Everyone is familiar with the motto of the Boy Scouts of America: Be prepared. What fewer people realize is that those two little words can be as difficult to obey as they are vital – and that they’re not just for Boy Scouts.
Me and nine other students, one instructor and four experienced paddlers learned that lesson via baptism by fire recently on a kayaking trip that got more than a little out of hand.
We had been taking a beginning kayaking class through the University of South Carolina’s Physical Education Department for the past seven weeks. Our instructor, Karen Kustafik, taught us the basics – wet exits, buddy rescues, braces, rolling, catching an eddy, peeling out and ferrying – during sessions in an indoor pool and on the Saluda River, a kayaking haven with easy whitewater just 15 minutes from campus. Now, according to Kustafik, we were ready to get our feet wet (literally) on a more advanced and exotic river.
Chattanooga native and University of South Carolina journalism major Katherine West is an avid fan of all things outdoors, even kayaking.On the big day, Kustafik, four of her experienced kayaking friends and the students huddled around a fire at a campground near Hot Springs, N.C. Only the thought of breakfast had coaxed us out of our frigid sleeping bags. The sky was overcast and looked like it was about to snow, an event which seemed entirely too possible given the temperature. The high that day would reach 42 degrees – a far cry from the constant summer back in Columbia.
First lesson learned: Be prepared for any weather.