Row, row, row your rowing shell

Four years ago we bought our first kayak, a brand new tandem Ocean Kayak. Delia and I used it together occasionally, but I ended up using it alone more often than not and got increasingly devoted to exercising on the Intracoastal Waterway by myself.

Paddling around in a tandem kayak carrying 240 pounds of me in the rear seat just wasn't working to my satisfaction. The front of the kayak skimmed over the water while the rear probably appeared to be on the verge of doing a reverse Titanic to the bottom.

So I found a single seat Hobie kayak on Craigslist.org, paid $300 for it and began doing my own thing. We kept the tandem for those rare occasions when two people wanted to go out together. I can count on my fingers and toes the number of times Delia and I went together since I got my single - maybe just on my fingers.

I got pretty well conditioned to paddling and now do 4 miles without much of a thought. 9.5 miles is the most I've done but it was exhausting. I tend not to venture beyond 6 miles. From my home south to and around Dumfoundling Bay is about 6 miles. North up to the Hollywood border and around the islands of Hallandale is about 5 miles.

I mostly go very early in the morning. On weekends I try to get out by 7am and back by 9, before boat traffic picks up. Boat wakes are irritating and disrupt the serenity of the water.

My preference is to get out on weekdays before 6am so I can do the 4 mile trip south, around Turnberry Isle and back in an hour. As much as I enjoy the exercise, it is still a challenge to drag myself out of my comfy bed around 5:45 even when the conditions are perfect (clear skies and winds under 5mph). If I hear my wind chimes from bed, I know that the wind is probably over 10mph which is generally my threshold for going out.

99.5% of the time there are no other kayakers to be seen. The casual kayakers, and there are lots of homes in the areas with kayaks on their docks, don't come out until later in the day, and probably don't venture far from home.

Eventually I got to thinking about how even though the paddling is great upper body exercise, I wanted to get my legs involved. (Kayaking could be great exercise for someone without working legs.) So I began to think about a row boat, or more accurately, a rowing shell, the kind with a sliding seat, like a scull.

I researched rowing shells and began looking on Craigslist again. Eventually I found an older Alden 16 shell that has seen better days, but at $900 I figured it was adequate for learning. I ended up buying it for $500 at a time when $500 was a big luxury buy for us. I think I justified it as my birthday gift.

So I get it home and in the water easily enough, but I postpone trying it out because I don't have a couple wire clips that hold the sliding mechanism in the shell.

That was both smart and wrong. It was smart because when upon trying to launch it the very first time I immediate tipped over and the mechanism probably would have come out and sunk to the bottom - not so far to retrieve but not good in any case. The reason it was wrong is because I was already building up a degree of intimidation that would only get worse as my difficulties continued.

Getting dumped that first time totally destroyed my confidence, something I don't generally lack. While I didn't really struggle too much to get out of the water, I was very shaken by the experience. I have never been dumped from my kayak.

It took months for me to get back in and try again, but I did eventually. I floundered around a few dozen yards from my dock and parked it. It was not much of a try but not getting wet was an improvement. Another effort a month later wasn't much more adventurous.

By this time I was starting to feel ashamed of myself. I don't get intimidated or fearful very easily. Yet I continued to avoid the challenge.

I found every excuse in the world not to go out again - too windy, too late, too dark, too much chance of rain, the neighbors are outside, I have something else to do today. Whatever. And every time I avoided it I grew more annoyed at myself.

Today was different. I had kayaked yesterday, so today was my day off. The morning's conditions were perfect with clear skies and calm winds. The people across the canal had been outside but they disappeared. The guy down the canal who is most likely to cruise past had already gone by.

I couldn't blame my equipment as I'd already identified a flaw in my positioning of the oars the last time, so I announced to Delia that I was doing it! I hadn't confided in her about my shame and embarrassment, but she knew I was intimidated and I had once told her I would not give in to it.

Well, I got out with the intent to just get down to the end of our dead end canal and back, a distance of about 3/4 mile. Boy, it was not easy. I struggled with the motion needed to smoothly propel the shell in a straight line. I kept turning the oar at the wrong point and would have to fight the weight of the water as I lifted it. It wasn't pretty, but I went the distance.

It was hard to get into the rhythm and I found I did best when I wasn't concentrating as much. It was more work than I expected but I got back to my floating dock and dismounted. Done.

The demon is vanquished! I know I will be less intimidated to get out and do it again and again until I figure it out, but I will eventually figure it out.

This was a very important moment to me. I have regained something I lost and I am a better person because of it.