{"id":21680,"date":"2016-02-23T21:57:46","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T21:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unsponsored.co.uk\/press\/?p=21680"},"modified":"2016-02-23T22:00:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T22:00:57","slug":"journeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unsponsored.co.uk\/press\/journeys\/","title":{"rendered":"Journeys"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m still on my adventure. I don’t know when it’ll end or how far along I am but I’m praying I’m still at the beginning.<\/p>\n

\"Journeys\"<\/p>\n

I always hated kayaks. As a youth worker on a summer camp it was always the kayaks that I hated the most. Going round and round in circles until set upon by the young people in my group filling it with water and submerging into the cold river. <\/p>\n

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One year the instructor was short of a support paddler and asked me to jump on. I said yes even though I wanted to say no. I worked the river for the entire week and surprisingly I enjoyed it. I watched the other instructors control their boat with ease going forwards, backwards sideways and finally rolling it. I’d built my confidence the past few days and typically I now thought I could do anything in a kayak. I’d watched them roll over and over again and was positive I knew how to do it. Even after refusing some coaching from one of the instructors and seeing his eyes light up as I paddles off I was sure I knew what to do. A small crowd had amassed at the river bank summons by the instructor. This was going to be epic I thought. I took a deep breath and hurled myself side ways. <\/p>\n

\"Journeys\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Journeys\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"Journeys\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Journeys\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Suddenly everything went black and cold and quiet. Violently I shifted my body, my head came up first long enough to take a breath of victorious air before failed dragged me back down to the depths. The last thing I saw from the world above was the instructor struggling to paddle due to his excessive laughter. The realisation that I was now trapped set in. In a frantic panic I tried to swim out of the kayak. Suddenly, just as I’d resigned my self to a watery tomb I felt the boat turn over. The cheery and giggly faced instructor righted my boat and held it steady while I calmed myself. He then handed me back my paddle. It was the most terrifying experience of my life but it was also the beginning. <\/p>\n

I spent months at Port Talbot Dock learning how to roll, watching you tube videos with a range of different methods until finally after months of swims and near misses it clicked. Then it was on to white water, again feeling once more like I did when I first tried to roll. The unstable unpredictability of the fast water, the drops into the troughs and the shock of a sudden capsize. It seemed to me like I was in a raging torrent but really it was only grade 2. Gradually, again through determination I found my confidence and control. The pattern of my adventure was clear and reoccurring as one challenge was met another was looming more thrilling than before. I was not alone, I found others on their adventure. I’ve not only found something I love doing but I’ve found a shared community that however large it seems still amazes me how everyone knows everyone.<\/p>\n