Combating sea sickness (on rivers)

I don't have a very strong constitution when it comes to the sea - I feel queasy just at the thought of bobbing on the swell. When it comes to rivers, I'm fine going down, but my stomach can't handle too much in the way of catching eddies, ferrying and surfing. Watching that water flowing towards me, the deafening sound of the water, and the bobbing and weaving leaves me feeling very green after a short period of time.

These past weeks I've been working on my whitewater skills - paddle strokes, nailing a strong roll in current, eddy catching, ferrying and edging. I'm getting better but my tolerance for spending any duration on the water doing these skills is low.

Welcome Valoid!

I have successfully taken Valoid for paddling on the sea in the past and as I was intending to hit the Gatsien rapid for some drills, I headed to the pharmacy.

My session last Sunday left my head swirling for hours after getting off the water. My Valoid-assisted session on Thursday evening had me feeling quite normal on and off the water. I put in some better ferries in stronger current and even enjoyed a dash of surfing as I learn to feel the water.

As we have a factory of kayaks, we paddle a bunch of them. My personal kayak has been my green Marimba but now I'm proud to add one of our whitewater kayaks to my personal collection. On Thursday I climbed into my own beautiful blue Vagabond Pungwe. This paddle is also a new one - Celliers' new CEKR whitewater paddles (I've got one of his touring ones too). Beautiful paddles.

In my Vagabond Pungwe kayak.

I've still got a way to go until I feel really competent, but I am improving and it is rewarding to be able to do things now that I couldn't a month or two ago.