: Some words from the other end of the age/fitness spectrum:

: Things change with age: I used to think 65 deg was a normal
: temperature for swimming, I recall enjoying a dip in the North
: Sea, around 55 at the time. These days - 50 years later - I
: consider 75 barely survivable and won’t voluntarily go in the
: pool until it’s at least 80!

: Conditioning the body to tolerate cold - and other things - is
: good, so is conditioning the mind. The ability to control panic
: comes with practice and it’s one of the greatest survival
: skills. I wonder why Nature invented panic anyway - I think it
: is a hang-over from the herd days when rushing around would
: confuse a predator; not much help for your own survival.

: Swimming is a good skill but it’s not something I would trust my
: life to, so I set out to learn how to float. I was so successful
: that one day I fell asleep and was woken by screams from my
: horrified family. Just floating is a great survival skill. No
: unnecessary energy, minimum peripheral circulation to keep core
: temperature up, and so forth.

: The trick is to find a stable position that requires no activity to
: maintain. It is probably different for others, but I float best
: on my back with my hands behind my head, my knees bent and
: relaxed - it took some experimenting to discover that. If I
: straighten up I float upright and my mouth goes under in fresh
: water. I recommend anyone who enjoys - or works on - the water
: to practice this; the knowledge that you can float for hours,
: perhaps even lose consciousness and still survive is a huge
: plus. Ear plugs are a plus . . .

: Of course, with a pdf things are different. Again, practice can
: save your life. I tried it with a pdf years ago; relaxed and
: promptly found myself in a stable floating position, but
: face-down! That pdf was a used one and it went into the garbage
: pdq! There are some seriously useless and dangerous pdf's out
: there, and a pdf that suits one person may not suit another. The
: certification on the label isn't worth spit so test it after you
: buy it and exchange it if you suspect it might kill you in an
: emergency.

: Caution is another survival skill. I used to haunt the lakeshore
: looking for the first break in the ice so I could launch a kayak
: into it. I even kept an old calender so I could check off the
: Winter months that I had paddled in - never managed to check off
: February. I used to push small floes aside until one day I ran
: the bows up onto one instead. Bows up and out of the water is
: not a stable position and mature reflection suggests that was
: not a smart move with water temperature close to freezing and
: nobody else within a mile or two. Lakes tend to have low
: populations in February around here at least; that was part of
: the charm. So I moderated my paddling habits, waiting for the
: end of Spring thaw instead of the beginning. Those were the days
: . . .

: Enough! Paddle safely and make sure you come back!

Am I reading the first paragraph correctly? If so, doesn't that make you 105 yrs old.
Congrats are obviously in order. *$*$*$*
I know you sign yourself "Ancient Kayaker" but this comes as something of a surprise!!!
Regards. Les C.