Out in Nature ⎯ Whitewater Kayaking: Just Picture Yourself Here

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.