Kayak4Ever

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 and a bunch of us went out to eat once it was too dark to stay on the water.

Something I really liked about tonight’s session was getting to meet Nancy. I saw her practicing her forward stroke near the beach and we struck up a conversation. She was paddling a borrowed red Dagger whitewater kayak — it was an older, longer model but definitely a whitewater boat. She said she is taking a whitewater class this Saturday, so she wanted to get comfortable in a boat that’s shorter than the 12 ft. rec boat she is used to. When I first saw her, she was paddling without a spray skirt. She said she was just getting used to the feel of the boat and wanted to do that before adding a skirt.

By the end of the night (when technically it was dark but we weren’t off the water quite yet), Nancy was practicing wet exits with some coaching from a few other boaters. Next time I looked near the beach, Nancy was standing at the waterline trying on a spray skirt for the first time — another boater had offered her one to try and Nancy was game to learn how to put it on. She was having a great time with all of it and we had a great time seeing her try these new things.

Oh, and did I mention Nancy said she is 64?
Right on, Nancy!