Kayak training (Day 2)
After yesterday’s training and my poor showing, I really hoped that today would go better.
I was a bit off balance during the first rapid, but managed to keep my cool and stay afloat. One quickly discovers how to react to the currents once you’re going down stream, i.e. moving with the flow of the water.
Yesterday, we were thrown into the deep end, trying to cross strong currents from the sides. I would’ve approached the training differently, but I guess every teacher has their own style. In general, I don’t subscribe to the “get thrown into the deep end” philosophy.
Anyhow, I picked-up how to navigate currents and get through all the eddies and all that. It came quite naturally towards the end. I also had a bit of fun playing in some of the smaller waves. I misunderstood the trainer yesterday and henceforth leaned the wrong way, capsizing my mighty vessel a few million times.
I didn’t attempt a roll today, since I was pretty sure I would just mess it up again. I would need a few more sessions to nail the technique and learn to be at ease under water.
All in all, I had a pretty good time. The scenery was great, the outing relaxing and the rapids great fun. Perhaps even more fun than the crocks we went in at Hazyview.
And here is the “but”. BUT, I must say that I’d rather pick up other sports before taking up kayaking. IMHO, the dangers involved and the practicality of the sport is not worth the amount of fun. The guides/trainers were constantly chatting about hairy stories where people came quite close to death or sustained serious injuries from kayaking. Canoing or proper rowing is a bit more practical and on the safer side, but arguably not as much fun.
Perhaps I should give kayaking a last try by doing a multi-day trip. I’ve seen a documentary on the fathers of kayaking and how they went on trips on the Amazon. It looked spectacular. We’ll see what happens…
Logbook Activity
- Type: Other
- Date: 03/30/2008
- Time: 10:00:00
- Total Time: 3:00:00.00
- Calories: 1000
Filed under: Thoughts, White Water
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Kayak training (Day 1)
I went down to Parys, South Africa with a few friends for a kayak training weekend. It’s the same location where I did an adventure race a few weeks ago. My cousin organized the trip, since his cousin (confused yet) is running the kayaking school there. Unfortunately my cousin tore three ligaments in his shoulder three weeks earlier. He fell on his shoulder after trying to jump a poorly built mountain bike ramp. Pitty. Had to go for an op to reattach the ligaments. Ouch.
We went ahead with the training, starting in the pool at our campsite. We practiced falling out of the kayaks and being upside down for longer periods. After that, we practiced the rolling motion by pressing on another boat or the side of the pool for leverage. This was child’s play and enjoyed this a lot. Next came the hard stuff.
Rolling with a paddle looks tricky… and it is. At least for me (and a few others). I understand the action and could probably teach you how to do it, but doing it is a different story. Some of the other ‘trainees’ manage to get it done by sheer force. I’m quite skinny so that didn’t quite work for me. Another canoeist chick also managed it on the first go… which is like a kick in the crotch for the rest of the guys there. Hehe.
After the pool training, we went down to a rapid and tried to cross into eddies over the eddy-line. The eddy-line is basically the part in the river where the current speeds up when the water flow between rocks. This didn’t go any better than the rolling. I fell out the kayak a billion times and near drowned myself a dozen other. Not being able to roll is a huge disadvantage and also a lot more dangerous.
I was dead at the end of the day and also quite down after my dismal performance in the water. Felt like packing up and going home, but decided to stick around for the next day when we’ll just be running the river without really practicing the rolls and eddies too much.
Logbook Activity
- Type: Other
- Date: 03/29/2008
- Time: 10:00:00
- Total Time: 1:30:00.00
- Calories: 500
*We must have been busy for 4-6 hours, but it wasn’t constant paddling, so I’m only logging 1:30:00.
Filed under: White Water
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White water rafting weekend
Man, what a weekend!! I’m still on high!! We went rafting in Mpumelanga (South Africa), close to Hazyview. We left around 4pm on Friday in my friends new Subaru Forester - a really brilliant car if you’re going to do some moderate off-roading. We arrived at the campsite at around 7pm, with just enough sunlight to get the tents up. Some of our friends were already there and the camp fire was well on its way. By the time everyone arrived (16 in total!!) we started the barbecue, or “braai” as it’s called down here. I went to bed after dinner, a few cold ones and a lot of laughs… some of my friends should rather have been stand-up comedians.
The following morning, I got up before the rest of the bunch and had a great run up the river, through the forests. After a very refreshing and icy shower (boiler in the men’s room wasn’t working), we had breakfast and headed down to the event organizer’s offices to gear up.
We got all the necessary safety gear and unnecessary safety speeches before hitting the water around 9:30. We were in two-man rafts, so you had a lot more control and the rapids were much more exciting than with the six-man version. Unfortunately, the roughest rapid was a level 3 (they go up to 5), but it was still a lot of fun. We stopped half way for some snacks. There was also a rapid nearby, which you could go down without a raft. You get a bit of a bump on your bum, but nothing serious. Pretty cool.
The entire trip was about 2:30 hours long, including the 30mins break. I would highly recommend this activity. It is good exercise and a lot of fun.
The rest of the day was quite laid-back. We went to a local brewery to watch the rugby - our equivalent of American football. It was the first game of the series, which includes teams from Oz and New Zealand. My team won against another local team - Cape Town based. After the game we had dinner at the very impressive Casa do Sol. They served a mouth watering buffet and I sure got my money’s worth!
The next day we had a quick french toast breakfast at the camp site, packed up and headed home. We stopped at a number of places along the way. One of which was the Lowveld botanical gardens in Nelspruit. It isn’t really your average botanical garden. There is a huge river with a series of cascades and quite an extensive hiking trail. We hiked through the gardens for an hour or so, and headed home.
I loved this weekend! It matched all my requirements for a perfect break-away. I surely won’t forget this one.
Logbook Activity
- Type: Other
- Date: 02/16/2008
- Time: 09:30:00
- Total Time: 2:00:00.00
- Calories: 500
Filed under: White Water
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