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My experiences paddling as a Novice………. |
by Monique Shelton
Monique is a former World Ranked Swimmer and College All-American. She has a masters Degree in Education and currently is a Coach for United States Swimming feeder program. Her day job is Construction Project Management.
It all started one day on a construction job site…….yes, a construction job site. I met Calvin, who was going to be building some shoji screens for my client. I was wearing a swimming T-shirt, (which I guess lends itself nicely to paddling), and Calvin proceeded to size me up. He mentioned that I looked like a strong girl and should come out and give paddling a try.
The 09 practice season was about to begin in March and he said I should go to the intro meeting. I couldn’t actually make it to the meeting due to a swim meet, so I sent Heather McNab (Java or Amazon) in my place to gather intel. She was not as interested as I initially, but felt it would be fun to exercise out on the water and meet new people.
We started our practices and found that like in all things, it is harder than it looks, and the people who make it look so easy and effortless, have been doing it for a LONG time. So, this was a bit of bash to my athletic ego, and sent me back to the drawing board for how I will attack this endeavor. Right now, I am trying to glean as much knowledge about the craft as possible from the experienced paddlers and trying to make my adjustments. (All comments welcome by the way).
I am totally stoked on the sport and the group of people I have met. I love that there is this crazy cross section of people who bring so much to the table. I will continue to take one practice at a time and build on each element/layer of paddling and its culture.
CAN’T WAIT FOR 9 MAN!
I Will report back after Avila
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