Time for reflection on water

If you spend much time on the water in a kayak or canoe, sooner or later you’re likely to be transfixed by reflections. Sitting so low in a kayak, reflections dominate your view of calm water from even quite close to where you sit. It’s easier to see beneath the surface by looking straight down but in the wider view, without polarized sunglasses, then reflections rule. All that lies beneath the silvered surface is rendered largely invisible.

Freeways cross over water Seattle

Trees and branches overhanging rivers and canals,  create scenes of pleasing symmetry. There is a similar visual tunnel effect between the two images below despite their very different locations, France and Missool, Raja Ampat.

Reflected plane trees, Kristin Nelson on Canal du Midi France

Arching nipa palms, Misool Indonesia

Some reflections appear more constructed than others. The bold reflected shapes beneath bridges with pillars arches and girders, quiver and gently distort as ripples move between the solid structures. I am left with the impression the solid structure exists beneath me, no matter what the actual depth is, or the real nature of the bottom. (for explanation of the green water color, see my Color of Water blog post)

Illusion of underwater dock construction, Seattle

Neither can I resist an opportunity to pause in the face of semicircular arches that are sucked into visual tubes by reflection. Do the curves really continue beneath the surface? Is this structure a tube, or is that just an illusion? The real bottom may be flat, and just beneath the surface, but it’s difficult to discard the impression that it follows the shape and depth of a tube.

Illusion of tubular tunnel, Kanu-Funsport Leipzig Germany

Reflected, concrete girders under a freeway that offer nesting shelter for pigeons and surfaces for clandestine graffiti scribblers create optical illusions of solid structures just beneath the placid surface, but as soon as the surface is disturbed the structures morph into dizzily shifting curlicue patterns.

Reflected Girders beneath freeway

Girders reflected in wavelets

Closer view of reflected girders in wavelets

The eye sees and the mind attempts to make order of the subtly shifting patterns. Only by taking a snapshot of the reflections does it become easier to see why the patterns are so challenging to follow. Even in a snapshot the crisscrossing wave patterns form such twisted reflections that seen out of context they illustrate a puzzling reality. Serving as Rorschach ink blots, the frozen shapes can conjure all manner of things, but rarely reveal the original object that was reflected. When the image is rapidly moving, what chance do you have of making sense of the shifting tree-ring patterns? 

wavelets create tree-ring style patterns

Ripples in motion

Stainless steel anchors, anchor pockets and scratch plates on ship hulls contrast the warping mirror of water, offering steadier mirrored surfaces. Just as from a flat-water surface an individual facet will reflect simply. However, multifaceted surfaces shatter reflections in a completely different way to water, creating collages of recognizable reflected bits of the surroundings.

Collage of reflections around anchor 

Water does something similar, but the effect is repeated many more times over by the procession of ripples each presenting its own set of constantly changing reflections from its uniquely morphing three-dimensional curves. Small undulations across an otherwise smooth surface cause shifting curvilinear shapes; shapes that are echoed in art including art from Papua.

Surreal abstract patterns of reflection in water

Although bridges and tunnels and docks offer some amazing reflections, there’s little more pleasing to me than cruising across flat water when the sky is blue with a few fluffy clouds. Looking ahead I have the sensation of flying high above the clouds, which shape-shift beside me as the wake from my bow warps the surface. Close beside my craft the reflected clouds seem to fade, and I can see through them into the water, perhaps seeing fingers of watermilfoil reaching up toward me, or fish darting away. And there on the surface itself, all around me suspended above the mirrored sky is another world of objects too light to sink, too heavy to fly. Here are insects that can walk on water. Here are floating plants, the leaves of waterlilies, feathers and twigs.

Cruising above the sky, Labrador (from the book On Polar Tides)

If you've enjoyed this blog post, find more of my creations on Nigel Foster YouTube channel, and on nigel foster vimeo. You can find my books on my store. I'm also available for presentations and special kayak instruction.

Reflection of canoeist, ceramicist  Kristin Nelson shattered by ripples 

The kayaks glimpsed in this post are by Nigel Foster (Point65 DoubleShot and Whisky 16 and Seaward  Kayaks Legend) 

Warm and Happy as a Manatee!

It can be cold up north this time of year, maybe frozen. It’s a good time of year to think about warm water paddling, getting a little Vitamin D from sunshine, and relaxing! And it’s a time of year when you can get inexpensive flights to Florida.

Spring-fed rivers have 72 degree crystal clear water

Florida is a big state well served by international airports, so if you’re thinking of flying there, check out the paddling possibilities close to the airports. For the warmest water and warmest weather, the Gulf Coast and the south tends to be warmer than the Atlantic Coast and the north. There’s a reason why the mangroves are in the south. They don’t like frost.

  

On Florida Gulf Coast you often see dolphins

Winter is a good time for seeing manatees when  the Ocean and the Gulf are cooler than the warm spring fed rivers and close to power plants with their warm water outflows.  Manatees like to hang out in the 72-degree-year-round temperatures of the springs, and there the water is clear enough to see every detail looking down from a kayak. But they'll often approach you, even when the water is less clear.

Manatees hang around kayaks and love the warm water

It is easy to rent kayaks to tour these rivers. Some companies offer guided tours, others launch you at the top so you drift and explore on your own to a pick-up downstream. 

If you have seen enough of manatees, then there are the birds, and of course on some rivers you might be lucky and spot alligators.

 

Sandhill cranes find a place to nest by a river

The open coast may require more paddling than a downstream drift, but white shell-sand islands, mangrove tunnels' ancient native shell mounds, Civil War era fortifications and dolphins make the effort worthwhile.

The freedom of a sandy beach on an offshore island

The last weekend of February every year is the Florida Gulf CoastSea Kayak Symposium, (canoes too!) offering trips and instruction, lectures and social events in the Tampa Bay area. That’s a really good event for getting to know the paddling environment, meeting up with like-minded paddlers and picking up some extra skills in the warm water from a host of good coaches from all over the world. 

New guide book "Paddling Southern Florida" offers great trip plans

And you can plan your trips from the comfort of your home. Anticipate the fun. Thumb through a copy of Nigel Foster's new Paddling Southern Florida Guide Book from Falcon Guides for ideas. You can buy a signed copy at store.nigelkayaks.com. (Select "signed copy" option) You'll find...

Order a signed copy from store.nigelkayaks.com

each of the 50 and more trips described is shown with maps, directions to the launch, step-by step route directions, places to eat and places to stay, as well as a wealth of information about the creatures you’ll see, the environment and enticing tidbits.  All in color!

Ready for a leisurely downstream river drift?

Tempted? See you there last weekend in February at the Florida Gulf Coast Symposium?