Open your eyes and smell the chlorine

Since GalwayGuy is back from St Louis, an area which does not have readily available kayak opportunities for him, I thought I'd set aside my anti-chlorite views and absorb a bit of the noxious chemical on Sunday. As it turned out he was stuck in Bismarck, ND due to the blizzard conditions. His plan to get up at 4am, drive back, and make the pool session at 11am was thwarted, but I felt that since I had told RonO I'd be there I better show. So after being forced back inside a couple times to restore small motor function to my fingers as I attempted to tie the boat on the roof in sub zero temperatures, I made my way over the black ice on I-694 to the Brooklyn Center pool.

Four of us made it to the session, hearty or stupid souls who either had the holiday shopping, baking, and stressing out under control or maybe just didn't give a rip. I personally fell into the procrastinators camp and it was strongly suggested by the VOR that a 'quick' beer stop at Grumpy's after rolling might be pushing the envelope, Christmas prep-wise. I ran into MrEngineerGear in the locker room and he immediately informed me he would have to give me some shit about showing up after reading my anti-chlorite ramblings from last winter. He was way too easy on me however. I did hear of a new and uniquely cold weather pool mishap when I got in the pool though. RonO left his neoprene booties in his gear box and they froze solid. He put them in the pool to thaw and one drifted over to the pool filter, was sucked in, and has not been seen since.

Fifteen or twenty minutes later I had executed a few rolls feebly, forgotten everything I'd learned this summer about my offside (excuse me, other side rolls), and remembered that doing a bunch of rolls in quick succession after a two month layoff generally leaves my back sore for a week. That, combined with the chlorine saturation of all my gear and mucuous membranes, made for a pretty typical DaveO pool session experience. The foggy photo above and attached video clip of an aborted roll attempt while holding the camera, further illustrate the 'fun' I had on that frigid Sunday afternoon.

If GalwayGuy wants to hit the pool again, a likely scenario once he sees what Santa brought, I will go along but perhaps in a boat sharing scenario. They do have a nice sauna there and I would envision perhaps a 90-10 breakdown in 'butt in the boat' time. I believe I will stay true to my principles for the rest of the winter and glide over the snow rather than brush it off the kayak rack. Its shaping up to be one of those bountiful snow winters and I'm all over that.