Are You A Kayaking Girl?

Are you a kayaking girl? Do you love fitting all the gear— helmet, PFD, skirt, and paddle —and squeezing into the boat? And the best of all, do you love getting out on the river and playing in the rapids? Catching eddies, surfing waves, and just playing on the water?

Maybe you do, or maybe you’ve always wanted to, but either way camp is the perfect place for kayaking. For example, just about every day down at the Rockbrook lake, girls enjoy kayaking classes. One of the camp whitewater staff members will be teaching basic paddling techniques, but also important skills like steering your boat, controlling your paddle, and learning what to do if you capsize your kayak. If you know all this, it’s still fun to get out on the lake and practice your stuff, and if you’ve never worked on your roll, then this is a great way to get started learning it.

In addition to kayaking on our lake, Rockbrook girls are running the local whitewater rivers too! Every week we offer several day kayaking trips to the Green, Tuckaseegee, French Broad or Nantahala rivers. This is a chance to take the skills learned at the lake and put them to use on moving water, to learn more about reading the rivers (“downstream V !”), and honing your ferrying and eddying techniques. Around here, every kayak girl is having a blast!

Let’s Go Kayaking!

Let’s queue up some adventure this summer at camp with whitewater kayaking! If you haven’t tried it, you are in for true high adventure… challenging thrills, the exciting surprises, and a solid dose of the power and beauty of nature.

There’s some really cool kayaking gear to learn about and a first step of simply getting comfortable paddling the boat, but then campers spend time on the Rockbrook lake practicing basic techniques for kayaking, like what to do if you tip over (“wet exit” or even “roll”).

Heading out to some of the local whitewater rivers is the next step. We have to master maneuvering through the river’s rapids… crossing fast-moving water (“ferrying”), stopping in a pocket of calm water (“catching an eddy”) and pulling out of an eddy (“peeling out”).

Girls love kayaking camps because there’s always something new to learn, a new river to paddle, and a new challenging rapid to conquer… perfect summer time adventure! Let’s go!

Camp is an Adventure

Camp is an adventure! It is because it gets girls outside for all kinds of exciting activities. Climb high up a real rock! Paddle a raft down through whitewater rapids. Sleep in the woods far from the “comforts of home.” These, and other outdoor activities, are just plain thrilling.

But why is that? What makes something a thrilling “adventure?”

The answer might be a little surprising, but it actually boils down to danger. It’s true; an adventure activity always carries a degree of risk. It’s an activity where we “take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome” (as my dictionary puts it). So for example, rock climbing includes the risk of falling. Whitewater boating has the risk of capsizing, and when camping in the wilderness there’s always a chance of horrible weather (among other things!).

But of course adventure isn’t about getting hurt or experiencing some disaster (there’s safety training and equipment to help with that). It’s about avoiding danger despite the threat of it. Adventure is about overcoming the difficulty and conquering the fear associated with an activity.

Adventure activities are thrilling because we can actually do them despite the risk. Through our own efforts, applying specialized knowledge and skills, we succeed in the face of possible failure. Sure it might be a struggle, but it feels great. Yes, an adventure activity can be difficult, but also really exciting to face it and win!

That’s why, incidentally, adventure activities are so good for boosting kids’ confidence.

Being at Rockbrook provides so many great ways to be adventurous, opportunities to try activities that may look a little scary, but then with the right instruction, encouragement and role models, to also manage the risks and cope beautifully with the challenges involved. Very cool stuff!

You Can Kayak

Camp Kayak Adventures!

One of the great things about camp is being able to try out activities and sports you’ve never been able to try. Outdoor adventure sports are a good example of this. For example, take whitewater kayak adventures. There are so many things about kayaking that make it difficult for the average teen girl to go out on a whitewater river. You need specialized equipment (whitewater kayak, padding, spray skirt, life jacket, and helmet), transportation (getting to a river “put in” and back from a “take out”), and instruction (a competent and experienced teacher), not to mention a whitewater river with a range of rapids to run. Bringing all this together is an absolute minimum if you’re going to enjoy a safe kayak adventure trip.

Camp is really the best way to be introduced to an adventure activity like whitewater kayaking. At Rockbrook, we’ve got everything you need. Plus, we’re located in the perfect place to try multiple rivers. You can learn the basics of kayaking on our lake… how to use the gear, roll and/or wet exit the boat, and paddle efficiently. Then, we’ve developed good steps to add just the right amount of challenge as we head out for trips on one of the local whitewater rivers (more than 6 different ones!).

No matter how old you are, and no matter what your experience is with whitewater, you can kayak.

Don’t Forget Rafting!

Let’s not forget whitewater rafting, probably the most popular adventure activity with the teen girls who attend Rockbrook. Everyone who attends our camps, and who have finished the fifth grade or higher, can go on a whitewater adventure trip to the Nantahala river. As you can see in this photo, it’s a very fun river to raft!

Did you know that Rockbrook is the only all-girls camp that has a permit to run its own trips down the Nantahala? It’s true. There are many commercial rafting outfitters that offer trips, but there are only a handful of camps who qualify to run summer trips on their own. Rockbrook has been running rafting, canoeing and kayaking trips on the Nantahala river since the late 1970s!

Of all the adventure trips you might go on this summer at camp, chances are you’ll get one of the biggest thrills from rafting.

Camp Kayaking Adventure

Part of the adventure program at Rockbrook is whitewater kayaking. It teaches girls the important safety and paddling skills to enjoy this great outdoor activity. Summer adventure camps in this area are a great places to learn about whitewater kayaking.

OK, but what is that thing she’s wearing? Well, it’s not a new fashion statement in bathing suits. It’s a kayaking spray skirt, and it’s one of the most important bits of equipment in this adventure (as is the boat, paddle, helmet and PFD). Most whitewater spray skirts are made of soft neoprene. They are designed to fit tightly about the paddler and around the rim (“coaming”) of the kayak’s opening (“cockpit”)… not too tight and not too loose. It’s purpose is to keep water out of the boat when paddling, but especially when rolling back up after a flipping.  You can imagine that the skirt, which is like a little wetsuit for your middle, also helps keep you warm boating through a chilly mountain river.  They feel a little funny when you first try one on, but also pretty cool since it’s such an adventure sort of thing to wear.

Learning to kayak at summer camp is great fun, even if you’ve never tried it before.  We’ll help you each step of the way, provide all the equipment (yep, even the spray skirt!), and cheer for you as you get better and better.  You’ll be smiling too!

It’s Your Adventure Girls

Are you ready for some adventure girls? Are you ready to put yourself out there, or up there as the case may be? Camp is the perfect place for girls to try out outdoor adventure sports. There’s rock climbing, high ropes course climbing, wilderness backpacking, camping, hiking, whitewater kayaking and rafting, to name just a few.

But what makes these adventure activities? They all are a little intense, a little uncertain, and a little scary. They often test girls’ mental resolve and determination, and sometimes require physical effort beyond the ordinary. Adventure activities usually require special safety equipment and techniques as well (think ropes, paddles, helmets, tents, etc.).

When girls first try adventure sports, they are usually surprised how well they can do. With quality instruction, encouragement, and some practice, most of the girls at camp can climb a real rock, paddle a kayak, and camp overnight in the woods— and this in just their first year at camp! Everywhere you look there are adventure girls at camp.

Kayaking for Kids

Whitewater kayaking is really catching on with the kids at Rockbook, and not just with our Seniors. Our Middlers, kids in the 5th or 6th grade, are also excited about kayaking.

You might think that is a little young to start such a technical sport, but the camp girls are usually quick to catch on to what’s involved. They learn about the equipment and basic techniques in the Rockbrook lake, and when ready, then move to one of the local rivers.

Even on the Rockbrook Camp property, there is a short section of the French Broad river that provides a great teaching rapid. It’s a nice cove of the river perfect for learning to ferry, peel out, and catch an eddy— three important kayaking maneuvers. Next stop? The Green, the Tuckaseegee, and the Nantahala rivers!