Living Life on the Lake

Like everyone else I've been looking to shed a few extra pounds lately. It's not just a desire to do so for the obvious reasons such as heart health and looking good, but I am a type 2 diabetic and keeping extra weight off is my to managing my blood sugar without additional medication. I found a new sport that is effective, low impact on knees and feet, and a heck of a lot of fun. More on that shortly...

So shaving a few pounds should be mo big deal right? There are tons of great ways to exercise. Shoot, the house we lease even has an impressive gym. There's a big rugged weight resistance machine with every imaginable exercise. There's also a nice treadmill, lifecycle and free weights. Sounds like a piece of cake to keep the weight. Whoops, a piece of cake is what tends to put on the extra weight. In addition to the weight machine, the owner left us his canoe.

Over Memorial Day weekend, Sue and I took out the canoe and explored the lake we live on. We had a blast. It was so much fun the first time we went out again the next day and even brought some fishing supplies. We had a slight mishap returning that trip and went into the slime. You see we live in a shallow enclave of the lake with mucky green water and lots of underwater foliage. It may look ugly, but it is effective for getting a canoe in and out of the yard. A couple of weeks ago I caught a 12-13" largemouth bass just casting from the back yard with a night crawler. But I digress…

Canoeing with Sue would be the perfect exercise. But she works all day, then visits her kids then comes home,. That leaves time for dinner and snuggling, and not much else. I could use the canoe alone, but it is heavy to launch and harder to maneuver with just one person. I had seen these little plastic kayaks at all the sporting goods stores. I decided to go into a local store and take a look. Then I went online and looked at the supply for Dick's Sporting Goods, a leading store in the Boston area.

I just wanted a basic one person, inexpensive Kayak so I could exercise daily. You see, the exercise equipment is certainly nice and I use it sometimes, but I have arthritis and various injuries and surgeries that make anything that puts a demand on the knees or feet painful. While I have arthritis in my neck and sometimes it extends down to my shoulder, I felt kayaking with the focus on the upper torso would be perfect. I looked over the features and found that kayaks start at $200 and go into the thousands, depending on factors such as number of seats, ocean-ready, whitewater safe, and types of storage compartments. I wanted a single person kayak with no frills.

Since we were coming back from a family party in East Windsor, Connecticut, we stopped at the Dick's near Buckland Mall in Manchester. The kid working there knew less about kayaks then a rock. However, I got him to take the kayaks down so I could look. There was one for $239 that met my needs. However, of the two models he had in stock in green (my preferred color), one had a sizable dent in the bottom and the other had some scratches on the plastic. I made a bit of a fuss over the condition of the kayaks. They were really floor demos, not new and unscarred. I called Sue over to ask her opinion. The kid at the store thought Sue and I were arguing over buying it (we weren't) and just came over and offered it to us for $199. Not bad considering I was willing to pay the higher price. We added a decent but basic kayak paddle adding another $40. Lastly we bough a universal roof rack mount for small kayaks for $25. I had my Acura MDX and with a little futzing we got it on the room and strapped down. We had about 80 miles to drive home from there, almost all highway. The kid at the store said he wasn't "allowed" to strap things to the car. Thank goodness, because he knew NOTHING about Kayaks or this mounting. Bottom line is despite very windy conditions and the kayak moving about 4" to the right and left, we made it home safely. It was getting late so I had to move quickly to get a paddling session in.

That was Saturday night. Indeed I got the kayak in the lake and took off to explore the landscaping on a house with an amazing gazebo/porch structure out over the water. That was probably under a mile each way. But I got the kayak rhythm down and had some good speed. Today was Sunday, a day Sue and I usually get to spend together, and she wanted to go canoeing together. I would always vote for a together activity over an alone activity, so we headed out during quiet time. The lake has laws they enforce requiring all boats to leave no wake from 2pm-6pm on Sundays and holidays. It is nice to be out there without the jetskis and waterskiers, and fast boats. Sue and I had lovely sunshine and had a great time covering a mile or two.

Feeling very summery, I grilled up some Atlantic Salmon filet on the BBQ. After eating, I had this hankering to go out again on the water. So I jumped into my solo kayak and heading out to cross the lake. I didn't bring any fishing gear. I brought just sunglasses, a sweatshirt, and my iPod NANO. It was getting near sunset. The sun going down along the trees of the lake was very peaceful, despite the noisy rock and roll blasting my ears with the iPod. It was a very enjoyable and effective quick post-dinner exercise. I returned home after a mile or so and disembarked without falling into the slime. My heart was pumping and I felt good.

So for a little over $200 I bought I new little toy that gets me out of the fresh air, provides endless capacity to get revved up and go fast and far, but also provides for peacefully floating and watching the sunset. I had never lived on a lake before so this is a real treat for me. It's on;y been two days, but I plan to kayak at least 4 out of 7 days, doing all 7 if possible. Tomorrow I may need to let the shoulder heal and sit out a day, although the weather report is making it look very tempting. We'll see if a little Ben Gay and the heating pad do the trick and allow me to paddle tomorrow. I hope so. I am growing fund of this kayak/canoe stuff. Sure I plan to get a jetski, and a fishing or even a watersking boat SOMEDAY. But for the immediate future. I can heartily recommend kayaking to anyone. I went ocean kayaking off Santa Cruz a decade or so ago. But this is my new things now.

For those interested in more information on the simple kayak I bought, it's called Pelican Zest sit-in Kayak. See this URL for more information:

http://www.gijoes.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2131654

Give it a try. I am so happy I followed my instinct and invested in one of these. I'm going to go to sporting goods store and get some gear (like little kayak booties and gloves). I plan to do my daily excursion at 5am most days. I know different doctors or sports trainers have differing opinions on first thing in the AM

It is with a smile I write this tale of a summery excursion exploring the very lake I live on. I sincerely hope someone reads this article interesting enough to explore kayaking themselves. I will bet I drop 5 pounds of excess weight in the first week with my new sport. Give me a month, and I'll have 20 off. Come on in, the water's fine!