Kayaking: My First Rapids

Trevor, thats my brother,  and I have been looking for more places to kayak around Joburg. We usually do the run on the Crocdile river from Paddle Power down to Hartbeespoort Dam and back. But always paddling the same stretch gets a bit boring after a while.

Since I am paddling in my Necky Spike and Trevor in a Wilderness Systems Tarpon 160, we have only really considered flatwater. Now Paddle power run whitewater rafting trips from various places upriver from their base in Broederstroom. So we thought why can’t we handle a few easy rapids and do the same. After a bit of research we reckoned we could put in at Pelindaba, run through the last few rapids and end off at Paddle Power.

The day came and we dropped off the kayaks at Pelindaba, took one car down to Paddle Power, and returned to our put in. We started just below the 2 wiers and went straight into the first rapid. Having been told to ‘keep left’ so you don’t get pinned up against the big rock, Trevor headed on down the left without problems until he was dumped into the water near the bottom of the rapid. I started off left but the first rock I approached forced me right… exactly where I was not supposed to be headed. I remember going over a biggish ledge and immediately after getting thrown off. Grabbing onto both my kayak and paddle I luckily was not pushed up against the rock and slowly floated clear of the rapid. Once I could stand – sort of – I was able to turn the kayak over, move to the bank and get back on to survey the damage. A few gashes in my knee but otherwise all OK. I know you are not supposed to hold on to your kayak in these situations but I couldn’t see myself travelling half way down to Paddle Power without a boat.

Anyway, off we went to see what else the river had in store for us.

The next rapid threw me off again, but Trevor got through it without a problem. Now I had a graze on my finger as well. I was definitely getting a bit more confident as we went on & my skills were improving both in reading the river and managing to stay upright.

I think the rapids were also getting easier as we went because we had no more issues.

I have learnt that you tie stuff tightly onto the kayak or put it inside, not on long leads – when you go over they can wrap around you and possibly get caught up in rocks. Also the best way to not fall off is to keep paddling. I will also practice my brace strokes before I do rapids again.

My knee took 2 weeks to heal but at least no nasty infections since you never know what is in that water.

All in all a good learning experience but would have been better with a more experienced paddler to guide us