Kayaking Adventures

This month B Form students and teachers headed to Riley’s Lock in Poolesville, Md. for their annual river trip. As part of their Lower School physical education curriculum, the boys each spent eleven days in small groups working on the fundamentals of kayaking, and this trip gave them all an opportunity to put those skills to use on the Potomac River.

Each day began with a bus ride out to Seneca Creek, where the boys went through a river safety talk, got themselves geared up, and then hit the water for a few hours of skill development and kayak capture the flag. After practicing wet exits one last time, the boys ate a quick lunch and then got ready to move to the Potomac River, where they paddled as a group down to Violette’s Lock. At Violette’s, they exited to scout the rapid for the day, a wonderful chute with a clean line. The boys took a few moments to go over the features and hazards of the rapid and then had to make the decision as to whether or not they were ready to try and paddle it.

With the help of five senior paddlers in the coordinate Voyageur program, the boys made their way through the rapid one by one! While there were a couple of wet exits and a few hand-of-god rescues, everyone who ran it made it through with a smile on his face and a group of classmates cheering from the river banks.

Many thanks to CBA science teacher Mr. Miller for the video footage and to Voyageurs Ben Burgess ’19, Thomas Mazzuchi ’19, Zoe Contreras-Villalta ’19 (NCS), Margaret Downing ’19 (NCS), and Lauren Carl ’19 (NCS) for assisting the kayakers.