Reply #7: Well, just this weekend I was kayaking at the [View All]

[eyepaddle]

Upper Midwest Freestyle Championships in Wausau WI (not as a competitor, just recreationally) and I had been hitting my moves, feeling pretty much like a rockstar and decided to paddle to the end of the course. It's a pretty pushy high flow course and it has a few meaty drops. I ran the first one with aplomb and was doing well flying through the standing wave train below it--unitl I caught my stern and right edge in the current and flipped--just at the entrance to the second drop. I was still feeling good and confident and was setting up for my roll when i felt the telltale pillow of current around a submergeed boulder. I got my clock cleaned. The helmet took most of the shot, but got pushed back on my head and more forehead got really scraped up. Not much a bruise though.

I bailed out of my boat, and got washed up onto some rocks in the middle of the channel. I should've stayed in the boat--I likely couold've rolled up anyhow, but, oh well..Just below the rock I was on, the water was recirculating in a sticky looking hole (the kind you might get trapped in). I wanted no part of that, so I jumped over it--into the calm looking pool beyond. Basically I was doing a cannonball. That's when I hit the SECOND boulder of the day--right on my right "cheek" dearest god I thought I broke so many things. That made the head shot tickle in comparison. Oddly enough no bruise was visible. I still hurts to sit down for long periods though.

People sure do notice my forehead though!