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Advice on motivating fraidy cat daughter ;) New

Forum: BoaterTalk
Date: Jun 05 2008, 18:21 GMT
From: Powhoundus


	My daughter just turned 10 and has been boating a year in a Fun 1 1/2. She has a rock solid pool roll (left or right), and is rock solid on class II (catching even boat sized eddies and solid ferries) with occasional III's... like the Nanty, French Broad. She has fun and is eager to go on trips, but when it comes to a new river, a new rapid, or trying to get her to learn to play, surf, or learn a river roll, she is absolutely terrified to the point of freezing up and crying. I think this all stems from something that scared her (well, all of us there) a year ago. She was on one of her first trips. We were staying at the Noli campground and working the Noli below the campground to the next bridge. Before our runs, we would paddle up to the beach / Cherokee dam rapid to swim, ferry, catch eddies. She was just learning how to ferry, caught an edge and flipped. Although her skirt had passed the dry land test, we had not tested / practiced wet exits (big mistake!). It took her a few seconds to get it off, and she totally freaked. I immediately bought her a looser skirt, one that is so loose she can probably push out of the boat easily without pulling it, but I think that event continues to haunt her. So, despite having a solid pool roll now, and many successful easy swims, she absolutely refuses to flip in current below rapids (even with a promised clear deep channel that I paddle probe while she watches) to try to learn a river roll. She will flip with a lot of encouragement in a big pool or eddy, but she's very reluctant. She swam twice recently when flipping in whitewater, and did not attempt to set up / roll either time. My current drill with her is to stand behind her for brace practice. I try to flip her randomly while she braces, and every few torques flipping her hard enough to overcome her brace (obviously she has a very solid brace as we have done this drill since last summer) and capsizing her. She quickly sets up and half rolls to either side 100% of the time these days. I use her as a roll model when teaching others to roll. Couple weekends ago, she was demo'ing boats on the Nanty. For her first Falls run, she was in a Sidekick. I ran ahead to set up safety / video. She was following a friend / his daughter in a Topo Duo who just caught the left edge of the top hole. She was even further right, dropped into the middle of the top hole, almost surfed but paddled furiously on the boil line for a few seconds (seemed like an eternity) then pulled out and ran the rest beautifully. She was elated at the bottom. Excited she had a successful (in her eyes) run, and seemingly unaware of how close she came to a very ugly surf. Eventually my heart slowed down. Her second Falls run was in a Remix 47 and this time I led her myself down the left line but the bottom wave kick flipped her. She lost her paddle immediately and swam. She came up sobbing and terrified. I reassured her as I pulled her to shore then went to chase down her boat. By the time she ran down to me at the first takeout on the right, she was perfectly fine, eager to jump back in and finish the last bit of river. My current plan is to basically just keep taking her on runs she can handle and continue encouraging her. I'm hoping this will slowly boost her confidence, but it's still very frustrating to me. Everyone that's boated with her knows that she is very talented, but that burdon of fear she carries is like a huge wall to her progressing. I'm not taking her on anything harder than the Fr Broad / Nanty until she can roll on the river. I just feel that if she can just get in a few rolls, her confidence with turn around and she can really progress. I don't want to push her too much, but I do want to do all that I can short of that to enourage her to progress. Any advice from those with similar experiences, or who may have face similar fears would be appreciated. Wes