Kayak4Ever

Yesterday’s New York Times had a feature about whitewater kayaking. One of the paper’s reporters, Harry Hurt III, traveled to the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) in western North Carolina to take a two-day lesson on the Chattooga and Nantahala rivers. Read the article and see a fun 7-min. video that shows the reporter’s trip over [...]

My brother Jonathan came for a visit this past week.He got in a kayak for the first time and tried his first wet exit.

Jonathan has always loved water sports…surfing, canoeing, and last year he tried ocean paddling on a sit-on-top kayak. He’s never paddled a whitewater kayak, though. For an intro experience, we headed [...]

Today is a gorgeous day in the southeast. A beautiful sunny day that’s not too hot. A perfect day to be on the water. I was supposed to be on the river today. Tim and I packed the car last night for a weekend of kayaking and camping with friends in North Carolina and eastern [...]

The drought in Georgia this spring and summer has caused most natural flow rivers to dry up. The whitewater boaters I know in the Atlanta area are mostly entertaining themselves on dam released rivers like the Ocoee, Cheoah, Nantahala, and Pigeon, and the whitewater park in Charlotte (none of which happen to be in Georgia!). [...]

Tonight I went to the roll practice that Atlanta Whitewater Club (AWC) has every Wednesday night. It’s always a good time to see kayaking friends and play in the water on different skills. Roger coordinates this roll session. He said he thought there were around 15 people there tonight. Got to meet some new people [...]

Yesterday I read about Marjorie in Idaho who started kayaking when she was 52 (15 years ago!). Another woman who inspires me in kayaking is my mom, Mary Ann.
Mom is 64 and she is eager to get on the water after she tried out a 4Fun at an Adventure Summit in Dayton, OH. Now [...]

Check out this post by Rapid Pirate: Marjorie in Idaho
This is what I want for myself. I started kayaking 3 years ago when I was 37. Down the road I want to be the 67 year old woman paddling cool rivers with old and new friends. Move over EJ, Marjorie in Idaho is [...]

Today I paddle an 07 Jackson Fun and I love my little boat. At 6 ft, 6 in, it is just a bit shorter than my first kayak…oh, about 10 feet shorter…

Learning to Surf

The fella in the album pictures is my husband, Tim. He’s a whitewater paddler now, too

Tonight I took another step in my boating adventure. I broke out the foam, hand saw, and shaping tool (sort of like a mini cheese grater) and began carving my first foam block for inside the bow of my boat. Since I got my kayak last November, I’ve been paddling with just the stock outfitting. [...]

Went out today for a relaxing paddle on the metro Hooch in Atlanta. Noticed somewhere along the way that most in our group were in their late 30s and probably over 40. I looked around and saw experienced whitewater instructors and veterans of classic big water runs. Nobody was gunning for an adrenaline fix today, [...]