Kayaking 101

While vacationing to North Carolina, I had the opportunity to enjoy one of my parents favorite hobbies. They kayak in whatever spare time they can grab between working two full time jobs and supporting a teenager by attending sporting events and so on.

I warmed up for this kayaking event by tubing the mighty Chattahoochee with Caleb a few days before. It was leisurely. The river was often so slow that we bottlenecked. Tubing is nothing like kayaking. :)

On Wednesday, we took the leisurely drive to The Scenic Hiwassee. This is a beautiful river that has gentle little rapids and several small shoals. Except for that one part. But we will get to that later.

We sunblocked up and listened to the last words of advice. "When in doubt, stay to the left." Ok. Noted.

Off we three go. My sixteen year old brother, me, and CJ. Things went coasting happily along (aside from the fact that each little rapid had my stomach in knots because I had never kayaked before!!) and Luke would occasionally say something like, "That was a smaller one."

Fast forward half an hour and I am still afloat. I've avoided about ten near capsizes because the kayak I am on is super responsive to the slightest stroke of my paddle. And, obviously, I am not yet that good at maintaining calm, cool, and collected strokes mid scrape, bump, or spalsh. And, once you are sideways, you might as well kiss your dry self goodbye! I'm telling myself, "I'm enjoying this. This is FUN! Look at all this beautiful scenery." But shouting above that was the part of my brain that was saying "It is not IF you go in, it is WHEN. What if I get trapped under a rock and drown?!" Okay, maybe not that last part...maybe.

After passing over a particularly rough shoal on which I got stuck, but not tipped out, I saw Luke leading the way towards another rapid. I got myself psyched up and followed him.

I learned something about rivers. ALL the rapids sound loud. You can't tell how big the rapids are until you are right up on top of them. Well, this one was BIG. And, we were in the middle of the river. Not the left. At. All.

Luke went over and crashed. I had kept just enough distance between us to see him capsize, and then it was my turn. I knew I wasn't surviving it. Couldn't go around it, Couldn't go over it, had to go through it.

For a split second I thought I had actually made it through without capsizing. The conversation in my head was this.

ME (going over the rapid): Oh. WHOA! This IS fun. This is fun.....
ME (after the drop): Hey, I think I made it. WHOA! Nope. I'm going in.

ME (into the water) BRR!! FREEZING!
ME (head underwater): blughebowebs (Translated, "This is fun??" )
ME (emerging back up) That wasn't so bad, ACK!!, I'm about to be creamed by CJ. Shove that kayak out of the way. Oh no! I'm about to get squished in between two kaya...BAM. Ugh. ks. Ahh, the river is wisking me away backwards! I'm slamming into a bunch of rocks. SLAM. Bump. This is NOT FUN!!!!

ME (Out Loud) Somebody help me. OUCH!!

**crickets**

Luke was still managing to climb back in to his kayak in the middle of the rapids. It was a skill I wish we had gone over prior to our kayak adventure. Hindsight. As it turns out I just had to float towards what I thought was my death a half mile down the river until the water was calm enough to get to the edge so I could climb back on. That wasn't bad.

What WAS bad was me thinking that I was going to have to go over rapids again before the water got calm. That was making me freak out! I didn't want to go spilling over more rapids backwards. And, according to Luke from a bit earlier in the trip, the rapids got progressively bigger.

When I finally got back in the kayak I was an emotional mess because I thought I couldn't manage any bigger rapids than the one we had just been over with my limited (read:I paddled around the little lake at Vogel once) experience. Luke then informed me that we had just crossed over the biggest rapids. Best. News. Ever. I was instantly able to pull myself together and truly enjoy the rest of the river. My second toss out was in some huge waves toward the end. That was a piece of cake. No rocks. Big difference. But, the river did swallow my visor. :(

I would have a better time kayaking this river a second time. The ability to have some knowledge of what's around the river bend is comforting!

Admittedly, I might not be very brave when it comes to trying something new and adventurous, but I made it, and I had fun.

Kayaking 101: Learn how to get back in the kayak.

How I think I looked:

How it actually looked: