Lost to Nemesis 12-4

Last Tuesday, we played our first kayak polo game in three weeks. We played the women's team and believed that we had a chance. They have one player on the "Paddleferns," New Zealand's national team. The World Cup of Kayak Polo was in Amsterdam last week. The New Zealand women came in second to Germany. The USA did poorly. The men came in last of 25 countries, the under 21s last of 15 teams, and the women 17th of 23 teams. I know a couple of the US women players and that's a tough result for them.

Back to us. Nemesis was missing their best player and their coach who throws the ball in for a quick fast break. Victory is a possibility. Unfortunately, their remaining players were more disciplined than we expected and we don't cover on the break. Bad transition defense kills us. There were lots of close in shots on their part. I let in two easy shots while playing net. I play net much better in the states. They must shoot better than we do. Then I took two ill-advised shots at the end.

Unlike most things in my life, I can clearly see what kind of player I want to be. I want to move my kayak like Putt my canoeing coach back in college, to have the court presence of Leonard, a player in Seattle, and stability skills of the secretary of the UKC at UW while I was there. The last always gave the counterintuitive advice that your head is the first thing in the water and the last out.

Now it's time for my dirty old man moment of the week. As I gathered my kayak and gear from the side of the pool, I noticed that one of our opponents was changing. She had a towel wrapped around her waist and wore a blouse. I fumbled around some more with the gear and looked up again. She had the towel in her hands and her underwear was bright red with the word FLIRT written in capital block letters across the rear. Oh well. I guess that kind of underwear is designed to be seen.