Day 4

Right away, we loaded up and headed for the river . . .

We hit the Lower White Salmon again today. The kids were so excited to run the “Cave wave” rapid again. This day, we worked on communicating on the river through paddle signals - the kids made it down through the rapids by watching the directions from their instructors. They all styled every class II rapid. Once down at the lake, the kids wanted to play “Piano Keys” again - I think this was their favorite game. So, we ended the course with more games and a few “wet exits”.

The course flew by. . . the games we played as well as the skills we taught made time fly. As they say, “Time flies when you’re having fun.” Hopefully, we can plan for a longer course next year.

We finished the day with a pizza party with the parents, a certificate awards ceremony and our farewells. What a great four days.

If you have any questions on the games I mentioned or some other fun things we incorporated in this course, or any other questions, please contact www.wetplanetwhitewater.com.

My “Reflection” on the course coming soon . . . hope you’ve enjoyed this so far.

Heather Herbeck
Team Wet Planet
Team Jackson Kayak
Team Level Six
Team AT
Team Sweet
(I love teams:) Stay safe and have fun!

The kids showed up the third day with sleepy eyes and big smiles. These kids had been working hard the first two days, with two more days to go . . . and they were stoked. We spent the morning building our own river out of a throw rope, big rocks and sticks. Next, we had the kids take a foamy piece down the “river”, pointing out eddies, going in and out of eddies with perfect form, ferrying, etc.

The next part of the day was spent on the Lower White Salmon - a class II section of river. We had a bit of a hike into the river, but everyone helped out and we made it!

At the put-in, there was a perfect eddy line to warm-up and practice eddy turns, s-turns and ferries. This eddy was a little stronger than the day prior, but the kids made it look easy.

We continued downstream through the largest rapid - cave wave. One of the instructors took the first group down, while I “rafted up” with Camille so we could go through the rapid together. The waves hit her as she giggled the entire way down. We all walked back upstream and did the rapid again.

Continuing downstream with a lot of flat water, we played bumper boats and told stories. Once at the take out - which is a lake - we stopped and played a few more games before we had lunch. We played piano keys and a fun game called “Chariots of fire” (which both Christina and I thought was a challenging game, but fun factor was high).

The second half of the day, we took the kids rafting on the class III-IV section of the White Salmon and continued to talk about river features and pointing out eddies, waves and holes. (The first photo is of Hope before she plunges off the 20 foot cliff jump on the rafting trip . . . way to go Hope!)

Questions of the day:
“What was your most favorite part of Day 3?”
“My favorite thing we did was going rafting and going over Husum Falls.” (a 10-foot waterfall)
“My favorite part about today was going over Husum in a raft.”
“My favorite thing about today was going through “Cave Wave” and when I hit Manon’s boat and tipped over at the end of the rapid!”
“My favorite thing was rafting and going through a long class III rapid - corkscrew.”

“What has been your most fun experience so far in this course?”
“The most fun I have had so far was when we were playing “piano keys” and Manon got to my boat, and when she stepped on it, my entire boat went completely vertical and we fell out. It was so funny!”
“The most fun I have had was when we tipped the raft over in an eddy and used it as a giant waterslide.”
“The most fun I have had was playing games, flipping and going through Cave Wave.”
“The most fun I have had was when Hope hit my boat and flipped over at Cave Wave.”

At the tail end of Day 3, the kid’s were wiped out. One more day to go . . .Day 4 on the way.

Heather Herbeck
 wetplanetwhitewater.com

After lunch, we actually did a little river running section of the Hood river. The kids were really excited to actually go “down” a river.

We played “follow the leader” down the 1 mile section of the river, stopping in eddies and practicing ferries. The “largest” rapid on this section, we practiced catching eddies all the way up to the rapid and using “Paddle signals” to communicate as we made our way down through the rapid. It was a great day on the river. By the end of the day, the kids were very tired, but still excited about the next two days.

Questions for the day:
“What was your most favorite part of Day 2?”
“The rapids, because it was refreshing and the games we played were fun.”
“Today was so much fun. We learned so much and had a million laughs. But, one of the BEST parts of today was the game “piano keys”. It is the best game ever. So much fun!!!”
“I loved “piano keys”.
“My favorite thing today going on rapids and flipping over. Also, when we played “piano keys”.

“Why do you love Wet Planet?”
“I love Wet Planet because it’s pretty organized. They also have a load of activities and are always on time.”
“I love Wet Planet because the people are responsible, friendly and safe.”
“I love Wet Planet! The people are so nice, the instructors are great and the scenery is so pretty. Wet Planet isn’t uptight, it’s laid back and everyone wants to stay and hang out.”
“Wet Planet is awesome because it has the best people.”
(Remember, these are 10-12 year olds . . .wow!)

Stay tuned for Day 3 . . . for more information, check out www.wetplanetwhitewater.com.

Heather Herbeck

This blog contains bits and pieces from the instructors and the kids themselves. I am including a lot of photos as well . . . enjoy!

DAY 1
We started with introductions and then proceeded with talking about the gear. One fun thing we did with the gear was a “gear relay” - We put the gear into piles around the grass we were sitting in and in teams of two, the kids started at pile #1 (the spray skirts) and raced to each pile, putting their gear on (it had to be perfect - like the pfd’s had to be tight) and then once all the gear was on and checked by the instructor, they tagged their teammate and their teammate cycled through the piles. We had lots of giggles during this game and was definately an “ice breaker” for all the kids.
We spent the rest of the morning in the pool playing with our boats. A couple of fun activities that we did in the pool where:
1. The kids tried climbing into their boats without tipping them. Once they mastered this, we then had them sit in their boat, stand up and sit back down. Both these games were great for the “fun”factor and for learning balance.

2. We practiced holding our breath on land and then holding our breath underwater - so the kids could see that they can actually stay underwater for a reasonable amount of time IF they are relaxed.
3. From here, we went into the wet exits without spray skirts - concentrating on perfect form - a couple of the kids were nervous at first, but once they tried it, they wanted to wet exit over and over.
4. This advanced into the normal “wet exit” and then into a quick introduction of the roll (only because one of the kids asked if we could teach them the roll). . . SWEET!

Here is the great pyramid we made before lunch (this was my first pyramid ever . . . I was never a cheerleader)

After lunch, we headed to a lake to play more games. The first day was pretty much “game day”. We played relays to practice forward strokes and sweeps and also “Sharks and Minnows”, using a pyranha sponge for the “weapon” of choice.
Each day, before wrapping up the class, the kids were asked to write down their thoughts on a couple of questions. Every day, we asked them “What was your favorite thing you did today?” and then came up with one more question which was different each day. On day 1, the other question was “Why do you want to learn how to kayak?” (Remember these are all 10-12 year olds).

“What was your favorite thing you did on Day 1?
The Wet Exit
The gear “relay”
Going to the Lake for game-playing

“Why do you want to learn how to kayak?”
“My dad recommended the class, and I thought awh, what the heck!”
“Because it’s a super cool thing to do!”
“Because it sounded really fun. I always loved to go on boats and swim. I also wanted to come back because being on whitewater in the middle of nature is just great. I also met a great friend and kayaking is all about friendship.”

This wraps up Day 1 of Wet Planet’s Kids Kayaking Course. Stay tuned for Day 2 . . .to learn more about the kayaking programs Wet Planet has to offer, check out www.wetplanetwhitewater.com

Heather Herbeck