Marie Makes Paddlefish History!

We were on the Allegheny this afternoon, mid-afternoon, after-the-Steelers-game afternoon -- with two novice boats. On the Allegheny on a fall afternoon, mid-afternoon, after-the-Steelers-game afternoon, there are, all of a sudden, lots and lots of boats, not all of them operated by people able to remember basic rules of the river.

So the water was, hmmm, how to put this.... choppy? challenging? ridiculous? Wake overlapping and intersecting wake, wake overtaking and undercutting wake. Wake making waves way above gunwale height.

Wake maving waves that knocked Marie clear off her drummer's perch -- sending her soaring away from the boat and deep into the drink, where she bobbed back up and caught the tow line of her boat and hung on and was pulled back to the docks, where she scrambled out of the water and -- because she is a True Paddlefish -- hopped back onto her drummer's seat and drummed that novice boat right back out to the river!

Deb and Bob did fantastic jobs steering this afternoon, and the paddlers (students from Point Park in one boat and from Pitt's Honors College in the other boat) stayed calm and focused. So paddle cheers to all involved but special-world-class-history-making cheers to Marie Hirsch, Drummer Extraordinaire!