Back to the whitewater

So after our wonderful three-week sojourn in Italy, we thought we needed a vacation on our return so we headed back to Jinja with Nikhil to try our hands at some whitewater kayaking.  After our rafting trip we swore that we would come back to try our hand at some more paddling.  What a better way to spend a weekend then paddling in 25-degree water.  The best part is that getting dumped is a pleasure.  There is none of the shock from the water that we have in Canada.  

 We thought that we better get some lessons before we jumped into the big stuff and joined up with a kayak school run by a Scot.  Our instructors are worldclass paddlers who really know what they are talking about (check out one here…. http://vimeo.com/4665426).  We quickly went over the basic paddle strokes and began learning how to role.  Being that the water is so large, it is pretty important to know how to get back up.  The real question is not whether you are going to flip but rather how much.  After a couple of hours of practicing we headed out onto the water to try our hand at some grade ones and twos.  Along the way we practiced what we had learned in the morning.

Frustratingly, although I feel perfectly comfortable upside-down, I couldn’t quite get my boat back over on my own.  We definitely needed another day of practice so we headed out on Sunday to try our hand again.  We were joined by David, one of our instructors from the previous day, and Deborah’s new best friend.  We played around in for the first couple of hours and practised our roles and then headed off to the river to try our hands and some bigger stuff.

Although we are still very much beginners, we had a great weekend away.  I can’t wait for the next one when we can really start to feel comfortable in our boats.