Dog brown wings

The Vaal dam outflow was increase slightly last week. Which meant there was sufficient water to make the section below Parys good.

Only Don and I went down, both of us kayaking. Don is fairly new to kayaking and the Vaal at this level is a good introduction. Since I was a bit sick and don had turned into a tank the night before we left rather late (well past 10) and arrived at Parys even later. After the mandatory shopping for food and checking out the locals. I found the most amazing pie, I had to buy it and take it home for Chris. He was excited.

Anyway, back to paddling. As we got there too late to run the river we headed to Gatsien. Don squeezed himself into the stubby we headed down theatre to Gatsien.
So Don started off ok hitting a few rolls (he had never rolled before) and then headed off to the current. He worked on a few eddy turns and peel ins. Basic moves but you find out quickly that working the currents in a lot harder than bombing down a river.
When attempting one eddy turn Don went over and lost his paddle. At first I thought he had seen me further down stream and was swimming toward me (still in his boat). Shit I was so impressed. So it turned out he was just have a bit of a doggy paddle session under the boat. None the less he held on long enough and got to my boat in time to not swim.

I hit the chute a couple of times, wasn't feeling too hot. It was a great level though, with Vroom and Brendan displaying some moves.

After staring at woman wearing a pillow case, complete with pillow, we headed up and run the chute. Don went over and after a bit of doggy paddling popped and swam. Don then learn the ever important lessons of kayaking. Paddles do in fact float down stream if you let them go, boat with little floatation are damn heavy and the vaal bugs suck the sweat of a dead mans balls.

All in all it was a pretty successful day, I was impressed with Don's persistence and I hope to see more WEES kayakers on the water.