2017 Green River Takeover- Event Recap

Amazing, spectacular, phenomenal, extraordinary, preeminent, astounding, … How could you pick just one adjective to describe this event? In the past, something has always come up the same weekend as the take over. This year, schedules aligned, and I had the honor of kayaking with 87 badass women. I’ve done girls only paddles before but never on such a scale.

The upper Green was filled with the usual giggles, smiles, and high fives all around. Women encouraged each other to try new tricks and cheered for absolutely anything and everything. When we got to the narrows, I was nervous the continuing group of 43 would quickly get messy and tangled. To my pleasant surprise, Laura and Emily had everything down packed and ready to go. We re-organized our groups into teams of 8-10, and each team was assigned a place in line. The first team would run a rapid and wait for the first member of the next team to arrive before starting the next rapid. This created a constant stream of safety and left no one alone or lost.

After getting on the green a couple times with guys (not trying to bash males), paddling with girls was the first time I’ve really had fun out there. To be fair it was also a matter of having more runs under my belt, but with girls there’s a different energy. Before we got on the water, Emily talked about the “shine” theory. In this theory, no one shines unless everyone is shining. The girls on the water that day shone brighter than I’ve ever seen before. They all looked out for and encouraged each other. We celebrated the good and the bad lines. There were no unhappy baby faces to be seen anywhere. This positive energy reassured me that there were no high expectations and everyone was out there for fun. I think everyone needs days like that. I wish everyday on the river could be that happy and high energy.

If you’re female and have never been to a takeover, go to one!! It’s absolutely (insert endless list of positive adjectives here).