Ashley

My complicated relationship with whitewater kayaking began when I was a toddler. I remember my father tying a string to the stern (the back) of my boat and letting me paddle around the pond behind the house. When I would get scared or stuck he would reel me back in!

Later, we would paddle a rocky class II section of the Potomac River and then he would tow me back up the green flatwater in the canal; me delighted with the ride, he getting in his resistance workout. My favorite memory is of paddling the turquoise Actopan River in Mexico as a kid. The water rushes right out of the rock and is so clear you can see bubbles coming up through the waves!

Paddling Through the Fear

I also remember often feeling cold and afraid. When I was about 9 years old, I entered a whitewater slalom race, (this is an amazing and little-known Olympic sport, check it out!) called Riversport Slalom on the middle Youghiogheny River. At one point I had to ferry my boat from one side of the river to the other, above a massive hydraulic*.

* I have later revisited this place and the rapid is a tiny thing!

My dad paddled behind me, shouting encouragement the whole time. I made the move and was rewarded with the special feeling of exhaustion and accomplishment. This feeling is linked in my mind with extreme sports, one I have come to love and seek out in my adult life.

The Family that Paddles Together

I have always considered kayaking to be a family activity. Anytime I put my boat in on the river I am bound to see a cousin or a second cousin or someone that I call a cousin despite dubious actual relations, out there too.

My grandmother was the first in my family to get interested in whitewater kayaking. She would paddle a long fiberglass boat on the Potomac River in the 1960s, before there were many kayakers, and certainly not many women! She passed that love for river exploration and kayaking as a sport to her children.

My uncle competed in whitewater slalom at the Olympic level, medaling in the first ever competition at the 1972 games. My dad pioneered many runs around the world, most notably in this area the 1975 first decent on Great Falls of the Potomac.

These family members’ greatest accomplishments however, in my opinion, is the hundreds of people they have introduced to the sport of kayaking. I imagine the blue wave of love for kayaking rippling out like a wave to people that they have met and taught, and those they have in turn met and taught, all across the world. 

Paddle Professional

Now I work in the paddle sports industry. I work for a small non-profit in the DC area called Calleva, started by some of those river-folk cousins. As a level 4 whitewater instructor I get to work with people experiencing all of those feelings: joy, fear, exhaustion and pride, just their first 2 hour class!

I try to remember the way my brain acts when learning something new under pressure. I try to make each class challenging and difficult but still, in sum, fun. 

When people reach out to me in the office and inquire about kayaking classes, I try to figure out what it is they want from the sport. Do they want a challenge? Or do they dream of going over a waterfall? Do they want to experience their world from a different view, in this case, the river looking up? Or do they want a sport that they can share with their whole family, one that goes beyond cheering on their kids from the stands?

Paddling Lessons

Kayaking has so much to teach us.  My favorite part about it is how much it makes me think about myself; my motivations, my fears. The other day I was alone in an eddy, a calm area in the middle of a rapid, with roaring whitewater all around. My friend had just taken a difficult line, getting stuck for a moment on a wave, before successfully disappearing around an island and down the other side.

I saw the move and I thought I could make it. I also thought, if he struggled and he is stronger than me, maybe I wouldn’t make it… plus it looked so hard! I peeled out and took another passage, through waves but not exposing myself to so much risk. Since then I have thought back, why didn’t I try it? What is the worst that could have happened? How likely was I to make a mistake?

That type of factual risk assessment, acknowledging and identifying fear, is a tool I have used many times off the river. Kayaking has also given me a solace, a place that I can visit when I need escape, something that I was incredibly grateful for during difficult times, especially the isolation of COVID.

DC Paddling Community

The best part of kayaking, however, is the incredible community of river people. Washington DC can be a massive and transient city. But the river community is stable and kind. Everyone I know paddles. If not, why not?

I know whitewater kayaking isn’t for everyone. But if you can swim, there is a place on the river for you. We have flat water tours ⎯ when was the last time you saw a bald eagle and a beaver in the same day?! Or try our sea kayaking classes ⎯ yes, learn to sea kayak on the Potomac and then explore coasts by boat! We have kids camps and after school lessons. You will find out just how quickly your kids get better than you. And if you can’t swim, well, sign up for swim lessons and we will get you in a boat shortly after!

Calleva’s River School is a great place to start a new passion. See you on the river!

Originally Published in Plenty Magazine, Summer 2023

There are so many reasons people are drawn to kayaking on rivers! Many people love water; it can feel relaxing… and reviving. Some people have hiked out to the overlook at Great Falls and noticed brightly colored specks out on the waterfalls, Wow, it’s people in kayaks! and wanted to one day do that, too.

For me, I love to escape the everyday, beltway-bound world and float in a place where herons reign. I love to flip over on a hot summer day and listen to the rocks click on the riverbed deep below. Life in the DC area centers around the Potomac River and you might feel yourself drawn to it, too.

As a kayaking instructor and director at Calleva’s River School, I have been privy to the many and varying paths that my students take; why they started, their successes and struggles, how they have built their interest in a recreational activity into a lifelong pursuit and life style. This is the story of how the first few years can go. Indulge me and insert yourself here…

So you sign up for Zero to Hero! This is a month-long commitment to paddle 3 times per week. It is a lot of time to dedicate to something you aren’t sure you like yet, but jumping in with two feet is the best way to enter the water!

Students come to class on the first day a little bit wary. They may have done some recreational boat kayaking or whitewater rafting before. They were told what to wear but aren’t really sure if they got it right—I’m going to be swimming in sneakers?

There are two big challenges you will face right away: 1-how to make your boat go straight and 2- how to get comfortable upside down. Whitewater kayaks are made to turn. They are short and turn up at the ends (rocker).

This is great fun once you get the hang of it, you can carve turns, avoid rocks, and choose your path down rapids. But a good, even forward stroke that makes your boat glide forward with minimal effort is elusive. You promise to be patient with yourself and to keep practicing.

Number 2 is another chance to be patient with yourself. You flip over with your eyes closed and instantly your brain screams I want to breathe! But you stay calm, pull the freedom loop holding your neoprene sprayskirt on, take your knees out of the braces and ease yourself out into the waters of the Potomac! This one’s going to take a few tries.

Open Practice nights on Tuesdays during the summer are where you make your paddling crew! You meet other boaters that are just starting and some that took Zero to Hero the year before. It is amazing how good they are just a year into it!

They hang out in the slalom gates with you for a while before asking each other as dusk settles in, “Want to run Little Falls?” “Want to head down?” You quietly make a mental note to search YouTube and find out what Little Falls looks like. 

The whole first year you will be working on your roll, ie how to flip yourself back over while still in your boat. People can explain to you with different words and different terms and give you different drills, but you keep thinking Is this rolling thing real or sorcery?

However, you continue to  work on it. You learn how to properly position your paddle, your hip-snap seems acceptable to people who know what this is, you are working on your mental game: stay calm, letting your head come up last even though that is the first thing you want to be above water. Finally, something clicks, the pieces come together and you roll on your own! A huge victory!

Things move fast now. You graduate from Zero to Hero and start accumulating your own gear. Your roommate or SO asks how much stuff do you need? Friends you have made in practices invite you to come run the GW with them.

You discover American Whitewater and the huge online library of river runs described there. You check the river level gauge for Little Falls and the Potomac has fallen below 3 feet.

It is late summer and after Open Practice someone asks you “Want to run Little Falls?” For the first time you answer yes. With a knot in your stomach, Is that nerves, no! it’s excitement you tell yourself, you head down Z channel and out into the wide Potomac River.

The sun is on its way down, there are barn swallows swooping close to the rocks and you feel as far away from the city as you can on a weeknight. The first rapid is shallow and small and you pick your way down, using your sweeps and your bow draws and even intentionally running over a rock or two. Soon the waves get bigger. The thrill of a big water wave train!

Soon your friends are urging you, nay shouting at you,  to catch an eddy on the left and you realize you are just above Little Falls. The water piling up on the rocks in the middle of the river is the biggest thing you have ever seen! You make it down the rapid but realize how much more there is to learn. 

You can take an Intermediate Level month long package in September and work on all of the skills you now want to understand- how to boof, what strokes to take to paddle with style, how to work the river. At the end of the month you can go on a weekend river trip to the Lower Yough. This is an incredible run just a three-hour drive from home in Ohiopyle, PA.

You are a real kayaker now. Over the winter you practice your roll in the pool and maybe invest in a drysuit and pogies to keep your hands warm so you can practice your strokes at Slalom for River Runners. The following spring all of your paddling buddies are signing up for Cheat Lite. You think Why not commit to paddling twice a week in March and April? Skiing sucks this year around here. So you sign up. 

It has been just about a year since you started kayaking. Some of your friends have stuck with it, some took the winter off and are trepidatious about getting back in their boats. But you are feeling strong. You paddled in the snow that day this winter after all!

There have been times that you have felt afraid but you are proud of yourself for looking at that fear and listening to it and choosing what challenges you want to take on. Your new confidence and enthusiasm spills over into everything you do. You find yourself talking about boofing and giving a brown claw to other kayakers.

But the biggest gift that kayaking has given you, can give you, has given me, is an amazing, unique community.  Age and job title are superfluous on the water. We are out there to have fun, to challenge ourselves, and to keep each other safe. Out on the river these are the things that matter. And suddenly you realize those are the things that matter most to me.