Whitewater kayaking in Jämtland
Finally it was time for the paddling of the year! But this time slightly harder than last year.
This time we decided to do a 3 day kayaking course in Undersåker. Earlier we have only been paddling with canadians in Voxnan.
The first day we started practising life saving techniques with throw-lines and safety mindset. When it was time to start paddling I realised right away how much harder it was with the balance in a kayak compared to a regular canoe. I started with dropping into the water from a higher grass edge. When it was Mikael’s turn he got into the water without a problem, but then I saw that he was having a problem with the current and paddling upstream. While I was waiting for Johannes to also get into the water, Micke capsized. He was struggling to get out of his kayak and I saw his arms flailing about. You could see that he looked very scared but focused, and later we learned that he dislocated his shoulder. He managed to get his kayak back to shore and Ismael ran over to help him with it. At that point he decided to not continue with the course.
The rest of us, me, Johannes and Ismael, continued and launched the kayaks at a calmer spot this time. Here we started to practise to capsize which felt a bit weird to do on purpose. But after trying a few times it felt good. I also got to practise how to get out of a back current (? Bakvatten in Swedish). It was a lot harder than I had expected. But after this day we were all completely exhausted but still really excited for the next day.
Day 2 we were going to paddle a longer stretch, so we went quite far away with the car and parked Ismael’s car by the end of the river. Then we drove up with the kayaks to the start a few kms upstream. Today it went a lot better for everyone to paddle but before lunch both I and Ismael capsized. It went well but wasn’t nice to get wet just before having lunch. After lunch there was a manmade fish ladder that our instructor had told us to paddle. It looked completely insane when we stood and watched it because of the heavy flow and how long it was, which made us pretty nervous. First Jonas, our instructor, paddled, then came Johannes, then me and lastly Ismael. It went really well and was a lot of fun. After the drop there was a long river, and I was so tired that I hoped that we would soon get to rest otherwise I would capsize. From here it was maybe 500 m of currents down to the car. Seeing the car was a huge relief, but at the same time boring because it meant we were done for the day.
After the paddling we went into Åre to have a beer and some fika and coffee, and then we went back to the camper van where we would have a nice evening by the car and the tent. Unfortunately Micke had gotten some kind of food poisoning, stomach bug or some kind of upset stomach, so he hadn’t just dislocated his shoulder but was also not feeling well, so he stayed in his own tent and couldn’t join us that evening.
The last day we would practise some surfing, and it was a lot of fun when you finally made it, but really hard so lots of swimming for all of us. After all the practising of surfing for some hours it was finally time for a lunch break. After this waited a class 3 rapid that once again made us really nervous. When we scouted ahead and looked at “The Vice and Jocke’s Lock” (skruvstädet och Jockes lås) as the two places were called were you could get stuck with the kayak and be stuck forever. This rapid was quickly picking up speed and high valsar. We tried to aim for the first vals called Jocke’s Lock and we only had one chance to go through without capsizing. Luckily everyone made it through, and then we just had to aim for the next vals called The Vice and also this one went better than expected. But after The Vice I lost focus and capsized. It was way too shallow to get out of the kayak though, so I pressed both of my hands and my paddle down into the ground and scraped my hands on the rocks. It was worth it though because I made it up and continued to paddle. My hands hurt really bad, but I just had to keep my focus of getting as fast as possible to where we would end today.
It is funny how three days can pass so quickly but at the same time feel so very long. Also nice to see how much progress we made - from barely being able to keep upright in the water on the first day, to paddling a class 3 rapid on the third without too much problem.
I will definitely do this again!
