The Seal Launch

One skill I’ve learned during this class is how to do a seal launch. If you picture the way that a seal gets into the water, you will get a pretty good idea of what a seal launch is. But, instead of sliding down hill on our bellies, we slid down the hill inside our kayaks.

We did our first seal launch on Tuesday at the top of the hill at our put-in spot at Fontana Lake. The hill there descended about twenty feet at a 55 degree angle. We climbed into our kayaks at the top of the hill, secured our helmets and spray skirts, and inched our kayaks forward until gravity took over and sped us quickly toward the water. This launch was moderately terrifying, primarily because the hill was scattered with rocks that could flip us before ever reaching the water.

Today’s entry into the Nanny (the local name for the Nantahala River) took the seal launch a step further. Since we put in at a location where the bank steeply dropped off into the river, Laura told us, “We’re going to do a seal launch off that rock.” “That rock” was a large flat rock jutting out from the edge of the gorge. On top it was large enough to hold four kayaks and five or six people. It narrowed underneath as it got closer to the river so that the top of the rock was well over the middle of the river and about eight feet above the surface of the water. Basically doing a seal launch off that rock was the equivalent of jumping over the edge of a cliff--with a giant boat attached at your waist.

Although I was feeling like I would probably take the less daring route into the water (inching my boat step by step through the foliage at the least steep part of the bank), I decided to watch my classmates before making the decision.

“Just sit up straight, don’t lean back, and keep your paddle low and balanced across your lap,” said Laura as she modeled the process for us. She climbed into her boat, secured her spray skirt, and asked Payton to push her over the edge. I watched the bow of her kayak point straight down toward the water, and then I heard the splash below. She was still upright! Cam repeated the process, and Josh, and then Phil. All of them made it right side up.

I took one more look over the side of the rock, and then decided to give it a try before my courage failed me. I climbed into my kayak and repeated the instructions back to Laura. Before I had time to second guess myself and change my mind, Payton and Jim pushed me over the edge. Here’s what happened next:

Scrape. (The noise of the kayak on the rock.) Whoa! (The noise of my mind realizing that I was falling.) Gulp! (The noise of me breathing in on the way down.) Splash! (The noise of my boat touching down.)

The whole thing lasted only seconds. My boat rocked a few times on the water, and then I drifted toward shore to make room for the next student to jump.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of either seal launch because I don't have a waterproof camera. However, here is a link to a picture of someone else doing a seal launch off the same rock, http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1041285481037684491lozTVW
and here is a link to a video of a seal launch on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xjdl7Uy6BM

Day One At NOC: The Wet Exit

I arrived last night at Nantahala Outdoor Center, and began my introductory kayaking clinic this morning....
In the following story my thoughts will be in italics, and everything else will be in regular font....

I have a confession to make: I am afraid of water. Well, that’s not entirely true, because I like to drink water, to bathe in water, to swim in water, and to float on top of water. I just don’t like the idea of being submerged under the water, unable to breathe, for an extended period of time. This is one reason that I decided to take this class—to learn how to calmly flip my boat back over if I end up upside down.

This morning we learned some skills in the parking lot before actually going down to the lake. We put on our spray skirts, booties, paddle jackets, and helmets. Laura said, “Now I want you to get into your boats so that we can practice the steps for the wet exit.”

“What, already?!!” I thought. “I can’t believe we are going to start with the hardest, most terrifying lesson!”

“The first step,” said Laura, “is the tuck.”

I bent forward toward my spray skirt. With my face pressed against the neoprene, I realized, "I am about twenty minutes away from doing this underwater with NO AIR to breathe!!! What was I thinking signing up for this class? Is it too late to back out? Why did I even apply for this grant in the first place?” Luckily we had taken a van to the lake because, if my car had been near by, I might have driven home right then.

“The next step,” Laura said, “is to take a second to relax.”

“Ha! Relax?” I thought. “Small chance of that happening! It’s more likely that this kayak will levitate into the air.” I could feel a fluttering in my stomach, my breathing got more rapid, and my pulse went up to about 200 beats per minute.

“Now, tap your hands three times on the side of your kayak,” continued Laura. “Let’s try that all together: tuck, relax, tap. "

Step four was to pull the loop of your spray skirt to release yourself from the kayak, and step five was to place your hands on the side of the cockpit and push yourself out.

“And step six is to start coughing because you’ve been down there for so long that your lungs start sucking in water."

After one more practice round we carried our boats down to the water and jumped in to cool off and check our PFDs. Then Laura called for a volunteer to demonstrate. I stood watching Phil and thinking only about how to live down the shame of not being able to do this. Between some deep breaths and helmet adjustments, I managed to procrastinate until last. At least the rest of the students were all paddling around instead of sitting there staring at me.

I tentatively paddled my boat a few feet into the lake until I was right next to our other instructor, Joe. He explained that the first step was for him to roll me all the way over so I could see what it felt like. “Are you ready?” he asked.

“No, and I won’t be ready for about a million years, so you might as well leave me alone and go help the other students,” I thought.
“I guess so,” I said.

Joe rolled my kayak, and, as I popped back out of the water, he asked, “How was that?”

“Definitely ranked in the top ten worst experiences of my life,” I thought.
“Scary.” I said.

Joe then said, “Now I’m going to roll you over again and keep you under there for longer. Just tap your hands on the side of the boat when you’re ready to come up.”

“What, the fifteen minutes you kept me under there the first time wasn’t long enough?”
“Ok,” I said.

Joe rolled me again, kept me under for as long as I could handle it, and then rolled me back up. “How was that?” he asked.

“Hey, that was actually better than the first time,” I thought.
“I feel a little panicky,” I said.

“Ok. I’m going to roll you again. This time I want you to move around and get comfortable while you’re down there. Move left and right and back.”

He rolled me upside down, and I thought, “This is awkward and weird, yet getting a little less freaky.” Tap, tap, tap. And he rolled me back up.

“That was better. You were under there for two and a half seconds,” Joe said. “I timed you. I think you’re ready to do it now.”

“Wet exit now!? Not until I’ve rolled under about fifty more times.”
“Ok,” I said. My heart started racing again, so he gave me a moment to calm down. Joe told me stories about his own rolling experiences while I managed to return my heart rate to only about twice its normal speed. Then we started.

Flip. Tuck. Tap, tap , tap. Pull. Eject.
“Wow, is that it? That was actually pretty easy.”

So, today I got more comfortable hanging out upside down underwater. And I’m one step closer to conquering my fear of being stuck under water.

A Question For My Students

When I was talking about my expedition in class on Tuesday, Lam told me that he plans to go fishing on the Connecticut River this summer. Now I'm starting to wonder--does anyone else have plans on the Connecticut River this summer? Or, do you have any stories about the Connecticut River?

You can post short responses here. And, don't forget to think like writers this summer. I bet you'll have lots of good small moment seed stories to tell. Don't forget to write them down while they're still fresh in your mind!

Hen's Egg (AKA The Idea for my Expedition)

As all of my students and some of my friends and family know, I teach at Duggan Middle School, an Expeditionary Learning School in Springfield, MA. This blog has been created as part of a Fund For Teachers grant to support teacher growth and curriculum development during the summer. Early this spring I wrote a grant to fund my expedition along the Connecticut River. I figured that some of you might be interested in reading some excerpts from my original grant proposal.

If any of this is confusing to anyone, feel free to post questions, and I will try to reply. I know that some of the words here might be difficult for my students. (Remember you can go to WordCentral.com to look up the meanings.) On the other hand, my students are probably the ONLY ones who know what a learning target is.

Here's my grant proposal:

"So, I started browsing through the social studies curriculum frameworks to look for content that might drive my team's next expedition. I was caught by the concept of civilizations rising up around the river. I connected this idea to the fact that Springfield has risen up right alongside the Connecticut River. Although the river runs right through our city and, at one point in history it provided an abundance of economic uses and recreational opportunities, today it is largely ignored. As I reflected on this reality, I started thinking about all of the ways I could teach the content in my frameworks while also helping our community to renew its connection with the river. The more I thought about this idea, the more it seemed possible to build an expedition around the river. I proposed my idea to the social studies, science, and math teachers on my team, and they all agree that we can create a fantastic expedition around this topic. They also feel that their curriculum for the next year can be taught through this lens....

This summer I would like to learn to kayak and then kayak on some local rivers, mainly the Connecticut. I would also like to explore the connection between communities and their rivers. In my work, I would like to meet several learning targets.

1. I can experience an expedition of my own in order to better understand how my students feel and think during and expedition. (I selected a kayaking trip as this expedition because I am passionate about outdoor pursuits but have never had any official paddling training. I am both excited and intimidated about the prospect of being able to develop this skill.

2. I can learn more about a topic that will unify our team's curricula for the 2008-2009 school year. And, as a subset of that learning target, I can identify the best section of the Connecticut River to take my students on an introductory river camping trip this fall.

3. I can determine what big ideas and guiding questions about the river will maintain students' interest as we teach the content of our expedition.

4. I can learn more about how communities have worked together with various partners to enact change in their communities, and I can use this knowledge to devise ways to renew our community's interest in its river.

5. I can keep a journal of my learning in order to better understand how a journal is used as a centerpiece of instruction in an English Language Arts class.

6. I can blog my adventures to help my team members stay connected to our expedition during the summer and to pique my students' interest in the expedition topic and guiding questions."