White water races

On Saturday I saw my first white water slalom kayak race. When my father was young he used to white water canoe, I am now learning how to kayak. 

On the Danube river

Trying not to fall

Me, my father & the belly of the kayak

I took the bus to Bratislava's "Botanical Garden" and then waited at a gas station. I was waiting for my dads old canoeing partner's wife who would drive me to the race.


After about 25 minutes I saw a small dark red Škoda car, it had two bars on top of the roof for carrying many things, but in that families, mainly boats. My grandparents have a car just like this and it is very common in Europe.


After driving for about 30 minutes in silence, mostly because of my linguistic problems we arrived at a rather big and artificial looking sports center of some kind. 


It was obvious something was going on, there were cars everywhere and many trailers with boats of all sorts on them. We walked in the obvious direction of the water. When we got there it had already started and many people had taken there run.


I walked to one of the three concrete bridges, there was Radko (his wife had driven me there). I leaned on the bright blue round rail and asked Radko who had been canoeing partners with my dad how they had done in races and things like that.


There were some truly amazing kayakers and canoers, for certain not all, but some. I didn't know this at the time, but apparently there were two brothers there who had together won several Olympic medals, there mother is teaching me how to kayak.


Some of the people there weren't all that great at kayaking or canoeing or whatever. One kayaker flipped over and instead of flipping back around started swimming. Many others flipped over, which is very common and happens to everyone, but they were able to flip back around and continue on their way, it was very interesting to watch that, especially when it was the canoes.


The main difference between kayaks and canoes isn't the boat or the paddle, it's the way you sit. In a kayak you sit with your legs extended in front of you, in a canoe you sit on your legs or kneel. The paddles and boats are also different but they are not the main difference.


After about four or five hours of watching Radko and his wife drove me home, I had to fight not to fall asleep on the way, I think I lost that fight, not badly but a defeat.


I was dropped off at my grandparents apartment where my father is living, I saw him, told him about how it was and then went back to the Várys.