Kayakapalooza

The school that our kayaking group is working with to provide white water lessons and social paddles had a large party on Saturday. It ended up being a long day for some people as there was a river run in the morning followed by a brief break then the party. On the river run, we all met at the take out parking area then shuttled cars to the put in. After getting on the water, the first part of the class dealt with rolling and bracing practice then we started to paddle downstream to start learning how to read the water and how to avoid dangerous areas. At the first set of rapids, we all got out of our boats then walked to the rapids and discussed how we would tackle the rapid. It was a nice two part rapid and was lots of fun. A few people ended up upside down but the instructors were quick to flip people back upright. As we headed further downstream, we encountered another rapid that apparently isn't there when the water levels are higher, so we got a bonus rapid. The third one was quite big and when we finished with it, we had to paddle back across so we could get to the take out.

The kayakapalooza was a lot of fun. It was a bbq with lots of beer and people. The kayak shop and school has an outdoor pool and lots of people hopped into kayaks and played on the water for a little bit getting some instruction. I asked one guy to teach me how to hand roll. I was able to get it the second attempt each time I tried. I will need to work on it a bit more as I only tried two times. At least each time I came back up. After supper, we enjoyed a movie about white water kayaking. I wasn't sure what to expect of the movie but it had the feel of a music video with white water images. It was more of a brag video then a learning video. It was still interesting to see the cool places the kayakers had been.