Kayaking misadventure

[WinkHPD]

Date: 8/7/2007 7:59:20 AM
Author: part gypsy
Glad you made it through without capsizing!
I don''t understand most high risk sports, but from your description I can see that kayaking in addition to being physical has a mental/problem solving aspect about it that can be quite compelling (especially when your gluteus maximus is on the line)!

Tubing down a slow running river is my kind of excitement.

Actually you stated the purpose of our lesson on Wednesday pretty solidly. Our excersize for most of the afternoon was staying within one boat length of the rafts coming down the river. It is quite difficult as you must speed up and be very close to them at the top of the rapid as when they hit the current they shoot forward. When they hit a big wave they may actually stop or nearly stop and if you are too close you will shoot right underneath them which can be a VERY dangerous place to be, plus they inhibit your ability to see what is coming.

Our task was to solve the problem of whether to be behind or beside them and still stay in water moving at the same speed they are moving, much more difficult than it sounds as often the jets of current are narrow and the water beside them tends to be nasty with rocks and other obstacles. Its purpose is to teach us to read the current and to decifer what it will make the boats do and adjust our speed and trajectory accordingly.

Ironically, by having done this earlier in the trip I was much better prepared to correct my mistake than I had been only an hour earlier. I think that last week I would have been firmly in the hold of Seymour for a few revolutions and I could have discussed the fish population at that point in the river with you. Being aware of the slack water behind the rock, I was able to use it to turn quickly and to run accross the top of the hole and to miss the meat of it entirely. From there it was a piece of cake to take one or two strokes at a time and to move my boat conciderable distances by using the current rather than "crossing" or "fighting" it. In both Slalom and Staircase rapids I took about ten to fifteen percent of the stokes I normally would have taken. Not bad, but I was still taking about eight to ten strokes for every stroke my instructor took.

It was indeed a great mental excersize, and I employed it again this weekend, shadowing one of my kayaking buddies through rapids, telling him to go where ever and when ever he wanted and that I would attempt to stay within two boatlengths at all times. We had quite a game of it as he frequently tried to ditch me with only moderate success...

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