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Group promotes kayaking in unlikely location |
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On Wednesday nights, most of the amenities at the Olathe Family YMCA
are used as one would expect. Reps are done in the weight room, laps
are taken on the walking track ... but there isn't a butterfly,
breast or back stroke to be seen in the pool. It might seem unusual, but the Kansas Whitewater Association has been floating its boats at the Olathe Family YMCA natatorium every Wednesday night from September through April for the past two years. The pool sessions are designed to help boaters master new skills and keep learned skills sharp in the off-season, to build ties among the Kansas kayaking community, and to introduce new people to the sport. Launching a fleet of kayaks in an indoor pool might seem odd, and the club's members realize that even by its name, most people would see the group as incongruous or self-defeating considering its purpose and location. But KWA kayakers don't see the fact that they live in a hydrodynamically challenged state as being reason enough not to pursue the sport they love. "We tell people that we're at the white-water center of the United States, you drive 14 hours in any direction and you can get to white water," KWA member Dave Irwin said. Kansas kayakers generally have to be willing to drive in order to paddle through white water, but prime opportunities can be found within four hours of Kansas City. KWA President Shawn Tolivar said some excellent white water can be found in Missouri and Arkansas, and club members can be routinely found riding those rapids. "Somebody in the group is going somewhere every weekend," Tolivar said. Additionally, the KWA organizes three or four official trips each year to rivers in Tennessee, North Carolina and Colorado. But most KWA activities take place within an hour's drive of Kansas City, and in the warmer months none of them are in a pool. Class II to IV rapids can be found locally with surprising regularity. The most hallowed among KWA boaters is probably a stretch of the Wakarusa River below Clinton Lake near Lawrence, where a play hole forms when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers releases enough water from the reservoir. Dubbed the Wakarusa wave, Tolivar said water rushing over a rock ledge creates a competition-quality freestyle white water hydraulic where the association has hosted informal freestyle rodeos where members and other kayakers can prove their prowess. The Kansas River has two white-water sections - one below the Bowersock Dam near Lawrence and the other below the I-435 bridge just north of Shawnee. Even more urban tributaries like the Blue River and Indian Creek are often floated by KWA kayakers. While the recreational opportunities of these waterways might be missed by the general public, they're no secret to Kansas City's kayaking addicts - a community whose numbers are sizable Tolivar said. "There's actually a really active scene in the Midwest," Tolivar said. The KWA was formed in January 2004. It started with only five members, but over the past year the group has grown to around 30 active members. Kayaking is becoming increasingly popular even in Kansas, Tolivar said, and the association is designed to help local boaters enter and improve in the sport. Such a resource is a rarity in the Midwest, Tolivar said. "It's really hard to find gear around here, let alone finding other people that enjoy the sport with you," he said. Promoting the sport is the purpose of the association's weekly introductory sessions, where members introduce newcomers to gear and basic paddle strokes. At this time no one in the KWA is a certified instructor, so they don't offer actual lessons, but they hope to change that in the near future. "We just want to introduce people to the sport to see if it's something they want to continue with," Tolivar said. While paddling in an indoor pool might seem pretty removed from floating a wild river, Tolivar said it offers a perfect environment for practicing the same techniques that are used on any body of water. "There's a lot of different things you can do in kayaking. You can do flat-water lake kayaking, you can do ocean kayaking, you can do white-water kayaking," Tolivar said. "But anything you learn here, you can take and go do whatever aspect you're interested in." After a few pool sessions, the KWA usually organizes a beginners' trip down an easy river to introduce new members to moving water. "The biggest thing is learning how to read the river - the eddies, currents, waves," Tolivar said. "We try to show people how to understand the flow, how to navigate down river without getting yourself in trouble and how to enjoy it along the way." But it doesn't take too much instruction to appreciate kayaking, Tolivar said, and there are many ways to get bitten by the white-water bug. "There's a lot of self-reliance. Some people like it because there's no machinery; it's just you and a couple of pieces of plastic," Tolivar said. KWA pool sessions are held from 8 to 9:30 p.m. every Wednesday through late spring at the Olathe Family YMCA, 21400 W. 153rd St. The entrance fee for a pool session is $7. Starting in April the KWA introductory sessions move to Shawnee Mission Lake in Shawnee Mission Park. Lake sessions are held monthly on Wednesdays or on the weekends. For an introduction to kayaking, e-mail a request to info@kansaswhitewater.org at least 24 hours prior to the pool session you would like to attend. All you need is a swimsuit; the KWA can supply you with a boat, life jacket, paddle, spray skirt and helmet for a fee of $3 per session. For more information visit the group's Web site, www.kansaswhitewater.org.
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| ©The Johnson County Sun 2005 |
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© Kansas Whitewater.org 2005
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