Chair's Cockpit
By David (Cotton) Cottingham
What a winter! As much as I enjoy cold weather, I hope you are as ready for spring as I am. I'm excited for warmer weather, warmer water, and more opportunities to comfortably paddle. Let’s hope that 2025 provides steady flows on nearby rivers.
CCA has a lot planned this paddling season. In addition to Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday trips, Risa Shimoda and a great team have been planning the 70th Annual Downriver Race scheduled for May 10. (See race article in this Cruiser.) It's going to be wonderful. I hope that many members will come out and participate in this great race either as a racer or volunteer. You should know that while some racers paddle competitively, many more take a more casual approach to the racing aspect.
Rolando (Rolo) Arrieta, Safety Chair, has arranged for several safety and first aid training events this spring. Check the club calendar and watch for email announcements. Please take advantage of one or more of these events. It's important to maintain CCA's record of safe river trips. Many participants (including me) at last year's Stay Out of Trouble (SOOT) session were surprised when our safety knives were completely ineffective at cutting safety ropes. I got a new knife the next week. We can all use practice pitching throw ropes and reviewing basic first aid.
Call for Book Help
For several years Alf Cooley has collected donated books from people to recirculate at the holiday party. Most of these are old river guides or accounts of river runs. Some are beautiful coffee table books on local and distant rivers. Alf has collected the books and compiled a list of them to offer members each year. He then has carefully distributed books available to those who want them. Alf is stepping down from leading this responsibility. If you're interested in taking on this discrete job that happens in the fall, please contact Alf or me. I'd hate to lose this tradition. As some of us think about downsizing, others can benefit, gaining valuable information about rivers and paddling them.
Welcome New Steering Committee Members
I'd like to welcome Laura Kurup, Ryan Morrow, and Peter Ryan to the CCA Steering Committee. I was curious about how they came to whitewater paddling and asked each of them. Laura began training and racing C1 slalom. From 2007 to 2011 she traveled the eastern half of the United States to compete in local races, nationals, and team trials. After several years away from the sport, Laura began paddling with CCA in 2018, and today you are most likely to find her in an open canoe. Ryan started paddling in 2014 on the New River Gorge, learning to roll a boat and experiencing the abrupt consequences of being unprepared for an eddy line. After returning home, he bought his first boat, became hooked on rivers and the DC paddling community, and is now passionate about introducing others to the water. Peter started sea kayaking in August 1998 to simulate crewing atop moving water as he'd done a quarter century before. He can regale you with accounts of what he calls his "meandering skill growth," which changed for the better when he began actively participating in CCA trips in 2018. He credits the turnaround to Barb Brown, who was ubiquitous on CCA novice runs and took Peter and others under her wing, and to his longtime friend Mark Brenneman, who kept pushing him to try more challenging whitewater. Mark, he says, taught him about eddy turns and peelouts and only tried to kill him once on the Patapsco.
So, our new committee members followed three different paths, all getting to a good place. (Below: Laura, Ryan, Peter.)