Diversifying my portfolio 6/3/07

Surfing (but not anyone I know)

Skiing is over. Ok, I said it, I'm not happy about it but it's true. Now, thanks to MITOC I will try to expand my "outdoor portfolio" (Toma 2007). As previously mentioned I have begun rock climbing and as of Sunday I am hooked on 'paddling'.

Ernesto is an experienced paddler and was willing to take Ali and I out for our first time ever and Doogie out for his first time in 2 years along with 3 other newbies (Paddington, Slavica and Jaso) and 4 experienced kayakers (Goga, Juan, Tudjman and Niko). We headed back up to NH, which Doogie and I had missed dearly, and 'put in' at the top of the upper Winnipesauke River.

I had been excited for and fearing this day since mid-winter when Doogie, Toma and Ernesto had hinted that they might take me to the 'white water'! I knew it would be fun, it's melted snow it had to be fun but I also worried that it would be incredibly cold. I knew that the
first thing the experienced paddlers would make me do was 'wet exit' (turn upside down and swim out of my boat) and I would be freezing for the rest of the day. Luckily the water was warm and I was not too cold to get back in my boat and learn the ropes.
Ernesto was in a canoe (but not that one)

We split into 2 groups Ali and me with Doogie, Juan and Goga as our instructors and the rest in the second group. Our instructors were incredibly nice to have spent their day on the lazy river with us teaching us the basics while they could have been a few miles south,
paddling a harder section of the river (thank you very much above listed 'instructors').

The first thing we learned was to keep the bottom of our boats to the current and as easy as that may seem I continually forgot and found myself on the shore draining my boat of water, (yes, that means flipping over unintentionally) thanks to my slow learning. The first run down, I managed to flip twice and the second flip was right before the biggest rapid section we went through. This meant my whole group had to rush through and pick up the pieces, instead of messing around on the fun section.

Luckily, there was a second run but before that we were able to work on our 'rolls'. This entails intentionally flipping over and flailing around like an idiot until you run out of breath and then wet exit because it is incredibly hard to figure out how to do this properly. Somehow I figured it out and was able to successfully roll about half the times that I tried, not including the last attempt which meant that I never 'dry exited'.

Back to the fun stuff, on the second run we all went as one big group and there was no structured lessons but more just helpful hints as we quickly made our way down to the rapids were the newbies were able to watch the experienced group 'surf' an eddy/wave (that might be the wrong spelling and term, oops). All day Niko, Juan, Goga, Tudjman and Ernesto were messing around with their boats like a skier does when they're bored (nose presses, olies, spinning 3's, I'll figure out what paddlers call these things later) but watching them surf was something else.

They passed the rapid, got into an eddy and then paddled back into the wave, where they could stop paddling and just balance on the rotating water (if you want to really understand what the water was doing so they could do this look somewhere else because I don't know).

While we were watching the show, Ernesto decided to play a little prank on me. He unscrewed my drain plug, which explains why my feet were getting wet, even though kayaks have skirts that seal off the water from getting in! (well done sir)
first rapid section (completed by unknown paddler)

After the surfing was over we headed back to the section where we were practicing rolls earlier and worked on rolling, an essential aspect of paddling, some more before we headed home.

Thanks again to all the instructors and feel free to take me again as soon as possible!