Introduction
Why am I calling this blog “wet exit?” I’m an expert at it,
that’s why.
Let me explain. About three years ago my wife Donna found a
Groupon coupon for a one-half price kayak trip along the San Antonio Riverwalk,
a tourist area of San Antonio. The San Antonio River Walk (also known as Paseo
del Río) is a network of walkways along the banks of the San Antonio River, one
story beneath the streets of Downtown San Antonio, Texas. It is a hugely
popular tourist area so, as you can imagine, the San Antonio River that flows
through it is quite still. The city does not want anyone to fall into the river
and be swept away by raging water. They may be dissolved by all the chemicals
in the water, but they will not be swept away.
Anyway, I had been in a canoe before, but never a kayak, so
we decided to try it. The kayaks provided to us were “sit on top” kayaks,
meaning that if you fell out, an unlikely event give the placid nature of the
San Antonio River, you just had to figure out how to get back in or just be
able to go a few feet to one side of the river. There was virtually no chance
of drowning. We enjoyed the experience and decided to explore kayaking some
more.
At first we rented tandem kayaks—not a good idea for two
people who want to be in control of everything. Next we rented individual
kayaks and took them out on a lake. It only took two or three outings for us to
decide that lake kayaking was boring.
We then discovered that San Marcos, Texas has a “park and
play” white water park. After watching about a hundred YouTube videos on white
water kayaking we decided to take a white water
kayaking lesson. It just so happened that there are a number of kayaking
instructors in the area so we were able to book lessons with no problem.
I was kind of shocked at the size of the boats we were given
for our lesson. They were what are known as “play boats” and were probably not
the best choice for an introduction to white water kayaking. Anyway, after we
were shown the boats we were going to use we were given spray skirts, shown how
to get into the spray skirts and then how to put them on the boat.
The instructor then said, “The first thing you have to learn
is how to get out of the boat in case you flip over.”
I would have thought that the first thing you needed to know
was how to get into the boat. It
turns out that knowing how to get out of a boat when you have flipped is a very
necessary skill because you will flip when you are first learning to kayak in
white water.
I have flipped over so many times and have wet exited so
many times I consider myself an expert at the skill. Of course, any kayaker’s
goal is not to flip over at all. Achieving that goal takes a lot of practice.
