I don't care what people say, but April is a great month full of awesome weather...the beginning of Spring and April showers are all wonderful things...with that said, our first on-water practice was not the best of weather...in fact, I think there was a slight overcast and the water was only a few degrees cooler then the land and so it was pretty cold...my guys were ready, I could see it in there faces...the standing rule in my boat is that if we go under, you are to first save me, El Capitan...I didn't think I'd ever have to exact said rule, but I'm glad I said it before we paddled out...our steersperson at the time was a first timer, and on this day, he had invited a friend of his who had a lot of experience and would coach him through the finer points of steering...
Prior to starting, I spoke with the lifeguards and they told me that because the practice lanes were being used for the World Junior Rowing Championships, that our practice space was reduced...he advised us that instead of head east, like we normally did, that we were to head west and that we were allowed to go about 100m up the Humber River...normally, the Humber River is very choppy, but according to the lifeguards, they said that it was unusually calm and that it would be no problem...yeah right...so, we took their advice and we headed on west...the practice started off well, we were getting the feel of the boat, and the team seemed to be getting into it...as we approached the mouth of the Humber, I stopped the boat and decided to give everyone a chance to compose themselves before things got worse...with everyone ready and eager to prove themselves, we set off up the Humber...right from the beginning, I knew that this was totally wrong...due to the break walls in the practice areas, there is very little waves and the absolute worse parts are only between 1-2 feet in height...these are very simple and manageable waves, things that rarely would cause concern even amongst a non-swimmer such as myself...however, on this day while riding the Humber, the waves were in excess of 5-6 feet in height...huge chop means lots of paddles missing the water leads to people panicking and sliding all over the place which in turn causes people to slam their paddles into the water as hard as possible bringing tons of water into the boat...after about 100m, the water actually calmed a bit and we stopped paddling...we were next to three other dragon boat teams and two all-female rowing teams...we were pretty shook up but I was so proud of my guys...we took our time bailing out our boats and decided that perhaps we should just head on back and go in circles along the safer areas of the practice lanes...the first rule of paddling in chop is to never stop paddling...don't freak out and just paddle hard right through it...I said to my guys that they needed psyche themselves up and make sure that they never quit paddling until we reached the safety of the breakwall...to envision our route home properly, think of it this way...we were in the middle of the Humber River...100m south of us was were the river opens up into Lake Ontario...the practice race lanes, our sanctuary, is on a slight angle (around 50 degrees to the left)...so all we had to do was to paddle straight down and cut straight into the practice lanes...if we went wide enough, then only a slight course correction would be necessary to get us into the practice lane and we would be safe and sound...we bailed out all of the water in the boat and we were ready to go...I spoke to the other teams, and we all decided that if we all went together, it probably would be best...my team decided to go third, after the rowers and one dragon boat team and followed by the other team...and off we went, we were doing well, lots of chop, but I was able to get everyone to trust in themselves and we paddled hard...sure, me yelling that I will kill anyone who stops paddling can be construied as strong motivator, but whatever it takes...I told everyone to keep their eyes focused in the boat and to not worry about making it back...as I looked up to check our progress, I could see the break wall coming up and I knew that we were going to make it...we had about 30m to go when I noticed that we were going really wide to the entrance...I think our steersperson was afraid that our course was too sharp and he was afraid we would strike the shoreline...whatever the case may be, we went wide, really wide...so wide in fact that by the time we reached the mouth of the practice lane, we had turned almost 90 degrees...at this point, we were parallel with the waves instead of perpendicular...crash, crash, crash...wave after wave of water filled the boat, but we kept on paddling...it wasn't until the water had reached my hip did I realize that we were going under...everyone bailed out of the boat and we were floating like plastics dummies in Lake Ontario...thankfully, my team remembered our first rule and they saved me first...as we were being dragged to safety, our drummer was able to capture two pictures that she later sold to the newspapers...we weren't the only team that went under at that spot...one of the all-women rowing teams and another dragon boat team were all victimized by the rushing water...
The Harbor police were right there and so we were rescued very shortly after sinking...we got split up and some of us, myself included, got sent to see the ambulances near the Harbor police's dock...the rest of the team was taken back to the docks where they were cleared to go...as for myself, I was just a little cold and enjoyed the opportunity of riding inside the ambulance...after about an hour, we made it back to Sunnyside and were greeted by a news crew...some of us were filmed for a little segment and the rest of us got to bask in our 15 minutes of fame...
However, this fame was short lived as we had to prepare ourselves for our second practice...oh well!
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