Tuesday, October 30, 2012

To Reinvent Fun

As a long-time kayak enthusiast it was refreshing and fun to watch this guys do what I spent many years doing back in Argentina: trying to have fun on a boat in different ways. The four minute video ("Kayaking Tidal Races", by Fitz Cahall, www.adventure.natgeo.com) shows a small group of adrenaline-seekers that search for the places sailors try to avoid!

The video reminded me of the times when, with a group of friends, we enjoyed "boat chasing", a discipline we developed after the lack of waves or any kind of turbulence in the still waters of the Delta del ParanĂ¡. We basically waited for big passenger boats or yachts to pass, and we surfed their waves, sometimes being able to follow the boats for a long time, if the wave was caught close enough to the boat and was surfed properly. A more relaxed variant of this was to get right behind the boat, stuck in the first "valley", a gap between the first and second wave that can provide the right traction for a kayak to advance almost without any interference from the paddler. We could go for miles and miles this way, unless we got into a fight with the boat's captain, who could understand what was happening or maybe he simply did not like to be followed!

Other tricks we made were sliding into the river from pier roofs or other elevated platforms, always to roll back and have a laugh. Miss that.

Link to article: http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/fringe-elements/adventure-sports-videos/#/paul-kuthe-kayak_33758_600x450.jpg

No comments:

Post a Comment