Happy Things
May. 16th, 2005 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arwen_luneA few good things happening.
1) A few months ago I didn't think any sailing would happen over summer. Now...
- 3 weeks in July, to the Tall Ships Races on Barque Europa. (Waterford - Cherbourg - Newcastle)
- 2 weeks in September - volunteering on the fullship Stad Amsterdam. Commercial daysails at the Dutch coast. This is going to be hard work but.. lots of learning to do as well. On daysails you do far more manouvring and sail handling than on long crossings like I've done so far. Plus it's a great opportunity to meet the ship and its people - you never know what might come from that.
2) Endurance. I'm not going to do any more rides with Rowan but it is *such* a beautiful sport that I'm going to try to stay active in it in some way. I crewed for a friend's first 60-km ride last saturday. She did well. An online aquintance did her first 120 ride and finished 2nd out of 10. Wow. There is something incredible emotional about that, I know there were lots of teary eyes at the finish, from strangers as well as people who know her. Why is that? Nobody knows. I do know that I don't know any other sport where people get so involved with each other's wellfare. A lot of the Dutch members are active online and during the competition day crew calls and passes on messages about how everybody is doing.. offers one another's riders help.. encourage riders.. it's beautiful.
Plus the Dutch structure is so that the national top is extremely close to the basis level - so close that national champion Joan Eikelboom crewed for an aquintance who happened to ride close to 'my' rider and we chatted a few times when we met along the crewing route-points. Colour me no longer star-struck :-)
3) Following from that Joan (who organises the FASNA trail, the only Dutch CEI **/*** competition) has appointed me Head of Photography. Last year I did some private photography and then gifted my results to the organisation, this year they want me to arrange the full coverage of the event. Which is neat. I've found a fellow amateur who enjoys this sort of thing and the two of us will make a weekend out of it, ought to be fun.
It's (again, just like the Stad Amsterdam thing) a lot of work for free. Some people have said I'm nuts, but it's something I enjoy and am actually good at... I still have to get used to actually *having* something I'm good at, but now I've found things I want to do them a lot.. even if they don't pay. They do at least get my name about a bit.. let me meet people, you never know what comes from that sort of thing. Plus in both cases it's enjoyable in itself. I love sailing and I want to learn, so volunteering with SA is a step forward, and I love photography and the FASNA is a cool event, lots of the Dutch endurance community volunteers, and getting a bit of publicity by having my photos as the official fasna coverage doesn't hurt anything, even if I don't really plan to go that way professionally.
1) A few months ago I didn't think any sailing would happen over summer. Now...
- 3 weeks in July, to the Tall Ships Races on Barque Europa. (Waterford - Cherbourg - Newcastle)
- 2 weeks in September - volunteering on the fullship Stad Amsterdam. Commercial daysails at the Dutch coast. This is going to be hard work but.. lots of learning to do as well. On daysails you do far more manouvring and sail handling than on long crossings like I've done so far. Plus it's a great opportunity to meet the ship and its people - you never know what might come from that.
2) Endurance. I'm not going to do any more rides with Rowan but it is *such* a beautiful sport that I'm going to try to stay active in it in some way. I crewed for a friend's first 60-km ride last saturday. She did well. An online aquintance did her first 120 ride and finished 2nd out of 10. Wow. There is something incredible emotional about that, I know there were lots of teary eyes at the finish, from strangers as well as people who know her. Why is that? Nobody knows. I do know that I don't know any other sport where people get so involved with each other's wellfare. A lot of the Dutch members are active online and during the competition day crew calls and passes on messages about how everybody is doing.. offers one another's riders help.. encourage riders.. it's beautiful.
Plus the Dutch structure is so that the national top is extremely close to the basis level - so close that national champion Joan Eikelboom crewed for an aquintance who happened to ride close to 'my' rider and we chatted a few times when we met along the crewing route-points. Colour me no longer star-struck :-)
3) Following from that Joan (who organises the FASNA trail, the only Dutch CEI **/*** competition) has appointed me Head of Photography. Last year I did some private photography and then gifted my results to the organisation, this year they want me to arrange the full coverage of the event. Which is neat. I've found a fellow amateur who enjoys this sort of thing and the two of us will make a weekend out of it, ought to be fun.
It's (again, just like the Stad Amsterdam thing) a lot of work for free. Some people have said I'm nuts, but it's something I enjoy and am actually good at... I still have to get used to actually *having* something I'm good at, but now I've found things I want to do them a lot.. even if they don't pay. They do at least get my name about a bit.. let me meet people, you never know what comes from that sort of thing. Plus in both cases it's enjoyable in itself. I love sailing and I want to learn, so volunteering with SA is a step forward, and I love photography and the FASNA is a cool event, lots of the Dutch endurance community volunteers, and getting a bit of publicity by having my photos as the official fasna coverage doesn't hurt anything, even if I don't really plan to go that way professionally.