Polar Paddle at Down Under

Photo courtesy of Down Under Kayaking. That's me just to the right of the board, having a fairly good hair day.

I went for a New Year's Day paddle at Down Under in Westport, Connecticut today. This was a benefit for Als Angels, which is a charity for children with cancer and their families. Eleven of us brave souls gathered in the late morning to paddle the freezing Saugatuck River.

Here's the launch site by the Down Under shop, which you can barely see on the left. Several paddlers are already in the water. That red slab on the dock is Big Red.

I always obsess about what board to bring. Since I definitely didn't want to fall and there was a possibility of ice, I decide on taking Big Red with my Larry Allison fin. That meant I would have the slowest, most ungainly board on the river, but what the hell. It's a fun board to paddle, and I don't care about showing off anymore.

We started paddling up the Saugatuck. I had my camera with me but I was hesitant to take too many pictures because II was so damn slow compared to all the other paddlers. I didn't expect to be in the front, but I didn't want to be last by so much either.

The river was bleak and bare. No vegetation anywhere, which wasn't surprising, giving everything a brown color. The day was gorgeous though. It was about freezing but nice and sunny. There were patches of ice floating down river and along the shore.

Less than a mile up the river, we slower folks caught up to the guys in racing boards. They were all stopped at a certain point on the river.

The Saugatuck was completely frozen over here. Those guys didn't want to risk their delicate boards through the ice. I paddled up laughing. “Anybody call for a tugboat?” Now was a moment for a plastic board to shine. I started paddling through the ice (actually on top, then I'd break through and make a channel) and one of the racers followed me. Every stroke meant I had to punch my paddle blade through the ice.

Yeah, it was funny. I was having a blast. After a couple hundreds yards though the ice was getting too  thick. I could do punch through but the I was worried about damaging my paddle blade. So I turned around with John, the only paddler hardy enough to follow. Even going back was a bit of an effort through our own channel.

John making his way through the ice.

I'm happy to say that the paddle was fun with no mishaps. I probably could have brought Kirsten's board, which has the advantage of being much faster than mine. On the other hand, I would not have had so much fun icebreaking.

Best to everybody who shared the adventure with me. Now I need to do my own polar paddles.