Red sky at night - sailor’s delight,

Red sky in the morning - sailor’s take warning,

Red sky in the day - we need to put differences aside and work together to solve some big problems

The Roller Coaster Ride of 2020

We were riding high going into 2020.  Jeff taught at Paddle Golden Gate and several sea kayak incident management classes in the Bay Area.  Cate was teaching surf and whitewater lessons at home.  We were super excited about our upcoming spring whitewater classes and LFK's Mendocino Sea Kayak Club.   Then the Covid-19 Pandemic derailed our high flying year (as it did everyone else).

We spent the spring months sheltering at home and feeling very thankful that we were safe and well.   We had just remodeled our home office and expanded our vegetable garden so home was (is) a happy place for us.  A challenge was that we were extremely limited on where we could go to exercise and recreate since all of our local beaches and trails were closed.  We channeled our stir crazy energy into running, strength and flexibility training, breath training, making firewood, fishing, foraging, and a few creative shelter in place excursions (within 5 miles of home) - Shelter in Place Triathlon.

During the lockdown, we connected with other instructors and outdoor  professionals and redesigned our summer programs to minimize the risk of spreading Covid-19.  We developed a stringent cleaning process for our equipment and streamlined our tours and operation to allow for social distancing and contactless transactions.  We switched our group classes to private lessons for individuals or people living in the same household.  We decreased the risk level of our beginner tours and offered them as private tours and very small group tours.  We developed a rental program which involved purchasing new kayaks. life jackets, and paddles.

Memorial Day Weekend, we were allowed to open to local customers. It was our slowest Memorial Day Weekend ever.  Fortunately business picked up in Mid-June when California allowed travel to resume.  Since then, we have been quite busy.

The biggest joy of the summer was the smiling faces that we saw on the water. (We wear and require that our customers wear masks when interacting with us on land and on the launch ramp but not on the water).  Seeing the stress melt away and the healing power of water, nature, and fresh air rejuvenate our customers was a great feeling.  We had many first time kayakers and families and individuals who enjoyed the experience so much that they declared "kayaking is going to be our new activity."   In such stressful times, it felt really good to be infecting people with joy. 

The summer was very busy.  We worked longer and harder hours than we have ever worked before.  Schlepping kayaks, orienting paddlers, guiding tours, teaching private lessons, maintaining equipment, managing reservations, and scrubbing and washing and scrubbing and washing kayaks and scrubbing and washing kayaks, life jackets, and paddles.  Our hearts filled with the joy of sharing kayaking and nature with others but also were breaking as the unrest and travesties of our world were manifesting in extreme civil discord and environmental devastation.

We are closing for the month of October to recharge our batteries.  

We have learned a lot from this year.  One lesson is the importance of being flexible and being able to adapt.  Another is that life is uncertain.  We are seizing the day (the month) and taking some time to ourselves.  We are dreaming of sleeping under the stars by the sea, surfing and rock gardening, immersing in nature, and disconnecting for a bit from the craziness of the world.

Expect us to be a bit out of touch in October.  We will be back the first week of November ready to deal with what ever 2020 throws at us and starting to plan for 2021 and beyond.

Be Well Our Friends.  Stay Safe and Be Kind,
Cate and Jeff

Pivoting

Pivoting has become a common term in the business community. 

Due to the Corona Virus Pandemic, it is no longer business as usual.  Businesses are having to make changes or face going out of business.  Jeff and I have been making changes to Liquid Fusion Kayaking and are committed to staying in business.

Jeff and I feel very fortunate that Liquid Fusion Kayaking is an outdoor business.  For months of shut down, we were consulting with others in the outdoor and kayak industry about the challenges of the global health pandemic and how to minimize risk when we were allowed to reopen.    In addition to the health and safety of our participants, we feel the responsibility to consider the health and safety of our community and our county/state/country.  On the Mendocino Coast, we have a very small rural hospital with limited beds and only 2 ventilators.  Many residents of our community are over the age of 65 and many have health issues and compromised immune systems.

We feel very fortunate that we were able to reopen, but it is definitely not business as usual.  Kayaking in the great outdoors is very low risk in the whole scheme of what we know about how the Corona Virus is transmitted.  However, we are erring on the upmost of caution.

For the summer of 2020, we have pivoted Liquid Fusion Kayaking's operation to include kayak rentals for the Noyo River.  We have an ideal location for all age and abilities to get out on the water.  Rentals enable people to kayak with people from their own household, go at the pace they want, and go when they want to go rather than being restricted to our tour schedule.  We have implemented a contactless system for reservations, payment, and waivers.

We expanded our kayak fleet to include sit on top kayaks that are easy to use and fun for folks who want to swim and play in the water in addition to kayaking.  A huge thank you to Dan and Josh at The Headwaters for their recommendations and helping us purchase a small fleet of Feel Free sit on top kayaks.  I personally am loving the wheel in the back because it makes people smile and makes moving the kayaks much easier.  It is a bit ironic that the model of our Feel Free tandems is Corona.

We also bought 40 new life jackets and paddles so that we could rotate them into service while used ones were being washed and drying.  We are running our Noyo Meander and Noyo Sea Kayak Tours primarily as private tours or small groups.  These tours are a great way for us to share the magic of our backyard waters with first time kayakers in a low risk way. 

We shifted our kayak instruction focus from sea kayaking classes to private lessons.  We designed a series of learn to kayak lessons for locals and visitors and have also implemented a fun and efficient 15 minute kayak skills tune up into our rental program.  We are a little disappointed to tone down our ocean rock gardening adventures.  We are running Whitewater of the Sea Adventures and rock gardening lessons as private lessons for individuals who can reliably self-rescue.  Social distancing is not possible during face to face rescue situations.  We feel the responsibility to avoid this unnecessary risk at this time.

We are having fun with our new programs and having fun in our own kayaking endeavors in our backyard.  We both miss paddling whitewater rivers but have been having fun playing in the surf and rock gardens with our new Pyranha Rippers.

Having fun rock gardening and surfing the Pyranha Ripper aka the RipSnake.

Our vegetable garden is producing well and we have been getting out in our kayaks to catch fish for dinner.  We are happy and healthy and feel very fortunate. 

Fish Tacos! Jeff showing off a black cod that he caught while kayak fishing on the Mendocino Coast.

We are determined to keep Liquid Fusion Kayaking a float and are developing some new ideas and programs for the future.  Subscribe to Liquid Fusion Kayaking's monthly newsletter to get the scoop.

Be well, be kind, and stay healthy!!!
Cate