Welp it’s here, time for our final days of the Bellyak progression Clinic. We’re going all in on this one and heading three hours away from Asheville to the Ocoee (a class 111+ with some lV whitewater.
As usual with a new river I’m feeling some anxiety just not knowing what is ahead of me. We get to the river as I wake up from my nap. I can see the damn release of Ocoee and the whitewater that lies below. We get geared up and to start off on the river we walk a little ways down to not take off right at the damn release. We need to get a feel of the river first. We all jump on our Bellyaks, it’s the four of us that have made it to the end not including our wonderful instructors. Getting comfortable on the river I can’t help but notice how many rocks are around, for I am running into and getting stuck every two minutes. The river is fast but on a shallower side where maneuvering around the rocks seems to be the most difficult part. Getting laid up on them time and time again I’m feeling frustrated. More so I’m scared of what happened last time in the same predicament on the Pigeon when I flipped over from being stuck behind a boat and tumbled down the rapid with my Bellyak not included. There is where my fear lies.
As we bump into each other from being lied up on some rocks I try my best to communicate that we have to get unstuck and try instantly to push off, though my fear is louder than my word and may not have came out the way I intended. I am reminded to stay calm and this refreshes my memory of the mind set to be in on the river… no fear, just breath. Hearing this from another student, Shannon after going through a rapid she had her inner voice guide her, calming her down with soft spoken words of encouragement. I think to myself that may be a difference between people who can handle going onto bigger whitewater. It is keeping that sense of calm even in an oh shit situation. We practice surfing though I still don’t quite have the hang of it yet it, to get myself moved into the wave at a certain point is manageable but for me to stay in the wave is the tough part. As we get further down the river it seems to be getting more intense with bigger rapids. Keeping as much control as I can over my boat we cruise through them, following Adam’s lead. I remind myself to just keep up with everything I learned including following Adam’s movements. Following the lines he makes is important since there are parts of this river that are very difficult that a newbie wouldn’t want to end up in. With the rocks out of the way the second half of this river is filled with fast flowing huge rapids and wave trains bigger than I can see over. Man, this would be more fun if I wasn’t as nervous! Following through one rapid backwards I can help but get overjoyed how crazy this sport is. Flowing over the wave train “Double Trouble” was an adventure in itself. With bigger thrill is bigger reward because I cannot wipe the smile off my face.
The last part of the river is the hardest including a big drop into a huge and I mean HUGE hole, the most challenging and dangerous part of the river. Following Adams hand signals to head river right so we could miss the hole and just flow down a less steep drop. I look back and see Luciano still pretty left and I have a bad feeling about it but have to stay focus on what’s ahead and not keep looking back as everything is moving very fast. We hit the rapid and I barley hang on and make it to paddle to an eddie as I see Adam double back with a serious look in his eyes. I knew it was about Luciano and I look back and see his white Bellyak floating but no Luciano. He hit the hole and Adam’s going to his rescue. I see Luciano swimming and he gets back on his Bellyak, he just made it through falling in the worst part of the whole river (applause here). This really shows me how important it is to make the progression clinic every lesson. It’s important to better your skills to be able make it out okay on a more difficult part of a river. Luciano was a good person out of the group for this to happen to for he has previous water skills from surfing. Learning to Bellyak is a progression, to be taught the skills to be proficient on the boat are a guideline what to do when things are more challenging in bigger whitewater. I could not imagine myself on a river like this one from the first day we started this clinic. That is one of the reasons why I love this sport, the learning curve of it is faster than I imagined. Here we are, only lesson 7 and we are about to graduate! We finish our day on the river and head to our campsite and grill some dinner and hang out around a fire, ending an exciting day with a relaxing night.
Tomorrow we do it again!