Philip Robert

Finally, after almost two years, I'm getting some time in the cockpit of a whitewater kayak. This past Thursday I participated in Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe Shop's "Brace and Roll" class. Taught by members of Alder Creeks staff at Bend's Juniper Park Pool, the Brace and Roll class is the perfect place for newbie kayakers like myself to learn how to do an eskimo roll. It's also a place for seasoned kayakers to improve their technique.

After a short introduction by Geoff Franks, we watched How to Roll by Ken Whiting to go over the principles and ideas of rolling down.

Then we hit the water. The pool is heated at Juniper Park which is nice. It's hard to concentrate when you're cold.
First Geoff went over bracing. The low brace using the back of the paddle, and the high brace using the power side of the paddle. The main part of the discussion was how to avoid the most common kayaking injury, the dislocated shoulder. Keep your elbows down and in front. The brace is used to avoid having to do a roll in the first place. Using the force of the paddle combined with a quick hip snap should usually be enough to keep you from flipping over. Of course "should" is always a dangerous word. Things don't always happen as they "should."

After practicing braces for a bit we moved onto the mechanics of the roll. Ideally all of the roll happens from the hip snap. Keep your head down (in the water), and use your inside knee and hips to snap the kayak upright. Sounds easy in theory, but I discovered that it wasn't so easy in practice. When my hands were supported, either on the bow of a partner's boat or the side of the pool, I could turn my kayak almost completely upside down and back up with no problem. Put the paddle into the equation and suddenly it just wasn't working. I worked with Bo for a little bit, and just wasn't getting it. Finally, between being cold and tired I decided to get out of the pool and shoot some video.

So while I learned the concepts of rolling, I didn't quite get over this time. Not to worry. I've gained enough confidence to begin paddling some baby white water with the guys at Alder Creek while working towards getting my roll down. If I do end up flipping in the river I know two things for certain. Adrenaline is an amazing force, and I can always do a wet exit. Rolling takes time and effort to learn as my older brother David explains in his comment here.

This past weekend I was out with the crew from Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe shop in Bend, and Geoff Franks busted this great seal launch just below Tetherow Logjam on the Deschutes River.

I did my own seal launch just a few feet downstream from here where the bank of the river was only about two feet high. I was really nervous about the drop and flipping over because I can't do that fancy eskimo roll just yet. That's something that I'm going to learn tomorrow during the Brace and Roll class offered by Alder Creek and taught by the amazing Christina Russel.

Meanwhile if you're visiting Bend on the last Wednesday of the month in July and August come by Alder Creek for "Pickin & Paddling", an afternoon of free demos, music, and refreshments.

Here's the post on the Brace and Roll Class.

Last month I posted about magic coke bottles, and received a comment asking for the secret. There really isn't a secret, it's all about balance.

Glass coke bottles are some of the most distinctive soda bottles ever devised. The hourglass shape combined with a series of ridges around the bottle make this trick possible.

The top bottle's edge is set into the valley between two ridges on the middle bottle which is laying on its side on top of the bottom bottle. When you look at the entire contraption from the side you'll see that all of the bottles line up through the center, and the top bottle is tilted on edge.

I've discovered that 16oz bottles work better than 8oz bottles. These little buggers were tricky.

Last weekend my niece Joanna Ridgeway came to town for a visit, and we went kayaking on the Deschutes River. No white water on this trip, just a pleasant paddle upstream from Alder Creek Kayak and Canoe Shop to the Bill Healy bridge. This section of the Deschutes is backed up by a low damn which was built to create a pond where logs were stored for the local saw mill. Well the saw mill is now called the Old Mill District and it has been renovated into a shopping and entertainment district in Bend.

The guys over at Alder Creek have a great location right on the water in Bend. It's so easy to rent kayaks, canoes, and gear and get right on the river for a fun afternoon. I'm really looking forward to attending their whitewater classes so I can get a good combat roll down. Then it's time to get into the gnarly stuff.

It's June and the Farmers Market is here. Every Wednesday in Drake Park a ton of local growers assemble to sell their produce to the locals of Bend, Oregon. This takes place half a block away from my apartment, and I've been looking forward to it since arriving in Bend in January.

The supermarkets already carry excellent produce. With the farmers market you get to meet the growers, and find some amazing products. This week I brought home some yellow squash, heirloom carrots, wild mitake mushrooms, and some gorgeous tomatoes. I used all of this to make a Moroccan Vegetable Stew that I discovered on The Skinny Gourmet, tomato sauce for Eggs in Tomato Sauce that I discovered at SmittenKitchen, and a mushroom sauce from Gordon Ramsay on youtube.

You could probably say that I'm going to be a regular at this thing.

Find more photos of the Bend Farmers Market at On the Go Go in the photogallery.

Bend Farmers Market presented by Philip Robert.

Last month I flew back to Louisiana to stay with my Dad while he recovered from surgery.

So I returned to Bend at the end of May, and it is such a gorgeous place. That evening I took a short walk through Drake park along the Deschutes river. In the month I was gone the grass (which was green before) seemed to have become almost neon. The colors were so lush. Everything in this town seems vibrant with the coming of summer, and the temperatures are perfect. Warm enough to enjoy the day, yet cool enough that you're not passing out from the heat.

On monday I took my first Bikram class since finishing my 90 Day Challenge. It felt great to see everyone and get in a good workout.

Staff meeting at On the Go Go, where I met the new members of the team. Wow, go away for four weeks and the world changes.

Last night a soft spoken lad from Conway, Arkansas beat out a tall flamboyant kid from San Diego, California to become America's newest Idol. At least that's what I heard on the radio this morning because I don't watch the show. The way the commentators on New Orleans' WWL radio station were talking the glamrock kid, Adam Lambert, got ripped off in the voting because they thought he was much better than the folksy Kris Allen. The WWL talking heads kept saying that the voting system was rigged and that they needed to come up with a better system.

Ummmm, guys... its a Talent show. The results are completely subjective. If Kris Allen beat Adam Lambert in a vote by the fans then Kris did a better job of it. The name of the show says it all. It's AMERICAN IDOL not America's Best Singer.

Congratulations go out to both young men for rising to the top in a highly competitive endeavor. They've both got a world of new opportunities out there. For the talking twits on WWL... fortunately I don't have to listen to them all the time.

I've been visiting my Dad this month, and his kitchen looks out over the driveway and back yard. While I was doing dishes this morning we had a little visitor amble up the driveway. A little grey fox! What a gorgeous little creature she was with a light grey face and back with red fringe going to her belly and down her legs. She was in the middle of the drive way when I leaned up over the sink to get a better look, and she sort of trotter towards the house. She seemed to be looking up at the window as if to figure out what I was. Her ears pricked forward and her head darted up and down looking intently towards me. I wasn't breathing.

Dad was coming into the kitchen. I could hear his footsteps behind me, and I quietly said, "Dad look out in the driveway." Just as I spoke the little vixen trotted towards the edge of the bushes, but stopped in the middle of the drive to look back. She stood there in the sunshine letting us get a good look at her.

Dad's camera was on the dining room table, but neither one of us wanted to move. I was certain that as soon as I did the fox would dash off into the underbrush never to be seen again. Later Dad told me that he was thinking the same thing.

This is why you should have a window behind your kitchen sink.

Tomorrow morning I'll keep the camera closer and see if this friendly little fox comes calling again.

I love having a nice car. I think everyone does. Unfortunately it always seems like the cars I want far exceed my wallet's ability to pay. I think this is true for many of us. Here's a plan that solves that problem forever.

This is a video that I wish I had seen when I was 16. Next month I'll be making the final payment on my current car, a 2001 Mitsubishi Montero Sport with 176,000 miles. This will be the last car payment I ever make because I'm not going to borrow money anymore. Over the course of my adult life I've always had a car payment, and recently I did the math to discover that I've made about $81,000 in car payments. Some of those cars were great cars, but really what have I got for all of that money? A run down SUV...

A lot of people will question the interest rate. I'm sure that you could find a fund that will return12%. It's not going to be easy, but if you look I'm sure they're out there. Even if you were only getting 8% this still works. It just takes a bit longer.

The other thing that always caught me up on my cars was tires. When it comes time to replace them that is going to be a $400 to $800 expense. The easy way is to put $25 to $50 a month aside each month for replacement tires. Then when its time to change the rubber on your ride you're ready.

Best wishes on your cars.

Yesterday I got into a kayak for the first time in over twenty-five years. What a difference in the sport. Last time I was in a kayak they were all made of fiberglass and the short ones were about 14 feet long. Now they're made of plastic, carbon fiber, fiberglass, wood, abs, and other materials. The kayaks that I'm interested in learning how to paddle are playboats and creekboats which are primarily made of plastic and are considerably shorter than 14 feet. Here's an example of a playboat in action. Don Grail on the Colorado river last May paddling a Jackson Fun kayak

The boats that I tried out were a Dagger Mamba creekboat
which has a rounded bottom for sliding over rocks easily, a Jackson 4Fun playboat
, a Liquidlogic Biscuit 65 playboat
, and a Tempest sea kayak.

After paddling the different kayaks I decided to try out a paddle board. A paddle board is a large stable surfboard that you stand up on and paddle with a long paddle. It takes a lot of balance, but they're quite fun. I was doing really well until I went over a log in the river. I didn't expect it. It wasn't sticking up enough to make a ripple in the surface of the water and it just barely bumped the surfboard's fin. I lost my balance and went for a cool spring swim.