Storm Chaser

Looks like the monsoon really is gone; I got up early this morning to send off the last bit of her magic.  Was supposed to meet Phil at 7am to paddle but couldn't resist getting down to the water earlier, while the monsoon still tried to roar.  I was quite sad to see her power dwindles and wanes. 

I have some doubts about my current training attitude -- "the worst stormy weather in HK doesn't even measure up to a breeze in the Pacific Northwest," or so I keep telling myself.  Which drives me to go out of my way to look for troubles at sea.  I'm fairly comfortable with monsoon paddling by now, (then again, I'm getting comfortable with crash-landing onto rock faces too.) next thing I'll be chasing after a T8.  

Which might help me handle bad weathers and big waves, but it's not helping me in trip -planning at all.  The best rescue remains the ones that you didn't have to do, and I'm cheating myself if I send myself out into the big open blue without learning the lessons in risks-management.  I hate to go to NZ or CA with this "storms are fun" attitude.

Siu Ming made it clear that he didn't want to be a mentor to me; he just wants to be a friend and a fellow paddler.  Which is probably a good thing: when I'm paddling solo somewhere out there in the Pacific, it won't do me any good to have a habit of looking up to a mentor and waiting for his divine answer of what to do next.  While I warm to a lot of his ideas, I notice I also disagree with a few.  So we might as well handle the sea with our separate styles and see who is more right.