Today was a great day in Iowa, hot and windy a perfect day to play in the water! The Cedar River has come down to 2,700 cubic feet per second. I am not sure what that really means in terms of the play hole, (I will have to talk to our flow expert Ty). Anyway, what I can say that it is lower than the other 2 times I have been here, but still high enough to attract paddlers from a ways away (there were two from south of Iowa City while I was there!) I am not sure that I am all that all that attracted to this play hole sort of paddling, certainly to do it well the board would need to be designed differently– shorter probably with a lot more rocker. I think I am much more interested in down river paddling, but it sure was fun on a hot day!
I was able to surf the waves (at least for a while until I fell off the board which was often!). I have seen people using leashes in river paddling situations like this but I am not so sure I like the idea of having my ankle attached to a cord that might wrap around a rock in fast water, even if there is some sort of quick release involved. The water was falling a foot or so over the old dam and the standing wave was close behind. That meant the nose of the board wanted to bury itself into the water in front of the remnants of the old dam, and then it would dive, even when I was so far back on the board that I sunk the back of the board. Sometimes I was able to ride the waves through but most of the time I fell off.
Board #3 is getting closer to being done, it will have a little less rocker than the first, and I am putting the drop down fin in as I build it so I am perfecting that process a bit. Hopefully I will have it done by this weekend when we head back up to Hayward.
Finally the weather has been cooling off a bit. I stopped and talked to my friend Reece, and he said the Cedar Valley Paddlers were have one of their monthly moon light paddles in honor of last night’s full moon. I am technically an inactive member of the group (that means I have not printed off the form and sent it in with my registration fee). Anyway so far they have not told me I am unwelcome (they are a very friendly group), but on account of my negligence I do not get their emails, so I really do not know when they are doing what.
Last Night’s paddle was at Big Woods Lake. It is really an over-sized sand and gravel pit that keeps expanding as they dredge out more building materials. It was a fine night for a paddle. I had my 12’6″ stand up board in Cedar Falls, so that is what I took the the “lake.” I think there must have been about 15 boats there, and it was a nice calm night, even the mosquitoes cooperated pretty well! We hung out on the water till a little before 10:00, by then it was nice and dark and the moon had risen well into the eastern sky. I forgot to bring along a light, so I had to go back to the car and make a SUP light out a bike light and an old bike tire (That was about all I had to work with). I was thinking I should not be the first SUP in Iowa ticketed for not having a light after dark!
I really should get my membership paid up for the CVP group, they are pretty fun to hang out with, the problem is that I have not written more than 2 checks in the last couple of years, and remembering to go on-line and down load the form is apparently a little beyond me. Humm maybe Pam could bring a form to the next event…..
I finished another SUP earlier this summer and have just started a third. What attracts me to stand up paddle boards is that they add a little challenge to the small rapids that are common in Minnesota and Iowa. What is simple in a kayak or canoe for me becomes more challenging when done standing up. There might be a place for flat water racing but canoes and kayaks seem so much more efficient and faster. . . I have a couple of what I think are innovations for the Midwest, especially head wind situations and a folding fin design for rocky, low water streams and rivers.
But first I want to say something about what I have learned about SUP’s and the Minnesota DNR from the several conversations I have had with the them over the course of the summer. First (and this is something I should have realized) SUP’s need to be licensed in Minnesota. In fact any watercraft over 9 feet in length need to have a license in this state. That is not so surprising but I do have to wonder if my great uncle Ralph Samuelson would have needed to have a license for his skis if they were used today– from the pictures I have of those first water skis they do look to be about 9 feet long to me. . . Perhaps he would have needd to have a license for each ski—hmmm, We would have to check with the MN DNR about that.
Anyway, the story get more interesting. Minnesota requires a title for all craft over 16 feet. There is an exemption for canoes, kayaks, and rowing shells, but as John, the nice fellow from the DNR assured me a stand up paddleboard is neither a canoe, a kayak, or a rowing shell (he knew this because he Googled SUP while I was on the line and saw a picture). I did ask him if there was a legal definition for a canoe– like if you used a kayak paddle to propel your canoe was it still a canoe, or if you stood up and paddled your canoe was it still a canoe. He said that he did not think there was a legal definition of a canoe, but that in his mind a canoe had seats (I did not point out that water water canoes have pedestals that you kneel on, and high kneel racing canoes have nothing that you might call a seat apart from the bottom of the canoe).
A two handled paddle to allow quick changes from standing and kneeling positions
Bottom line he said, I might get a ticket if I failed to get a title for my board, so I coughed up the extra $17 and applied for the title. That meant I had to come up with a hull number to put on the application. I came up with what I though was a good one: DUFFUS2010SUP2, This is not the first time I have had to created a hull ID number I have done it for each of the kayaks I have built, but kayaks are exempt from the titling requirement so I have not had to apply for a title before. A month or so later I got a letter from Erin at the DNR saying I need to have a form from the manufacturer or from the previous owner. I called her on the phone and told her that I was the only owner and that I made the board myself. She was quite helpful and understanding. She said that though my hull number was quite creative, I needed to have a number that was Coast Guard approved. I am eagerly waiting its arrival in the mail I think it is pretty funny that I will need to have a title and a Coast Guard approved hull number for a Styrofoam and fiberglass board. I find myself wondering how I might attach this number in any sort of permanent way?
In terms of my SUP “innovations,” I am still deciding if the the second handle on my “Frankenpaddle” is really worth the extra weight. It does work and it is not in the way when I paddle from a standing position (I was afraid that it was going to pinch my forearm). So far I have really not been in a big head wind situations, but I do think that while it will not be as stylish, it will be faster and more efficient to kneel paddling into a strong headwind. This is one of the major criticisms of SUP’s from the canoe/kayak racing folks around here I have talked to, and they are right, standing up and paddling into even a small headwind is even harder than is in a canoe or kayak.
SUP fin retracted
I am much more sold on the folding fin I designed for my 12’6″ board. The board does not track very well without a fin but when I put a fin in the fin box it tends to snag whatever I paddle over (logs, rocks, etc) and sends me flying off the front of the board. Earlier this spring I hit a rock hard enough to rip the fin box right out of the board. The board itself does not draw much water, maybe 3″ but when I am standing on it, but if you add a 4″ to 6″ fin it is fairly deep in the water, certainly deeper than a canoe or kayak.
Retractable SUP fin deployed
I was thinking about the retractable skegs that I made for a couple of my kayaks to help them track better. These skegs simply push back up into a pocket when they hit something. I simply added a bungee cord so the fin would automatically drop back into place after passing over the obstacle, and a sail boat cleat to hold it up in its pocket when not in use. It is also possible to lock it up completely or change how far down the fin extends, which seems to be useful in fast moving, water where a big fin might interfere with turning.
The board I am working on now will be another 12’6″er. I am again making a 3/4″ flat well to stand on and adding scupper to drain it out the back. (That seems to have been useful especially when the water is moving fairly fast because I do not have to look down to make sure my feet stay on the board.) I am also trying to find a better way to mount the folding fin and I plan to flatten out the rocker a bit– we shall see.
I have not been blogging much lately. It always seems like in the late summer, things like vacations and camps and trips interfere with both training and my avocations! I did finished my 18 foot SUP, and it is a nice board but certain fits a different Niche than the 12’6″ board. I really feels fast in the water and it certainly tracks a lot better then the shorter board, but being 4″ narrower, it is also a little more of a challenge to balance on! It have taken the board down the Namakegon River near Hayward Wisconsin, and down a stretch of the upper Iowa river near Decorah.
I designed a fin that retracts into the hull for the shorter board and I am thinking that is a good addition for shallow river SUPing. Earlier this spring I broke the fin box out of this board hitting rock and the Straight River, but apart form the damage, it is not the most comfortable to hit rocks on the fin because it make it hard to maintain your balance and it is easy to get thrown off the board usually in shallow rock infested water. Any with this folding fin it can be retracted and deployed easily and when it goes over something in the water it goes up into a pocket in the board and then returns to the preset position after clearing the obstacle. I think this is a better innovation than my two handled “Frankin” paddle.
I have a couple of videos of paddles earlier this summer:
Landon, Karen, John, and Scott (not me) warming up at Haweye Downs in Cedar Rapids
Last night I went down to Cedar Rapids with John, Kat, and Carson for the weekly race at the speedway there. We had a pretty good showing from Twisted Spokes–7 riders. The track is a 1/2 mile stock car oval. You can really get up some speed on a night like last night without much wind (and in my case with plenty of fast people to draft behind). They have an “A” and a “B” group, and they let the racers decide where they fit. I am definitely a fit with the B’s!
The first race was an 8 lap race. After that there was a race where the last person across the line was eliminated each lap, and a race where the first person across the line was out. I was able to stay with the pack for all of the races which for me is really what I hope for!
The thing I like about this kind of racing is that you can really try some things out– I went off the front a couple of times and yes I was able to see that I did it too soon when the pack sprinted around me to the line. There was a nice draft on the inside line in a last out race but it was easy to get boxed in and end up last and out– I did that on the 4 lap (or possibly sooner, I could not hear the official call anyone out ).
The A group coming around a Corner at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids. I think the Tuesday/Thursday night ride are going to be a little harder this year with Will and Carson in town!
There were 18 people in the Dan Uwelling Bike in Austin, July 3, 2010 in Austin Minnesota
Today was the Dan Ulwelling Bike Race in Austin Minnesota. The Owatonna Group had a good showing again this year with 18 racers! The wind was strong, out of the south at about 20 mph. The first 10 miles that were more-or-less north, so they were fast– 27 to 33 mph and the lead group pretty much held together with maybe 30 riders. When we turned east and there was a strong side wind so things started to break up. I had fallen a little off the pace when someone behind me hit the gravel. When we headed south for the 10 mile stretch into the finish things really started to spread out.
I jumped on a group of 3 that came around me and rode with them most of the way to the finish, so at least I did not have to fight the wind by myself! I had my usual middle of the pack finish– 28th, 8/19 in the 50-59 age group. It is a good thing I really do not do this sort of thing to win! I stayed pretty much under control, at the top end of my heart rate. I spent a little less than 30 minutes in zone 5b and about 45 minutes in zone 4-5a– here is my Heart Rate data for anyone who is interested.
Kathy and Adrienne at the start.
Here is how the Owatonna group placed: Dave Chabot and Todd Peterson finished near the front (3rd and 4th), with both of them winning their age classes. (30-39, and 50-59). Amber Lutz, and Adrienne Boese placed 1st and 2nd in the Women’s 20-29 division, Andrew Gislason and Aaron Guzman placed
Larry, Steve and Roger chillin' (hahahaha) at the start
first and second in the Men’s 20-29 divison. Curt Tesch was 3rd in the Men’s 40-49′s. Ann Paulson was 2nd in the 40-49 division, and Kathy Duffus was third in the 50-59′s (despite of having a flat tire). Clyde Carver might live in Austin, but we are claiming him, because he rides with us– at 12, he won his age group! So the Owatonna group did quite well on this hot and windy day! (I hope I didn’t miss anyone).
A big thanks to the folks down in Austin who put this race on. It provides a great opportunity for people to try out racing without buying a USA Cycling license (not that there is anything wrong with buying a USA cycling license), it is just that the idea of a racing license can be a little intimidating for someone who is new to bike racing. One of the things that makes this event so fun is that it is pretty low key and only a few of us take it too seriously (of course they are pretty much all male!). I mean who would have thought that there could be a South Elm Street sub-race in a race that is not all that big to start off with!
Ann coming in at the finish.
There is a here-to-fore unknown rivalry on South Elm in Owatonna
Clyde finished first in his age group!
Here is a short video I put together from what I recorded during the race. I wore a helmet cam. One of the problem with putting a video camera on your helmet is that you really do not have much of an idea what you a shooting until it is all over. I see that either I had my head too low or the camera pointing too low. Anyway, here is what I got:
I was Kneeling but I made it through the rapids around the dam in Owatonna Twice
There was a big rain in Owatonna on Thursday night. (It was the storm that caused all of the Minnesota tornados). The rain brought the Straight River up a few feet and I was thinking that it would be a good time to try to surf the waves at the bottom and run a rapids. So far I have tried to run them in my double kayak with my friend Kent– that was a noteworthy capsize that made the local paper, and then in a canoe with my daughter Kaia after another big rain and it too resulted in a noteworthy capsize. Actually I have never made it through this rapids and stayed upright–until today!
I remember the guy from the Minnesota DNR saying that this would be a runnable rapids, but when they made it it looked to me like they really wanted a fish ladder. They put steel rip rap and then piles of rock granite boulders behind them so it if like a series of small waterfall in a fan shape with no channel going around a corner. This is not a rapids that is really designed to run!
I was able to ride the eddy currents up to the waves at the bottom but I could not get on them to surf. I finally have the bottom on my 18 foot board faired and I think I will get the fiberglass on it soon. This will not be a whitewater board but I think it will be a good down wind and down river board (if I can stand on it– it is pretty narrow).
I took the surf kayak out a couple of times this week, partly because the rest on my kayaks are in Iowa, and partly because the water around the rapids in Owatonna was still high and looked fun to play in. I shot video of me surfing the final wave at the bottom of the rapids. I tried to run them once but tipped before the last drop. This is really not a well designed water feature!!
I was able to get a bit more biking in this week, over 200 miles, I think that is the most so far this year. I had a good ride with the Cedar Falls group last Tuesday, and I did a metric century with some people from Owatonna who wanted to practice drafting. That was a very good ride, everyone wanted to learn an it was fun to see them work together!
On Saturday, we rode with 7:00 am ride from the Bike Shop in Owatonna. It was a nice ride, (The Coffee Run on Saturday mornings is always low key and fun). While we were coming back into town, my daughter Linnea lost control while she was on my wheel and had a pretty hard crash. We spent most of the rest of the day at the hospital, getting X-rays and CAT scans. She came away with a broken collar bone and a slight concussion.
Ty surfing on his SUP in the play hole near downtown Cedar Falls, Iowa
I am moving my things out of the Lutheran Student Center, and that means I needed to get the kayak, the canoe, and the SUP I have been working on in the basement out the window, and back to my garage in Owatonna. (Kathy is not going to like this…). Both the canoe and the SUP are still in the being created stage, so they are not the easiest to move, but I had help– my friend Ty came over and along with a couple of residents at the LSC we got them loaded on the trailer.
Prototype two handled paddle that my friends have christened, the Franken-Paddle.
When we were done, Ty reminded me that he and Steve were planning to take their boards down to the play hole. The water is coming down in the Cedar River so the structure is starting to emerge. The waves in the play hole are not huge, but for me that is just as well because I certainly have a ways to go when it comes to my surfing skills!
I wonder what the people who see us must think– 3 guys standing on surfboards on a river in the middle of Iowa. This is fairly a new sport outside of Southern California and Hawaii, I am thinking it is brand new in Iowa.
I used my two handled paddle prototype, and it seems to work well. At first the lower handle got in the way, but now I don’t really notice it, until I want to kneel on the board, and then having regular handle for my top hand seems to be a good addition. Ty and I down-streamed a couple of hundred yard to get to the play hole and my fin hit a couple of rocks and nearly sent me off the front of the board. So my next Midwest SUP modification is going to have to be that self folding fin I have been thinking about!
I am thinking that SUPing in rapids is going to be a helmet sport! I probably fell a dozen times, and I think that is going to be the way it will be (at least for me). This will not be the “hit your head on the rocks while upside down in the seat of your kayak,” it will be more of the “falling head first toward that rock” sort of a thing. I was talking to my friend Jeff out in Montana, and he was pointing out that ocean surfers tend to go without either life jackets or helmets, but kayakers always wear both–and he was speculating that river SUPing will be helmet and life jacket sport. So far I agree!
When I got back to Minnesota, I went out with the Owatonna group, on their Thursday night ride. Wow, it has been more than 2 weeks since I have been on the bike. (Not counting the little jaunt with Linnea last Sunday after I finished putting together her new road bike). It rained on us for about 2/3 of the ride but it was one of those gentle rains on a warm day so It felt good. It was nice to be back with the Owatonna group again!
Taking a breaking under a tree near Meridan, during a rainy Thursday night ride.
Dr. Lautaro Lopez and a student at the Rosa Medel school, working on word search in the workbooks EPES provided as a part of the program they have undertaken to address post-traumatic stress issues in school children
Ok, when I am short on time and sleep I sometimes come up with ideas that might be a little suspect. After an all night flight from Santiago, and a night’s rest that seemed too short, I was off to Iowa to preach. Sunday was Trinity Sunday. One of those few Sunday’s that seem to almost require a theological sermon– the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all one, all separate, and just about every image you might use to describe this mysterious relationship has been judged a heresy at some point in the history of the church. So what is a preacher to do?
What is a preacher to do, when he is fresh back from Chile, a little short on sleep and about the only things that will come without much outside input is probably bound to be heretical. Luther said to sin boldly and perhaps that is what I did. I was thinking about God in relational terms:
First, I was thinking about God in terms of the One on one we might have a personal relationship with. The One whose word we might study and the One to whom we might bring our prayer requests. There are those who would say that this is what Christianity is all about– a personal relationship with Jesus. The trouble is I sometimes get a little nervous about how “God” is leading some of my neighbors, and the directions they sometimes seems to take. Sometimes they seem to hear a completely different voice than I hear, sometimes I wonder if we are listening to the same “God.”
A black necked swan that we saw just off shore from Gente de Mar, a place that was severely affected by the tsunami.
Secondly, I was thinking of God as the one who comes to us in community. What I am thinking about here is the close community in which we live– our family, our friends, our neighbors, our congregation. Most of us who have experienced this sort of community, and most of us have experience both it successes and it failures. We long for community, but I think we often long for the community to do it what ever way we want it done! Communities are messy. There are resources to be shared, but there is always a lot of garbage to be dealt with too. It is interesting to me that these issues of community are present in the members of the congregation I serve in Iowa. They are also present in the campamento in Penco, Chile. Surprisingly they are not so different.
Third, there is the community that reaches beyond our normal sphere of connections. In the church we call this outreach or benevolence, but it is the work that is done for people we do not know and probably will never know. When I come back from a place like Concepción, it always feels like I have been given the privilege to meet people who are in that outer circle. I am able to meet the ones that normally I do not get a chance to meet–the Carolina’s and the Antonia’s, the Claudia’s and the Sandra’s. That is a great gift, to me, bigger than anything I might give in the way of labor, or time, or money.
So I am back in the United States, but I am thinking about my friends in Chile!
Claudia, Edmundo, and Scott in the Campamento in Penco
Gloria, Karen, and Scott in the mountains near Santiago.
We took the overnight bus from Concepción back to Santiago Wednesday night. I have heard of these buses in Chile where the seats completely recline, but until last night I had never ridden (or more precisely, slept) on one before. This is a great invention in a country that is shaped like a string bean as they say. We got on the bus, slept our way to Santiago, took a cab to Karen’s apartment, slept for another few hours, and woke up none the worse for wear.
We had lunch (actually it was more of a feast) with Rosario who is the EPES director and her husband Edmundo, who we spent time in the campamento, at their home in Paine. It was so nice to finally see their home! In the back yard they have a different native Chilean tree planted for each grandchild, and an orchard of fruit trees. I have always thought of fruit trees as an investment in life and in the future and that is what I think of both Rosario and Edmundo. To plant fruit trees is to plant hope in a future and sometimes uncertain harvest. That is the kind of hope I felt today. Hope in the midst of things that do not necessarily look so hopeful on the outside, but when planted with care, invested with the right amount of loving attention, can grow like a fruit tree to feed a multitude.
After lunch we stopped at the memorial in Paine. This little community had a particularly large number of people who were disappeared during the Pinochet dictatorship. The memorial was a reminder for me of the brutal past this country experienced, and as always is the case when I come to place like this in Chile, I must acknowledge the part that the US played in that past. In this memorial there are mosaic tributes made by family members of the lost. They are powerful remembrances, and for me who did not know them personally, it reminds me that it is not really about the number of people who were disappeared, but about each individual person– each mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, brother, sister, aunt and uncle who were disappeared.
After visiting the memorial, Edmundo took us to see the project that he has been working on for the past 4 years. There is government subsidized housing in Chile. It is one of the measures that has brought them out of a developing nation status. You can see these projects all across Chile, however, just looking from the outside, it looks like the contractors who were awarded the contracts to build this sort of housing invest the minimum in the projects, no doubt to maximize their profits. The housing project Edmundo has been working on is different in several ways. First this is a housing development that is aimed to provide a community for the families of those who were disappeared, tortured, or imprisoned during the dictatorship. He says this could be the only place in Latin America where this sort of project has been undertaken. Secondly, the people who live here actually own the property they live on. Using the usual government funding for a housing project, this community produces dignified housing for 226 families with a shared history.
Rosario and Karen at the EPES Office in Santiago.
In the process, Edmundo made detractors into allies, showed nay-sayers what was possible, and held contractors to higher standards. In the end what was created is what he would describe as a living memorial to those who were disappeared. Chile is going to need their “Edmundo’s” to come forward as the issues of permanent housing grow as these communities recover from the earthquake. The people are going to need both advocates and resources for the future, because with them they will be able to create their own healthy communities.
We spent our last day in Chile with Karen. We drove up the Maipo river valley into the mountains. It was a gorgeous view that reminded mom and me of Montana. It was good to spend this last day in such a peaceful beautiful place. There is a hydroelectric diversion planned for this river. It is sad, because to rob the river of its flow will change what this valley is about. The waitress at the place where we had lunch said they were protesting, but she was a realist and thought that they would probably lose the fight. I understand that these are complex issues without easy answers, but it is tragic to lose a river for the sake of electricity.
As we leave this place that is always so engaging for me and I beginning to think about what I will preach about this Sunday, Trinity Sunday, I am thinking about the church not so much in terms of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but as the church in me, the church that is the community in which I am presently engaged with in Iowa, and the church that reaches around the world, even to places where winter is coming as surely as summer is in Iowa.
I think it is pretty funny that I will need to have a title and a Coast Guard approved hull number for a Styrofoam and fiberglass board. I find myself wondering how I might attach this number in any sort of permanent way?
