Zambezi slammer - the kayaking update!

This post could have had a few titles....

Why you should practice more often than every 6 years.....

Nostril cleaning by water injection does work!.....

Why not to breath in while travelling through a wave......

But saddest of all....

Screwed over by the Zambezi, swam rapid 11!


It all started so well, The rafting from 1 to 10 made the river look easier than I'd expected in a kayak and I was full of confidence. The lines are really hard to hit in a raft because it's so slow and having swum twice on the upper section as a result I was itching to get in a kayak. Swimming from a raft is just as unpleasant as swimming from a kayak.

In below 10 and on down to 11. All seemed fine. Attenpted to speed up for the wave on 11 and succeded in plowing the nose of the boat under the water and going no faster... I pulled the nose back out of the water, but worry had set in...

Got through the wave and entered the boils. front down, back down, bit of a flap about and I was upside down. NOT GOOD!

Rolled, didn't even get my head above the surface. I felt that this might be a bad sign.

On my 12th roll attempt I was running through the excuses I could use. I was slopping aroung in a badly padded boat, My knee was under the deck instead of under the knee brace, there were boils, it was difficult. However none of this gave me any comfort as I attempted the 12th roll which I knew was just as unlikely to work as the previous 11 and realised I was going to have to swim.

And swim I did. The only saving grace was that it wasn't a bad swim, I'd already run the 100m of the rapid upside down and had no big waves left to contend with. Slightly ashamed I thanked the rescue kayakers who laughed at me as I got back into the boat. (swim beers apply here too, so I had to cough up in the bar later)

I jammed some foam down the front for a footrest and thankfully, being that bit tighter fitted in the boat brought my roll back to life.

Rapid 12 was frightening, 13 was really scary, but by 15 I felt a lot better and had started paddinlg with a little dignity, though I flapped about a lot all day in the boils.

River improved all the way to rapid 23 and after 2 beers I decided I was ready to try again tomorrow. I've asked for an old school long boat, preferably the size of a large ship and they're having a look to see what they've got.

Totally wicked river, massively above my ability level, going back tomorrow for more fun.

Sadly I doubt that rapids 1-10 are on the agenda. They're a whole step above the rest of the river and I don't see me doing anything but swimming nastilly.

See you for more updates tomorrow.