Just Keep Going

The goal of this training session was to get my long paddle in and to become more comfortable in rough water. Honestly, I was hoping for bigger waves given the wind, and I was disappointed when I arrived to find more of a choppy situation. I haven’t seen the big four foot rollers since the spring runoff, and I’ve come to the conclusion that you need high water against a


strong current with extreme wind  in order to produce the big waves. 


However, despite the lack of surf, this proved to be a challenging paddle for other reasons. 


Despite the smallish 2-3 foot waves, the NW wind was a sustained 34 km, with gust over 50 km. I’m still a newbie, and haven’t been paddling all that long and this was the first time I’ve seen the wind rip water off the river surface and make spray like a mist. I’ve seen it in the ocean and Great Lakes but never on the Red River. 


I was at the end of a down wind run (which is actually heading up river) and making my turn to return to the start and complete the circuit when a savage gust caught me out. 


It was two hours into the paddle and I was chilling and vibing and feeling pretty good with myself when that giant gust hit me like a wall. It caught my paddle, and punched my face with it. My paddle broke my glasses, briefly stunned me and knocked me in the water. Good thing I can swim (and yes I had my PFD).


After I got over the disorientation my first inclination was that I won’t be able to finish this. It took me a few minutes to realize my left lens was missing. Paddling was bizarre at first. I have exceptionally poor eyesight so I had to close my left eye to see at all. 


It is amazing how your brain can adapt to change and push through. In fact, being consistent with training is often more about adapting emotionally to adversity then being motivated. 


All the drama happened about two hours into a planned four hour session. Although I was initially going to pack it in, but I decided that people paddle with one eye all the time, and I had one good lens, so I actually had no reason not to finish, just excuses. 


Given a moment to think about it I also realized I had to paddle back to the dock anyway, so I close one eye and kept going. JUST KEEP GOING! 


After I had calmed down, I screamed at the belligerent wind “I’m not gonna let you defeat me”. The wind howled back and increased in strength for the next hour. 


If it can happen it will. An hour later I broke my paddle. It snapped like a broken limb between my hands. I was surprised, and my heart sunk into the pit of my stomach, but I was in the right frame of mind now. JUST KEEP GOING! 


I decided that I wasn’t going to let that defeat me either! I paddled slowly, kneeling as if I were in a canoe. “I’m not gonna let you defeat me”. 


Two hours later I was half blind and broken, but I was still chilling and vibing, challenging the wind, and living the best life. 


Just keep going! 



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