6 millimetres

That's all it takes to induce an injury, apparently.

The introduction of a new, slightly higher seat in the Laance was intended to do a couple of things. Firstly, by being placed higher it would allow a more vertical insertion of the paddle to the water over the edge of the cockpit with it being closer to the boat and secondly, to give me a feel for a slightly more unstable boat before making a transfer to something slimmer, more exotic and hopefully faster. 

It all went swimmingly at first. I was able to get my upper hand higher and the entry of the paddle seemed to me to be a bit cleaner. The down side is that initially the boat did seem a little more 'tippy' but nothing that I couldn't handle and after two or three outings it really didn't seem to be very much different to before. Timing my five mile course on the Wey has shown something of an improvement in that I'm now regularly completing it in a a few seconds over the hour. I've also been regularly using a 'Hobby' in place of my own boat which is just one point up the stability ladder from it, and getting used to that also as I go along. That's also progressing and feels much the same as mine with the high seat. All very well and good.

One of my many faults is one of the most basic, I don't sit well in the boat as I slouch forward from the waist. I know this from the odd side-on photographs that I've seen, and they show that my hips still tend to be tilted back while my upper body bends forward.  This is all part of the poor core fitness which has always bugged me and shows in the necessity for constant stops for rests in the paddling. This also needs addressing. 

Careful consideration of this led me to think that it would be a good idea to tilt the seat forward by lifting it at the rear by a small amount, thusly pushing hips forward even if it does mean I'm sitting on a slope. I obtained a camping bed-roll which is a 6mm thick sheet of foam rubber and cut out a U shaped piece to go under the rear half of the hi-seat, then off to the canal again.

Sitting at the edge of the dock doing balancing exercises, that extra 6mm made it feel as if I was on the boat rather than in it. I suddenly seemed to be hovering above the cockpit rather than inside. Pushing away and starting to paddle it seems that I'd turned this thing into a completely different animal. Once under way though it started to come together and responded well to the effort I was putting into it. At the end of the five I'd clocked just a minute over the hour despite twice being baulked by houseboats. At any rate it seemed to have been a fairly successful outing.

Although I hadn't had any problems during the actual paddle except for not being able to take a rest by laying back against the rear cockpit coming as I usually do. Nevertheless, it soon became apparent that I'd significantly damaged something in my back muscles. As the remainder of the day wore on hoisting myself out of a sitting position was... er... difficult, and moving around for the following few days hasn't been so wonderful either. That's meant that I'm missing the latest Hasler this coming weekend and the padding is going to have to come out. For a while at least.