Who says it’s not playboating?

It bugs me when people reserve the term playboating for freestyle in a plastic boat.  Try to tell me not to play the river with my slalom boat.  Even during serious training, I’m going to spin on waves and get a big splash.  If there’s a strong eddyline, I’m going to carve, launch, hook, and twirl across it.  And if we set an impossible offset, I’m going to play through it, sneaking and curling around the poles like smoke.  It is moments like these when we really appreciate our sport: whitewater slalom offers new challenges every day.  Can you steer the boat with your hips?  Can you do that upstream with only one stroke?  How many loops can you do before your split-times slow?  How many times per day can you do something that makes you want to say, “And THAT is why I’m a kayaker”?

Although slalom racing sticks to the clock instead of playing to the crowd, don’t misunderstand: slalom racing still pleases crowds (one of only two continuously sold-out 2004 Athens Olympic events).  Yet your score doesn’t come from a panel of judges, identifying and categorizing your best tricks.  You race against time so that nothing stands between you, the gates, and the whitewater.  You play – for yourself – through the same obstacles, challenges and tricks as all the other athletes: with the water and against the clock.

So you head out there with your friends, and as you compete, kayaking begins to open its doors to you.  You have something to do in any kind of weather.  Travel happens.  You change.  Kayaking itself invites experiences that will strike your soul; your eyes are opened to worlds once outside your field of view.  You will cherish the stories you bring back because they will make your voice matchless and alive.  The friends you see most often are those who paddle because they understand your passion, and the river or whitewater course becomes like a second home.  Other people are envious: “You kayak?  That is so cool…”  But of course, they won’t even understand half of what makes kayaking so cool – and you’ll want to get right out there and DO it, rather than try to explain why whitewater slalom is the best playtime you can find.  You’ll just have to hope that they find their own way to the river.