Kayaking 'til the End

Me!

Today, the plan was to ride the waves to our hearts' content.  In the morning, my parents put in right next to our camp while I drove with Karma to my put-in where the water became easier.  There, I waited until my parents arrived on the beach.  I hastily put on my gear to kayak and jumped into my boat to sail down the waves.  I was having a blast catching eddies and working on my bow rescue with the two lead guides, Kali and Tinlay.  We were almost done when Kali told me the next rapid was extremely violent through the middle.  I had to go left.  I successfully followed Kali and Tinlay and missed the middle.  Whew!  Unknown to me at the time, I would soon experience the violence of the middle section for myself. 

Practicing my Roll

We were picked up by the car at the take-out and driven back to our camp.  There, we had an amazing lunch and set out to boat again.  Mom and Dad started at the camp while Karma drove me to a different put-in a little further up stream.  Kali, the lead guide, thought I was ready for some of the rapids that were in between the two put-ins.  Every thing was going fine.  I was felling perfect and controlling my boat well.  Then, the big rapid came.

I started the rapid with a great angle pointing hard left.  Stupidly, I started showing off to some people on shore and was not paying attention.  I hit the middle line, got smacked, and eventually flipped, by a huge lateral wave.  Upside down, I swam out of my boat and was picked up by Kali.  I was soon back in my boat floating peacefully to the take-out.  There, the car picked us up again and drove us into town where we have found a hotel lobby with internet.  (There is no internet at our camp.)  Here, I am doing my unfinished blog work from yesterday and writing today’s blog.  Tonight, my family will watch a movie! 


Thank you for reading  Rohan Geographic!