Back in '78 or so, my best friend George Vinick and I started paddling a tandem (2 person) canoe.  We were together for just a couple of years, at first attempting to learn from a book.  This is one instance (among many) of book learning that doesn't work very well in the real world!  It was only George's zest for defying death that kept us going.  Personally, I like being in control!

Fortunately, in the second year of our folly, we chanced upon a group from the Berkshire AMC.  It was they (Thank you Leo Blizniak, wherever you are) who really taught us what was possible in a boat, and we actually started to have fun - rather than being terrified most of the time.

Our tandem career came to an end when we were paddling on the Quabog River, at the time a rather foul class 3 river, when George's and my intentions differed in a critical rapid.  The boat was not significantly damaged, but our egos were.  We both decided on a solo boating careers,receta decoracion bizcochodavid bizbal buleria figuring that our friendship was worth the extra expense of separate boats.

For the next 4 years we both soloed open boats on all kinds of rivers.  We were also lucky.  Our local whitewater, Tarriffville Gorge on the Farmington River, flowed all year long.  It was easy to paddle 150 days per year.  A paddler could make it pretty challenging if (s)he wanted to - or not.  All-in-all, an excellent spot that I still visit about about 80 times a year!  If you want to get there, I've posted a map here. To the EPA's credit, the river has gone from a near-sewer when we started to reasonably clean, considering the high population density in the watershed.

Young and stupid at 36!   Running the dam at T'Ville with no PFD or helmet.

The rivers that we ran became harder and and more dangerous, and running in an open boat is sometimes a pain in the butt.  Lots of cold (!) water to bail, and there are just some moves that are not physically possible or downright unsafe.  So we both tried to paddle kayak.  George had no problem in the 'yak, but I was very uncomfortable sitting because of my bad back.  

Instead, I decided to try out the C-1, a closed version of the open boat. It was a little more technically difficult, but enabled me to stay in the boat without having back spasms. On the other hand, it took me two years to "break in" my knees andcooking in nyc schoolbbw dating personals ankles, in spite of years of kneeling meditations.  Sometimes the view was not pretty, me crawling around on my hands and knees after getting out of the boat.

I took to C-boating pretty quickly, and within a year or so was running some pretty serious stuff. This picture of me in the gorge on the Swift river in NH looks a lot more impressive than the water really was, thanks to the photographic magic of Jim Michaud.  Jim did much of the photography (and some of the hair-boating) for Appalachian Whitewater, Vol. III.

The Big Sandy in West Virginia has one of the more spectacular drops - an 18' falls.  It's one of the easier drops on the river - basically Class 3 if you have a reliable roll and a little speed.  I used the technique of getting the boat on edge for more speed - which is why I look like I'm about to fall over already!  On the way down, I flattened out and barely got my face wet.gilmore girls soundtrack lyricshipoteca credito hipotecario hsbc

Different water levels at Tarriffville give new play moves. At higher levels the play hole becomes a pop-up spot.  At lower levels it can be side-surfed, as shown below. By shamelessly mugging for the camera (see below), I got a whole page in my local newspaper, somewhat overshadowing the 84 Nationals occurring there.  There go my 15 minutes of fame!  Practically no one noticed when I won the Open Boat Nationals in '92, '93 or 2001, or the Nike World Masters in '98.

Hartford Courant - Photo by Paula Bronstein

All this fun took its toll on my body, though. Between constant hole playing and a climbing injury to my shoulder, I developed a serious bit of arthritis in my right shoulder.  It became very painful to roll.  Not a good circumstance when the rivers I typically ran were not very "swimmer friendly".  My focus turned to slalom racing, where I rarely rolled, and the training didn't seem to bother my shoulder. More Classic whitewater runs Paddling and Other Pics Page My Racing Career