Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

Just wanted to see if anyone was in the Ozark area that could help with learning to roll and just boater safety maybe a little play boating. Definitely willing to pay. I love kayaking just don't feel 100% confident to practice on my own. Thanks in advance.

Roll practice sessions=people to help you.

http://forums.arkansascanoeclub.com/vie ... =1&t=28506

http://forums.arkansascanoeclub.com/vie ... =1&t=28420

They just opened registration for River School... just what you need to get comfortable... But, you don't need to go out alone!

How do I sign up?

I suggest a one-two punch, but remember I have no idea what your current skill set is, so this is sort of a "generic" answer.

Go to both the River School and some of the roll sessions that were linked.

The river school is the best place to learn some stuff about safety and general boat handling. It focuses on things how to work with the current, catch eddies, surf, and be safe by knowing the tell-tale signs for hazardous situations. These are things people don't normally spend all day talking about when on recreational floats, so new folks will pick up more information in two days than they might hear in dozens of trips, if ever in purely "recreational" floats.

The one thing River school or WW school is not great for is learning to roll. There is a wide variation in how quickly different people learn to roll, so if you start spending time on that, you'll spend a lot of time on it, and will leave most of the class frustrated at not having gotten their first roll on the first few tries. The water is still cool, so people generally don't want to even try more than a few times. Either go to some of the roll sessions, or, if that doesn't work for your location/ work schedule, then ask that question again mid-summer and find someone who can work with you at one of our hang-out spots when the water and weather are both warm enough for outside lessons to be completely comfortable.

And Welcome!