Friday, February 08, 2008

It Accumulates
(thoughts on the learning curve)
I never have considered myself an expert paddler, however I, like all of you, have some skills. And I didn't come by mine by accident. The process was, in fact, like an effort to get to Carnigie Hall. I practiced, practiced, practiced.
I don't know how many hours I've spent (often with JB) going over my strokes, working on getting my upper hand over the water on my hanging draw and stretching to face my work. I worked on the concepts, and I worked on the details.
Interestingly, when one knows little about something, the learning comes quickly. We say that the learning curve is steep. But like physical conditioning, as one progresses to higher levels, the learning is slower, and it takes more effort to learn just a tiny bit more. The devil dwells in the details, as it were.Be it strokes, rolls or braces, the endless hours of practice slowly paid off as I became more confident in the skills I'd acquired. And, because of the effort that went into it all, I value them highly. Now, however, the weather is robbing me of my time on the water, and I fear I will lose some of what I have so slowly accumulated. Part of that concern, I am sure, is due to the dreary days and unusual snow fall we've had. It has been a long long time since I've spent so much of my time indoors. For now, I can only think of the skills I've accumulated while I watch the snow accumulate.Paddle safe...
DS


8 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Silbs, nice posts lately. I think you may get a bit rusty but there`s no danger of loosing the skills and when the weather allows you will catch up in no time at all On the other hand you can come and paddle with us here in Israel all through the winter.

Silbs said...

Thanks, Steve, We're waiting to visit there again until the grandson is old enough to remember it. His mother is a citizen.

DaveO said...

Hang in there Dick, its just like riding a bike. Or rolling for that matter. Canoecopia and its lovely spring weather are just about exactly a month away. Meanwhile -20F is forecast for this weekend. Gotta be the last of those days!

Unknown said...

Hi Silbs, got your correction, actually I did reply but you have a noreply action which doesn`t allow me to answer your comments. so thanks for the good wishes and when will your grandson be old enough to remember

Silbs said...

Old enough? I don't know. I'm 66, and I still don't remember things:)
BTW, my e mail is
silbs6521@gmail.com

Douglas Wilcox said...

To think we moan about our windy wet Scottish weather! At leats we get out every couple of weeks or so when the wind drops.

Thinking of all you snow bound kayakers!

:o)

Silbs said...

Thanks for the thoughts, Douglas.

Kristen said...

I'm not even going to suggest that the temps in NC this weekend are... gasp!