Chapter from a manual on sea by Paul Caffyn

Creative Visualization in Expedition Planning (also called Imaging)

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one commits oneself, that Providence moves too. Goethe

Creative Visualization Creative visualization is the process of creating in your mind, realistic images of what you will face during a , no matter what the duration is.

It is mentally visualizing or conjuring up pictures in your mind of the conditions to be expected, the anticipated degree of tiredness/exhaustion, calamities which may occur, and the duration of both the trip and length of days.

Being aware of all the possible eventualities lessens the problems and drama when they do occur.

Other terms, which have been used to describe creative visualization, include mental visualization, psychological condi- tioning and imaging. There is increasing use of creative visualization today by sport psychologists in the coaching and training of sportsmen and women. In the sporting sense, the visualization technique is used to create images in the ath- lete's mind of running each stage of a race and ultimately winning.

I first became aware that there was a term for visualization after I read John Bertrand's book Born to Win which was published in 1985. It is a great story about 12 metre yacht Australia II winning the international sailing’s prestigious America Cup in 1983, after a 132 year winning reign by the Americans. John Bertrand brought in a sports psychologist to coach himself and his crew into believing they could win. He firmly believed that his crew was so attuned to looking at the stern of Dennis Connor's red-hulled yacht, that they would come unstuck when they were in front. The crew was introduced to the concept of imaging or mental visualization. They were conditioned into nightly picturing themselves in the lead, and looking back at the bow of the red boat, and ultimately winning the America Cup.

Dreaming up a wild idea for a major or minor committing expedition is fine but bear in mind the vital importance of being able to cope with, isolation and commitment, huge seas and surf, living on continuous adrenalin rushes and in the 'danger zone' for weeks on end, lousy weather and being wet and damp all the time, hassles with local inhabitants in- cluding biting insects and larger animals, and running low on food and water. The practical application of putting the idea into practice begins with meticulous planning, physical training and creative visualization.

The psychological well being of expedition members is as important as their physical stamina and levels of skill. You can have paddlers who are superb in pool training, who can roll 10 times out of 10, but when faced with a huge surf or a monstrous rapid they are psyched out.

To show why creative visualization is so important for the build up to, and during an expedition I will describe the events that led to the failure of the third Fiordland Expedition. The expedition was led by an American with an Aus- tralian and Englishman as co-paddlers. The planning was excellent and Thom (from USA) and the Aussie completed their training offshore from Greymouth. I was impressed with their technique, stamina and skills. The goal of the expe- dition was to paddle 350 miles from Te Waewae Bay up the coast of Fiordland to Jackson Bay. The food dumps were all in place and the boys had a backup team of wives and girlfriends. Unfortunately, the Englishman joined the team at a late stage without the physical and mental conditioning on the West Coast seas and he was unable to come to terms with the size of the Fiordland swell and surf. After only 35 miles, the expedition ground to a halt with the English paddler unable to break out through a moderate surf. He was physically capable but unable to cope mentally with the commit- ment, isolation and prevailing conditions. After a few days the Aussie went out in sympathy with the Englishman, and Thom was left in the unenviable position of whether to shepherd his co-paddlers back to Te Waewae Bay or make a solo attempt around Fiordland. Although the disappointment must have been enormous, I feel he made the wise decision to return to Te Waewae Bay.

Two subsequent Fiordland trips, despite excellent planning, were not able to achieve their goals when physically capa- ble paddlers were unable to mentally cope with the prevailing conditions, outside the shelter of the sounds. The point to remember from these examples is that visualization and planning go hand in hand - these well-planned expeditions came unstuck through a lack of visualization by individual paddlers.

It was after reading John Bertrand’s book that I began thinking about the methods I have always used in the build up for a big trip.

The two approaches I use are firstly mental preparation, and secondly physical preparation. Mental preparation is bro- ken into two stages, research and creative visualization. The background research involves studying: books about the area, the relevant Pilot, weather statistics and wind roses, information from professional fishermen and other people who live and work in the area. The creative visualization involves sussing out all the possible eventualities for misad- venture, for example, can-outs, night landings, a night spent out at sea, and self-rescue situations, thus building up a picture of all the possibilities that can occur and envisaging ways to counter them. Being aware of all the possibilities lessens the problems when they eventually occur. As with the crew of Australia II it also involves visualizing, each night before going to sleep, the sea conditions which will be encountered during the expedition.

Physical preparation is part and parcel of the build up. It is not sufficient to train solidly on flat water if you are going to paddle in Fwiordland or around Cape Horn. You must train on the nearest possible equivalent conditions to what you will encounter. Pool training and river work for building up stamina and skills are important but proficiency in a pool does not equate to proficiency at night for landing in dumping surf. It is important to progressively build up stamina, and this may mean building up the weight in the boat to match what you will carry on the expedition. Open sea pad- dling is vital, not only for skills and stamina training but also for conditioning the body and mind to feel confident on a big sea.

The ultimate goal of the physical and mental preparation is to enable you to feel totally in tune or in harmony with a big following sea. Feeling totally gripped, day and night, during a trip may lead to the determination of never wanting to sit in a again!

When applying creative visualization, I work a three-tier system, firstly for the full duration of the expedition or trip, secondly on a stage by stage basis, and thirdly on a daily basis: - Full term: this is the pre-trip creative visualization, so you are psyched up for the major calamities and to carry on for the full term of the trip.

- Stage by stage: for the Round Australia Kayak Expedition, I worked on a stage by stage visualizing or conditioning, never dwelling for too long on the whole year long trip. Thus, after leaving Melbourne I set the first short term goal at Sydney, then psyched myself up to reach Brisbane. The stage goals tended to be approximately four weeks or 1000 miles.

- Daily basis: although tired and exhausted after a long day's paddling, it is important to review at night: - the distance next day - possible landings - forecast/weather conditions - read relevant section of the Pilot then mull over this before going to sleep.

During the 1982 Round Australian expedition, visualization played a huge role in my successfully overcoming what I had long considered to be the crux of the 12 month trip, a 120 mile long unbroken line of sheer limestone bluffs called the Zuytdorp Cliffs. There are three long sets of limestone cliffs on the coast of Australia, all close to 120 miles long, but two are on the southern coast where the prevailing winds and swell are predominantly from the west, thus providing following conditions for an clockwise paddle around Aussie. However, with the Zuytdorp Cliffs in Western Australia, the weather and sea conditions were all on the nose for me, a north-going current, a predominant ground swell direction from the south-west and prevailing winds from the south to south-west. Then even if I was able to continuously paddle for up to 36 hours, the landing at Kalbarri involved crossing a river bar that was guarded by two parallel rock reefs with breakers masking the narrow entrance.

During the initial planning for the Aussie trip, I had envisaged that the three 120 mile cliff would be undertaken by two paddlers, and my cunning plan involved setting up a venetian blind arrangement of fiberglass slats that would form a raft across the sterns of two , with sufficient room to allow a lie down on the platform, and being able to brew a nice cup of tea.

Now that I was paddling solo, I had to visualize paddling for up to 36 hours without a break. The prospect of having to face paddling along the Zuytdorp Cliffs had weighed heavily on my mind for many weeks. My longest paddle to date had been 15 hours in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and now I was faced with paddling for up to 36 hours without a break.

I took these factors into account and visualized paddling for an optimum of 36 hours. And in case conditions deteriorat- ed from marginal to bad, I set specific turn-back times. During the first day of paddling the breeze remained light and variable until 2pm when a southerly headwind came away. Conditions were close to marginal especially during the night when the kayak would drift backwards when I stopped for a breather. But I had also visualized that this was a 'on- cer' attempt. If I turned back during the night there would be no second attempt, so I had to get stuck in and persevere into the headwind. After the moon went down at 3am, the southerly died and was replaced by a cool offshore breeze and my speed picked up appreciably. The southerly came away again at 2pm on the second day, but the town at the end of the cliffs was in sight, 10 miles to the south. The last four miles took me two hours of spray-drenched paddling and bucking over a six foot chop, but such was my positive state of mind that I felt nothing could stop me. The Murchison river mouth at Kalbarri is guarded by two parallel reefs. Paddling through low surf on the bar and grunting upstream against the ebbing river flow, I felt a gush of emotional relief, such that I have never experienced before and it wasn't just salt spray glistening on my cheeks. At 6pm on the second day, I landed under the houses and lurched from the cockpit on unsteady legs after 34 hours of continuous paddling.

I would place a large measure of success, for the paddle along the cliffs, on pre-visualizing the optimum paddling time and conditions especially during the long hours of darkness.

To apply creative visualization, you need to draw on past sea kayaking experience, and naturally the greater the wealth of experience, the better your ability to apply it. To summarize this section creative visualization: - is vital for the successful outcome and overall enjoyment of an expedition. - is built up through both mental and physical preparation. - is carried out on a whole trip, stage by stage and daily basis.

Paul Caffyn ©