The Paddler Autumn/Fall issue 2017

ThePADDLER 16
I invited myself.
A friend of mine, Mark Boyd, mentioned he was
travelling to Northern Ireland with his family and
friends for the World Surf Kayak Championships
to photograph his son Zack, who is competing
for the US West Coast team. Mark and I often
photograph kayak sports together closer to our
central California coast homes, so yes, I inserted
myself into his family as ‘visual and social
support’, for the US West Coast team. I hauled
thousands of dollars of photographic equipment,
paid for over-priced car rental insurance that
does not even cover tyres apparently and took
2.5 weeks off of work… to post 600px X 400px
photos to the team’s Facebook page. Yup…“Love
you guys!” Actually, logistics and pretence aside,
I m just along for the ride.
I’ve never visited Europe; never travelled beyond
North America; never paid a pound for anything;
never driven on the left side of the road
(unintentionally) or from the right side of a
vehicle nor had a blown tyre that I was unable to
fix on a late rainy night in a place that was 5,000
miles from familiarity, in a fog that only 24 hours
of airline travel can create. Welcome to the land
of wattle and daub.
Settling into my room in the converted fishery,
Mark s family catches me up on the travels and
travails of other US team mates. Among the
inventoried events of the past few days: A
hurricane of the likes not seen in 50 years;
unleaded gas instead of diesel in the tank kind of
thing; various flat tyres; a heart attack (two
actually) and a broken arm (Mark’s wife Barb).
This is just the US West Coast team. In fairness
Edu Etxeberria