Ryan Gardner said the skills he picked up in Outdoor Chattanooga’s Rapid Learning Whitewater Kids Club paid off as recently as Sunday when he rescued several paddlers in distress on the Ocoee River.
“I’ve learned a lot,” he said of the club, which he joined last August. “We not only learned how to paddle, but we learned rescue skills and how to communicate with people. That’s really important on the river.”
The club, in which children ages 8 to 18 and their families learn whitewater kayaking skills with provided equipment, is around 10 years old, according to Ruthie Thompson, events coordinator at Outdoor Chattanooga.
Students are taught initial skills such as paddle strokes and a wet exit (how to get out of a rolled boat) and safety during warm weather at Greenway Farm or during cold weather at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Maclellan Gymnasium pool.
“The course is designed to help you paddle in fast-moving water,” Ms. Thompson said. “Some pick it up in two days. It took me a whole semester. But once you get it, you get it.”
Training trips for those who have learned initial skills are taken in groups of 10 or 12 to the Hiwassee, Cartecay, Tellico and Ocoee rivers.
What students must learn quickly, said Ms. Thompson, is that whitewater kayaking is a team sport.
On the water, she said, “you’re always part of a support system for other kayakers, whether you know them or not.”
Such training, according to Ms. Thompson, also helps give students self-confidence.
Whitewater paddling often becomes so addictive, she said, that parents get involved by learning skills or volunteering and older club members mentor younger ones.
Some children continue to hone their skills as they remain club members year after year, Ms. Thompson said.
“There is no end to the level of proficiency,” she said. “There are so many variables on one body of water. Every time you go out and paddle, it’s a little different.”
Ryan, 16, said he and his brother, Dustin, 19, a student at Chattanooga State Community College, became interested in the sport through their lifelong friend, Garrett Mays, who’d become intrigued through a relative.
The Soddy-Daisy High School sophomore said the three of them joined the club on the same day and often now go paddling on a daily basis.
He said they have paddled the Hiwassee, Tellico and Ocoee rivers as well as the North Chickamauga Creek, which is not too far from their home.
Ryan said he had become so enamored of the sport he is planning to do his high school senior project on swift water rescue, a technique he unexpectedly got to practice last weekend.
“It’s a lot more exciting” when you do it “in the right way,” he said.
GET INVOLVED
Students can join the Rapid Learning Whitewater Kids Club any time of the year. Weekly roll practice is held Tuesdays from 6 to 8 p.m. at Greenway Farm, 5051 Gann Store Road, in Hixson, and in cold weather at the indoor pool at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Maclellan Gymnasium pool. Students do not pay for their roll practice, but weekly roll practices are $5. An individual year’s membership ($50) or a family membership ($75) includes roll practices. River training trips range from $25 to $50. Two summer camps are also available. A beginner camp is June 14-18 and costs $300. An intermediate camp is July 12-16 and costs $400. For information, call Marcus Hulsey at 643-6882 or Ruthie Thompson at 643-6869.