Getting out of Your Whitewater Kayak
So you successfully manage to get into your kayak, paddle around some, had a great time and are now ready to get out! What is the next step for you? Well the next thing you should do is to decide which way you want to get out. Probably the simplest way to do it is to just aim your boat towards shore, get up a head of steam and coast onto the ground. Pull your spray skirt and slide right out the back. Easy enough right? Another easy way to do it is to use your paddle on the side as an outrigger so that you can safely just have a third point of contact.
If like most paddlers, you get out onto the water for the first time and don’t exactly manage to stay upright, well then you are like most beginning paddlers. You will get a chance to practice an exciting maneuver called the wet exit. Learning to do a Wet Exit is a very crucial skill for all paddlers since you never know when you are going to need it. If you learn to properly do a wet exit, it is a very easy maneuver that will become second nature for you, and when you need it, it will right there for you to do easily. If you don’t learn it properly there is a lot of room there for you to screw up then!
Your first wet exit should not be done in a moving current. Find a pool or lake that you an flip in. Take a deep breath, lean forward and flip the boat. Stay leaned far forward and take a second to get acquainted with the feeling. Try not to panic, but stay calm. Reach forward with your hand and find the grab loop. Pull the grab loop up and away from the kayak to pop it off to release. Bring both hands back to where your hips are; plant them on the side of the boat then push! You will easily pop right out of the boat!
