On Friday 2 Dec I travelled out to the Penrith White Water Stadium with fellow clubbie, ww enthusiast and virtual local, Gary Roberts. We had decided to share the experience of a 1hr private instruction lesson and then spend the rest of the day circulating in the white water.
The lesson was run by Phil, who did basically what he was supposed to do – checked our basic competencies and then up the conveyor we went. We followed Phil around the course like little chicks following mother hen. He encouraged us to glide across from river left to river right, ferry gliding each time into eddies but focussing on our boat control and being where we wanted to be, not the rivier flow. It worked most of the time for me; sometimes I missed the designated eddy, slipped downstream over rapids, sometimes backwards, until I regained composure and eddied out downstream.
Phil picked up on a lot of my errors like my ww stroke. He said I needed to focus on where I wanted to go and put in solid strokes to control my kayak and to get to my destination whether to cross the river or to eddied out, etc. That tip alone was priceless. Obvious but priceless.
Later in the day after our lesson and we’d had a chance to consolidate our day’s learnings, Gary and I took turns with my camera to take some footage of one another. We each played cameraman for one run down the course. I’ve edited the footage to make a movie. The footage is quite bumpy as we each continued filming while walking so we could keep up with the ever moving kayaker but if I edited all of that out, there wouldn’t have been much left to show. Anyway, it captures the day and I hope you like it.
