VA Vets Paddle at Riverside

Yesterday I had the privilege to help a group of local canoe and kayak folks give veterans an experience on thewater. [Personal note below*.]  Folks from the local Sticks in the Water Club were present as well as paddlers Saukenuk Paddlers Canoe and Kayak Club [Quad Cities] group.  Between private canoes and kayaks and the ones brought by Seatasea Watersports [Cedar Rapids] there were at least 38 canoes and kayaks, plenty of life jackets and paddles.  This event was held in conjunction with the National Tee Tournament for disabled Vets held in Riverside, IA.  The vets were bussed from the Casino/Golf Course to a an abandoned 60 acre sand pit across highway 22.  When the buses arrived we assisted the vets down near the water, someone gave brief talk about paddling and kayaks for those that needed it.  Later a group of youngsters came from a local middle school and helped the vets.

In the morning, I had the honor of taking out Bill.  Bill was from originally Massachusetts and lives in Florida.  He was blind.  He canoed at this event last year and could not wait to get in the water again.  Someone grabbed me and asked if I would take him out.  We were the first in the water.  We were on the water in wind and rain for about an hour.  I told him what I seeing and we paddled. Later when we turned, I looked back and saw a flotilla of craft out on the water.  Like myself, Bill grew up the old plywood rowboats that weighed a ton, using oars and oarlocks without pins.  For those of you too young to remember this system, if you did not hold on to oars, you could lose them and since the turned at any angle to water, it was very easy splash yourself and anyone else in the boat.  We talked about how much easier canoeing was.  I told him about the things I was seeing in and around the water, the Bank Swallow burrows on steep sand bank on one corner or the lake, the Osprey that repeatedly stooped into or near the water's surface, that I never saw come up with a meal, the Coots, the other group of vets that some group had arrange horseback rides for.  He told me when it started to rain.  It was so cool and breezy that I did not even notice when it spritzed on us. We talked about his carbon-shafted driver that he broke on the golf course the other day.  When we returned, he thanked me and I thanked him.

I spent most of the rest of the day helping people in and out of boats and pushing and pulling boats into and away from shore.  Especially memorable was young man of 88 years.  Julius had never been in a kayak before and he was excited to do have the chance.  Julius also thought he might like to skydive.  Those of us helping him into the kayak told him we had no interest in jumping out of a good airplane.  He still thought it sounded like a good idea and if he did it, he wasn't going to cheat by be being attached to another skydiver, as did a more famous former President.

In case anyone wonders, we did not just dump the vets into a boat and shove them off.  There was a short talk about the differences between kayaks and anything else and the differences between paddling a kayak and paddling a canoe.  Whenever a beginner or someone with vision issues went out a kayak or canoe with experienced people was sent with along side of them, if they were not in a tandem.  Some vets got their pants we from water dripping off their paddles, but no one dumped.  After the vets left, the youngsters who were there took to the water.  We did not even lose any of them, although two boats needed some help to get back in as the wind picked up after lunch.

* Personal Note:  When I first heard of this event, I thought I have a canoe, I am retired, I thought that this would be a nice way to honor my Dad, my Uncle, my wife's Stepdad and Uncle, all of whom served our nation.