A Paddle and Some Mud

Posted by on July 23, 2015

bird-on-mudRegarding the morning of July 21, 2015: It was an early morning low tide and I hadn’t been out in a while, so I really needed to go for a good paddle. My heart wasn’t in it until I got out on the water. Mornings on the creek are generally quite peaceful and the air is full of life. I paddled right past my most distant sinking spot, because I wanted to paddle 5 miles, at least. Even that is a short paddle, but I could feel my arms needed it.

Beach on Queens Creek. Red Speedo.

Beach on Queens Creek. Red Speedo.

I stopped at a little “beach” spot along the creek to shoot some scenic video and take a few photos.

Once I had gone far enough down the creek, I turned around and paddled back up to one of my favorite mudding spots. The tide had gone down a couple more inches since I first passed it, but I wasn’t expecting a really low tide, and I knew it could start coming back in at any time.

2015-07-21_setupAs it turned out. I had about 30 minutes to set up and shoot some mud video. Conditions were good for shooting, so I opted to go for a high quality, but simple mud video. I would just enjoy myself in the mud, in front of 2 video cameras and a microphone. The bird showed up when I was making the final settings on the Nikon, so I was able to get some nice video of the bird before I started my mud scene. The bird also makes some cameo appearances in the final video.

2015-07-21_getting-inI slogged out in front of the cameras in my red speedo and proceeded to sink into the thick, body-hugging swamp mud. I had a pretty good time in the 20 minutes I had to play. I sank in over my head, I rubbed my crotch a lot, I kicked back with my feet up, did a backward somersault, and some head-first diving.

2015-07-21_mud1It was a good time, and I took my time cleaning up in the refreshing creek. A brisk head wind kicked up, so my return paddle was pretty invigorating. All in all, it was a great morning on the water.

I’ll be releasing the video soon. It was an easy edit and the audio and video are both good quality. I’m not sure if I’ll release the July 11 video before or after this one, but they’ll both be available by the end of July unless I get sucked into a vortex.

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