Chad Brown
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omensign.bsky.social
Chad Brown
@omensign.bsky.social
130 followers 140 following 360 posts
Kayaking as mental health; come and escape with me as I give up the search for meaning and self. Be sad and be happy with me. Help one another. 45 Married #kayak #kayaking #Paddling #Canoe #Canoeing #Nature #MentalHealth #atheist #cPTSD
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#BrazosRiver #HempsteadTx #WashingtonCounty #Kayak #Kayaking #kayakingismentalheath

This is my friend and I paddling 15 miles from Highway 290 to highway 159 on the Brazos River, starting in Washington County Texas near Hempstead Texas.
#kayak #paddling #nature #dog my little overly tolerant friend showing some love on the water.
Every time I get a new faster more unstable #kayak or #canoe I always have this experience on the 2nd or 3rd time out on the water, where I switch from being nervous and fluttery in my balance to buttery smooth strokes/gliding.
#rockycreekfalls #lakelivingston #kayak

Well, the falls are low today, but they were higher a week ago. Nice picture regardless and featuring my partner @tippy3880.bsky.social
#coloradoriver #columbusloop

Easy 7 mile paddle on the Columbus loop in #ColumbusTx

Tested out a new racing canoe paddle, it was a stress free day of learning to paddle with it.
I think I've combined #D&D with #paddling; a fantasy campaign setting in an endless sky where magical rivers flow like undulating tentacles through the heavens. Small islands of greenery cling to the hovering rivers and adventurers paddle it's exotic waters.
I understood that speech as being a pretext to use the U.S. military against Americans.
#StubblefieldRecreationArea this is the northern most point of #LakeConroe in #TX; we #paddled in a mixture of #SUP and #Kayak through a scenic wetland NW of Houston.

It's nice having such a beautiful place in #nature so close to Houston.
I have no doubts that my mother will eventually call me and tell me she took Tylenol.
When you #kayak in #Texas in #nature; visited the east side of #LakeLivingston and #paddled my way up to the Rocky Creek Falls ( apparently the only waterfall within 100 miles of Houston ).

It is spectacular.

@tippy3880.bsky.social in front of a Texas Longhorn.
The #innercritic is more than just the voice of a cruel father or an absent mother, it's more than every childhood bully, it's a trained version of me, a clone. It's a stand in for those that came before, that are now absent, stepping in to be the perfect brutalizer. #mentalhealth
Speaking of the #innercritic, it is always there. A millstone of rhetorical venom, hellbent on grinding my mind to dust. It tells me horrible things about myself & others, it knows all my failures and weaknesses, it's the perfect duplicate of my internal analytical cynic. #mentalhealth
I'm not really sure what I need or want; moments of being present happen time to time, mostly on water. #kayaking has been a boon to my #mentalhealth, something about the moving water & the physical exertion involved keeps that brutal #innercritic at bay long enough where I can relax in peace.
I say I'm giving up the search for #meaning & #self; yet I desperately still claw at both. I've checked off achievements, personal achievements, expecting each one to kind of open into a sense of emotional fulfillment - but there's just a void at the finish line every time. #mentalhealth
A fellow #instructor joins me and we corral the two boats/swimmers, get them in their #kayak and send them on their way just in time for a grinning photo op as they pass a photographer in the brush

#rescue #instruction #safety
As it's happening a 2nd #rescue is taking place above my spot; I'm unaware of it until I see a #kayak floating by with no swimmer, it sends me into a frenzy to find the swimmer & I'm about to dive out to check the boat before I spot him standing on the shore 100 yards up river. #safety #instruction
Some fun moments providing #kayak #instruction and #safety #rescue; paddler wet exits in a deep spot, decide to dump his boat by pulling it up on my boat and it works beautifully. Get him back in and slap the tires and light the fire - he makes it 2 feet and flips again.

Alas.
Myself and 11 other #paddling instructors took 40 parent/child teams down 6 miles of class 1 and 2 whitewater in #kayaks two days in a row; it was a blast.
#Canoe #Wenonah #kayak

Some morning exercise #paddling up river on the #BrazosRiver, at HWY 290 near Hempstead TX. The river is returning to it's average low after being heavily inundated with rain through the year.
2025.09.06 Brazos River - 290 paddling north ( No Commentary; just nature ) Part 1
YouTube video by Chad Brown
www.youtube.com
I went several hundred yards before I found a muddy shelf just below the water and jumped out into it, sinking up to my knees. I dumped the #canoe and gathered my belongings, scrambled back up and continued on my way. I loved it. The act filled me with strength and resilience, my #mentalhealth needs
I needed to stick to the right bank because the #canoe was filling with water and all the conditions combined were making keeping my balance challenging. I was looking for a place to dump or bail so I can make it further down river. The bank was muddy and steep, it crumbled as I stared.
I skirted the bank in my #canoe, it was my first outing in this new #wenonah, an otherwise sunny day with mild weather around the time I expect to be at the take out. Enough distance to let me feel how it paddles. Yet, here I was with unseasonable ( but very welcome ) rain.
That bubble is fascinating; activities like #paddling and #hiking take you to isolation and when conditions are extreme that isolation becomes more absolute. It's an awesomely bizarre security blanket, all my worries in the world are a sphere of my immediate surroundings.
On Sunday's #paddle in thew new #canoe I was experiencing torrential rainfall, my shoulder is doing better since #PT but my right side is still simply stronger, I edged heavy on my right to stay balanced and hugged the right bank. The world shrank to a bubble 10 meters wide with rain walls.
Broke in the #wenonah #canoe and received a proper #brazosriver baptizing. It's an easy 15 mile stretch in Waller County TX.

Jugs worked great, the boat is so light the wind pushes me around, and torrential rain unsurprisingly fills the canoe.l quite quickly.
Still has it's original blue finish.