Kayaking Trip-Fear?

[STOIC]

A group of us decided to set a goal of kayaking in the broad river before our graduation ceremony in few weeks. Broad river is one of the local rivers close to our campus. The river has 70 mile navigable continuous water. The idea incubated from one of our friends who have been to the river. When the news got to me I wasn’t happy about it. I am a bad swimmer. I couldn’t figure it out of all the other activities we could do, why choose water activity? We set the date to be last Saturday. They thought these will be a fun to remember since we were all going different directions in life. The thrill of free falling from five feet waterfall was unimaginable thought. We all promised to meet in the intramural field at eleven in the morning to head down the river. The weather didn’t seem an auspicious start of a day. But that didn’t stop us. One of my friends girlfriend started whining right before we were about to leave the field. She is a complete extrovert girl, but her nagging gets under my skin sometimes. Propriety restricts me from hushing her. We let her boyfriend deal with her.

 

 

When we all paid our dues, a staff member gave us each a kayak and a rowing stick. What looked like a safety culture tips followed? I choose the kayak that was hard to overturn even though it was heavy. All the other friends including the two girls picked the normal Kayak. You might think I was a Cassandra who always predicted the worst to happen. All these kids grew up around swimming pools while I grew up where there was no swimming pool. Maybe this explains my attempt to ingratiate myself when they all looked at me differently. In any case I didn’t expect an overwhelming cheers or shouts from them after all they were pain in the neck kids. Maybe this will make you understand them more. This group is composed of four Indians, two Somalis and three Ethiopians. They all grew up around Somalis. They even use words like “Caasharo†when they are describing women they met the night before at a party. We all call ourselves Qaxootis. Soon I am going to learn that no one was highly skilled or had an aptitude for Kayaking accept the Somalian dude, Ebb, who grew up in Canada.

 

 

It was due to my disposition or maybe fear that made me to be one of the last people to get in the water. I was caught up in the trivial details of safety that I hardly noticed I was ahead of everyone. The river was long and dangerous for a beginner like me. It had many twist and bends. My diffident made me not to trust the edges or the center of the river. I always made circuitous turns whenever I reached a waterfall. I thought these waterfalls will be the catalyst of my boat overturning. I was ahead of the group about ten minutes when accidentally I slumped into a rock and my Kayak overturned leaving me to gasp for air as my life jacket propelled me upward. I thought I was done. I was going to die in the water. I started yelling for help, but my friends were no where near me. Luckily my Kayak was in my hand, but I lost my rowing stick. I forced myself to reach the nearby Island, but I was out of breath. I finally made it to the top of the rock when my friends arrived. I was socked in water and may be gulped down the river water during the accident. Ebb was an expert. I come to realize this when he rescued my Kayak and stick. He was able to get my stick from downstream and bring it up where I was. He started fuming at me how he told me not to leave the group. I apologized and got on my Kayak. When we reached a big waterfall he advised me to take the right side while he himself, the expert, went through it. But unfortunately they all fall of their Kayak. This was a hilarious moment for me. I laughed at them.

 

PS To be continued....

 

 

[xiinfaniin]

^^A very interesting adventure, I say. I did canoeing once (a similar activity? I guess) and went very smooth. It was on a very stable river (yours sound a bit too wild), and reasonable distance---about ten miles.

[Viking]

lool STOIC,

Hope you don't develop hydrophobia

 

One time I went on a canoe with three other buddies on 4-man canoe. Half way through the massive lake, one dude started joking around, rocking the canoe side to side as if threatenning to turn it over. We weren't so keen on his jokes, especially one guy who was from waqooyi. He was swearing like there's no tomorrow, he was yelling and insulting everything and everyone. The thing is, he could not swim at all!

 

Alas, the canoe fell over and we were in the middle of a river and to top it all it was a crispy cold but sunny spring day. The guy who couldn't swim gulped a few glasses of water as he came to the surface and started yelling for his life as we helped him to hold on to the capsized canoe. It took us about 20 mins to get to the river bank in a forest area where we were shivering another 20 mins or so until a rescue team came to get us.

 

Kayaking sounds fun, but I wouldn't do it without a helmet!

[Cara.]

LOL. I'm getting apprehensive now, even though I've gone kayaking before. I'm going on a white water rafting/camping trip in August. It's supposed to be a level IV, and I've never rafted above level III, and only for a few hours at that. But this trip is supposed by 8 hours a day for 3 days (covering something like 140 miles).

 

The thing is, being able to swim doesn't help much if you are in rapids. It's more important not to panic and flail about, making it difficult for others to pull you out. Few swimmers can fight the current if the river is really fast.

[Baashi]

Stoic awoowe ina rag waa kii wax walba isku daya. Mara waaxid .

 

I too once went on to a canoeing trip with folks who have never tried it before. I can’t be bothered to remember the name of the lake. I remember this much though it is located on the outskirts of St. Paul, MN. Safety was a key issue. Before we got on canoeing we had an earful of safety talk and the folks down the resort handed a life saver jacket to everyone.

 

All of the sudden we started smiling and regained our confidence back (we were nervous and uptight about the prospect of wht ifs). With life saver jackets, everyone felt that he/she could pull this one off. Maxaa ka dhacay hadde. Maneuvering the thing became a rocket science! But we all managed to get back to the shore. It was all good.

 

As to kayaking, I’ve never tried. I would love to give a try though…one of these days!

 

I just came back from a sightseeing trip (we went all the way up to Vopnafjordur ). What a beauty! Apart from the rough gravel roads (jid cadde ama jaay), it was fun. This palce’s natural beauty is stunning…just gorgeous. Strange rock formations, waterfalls, deep canyons, and the best of all natural hot water with man-made swimming pool facility!

 

Iceland is a third world country in terms of infrastructure. Man! We went up about 800 meters high with 15% grade (that steep) and the road didn’t even have a barrier (fall protection!!!). It was wet, narrow, and on the edge (one wrong turn and we could be a toast plunging to a certain death). At one time we almost stopped in the middle of the road. We could not be sure if we were on the right track.

 

I had a blast. I got some pics n will post them Allah willing.

 

Sida kale waa shax-shax…I haven’t met any Somali so far. I met one Ethiopian girly girl. She thought I was another Etho qaxooti wandering in no man’s land. She was like batala catala dananish or something like that. Annigana waxa tiriba lagu yiri baan ku iri . As it turned out there are about 50 Ethiopians in Reyjkavik.

[STOIC]

My friends kept on going back to the big waterfalls. They wanted to make it through without flipping over their kayak. I was logy from too little sleep from the night before. Don’t ever go to kayaking especially if you had been up all night. The air outside was becoming quite chill .My friend’s girlfriend and I decided to leave those lucid brigands

behind. We cheered wildly and slap ourselves at the back. And paddled our way to finish the trip. We were left with about four miles then. She would be my life guide if I ever drown, or so I thought. Actually we were both not sure of what to do if we ever got stuck in a rock. This never bothered me. By now I was gaining confidence and becoming expert on my own.

 

 

Never have I ever thought not to gain confidence with a little learning skills. Half way through our paddling my friend's girlfriend kayak flipped over. I was ahead of her. I made through safely. She is screaming and hollering my name. I, being the biggest Igalshidhat, never looked back to save the poor girl and her kayak. I was moving like an errant calve trying to figure it out how to get up there. I knew I was scared to death. I lean on a big rock watching her being helped from a distance. Some blue eyes saved her by swimming down the stream. I was embarrassed and helpless. I was afraid of going upstream. Lets just say she got few bruises, which I will be blamed, for the rest of my life. I felt like a senseless git! The Kayak did help me strengthen my flexors.Whether you start the kayaking with a state of abject decrepitude or virile state, you will eventually welter in a turbid feeling. Your tenacity will be put under a test.You will not beleive this I was the second person to finish the Kayaking trip.I was proud of myself!!

 

 

PS Cara, I will say go for it.Just like you said, all it needs is a confidence and you will be fine.I am looking forward to mountain hiking next time.No more water activities until I improve my swimming skills.

 

 

PSS Baashow, Naftu wa macaan atheer...

[Jamilah]

Originally posted by STOIC:

Half way through our paddling my friend's girlfriend kayak flipped over. I was ahead of her. I made through safely. She is screaming and hollering my name. I, being the biggest Igalshidhat, never looked back to save the poor girl and her kayak. I was moving like an errant calve trying to figure it out how to get up there. I knew I was scared to death. I lean on a big rock watching her being helped from a distance. Some blue eyes saved her by swimming down the stream. I was embarrassed and helpless. I was afraid of going upstream. Lets just say she got few bruises, which I will be blamed, for the rest of my life. I felt like a senseless git!

LOOOOOOL. Senseless git? What an understatement, thats just plain cruel. Now, I am wondering where did I get this image of STOIC being a gentlemen..must have been an illusion.

[STOIC]

Jamilah, don't let my name give you a sniff of incredulity of my character.The pure in my heart abhors all evils.My Imam is my reference

 

PS My sincere contrition of heart to my readers of the Kayaking story.I have found out few grammatical errors.Too late, the editing button time expired.