February 28, 2005

The Big South Fork was about 3 hours from Lexington, KY where the NPFF was held. We agreed to meet lots of people there at 11am at the take out and being on central time that meant on the road by 7am our time. Well, by the time we got to the take out it was noon. We took the Lotus truck driven by Christie Dobson to the put-in with 10 people in it (Jackson family, Dixie Marie, Clay and more) and the parking lot was already swarming with kayakers. Kristine ran the Lotus truck back to the take out and hung out in the RV. I was particularly excited to get to paddle with Lauren Burgess, the 9 year old that paddles a yellow Fun 1 and runs class 3 and easy 4. She was already in the eddy waiting for me when I got to the river. There were at least 50 people in a group that spread out over time. I was amazed to see the number of Jackson Kayak’s on the water!

Lauren was fun to paddle with. After a while I had her tell me where to go on each rapid and she new the river well enough to lead me down and describe everything. You don’t know how cool it is to have a 9 year old girl talk about boofing this, or going around that, until you see it! She was covered in neoprene from head to toe with only her face sticking out and never got cold. Her roll and brace were awesome also! She doesn’t do enough ferries or catch enough eddies yet, so she could use some work on those skills, but hey, she’s 9, and how many 9 year olds can paddle at all?

That, is perhaps, one of the most exciting things for me, the prospect that parents will start teaching their kids to kayak, instead of paddling on their own without their kids. I am seeing it happen and Lauren is a great example. Her dad will have a paddling buddy for life now! It takes a little step back in your paddling at first while they are learning, but then it is not long until they are challenging you!

:) EJ