Kayaking For Dummies

Well, yesterday was an adventure to say the least. My friend Bunny and I decided to go Kayaking. I have to admit I have never done this before but it sounded like a lot of fun. We live near the site of the 1996 Olympic rowing venue. They offer a 2 to 3 hour Kayak rental for $15. I think that's pretty cheap. However, when you get there they give you a Kayak, paddle and life vest and send you on your way...lessons are extra! Who needs lessons, right? WRONG! We needed them but we discovered that AFTER we had pushed away from the dock. That shizz is harder than you think!

We started paddling and somehow made it away from the dock into open water. That's when the water circles started. What are water circles you ask?! Well,these circles are formed by two people who know absolutely nothing about paddling a Kayak. We are trying our best to move forward but somehow only moved in circles. When we did manage to break from the water circles we found ourselves under a bridge. That was followed by us crashing into one of the bridge supports. We were spent and frustrated so we decided to give this up and head back. We start trying to make our way back when we realized we are heading for the boat ramp. Two trucks are parked there trying to load their boats into the water. We cannot seem to turn and are headed right for them...unable to stop ourselves. PADDLE RIGHT...HARDER....RIGHT....whew, we missed them by inches. I am sure they were wondering WTF we were doing!

That was that and we were done. Luckily I had brought my phone. It is waterproof and I had wanted to get some pics so Bunny thought it was better than risking damage to my camera. Plus I thought it might be handy to have one in case we needed to call 911. I called my sister and ask her to look up instructions on how to paddle a Kayak. After she stopped laughing she decided to meet us at the park and give us some instructions. We parked on a beach area and waited. When she arrived she got in the boat with Bunny and they had a little lesson. Then Bunny got out and I got in with my sis and had my lesson. It turns out we were just overcompensating for turns...we were trying to turn by rowing hard to one side...It turns out you just need to simply put your oar to the opposite side and stick it there for a sec and the boat glides back into position. Oh well, who knew!

After our lesson I forced Bunny back in the boat. She was very hesitant at first. I think her exact words were something like "oh hell no, I'm not getting back into that f'ing boat." I told her that if we didn't conquer this now we would never get back in one. You know...the whole if you fall off a horse get back on thing. She got back in and WE LOVED IT. It turns out its so much easier when you do it right...now we can't wait to do it again.

Well, that's enough for now. Hope y'all are having a great weekend!

Bob Out