The 5 Year plan

[Diamond Dave]

Adapting the ole interview question, "Where do you see your kayaking in 5 years?" (or 10/15...etc)
I'd imagine most people will just be happy to take it as it comes, and still be enjoying thier kayaking. But does anyone want to have visited a certain place / learned to cartwheel / entered a certain race etc

[Tom_Laws]

Green race in a Green boat.

[Diamond Dave]

Last November I had a pretty crap injury (dislocated knee). Initally there was uncertainty as to whether I'd be able to keep up doing the same kind of kayaking as I used to enjoy. Particularly the exploratory stuff that can be walk-in and portage heavy.

With the most difficult and intricate operation behind me the surgeon is confident I'll be able to get back to enjoying activities I used to (and as he has said before, if he's dubious about what can be achieved, he "likes to be proved wrong"). The risk that comes with this is the harder I play now, the earlier I'll get arthritis.



Soon after the injury I watched this video, which reminded me how good Californian boating is.

Last time I was there, I just missed out on levels dropping on the Middle Kings. One day I'd like to go back. It may not happen in the next 5 years...but I'd love to get my boof on this testpiece Californian multiday.
http://www.canoekayak.com/canoe/a-taste-of-the-middle-kings/
http://www.teamliquidlogic.com/middle-kings

[Poke]

Stikine...


...in a squirt boat...


...with an aqualung...

[Diamond Dave]

...and balls of steel.

[TechnoEngineer]

I have a recurring vision of my paddling progression going so far backwards that I end up back where I begun, pootling solo around a lake on a SOT, just doing it for fitness with the absolute minimum amount of kit faff or needing to have other people around for any reason.

[Croft]

Its all leading up to: the Mersey Source to Sea - the ultimate challenge.

[Pyro]

I would have said "I want to be back paddling as well as I was 5 years ago, but then I realised that (as detailed in this thread), where I was 5 years ago isn't really a high target.

So, I'd like to be paddling better than I was 5 years ago. It may not be a particularly high bar to set myself, but it'll do.

[feelingjustfine]

I'd really like to be able to roll with confidence.

[Chris_Eastabrook]

I reckon that understanding your motivations and long terms goals play a critical part in ones development. As in, how can you know what to and how to development if don't understand where to are heading to. Sounds obvious but is often over looked and the starting point for planning any good coaching session.

While we are dreaming big, it's my current long term goal (within 5 years) to undertake a project that attempts to put remote WW expedition kayaking on par with other mainstream technical expeditions; mountains, polar, etc.
And to undertake a project that facilities and demonstrates, to a wider audience, the personal development and empowerment that adventurous kayaking (NOT overrated rafting building sessions) give to individuals...

[scottdog007]

Where do you see your kayaking in 5 years?"

Sitting in a big comfy canoe doing flat water paddling because I've got too many injuries to do anything else.

Ooh I hope that doesn't upset canoeists.

[Grumpy old man]

Hi
Padddling rivers with Mrs Grumpy, she hasn't been able to paddle for two years because of a back/neck injury. :-(


Grumpy

[DaveBland]

Wow! Paddling 'career' – you guys are serious... I never look much past the next river or two. It's about looking around seeing what the opportunities are at any given time and just doing what appeals that's within budget/time constraints.

[TheKrikkitWars]

Wow! Paddling 'career' – you guys are serious... I never look much past the next river or two. It's about looking around seeing what the opportunities are at any given time and just doing what appeals that's within budget/time constraints.

I'm with you, I was thinking of where I want to be in five years, but all I can come up with are vague ambitions.

I'd quite like to paddle in Norway & Italy, I'd like to do more big-volume paddling and and and I'd like to sort my headgames out so that I don't have to be paddling most days in order to feel "on form" because that much water time is unsustainable and unattainable now...

The first two are relatively immediate, I'll be lucky if I've achieved the latter in five years though.

[Neptune]

Paddling more grade 4 & 5, more consistently and more regularly with Papa Burne. Some steep creeking stuff in Italy, Corsica and Norway and some high volume stuff in India and the Himalayas.

Dave, I don't know about your paddling asperations, but you need to be aiming at finishing your medical training and to be practicing medicine in five years don't you think, then you can do all the paddling you want in your annual leave like Tim.

[callum s]

Dave, I don't know about your paddling asperations, but you need to be aiming at finishing your medical training and to be practicing medicine in five years don't you think, then you can do all the paddling you want in your annual leave like Tim.

That's you told! Get back to work! :P

I have some strong personal ambitions/dreams I am always looking towards, mostly in the form of big scary drops. As I dont seriously compete in any paddling discipline I guess these are a sort of substitute for the competitive goals that most people in sport have...

In the next 5 years I am going to* paddle:

This,

this,

this,

this

and last but certainly not least this., then I can die (or will have already died) a happy man.

My personal huck list in Scotland, hopefully tick them of in the next 5 years before I get pussy and old. Of course I hope 5 years is long enough to grow some balls and get better...

*should probably read "I would really like to but will struggle to man up enough to"...

[Tuomas]

I want to improve my playboating and riverrunning skills.

[buck197]

I want to be comfortable on the Upper Dart and turning right out of New Bridge car park, simples.

[eeonz]

I found this quite hard to write, without coming up with a load of ego-orientated goals. I'm not sure I like what that suggests about me as a person...

I'd like to have healthy shoulders still. Anything else is a plus!

I could reel off a list of qualifications, but more importantly, I'd like to really get my head around this white water game to be able to style grade 4. I'm getting down it at the minute, but I'd love to feel the same as I do on G3 - playing, rather than surviving.

I'd like to feel that I was a "good" white water coach. That I really knew my subject and had methods based on personal experience and practice, rather than regurgitating the contents of textbooks and the opinions of those that have gone before me.

I'd like to have paddled some of the classics outside of the UK. I will get to the Alps, one day! Norway, Slovenia, Uganda, Nepal... I won't achieve all of that in 5 years, but I'll give it a good go!

Lastly, I'd like to think that I'll still have the same drive to get out there, for the sake of doing so. That when left alone with a playboat on flat water, an afternoon will fly by just as quickly as it does now.

That was all quite cathartic, in the non medical sense.

[Randy Fandango]

I hope to be back paddling ww on a regular basis -- probably mostly G1&2 as I hope to be accompanied by my children who will then be 6 and 8 :-)
Giles

[Mrs Bod]

I want to be comfortable on the Upper Dart and turning right out of New Bridge car park, simples.

Right or Left Buck?

[flashollie]

Closer to home.

I want get comfortable on the Fairy Glen at good flows and do the Plym and Kiachnish.

To be able to competently do 3 named play boating moves. The odd lucky flat spin and floundering side surfing don't count.

The Thuli Bheri is something I will do within 5 years.
I also want to go to Cherry Creek.
Something in South America.
Norway.

But to sum it up.

To be always be a strong addition to any boating team and never just a passenger getting taken down stuff.

[Onecar]

FlashOllie said

To be always be a strong addition to any boating team and never just a passenger getting taken down stuff.

It'll never happen mate. Give it up.

[steve4746]

flashollie,

I AGREE!!

Steve.

[Yew]

Now fsince ive only been paddling for a year, im going to do where I would like to be in a years time.

- Bombproof whitewater roll
-Back deck roll
-Flatwater loops and wheels
-Surfing and flatspins
-Some whitewater tricks
-Paddle some more water, ideally the white kind
- Hopefully get to the 'intermediate' stage at NSR

[morsey]

Five year plan: to keep my arms fastened to my body without any more surgery. :-) Paddle whatever comes my way.

Not been down the Upper Dart, East Lyn, Upper Tawe or Mellte since I was last fixed up. Ideally like to get them ticked off before really going hard on rivers, but its looking more likely that lots of artificial boating and a jolly to the Alps might come first. Would like to do something off the beaten track, maybe Africa (Not the Nile or Zam) with a major overland trip to get there and do some work whilst there.

[callum s]

Hopefully get to the 'intermediate' stage at NSR

Ah yes, of course at some point in the next 5 years I aim to qualify as more than a novice. I might have to try some of this "freestyle" lark that seems all the rage down south...

[Chrace]

I'll work my way up.

Starting with Palouse as warm up, then Niagara for show-off, moving on to Murchinson for a bit of creeker playboating, and then Angel Falls to put an end to this "I've done the highest fall" malarchy.

Year 6 I'll drop out of a plane at 30.000ft in a kayak with a bucket of water to claim highest waterfall descent.

[justin-g]

I'd like to be teaching my son to roll and ferry in his first kayak. He can't say cup - but he can say kayak.

I'd love to paddle in chilli during spring melt.

[Jim Pullen]

With sprog arrival imminently approaching, in five years time I'll be happy if I can still find the time to get out and bash down the local runs when it rains! A few years after that and I'll be investing in a duo...