Why Staying Calm Can Save You in the End by Callan Fox

Today was the first Wednesday of Keeners, which, of course, means that it was race day. Although I have some experience kayak racing, it has always made me super nervous because of how exposing it is. At the end of the day, the only thing that you have to show for yourself are the mere numbers of your time. Not your spicy innovative line, not a cool trick you landed, not even a rocky beatdown you may have endured, although I definitely wished you did get some extra points for some of those things today. The last race of the day was our first, and only, individual race of the day, down Lower No Name. As I said before, I wanted to go fast. However, I was so busy freaking out about my exact speed that I couldn’t even commit to one line. What I really needed to do was to plan my exact route instead of micro-analyzing every little pro or con of each line, but I couldn’t manage to suppress my adrenaline and think clearly. Eventually, I rushed myself into going, not even knowing which line I was going to take- the safe option that I had done but might be slower, or the riskier option through the large holes that was unknown to me. Before I knew it, Heidi’s counting hit zero and my paddle blades quickly pulled me through the water. I was through the first feature, and made my way to tap the right shore to fulfill the requirement. Now was the time to choose where to go, except because I never made a decision before, I froze and didn’t. Where did I end up? Yep. Right in the big hole, Vampire, that my sole mission was to avoid. Yet, once in the hole, I did the one thing that I hadn’t done before. I stayed calm. I was then able to surf my way out very quickly, but was now faced with a second hole. Surfed again. There was no way that I could win this race now, after all, I got beatdown twice and it wasn’t even beatdown day yet. Once in the second hole, I took a deep breath and made my way out the left side again and saw Tyler and the rest of the Keeners who had gone. The end was in sight! I knew my time wouldn’t be my fastest, but at this point I was happiest that I got myself swiftly out of both holes. I didn’t give up and eventually made it to Tyler, where he told me my time. Everybody congratulated me, even though I didn’t even fully realize why. I couldn’t have been fast. But, it turned out that my time wasn’t so bad after all, and I ended up finishing second out of the girls with a small time gap. In the end, I realize that all of this could’ve been avoided with a bit more planning from the start, but readjusting that mindset in the middle of the rapid, by remaining calm and taking time to think, ended up being that factor that made me still feel like my run was successful.