My Kayak's Got A Hole In It: A Reflection

The Last Voyage Of
Big Blue...For Now

Yeah, I guess I'm a little proud that inside of six months I've managed to wear a hole in the stern of my kayak. At an average of four trips a week for 24+ weeks, that's some committed paddling. It also demonstrates that I haven't shrunk from taking it through some tough places. Nevertheless, when you pop the back compartment of a boat you bought new less than a year ago and see it filled with river water, it does tend to bum you out. So permit me this moment of reflection on why I do this.


I have spent more time than I care to think about on the shore of a swamp, or lake, or river wondering what it would be like to go where people can't walk or drive. I remember standing at the edge of Wakulla Springs one day for an hour, fantasizing about what lay beyond the treeline. That I did such as this for so many years without actually getting a boat of my own and finding out says a lot about me.


I've lived a good part of my life vicariously: experiencing bands from the floor instead of the stage, keeping up with friends who up and moved to Paris without doing it myself, reading others' books instead of writing one. The list runs to the horizon and beyond, and this isn't an easy thing for me to admit to myself. Kayaking is my small way of entering the active world, of actually discovering what happens beyond that treeline that anyone with a car can see from the shore. Sliding into that boat for the first time was a true homecoming, and I have tried to represent that experience in these pages.


By Saturday evening, my kayak will be repaired with plastic that does not match the color of the rest of the boat. I consider this a trophy. In the guitar world, such dings are called "character marks," and so this will be. For once, I have followed through with a dream of mine and it has taken me places that in some cases aren't even on the map. In however many years I have left, I plan to spend a good bit of that time in the unmapped places. Stay tuned.