For those that dont know, Penrith was the white water kayaking stadium built for the 2000 Olympics. It has up to class 3 rapids on a 300m course with a conveyor to take you back to the top.
I went out today with Wade and Fernando from the NSW Sea Kayak Club. As it happened, Andrew and Michael H from canoe polo were out there too.
The course was open for 3 hours to recreational paddlers like ourselves. I was very complacent, only performing one roll before tackling the course. Without any recent practise and only the one roll in this kayak, I was punished early and came out. My ego was dented. I pride myself on tackling Penrith and rolling as required rather than swimming. Oh well, it wasn’t my first and probably wont be my last swim. It was a learning opportunity. Practise more rolls before you start so you’re confident the rolling technique will be there when you need it. I think did a few practise rolls to get better acquainted to rolling this kayak again and that proved useful; I needed to roll in ernest plenty more times during the day.
I’m gradually getting better at these rapids from very tentative beginnings around 2 years ago. I think so anyway. However, I’ve decided, come spring, its time to get some more instruction to push my skills along.
Michael was attempting to do a forward somersaut. He had no success but good on him for even trying. There were plenty of spills for us to watch.
While surfing a wave, I came a gutser and rolled over. during my upside down travels, my elbow scraped the river bed, concrete and tore a nice little hole through my cag, my thermal and my elbow. Hmmm. Some repairs to do.
