RWS Day One

We started off at 8am with a review of the conditions and the chance to pick our poison. I was signed up for Surf & Rescue, but there was a chance that Turner and Cherri would only be here for one day. Since getting some instruction on sticks in rough water was more important than surfing, I chose to go with Turner and Cherri.
They were using Narrow River as their venue. It gave them calm water for teaching rolling and moving water for teaching other stuff. I was looking to do the other stuff.
The conditions at the mouth of the river were fun. The tide created a nice little race near the first set of rocks and the surf was decent. We spent a good amount of the morning playing in the race. I caught a number of good runs. It was tiring at first, but as the day wore on I loosened up.
Turner found a consistent standing wave right next to the big rock and kept telling me to run it. I was pulling right all morning, so I didn't think my chances of staying to the left of the rock were good. The chances of me folding the Q-boat on the rock was pretty good though. I did not try the run.
After playing in the race we worked south down the beach looking for some surf. We found a pretty good spot with 5ft breakers. I got several ni e rides there as well.
While we were in the surf Turner asked if I had a forward finishing roll. I don't. So he showed me the building block skill for the front finishing roll: chest sculling. You scull while face down in the water. It is unerving and completely counter intuitive. It also has a lot of power when done properly. To really do it right you need to turn your shoulders flat to the water (Turner said to think of your shoulders like a paddle, if there at an angle they will dive.) I'm not the most flexble guy, so rotating that much was tricky. I also locked my off water leg on the combing, so when I really cranked my shoulders around I pulled the boat right on top of myself. It took a few tries before I got the gist of it. A couple of hours in a pond and I just might get it to work.
After lunch we paddled up the north coast a ways to get a feel for how water moves near rocks. Since I paddle that area on a regular basis there were no surprises. It was nice and bumpy though.
I cannot say I learned a lot today, but I did learn a few things. I did get to watch Turner paddle. He is amazingly fliud in the water. He has impecable control and never appears to be wasting energy. It is amazing to watch. I also got to play in some fun water. It sure beats working.