It’s been 10 days since I returned from the round of July symposiums.  First the Door County Symposium, followed by a few nights of camping on the sandy shore of Lake Superior — right outside the door of my tent.  Then there was the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium.  Ten days on the road, and by the end, it was good to get home, even though all that gear had to be unloaded and carried into the house, hanging wet stuff to dry, and laundry of course.  This trip had been preceeded by the Inland Sea Symposium only 3 weeks before departure.  It is always kind of bittersweet to unload really, but it’s just the beginning of summer!

So, “now what?”  if you attended one of the symposiums, or two or all three, then you most likely picked up some new skills to hone — I know I did (for example the pry sculling draw).  So, this is not the time to simply hang up the boat and blades, it’s time to keep them and the body going–don’t stop now!  Get out there and practice.  But, don’t forget to have some fun too (not that practice can’t be fun), sometimes we just need to paddle.  While doing so work on your skill of self awareness and analysis.  If you are fortunate to have a paddling mate that has a keen eye, ask them for some feedback as to how a particular stroke is looking.

As for me, I’m in the prep stages for two instructor development workshops, and one instructor certification exam that I’ll be conducting between now and the end of September.  Then I turn my attention to prep for assisting with teaching a Wilderness Advanced First Aid course in mid-October.

I’m, however, going to make sure I take advantage of these warmer water months to do some paddling and rolling around too, which I’ve not done much of this year due in part to the weather, and the SI joint dysfunction that I’ve encountered–hoping that is about to get behind me though.  In the mean time, whenever I need to “chill”, I’ll take a look at some of the lovely sunsets that are memories from another good trip.