Day 1 - First time at the pool

Kayaking is scary no matter what anyone says! Last night Stu and I went for it. After thinking about wanting to try kayaking for a few YEARS now we turned up at the Edinburgh Kayak Clubs pool training night. I am a very self conscious person at times and turning up at a swimming pool last night with no prosthesis and on crutches I was pretty nervous. We went in and spotted the kayak club members waiting (they really stick out with those paddles!) We sat there in that kind of nervous "first day at school" kind of way for about 10mins then went in. We were put in for a 20min time slot at 8.45. So after getting changed etc we had about 35mins to sit about and watch everyone else go for it. It's pretty intimidating to see all these people doing great but hey we all have to start somewhere. Once our time came around I was given a hand to get in the kayak. Here is where we started to notice the problems of not having another leg in there with you. First of I couldn't reach the foot rest so had nothing to push against. Holding my things under the leg grips was also going to be an issue!! I could kinda get my left leg to grip in, but with no leverage of a heel on my right leg, there was nothing to help me jam my thigh in. This looked like it was going to be a problem. The guy helping me (Dave I think?) and I came up with an idea of using some foam floats to make a platform for my leg. Good idea and it worked!! So off I went. Started of with how to hold the blade, how to turn it, how to do a stroke, wiggling the hips and rather quickly.....how to get out the boat when upside down!! Now this for some reason is terrifying!! maybe I am just a big girl but being in something upside down in water just doesn't feel right (not at the moment anyway). There comes this sudden sense of urgency to get out but why? Quite easily I know I could hold my breath for a minute or two. However at least I now know how to get out the "proper" way so I wont smash my face on rocks when on a river (we'll see that how pans out in practice). With a bit of practice on going up and down the pool, doing sweeping turns, doing "monkey strokes" high and low to steady the boat that was us done for the night. Was great fun, tyring but exciting!! Just getting started was brilliant but I certainly noticed, as you do with anything, it's much harder than it looks. At the end I was talking to a guy about things who seemed like a good guy and was encouraging that with the right modifications to the inside of a kayak, there is no reason why I will be any different than anyone else when it comes to kayaking. He also said "when on the river for the first time, your arse hole puckers up but its well worth the buzz and after that your hooked!" and I believe him. But one step at a time, can't wait till next week!

How It All Began & Why

I'm Neil Russell. I'm 23, live in Edinburgh in Scotland and seriously unsure whether anyone will even be reading this!! But if you are, thank you. My intentions with this blog are to record my thoughts and experiences of being a below knee amputee taking on kayaking. When I go on to talk about "Day 1", i really mean day 1!! I went kayaking for the first time LAST NIGHT!! I thought it was about time I got back doing some sport and getting fit and basically enjoying something. I know how nervous I was last night (and even more so leading up to it!) but i really want to show (especially to myself at the moment) that as an amputee i can go on to do well at such a sport. By using this blog as an online diary of sorts, I hope to have a record of my improvements in kayaking. Months (maybe years) from now I hope to look back and see how I have improved and this record of thoughts and achievements will hopefully help. Please feel free to leave any comments at all related to anything I talk about, believe me I will go on rants no doubt! I plan to give a day by day account of my experiences with kayaking as well as a variety of my thoughts on many things including my life and the experiences I have already had (and the many I hope to have). Anyway that's enough for now, now I'm gonna tart my blog page up a bit! Stay tuned for.....well something!