Me practicing my hip snap.

We met up in Dotsero, just off of I-70 on Saturday morning. We had a fairly large group. There were about 15 of us newbies and 3 guides. We parked our cars at the take out point, and drove up river about 7 miles or so. This section of the Colorado River is a very mellow section. For the most part, it’s pretty laid back, with a few class II rapids. Everything we learned on the lake the weekend before, we worked on in the river…like paddling, T-rescues and our roll. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite have my roll down yet. That’s was ok though, because there was plenty I needed to work on in moving water.

There are a lot of things with kayaking that change when you go to moving water. One of the biggest problems I had was doing something called peeling in and peeling out. This is when you paddle from an eddie to a moving current or vise versa. Well when you do that, you have to lean into the current. If you don’t, the water will overtake one side of your boat and you will roll. And this is not that fun, for someone who doesn’t know how to roll yet. I had hell with this. Thankfully, there were three guides that helped me out. They worked with me one-on-one and taught me about the different levels of the lean/tilt. I wasn’t leaning enough. After a little bit of practicing(and a lot of flipping upside down), I finally figured it out. Because I didn’t know how to fully roll yet, every time I flipped upside down, I had to do the T-Rescue. Every time, someone was there to help me out. But the more I did this, the more patient and calm I got under water. This is very important in kayaking. You have to stay calm when you flip upside down. But after flipping so much, I got to a point where I was very nervous about peeling in and out of eddies. I hated flipping. But the guides forced me to work on it more and more. The less I flipped, the more confidence I gained. I am very thankful I had guides that would help push me. For the longest time, I would stay back and try to avoid them because I was afraid of flipping. But they pushed me, and helped make me better.

Another thing we got to work on in the moving water, was ferrying. I felt like I was pretty good at this. Just like flipping in your kayak, the calmer I was, the better. I learned if I calmly ferried, the better my strokes and the easier it was for me. And my favorite part of the trip, were the rapids. I loved the rapids. They were small, but they were perfect for the beginner. They were just enough to make things fun, without making things dangerous.

Working on my roll

I was so glad that I was able to learn kayaking in still water, before taking it to the river. Once the water is moving, it’s a whole new world. I really had a great time on this trip and recommend this to anyone wanting to learn how to kayak. You learn everything at a steady pace, but at the same time the guides are there to push you. And on this two day trip, you figure out what your weaknesses are the first day. Then you’re able to work on it the remainder of the day, and the entire next day.

I felt like I accomplished everything I needed to with this trip. I didn’t get my roll down on the river, but that’s ok bcause Renaissance does something called Renaissance on the River every Wednesday. This is a cheap way of getting one-on-one time with the kayak instructors. It only costs $10, to pay for using their equipment. So every Wednesday I am available, I head to the Golden play park and take advantage of that. And each week I go, the better my roll gets.

Class: 2-Day Beginner River Kayaking Lesson

Time: Saturday & Sunday, 10am-3pm

Price: $220

Guides: Marcus Rhoden, Christine Hill & Geordie Campbell

Company: Renaissance Adventure Guides

(303) 988-2943

http://www.raguides.com