Fear - how to cope with it? another beginners thread ;)

[insolence]

Hi folks!

I hope, I don't bore you with my ongoing questions, but you C-Folks are way more understanding, helpful, know more (and are friendlier ) than the kayaking guys

You were quite helpful with my playboat question (I'll go for the S6, by the way), now please help me with a topic I cope with since I got started:

FEAR-a feeling I have anywhere that's more than a class 2.

Perfect example: we're doing training runs in the canal (would be a class 3 when in nature). Tough I do have the skills to do what the coach tells me to do, there is a fear-like feeling, I'm afraid of something I can't really define, I hesitate, and so my strokes are not agressive and powerful enough and I really do a bad job. The same situation when rolling or in nature whitewater rapids.

I'm not really afraid of death or injuries-I do know the risk of such things in whitewater is usually less than in car driving or so. It's rather something about my instincts. My mind knows nothing awful will happen and that I'm able to run the rapid well or, if it's at the upper end of my skills, that there are enough friend to save me when swimming and there is a big quiet pool behind the rapid.
But my instincts let themselves impress by the water noise or the appearence of big waves.

A certain fear and respect is necessary and okay, but in my case it's more than that, it's getting uncomfortable and harms me to really use any skills and power I have. Sometimes I even considered to drop that whitewater thing, but thanksfully I'm too addicted to do so. It's a fear similar to being nervous before a competition or exams, just a lot more intense.
And I do lack of being agressive in the canoe, if you know what I mean.

Until now, I worked by running the rapid or maneuver anyway, though I was afraid (as long as the situation was secure, though to my own skills or friends as "guards"), but I would paddle a lot better, (and could progress faster) if I could get rid of that.

Any ideas of how to get the mental power higher?

Thank you!!!!!
insolence

[jscottl67]

If class III scares you at that level, you need more time in class II water. Paddle more often, learn your boat, and learn to play aggressively in that level of rapids. I almost always feel that way for the first few minutes in my boat still, and if I haven't paddled in a while, I tend to be less aggressive. Wnen it's cold, I also tend to back off.

I would suggest about 15 days of paddling class II water. That will be enough that you will learn to play more aggressively and lose that nervousness. Do the class III stuff more once the water is warmer so that you don't mind the swim at all. That will help too.

[madmike]

I find the best way for me to develop strength, balance, skill, and confidence is to practice on easy water. Pick a spot that is familiar, a warm day, and bring a few friends for safety. Work that spot for all it is worth. Paddle the most difficult lines, again, then backward, then faster. If you are not falling over try harder.

[jakke]

What also can help is a confidence building exercise.

Find yourself a move that indicates if you have a good or a bad day.
After warming up, try that (or those) moves. They are your level-of-the-day indicator. It will take some learning, but it might show you one day what you're capable of for that day.

On an artificial whitewater course in France, I always start with some easy stuff, en then move to some surfing in a, for me, pretty heavy wave. I swim a couple of times, have a few good rides, (hope to be able to roll from now on). After that, boat feeling is back, confidence is there and I had my first swim. Nothing left to be afraid of, at least there.

A drysuit also helps a lot when it's cold

[wetnobby]

A degree of nervousness and a healthy respect for known dangers is a good thing....and if you ever completly lost that you may be finding somthing else to do other than paddle!!!!
Overcoming that expectation is where the enjoyment comes from....usually.
How scared you are will depend on a number of things, there is no doubt that fears born out of sudden exposure to risks or being "to far" outside your own comfort zone can be difficult to overcome.
The classic way to progress is lots and lots of exposure to situations towards the top end of your own personal "Zone" as exposure increases you will gain the confidence to progress just a little further, for some people this progression is and should be a series of very small steps but you will find your perception of danger and difficulty shifts as you gain confidence.
If you do the above at some point in time you will look back and realise just how far you have come........Chris

[Craig Smerda]

I find comfort by taking stuffed animals and toys out on the river with me......

[wetnobby]

Yep, the Chicken looks real scared....

[beereddy]

Don't worry, fear is up to experience

[John Coraor]

As others have said, spend more time on Class II developing your basic skills and getting comfortable on the water. Also, make sure that you are confident in being able to roll in WW. A good way to do both of these once you're ready is to play on waves and in holes on a relatively safe river on which you are already comfortable. If you have paddling buddies around as safety, and particularly if it's a warm sunny day, an hour or two surfing and playing, where you push the envelope enough to flip and roll several times will do wonders for boosting your confidence and comfort level, while lessening your fear.

Finally, it sounds as if you've already learned to differentiate between specific purposeful fear, which serves an important safety function (e.g. that hole looks really nasty & retentive, I'm going to stay away from it; or I don't think I'm ready to do this 75 ft. drop) and unfocused background anxiety which can hamper your ability to stay out of trouble. If you experience occasional bouts of the latter fear returning, use your ability to recognize it to empower you to put it in its place and suppress it. I don't usually paddle in the winter and often face some background anxiety whenever returning to paddling in the spring. The water's cold, the air's cold, I'm out-of-shape and out-of-practice, and as a consequence feel timid and anxious. However, knowing that in C-1 timid paddling is a recipe for disaster, I consiously remind myself of the benefits of aggressive paddling and push myself to "go for it." While the fear still occasionally wins, I can't recall that I've ever failed to be rewarded when I do follow that internal advice.

[Sir Adam]

Swim it.

Seriously. If you're on swimable class II, and it's warm (not likely this time of year!) put on your life jacket, and swim around in the safer places you're paddling (you don't needs to swim the whole thing).

This will do a few things:
1) You'll likely have LESS fear of that particular water, and be happier to push yourself harder there in the future (hey, the worse that can happen is I swim it, and that was fun!)

2) You'll have a better appreciation and understanding of the currents there that you and your boat interact with.


Just keep your feet up, and have fun with it. If you're uncomfortable swiming there, find some place where you are. As I recall the Are is quite fun to play around in swimming wise:) , at least in places (assuming I have the spelling correct...I'm sure you, NZMatt, or others will correct me if I don't:) ).

Once you've swum it, be more aggressive and get used to rolling...this in turn will help when you progress to more difficult water.

In the end, keep it fun. And if you're more fearful in one boat than another, either tweak the outfitting in the unhappy boat, or sell it. Life's too short to paddle boats that make you afraid! (Paddling boats that make you miserable just means you're a WildWater paddler ).

If you want to feel MORE comfortable in your boat, paddle something LESS stable. A Zoom, narrower conversion, or especially WildWater boat work well. (Yes, folks, and Oxygen or Maven too...if you're REALLY daring )

Either way, keep at it and have fun!

[philcanoe]

step up and run something bigger than you ever have before... if it's class four then go do it... find a good support crew, and cut loose...when you get back to what you are currently on - it'll have a lot less hairy feel, and your confidence should be much greater

sounds like you are not really stepping it up, you are staying so well within what you're capable of - that you are not testing yourself

don't go kill yourself...but find something to paddle that you know is swimable...most everything is swim-able to some degree...even the big named boaters get hammered (it's the video highlights)... plus if the worst happens -a little swimming in the bigger water, might make the class II swims fun

the confidence in your ability, plus the redefinition of what's (really) dangerous will change

that's what I did... a month after my canoe class.. it was the Ocoee, and man was I not ready...took 8-9 months before going back...but all that stuff class II was immediately easy, and going the hero routes - while still daunting, was not all that scary...plus swimming anything on the Nanny or Hiawassee after the Ocoee swims was not near as scary.... and then after getting familiar with the Ocoee, a trip to West VA. helped make it seem easy... and-so-on and-so-on and-so-on

[Jim Michaud]

Now here's something that I've never told to anyone.

I use to be pretty darn good at reactionary paddling so once I got into a knarly rapid I almost always did just fine. My problem was getting enough courage to enter the rapid in the first place. What I did to overcome the problem was to keep repeating to myself "it's only class III, it's only class III" as I paddled towards the rapid. When I arrived at the point of no return I would resort to aggressive reactionary paddling.

This might not work for everyone but it did work for me.

Jim

[Jim]

I am glad that Jim posted on this one.

I am a class 2 boater who has run class 5 rivers. My problem was getting enough courage to enter the rapid in the first place. What I did to overcome the problem was to tell myself “Jim Michaud said I could do it”.

When I arrived at the point of no return I would look up and Jim would be sittin’ down at the bottom of the rapid with a big grin on his face. I would paddle and brace my way down. . . we would keep that up until the bottom of the river and a cooler full of beer.

Good luck, and find yourself a good ol’ mentor like Jim Michaud.

Jim

PS: Jim- it has been too long. We gotta hook up for some paddling this year! I will be at the FRC meeting tomorrow (Friday) night.

[sbroam]

I've been following this with interest. Fear can crop up even with the long time paddler, time away from the boat or paddling on an unfamiliar river or a cold day can cause the old gremlin to pop back up. Some interesting suggestions above.

To paraphrase the great baseball player and manager Yogi Berra "Paddling is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical." This isn't baseball and I sense that you aren't from a place where baseball (or Yogi) would be familiar to you, but, he is one of our wisest men here in the US. He is zen without knowing it, which may be the zennest sort of zen there is.

[Alden]

Once upon a time, there was this chute halfway down a rapid I used to run a lot that scared the [Craig Smerda] out of me. When I'd drift toward that chute, I'd think of a quote I read in "The Last River":

"He believed that if you saw the line and knew you could make it, you shouldn't let fear get the better of you." - Bruce Lessels

Somewhere inside I knew I could make the line, and pitting fear as an adversary at that moment, above that rapid, felt right. As if fear was an impingement on life that kept me from enjoying the full range of what life, and the New Haven River, that river, offered. As if with that decision to run and not to portage, I was standing alone in an unapproved way. Either way, I'm glad I ran it every time I got there. But it's amazing -- all that tension on the drive up there and on the upper part of the run, and I never messed up in that chute, not once. What a waste of thought. I should have been solving real problems, right? Eventually, of course, I was no longer scared of it. In fact, at one point I actually used to bring my computer with me and post here on Cboats.net while running that rapid. Ok, ok . . . I'd read Cboats, not post.

Alden