For the Love of a Thrill

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is Kayaking. I usually only go on the river, I crave the adrenaline rush that the lakes don't give me. It starts out slow, and at times the water can get a little choppy. I can pull into beaches here and there and take a little rest, enjoy the sun or explore for a while. The thing that I like about it the most is the fact that you have to be strong, and skilled in order to do it well and not end up in the water. Last summer I had to rescue a teenage girl who was sitting in front of a huge drop in her enter tube. I didn't notice her at first, a lot of teenagers float down the river, but then I saw that she was totally freaked out and crying. I pulled up to her against the current that was pinning her to a large bit of cement and re bar, and asked if she needed any help. Her friends had left her, she couldn't swim, she had no life jacket, and she was wearing tennis shoes. All very bad news for a hundred pound girl who has never been on a river before. Kids are pretty stupid sometimes. The particular bit of re bar and cement that she was pinned against has a nasty current that sucks things under it and traps it there. Several people have died in the very spot she was floating in. Had she gotten off of her tube and tried to make a go of it on her own, I think she would have ended up dead. So I threw her a rope, had her tie it around her self, and tried as hard as I could to pull her out of the huge death trap. She was hard to pull against the current, like dead weight behind me. It took several tries to pull her out of the re bar, but finally after about thirty minutes, I managed to pull her free and swing her around to the beach. I never saw that girl again. I was being dragged down over the drop, and she was still tied to me. I quickly cut my rope, and leaned into the current I was now stuck in. I always avoid that drop since it is so dangerous, usually taking the fork that goes to the left. This was my first time going over it, and I was not prepared. The current pulled me under for a moment, and I managed to flip myself over again. What seemed like hours, was really only seconds. I finally made it to calm water, but breathing hard, heart pounding in my chest, and not believing what I had just done, I pulled over to the beach. I climbed out of my kayak, limbs feeling like rubber, and laid on the sandy beach to rest. I don't know how long I was there just breathing on the sand and looking at the sky and making my thanks to a higher power. Sometimes the river takes hold of you and pulls you in the direction it wants, and no amount of paddling can change the direction you end up going. I have learned that in a time like that, all you can do at that point is smile in the face of danger, and give it all you have, and try to enjoy the ride.