“Paddle Hard!”
Let’s discuss our paddling here at Falling Creek.
We prepare our boys to become their own masters of the white waters.
Learning how to go from paddling a canoe to kayaks involves a lot more skill and knowledge about the water. Our boys start off with canoes and then advance to the kayaks.
Flat vs. White Waters
Flat water: paddling on flat water is good for improving your stamina. This ensures that you have the endurance needed to paddle rougher waters. It is also great for ensuring that each paddler is ready and able to ensure clear communication as that is a crucial part of paddling. Paddling on flat water can be described as an immersive natural adventure.
White water: paddling on white water requires active listening and initiative. This is for the more advanced paddlers. Good paddlers don’t just paddle well, they know when to ask for assistance. Paddling on white water can be described as a fast paced dynamic adventure.
Beginner Paddlers
We start with teaching the boys boat knowledge, the different components of a boat, as well as of a paddle. Now that we understand the boat, it is time to move onto the types of strokes. These include the draw, sweep and steering strokes. Once they have learnt the basics, it is time to get onto the water. This is where the boys will experience paddling, practice and improve their new skills. Boys that learn these basic strokes and can paddle in a straight line qualify to sign up for multi-day lake overnight trips where they paddle on the Fontana, Jocasse, or Tugaloo lakes in the region.
Once they are more comfortable on the water and have practiced the different strokes, it is time to test their steering through a buoy course that instructs them to paddle in a zigzag. They must complete the course in 1 minute and 40 seconds. Now that they have successfully completed the course, they are able to paddle the Lower Green River.
Intermediate and Advanced Paddlers
Our more intermediate paddlers are able to venture onto the French Broad - section 9, Upper Green, & Pigeon Rivers. Then the advanced paddlers have their opportunity to run the Nolichuchucky, Chattooga, Ocoee, & New Rivers, as well as various creeks in the region, all depending on skills of the campers and water levels. There are also trips at times to places such as the Columbus, GA, Charlotte, NC, and Montgomery, AL Whitewater Centers, that focus on freestyle paddling. We are preparing the advanced paddlers for becoming future instructors. Therefore our advanced boys become mentors to our beginners. They wear special yaklets indicating that they are mentors and help the younger boys out while learning. Our intermediate and advanced paddlers have to master rolling in their kayaks to ensure they can handle white waters.
Tuckasegee River
The “Tuck” River is for beginner paddlers, but still requires a large amount of skill and dedication. It is a progression, Class 2 River, which is graded out of 5, with a few rapids. The aim is to join an eddy, which is still water next to the moving stream of water. Catching an eddy is a valuable skill to master in paddling. Another progression to earn at this river involves completing a ferry where the boys paddle up stream, this requires them to paddle at an angle, and thus cross the river without losing ground downstream. This maneuver has them gliding across the water at a certain speed and angle to accomplish. The boys are also required to peel out, which is moving from an eddy into the rapid moving water to join the white water and continue downstream.
Hamilton “Radio” B., from Little Rock, AR, is 10 years old and in cabin 5. He has recently done a Tuck River trip and says that it was really fun. He was a bit scared in the beginning and is proud that he could overcome his fear. “It surprised me how well I did,” says Hamiton. His goal for the session is to get on a Little Slider trip.
Upper Green River
This is for our more intermediate paddlers. This river is a class 3+ which involves a lot of white waters and rapid streams. It also includes a 15ft waterfall that the boys have to learn how to slide drop from. The boys do the usual catching an eddy, peeling out and ferrying, although it is much more difficult as the size of the eddy significantly decreases on this river. Boys are required to have essentially mastered their rolls as this is a higher level course. The boys learn how to drop from the waterfall and catch an eddy on either the top or bottom.
Davis M, from Telluride, CO, is 14 years old and from cabin 33. He loves this trip and says it is loads of fun. He has pretty much mastered free wheeling a 180 off the waterfall. He showed great resilience as it took him almost 10 tries to get it right, but he kept it going until he succeeded. At first he was scared of the waterfall drops, but he overcame that fear and now he is a pro. When he first did the waterfall drop, he said “it was the coolest thing I have ever done.”
