You are standing at the edge of the pool, its not a heated pool, so you know the water is going to be rather cold. Your whole body anticipates that moment of shock on entering the liquid realm. Now your mind takes your body’s lead and starts to inform you that your intention is unnecessary, terra firma is where you belong, take a shower rather, you have feet not flippers.
But you still jump in ….. and you always enjoy it. Why? Why do we have to be such complicated creatures. Nothing is black and white, there is always millions of shades of grey in between. I suppose that’s what makes life interesting.
This analogy describes so many things in my life right now. One of which is the start of this blog. I have been contemplating it for a long time but never quite knew how to start it until I took the plunge. Hopefully me jumping in is not going to cause such a splash that all the pool water ends up outside the pool but only time will tell.
For those of you who don’t know about www.paddlingplanet.com , it’s a sight created by René Seindal that collects rss feeds from various kayak related blogs and displays it in chronological order. It’s a great way to stay in touch with various kayaking related news and views from all around the world. I have been a regular visitor to the site since its inception late last year. Seeing all the interesting locations other paddlers are enjoying around the world has been very inspiring. This is where GS blue comes in, hopefully it will allow the paddling world an appetizer into paddling in South Africa and at the same time act as a reference for our journeys and adventures.
The other plunge we took recently was acquiring new boats. As simple as this task may seem, it’s actually quite a harrowing. Living in SA leaves you with few options other than what is predetermined by retailers and economy. For sea kayaking in specific, your options are limited to only a few brands, each with their own set of pros and cons. Even though there was very little wrong with my previous boat, I have an urge to improve my kayaking skills and hopefully take my sport to a new level. That’s why we went for something with slightly more traditional lines(Lets blame the This is the Sea series for that.) Deciding on the boats took many months of sleepless nights and even more visits to our bank but at some stage you just take the plunge and hope for the best …. You do always enjoy it, don’t you?
