Eye of the Beholder

Spent a fabulous day with about 20 kayaking friends playing at Buck Creek, a manmade whitewater facility. I spent some time helping to introduce some novices to the greater joys of paddling, which they eagerly mastered, and then did some warm-up surfs and stuff of my own. This followed the track of most of the more experienced paddlers.

The main event for us ensued. That is, throwing yourself into the hearts of the waves and holes with abandon, trying to accomplish what you had heretofore failed to pull off. This results in an increasing degree of success, interspersed with some spectacular wipeouts and carnage. Part of the latter is inflicted by your friends as there’s always an element of horseplay. All in good fun and a lot of laughter, at least when your head is above water.

After a few hours of thrashing myself (and a few friends), I dragged my equipment up the bank and began to load it into my truck. A commodious, older car pulled up alongside, containing an even older couple. I had seen them watching us.

“Young man, I have a question for you.” Young man? I didn’t know if it was that my equipment covered my signs of age or her eyesight was substandard. “Why do you people do that? Is it fun?”

I told her it was part preparation for situations we might encounter on larger bodies of water and part just playing. And yes, it was a lot of fun.

“It doesn’t look like fun. It looks like work, trying to paddle upstream like that. Why don’t you just go with the flow?” I told her I didn’t understand what she was talking about and she pointed to someone surfing the chute.

“He isn’t trying to paddle up it. He’s riding the wave to stay on it. It’s fun and it enhances you boat control and skills.”

“But you keep winding up upside down.”

“No argument there. That happens when you push the limits, but that’s part of the fun.”

“You actually enjoy that?”

“Quite a bit. I love to get right into the midst of the maelstrom, feel the forces of it and play off them to control the boat. Sometimes they win, but that’s part of the fun. A good wipeout and roll isn’t a bad thing.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like fun to me.”

Eye of the beholder. Sitting in a big Mercury on a hot summer day doesn’t look like much fun to me.