The best way to get out of control in a kayak

By Jez

Well after a decade of following the summers between Australia and North America, yep that’s right a decade of endless summers, I headed down to the Australian Snowy Mountains to see this white snow stuff that people always talk about. Yea, it’s ok if your into that kinda stuff. I’m not one to be waiting in long lines to get a chair lift to the top though. So instead I took my Jackson Kayak playboat, I called a mate with a snow mobile, attached the yack to the back of the snow mobile and drove off to find a few sweet places to snow boat down. Yep, I definitely found a few places. The snow was a little icy which meant that it was a little difficult to turn and when you point your boat down the mountain, expect to go fast, way fast. I can honestly say that besides straight drops I have never gone faster in a kayak than snow boating. I have also never been as out of control in a kayak than snow boating. In fact, it probably was one of the more dangerous, slightly stupid things I have done as you find yourself continually wanting to go higher up the mountain. So a few blistering 300 meter runs were not enough. Instead I found a few near vertical drops which were awesome. Then I saw one amazing run I just had to do which included another huge run down some very steep parts of the mountain. The only problem was there a split between two rocks that I had to make. I made a mark in the snow as a guide so that it would be fairly easy to follow and make the split, no worries. I just didn’t count on going at warp speed. Carrying this speed was not conducive to turning. Actually there was no possible way of turning. Bugger. So before I knew what was happening I hit one of the rocks which was thankfully covered in snow. It launched me up and I got air. The front of my boat got caught in the wind and started going up to a point where my nose was past 45 degrees and I could not see where I was going. Thankfully my tail touched the mountain and I landed stern first with the rest of my boat hitting the mountain a little harder than I would have liked. I messed up my knee in doing this as the force was quite amazing. I am sure that if I was in any other kayak that wasn’t as ridged as a Jackson Kayak, the force would have squashed the boat on my knees and my feet which I am certain would have caused some serious damage.

You will have to see the result on our up coming DVD from Skippy Films called we’re going there anyway http://www.entropygear.com/dvd.htm To be released….. whenever we get around to it.

We also had a lunar eclipse down here which was very cool indeed. Now stop surfing the internet and go kayaking.

jez
Jackson Kayak Coordinator of Karma