Eye, Aye

Starting with photography, I've noticed that a common element shared by everything I do is visual stimulation. My photographs (4x5 black and whites) were always strong on composition and dynamic lines.

The graceful and circular motions of Judo techniques and the lean and sail shapes of sail boats are two other areas where I have spent many years enjoying the looking along with the doing. Kayaking is not exception.

The hull shapes alone, viewed from different angles, are visions of grace with lines swept back to cut through the seas. What great eye candy. Add to that the circular and dynamic lines of water being shed from the head (hopefully held down) as a paddler surfaces from a roll.

Sometimes it is the low compact kayak itself sitting solidly on the water's surface. It can be, at once, a vision of balance and a counter force in a visual field of other objects. In this photo taken off South Shore in Milwaukee, I find pleasure in the composition and the opposing lines of the horizontial horizon, the vertical masts of the sail boats and the angled paddle. Because of the relationship of the boat in the fore ground to the distant building, there is also a sense of arriving, coming home...safely.

Then, too, there is the whole visual world around traditional boats and what comes with them.

The curve of the combing, the meeting of hull and deck (as with any kayak) and the texture of their surfaces are all sights that can bring pleasure. Then, too, are the endless combinations of woods, oils, stains and varnishes used to make the traditional sticks.

Finally, and often the only visual reason some have for paddling, there are the infinite number of things we just plain see from our boats.

Another time, when I master the technology, we can talk about the sounds of paddling. For now, however, you are free to get out there--where ever out there is for you--and have a look around. And always...

Paddle safe...

DS