The following day is a training day on the river with the actual mannequin resuscitation drills portion of the CPR in the evening. 

By Monday, May 17 yours truly should be fully legit and cleared for guiding at JTRA.  WooHoo!

I'm thinking about looking for a sponsorship - whitewater kayaking and river guiding is a pretty steep learning curve and coming to it later in life doesn't make it any easier - so why not sponsor a guy who is a  key demographic for the sport's future.  Potential sponsors take note:  I am available for blogging, appearances, video, and magazine articles.

LK