January might seem like a strange time to learn how to kayak, but for the Kayakers of Eastern Michigan University, now is the best time to start training in preparation for the summer season.
Though there has been a kayaking club on campus before, the current club was formed by president and captain Adam Mosseri in 2007.
Mosseri, a junior double majoring in Anthropology and History, got involved in kayaking while working at the Rec/IM, where an older member of the club encouraged him to show up to one of the meetings and give kayaking a chance.
“When I worked at the REC/IM facility to be honest I had no idea what kayaking was about, I had no idea what kayaking was,” Mosseri said.
“One of the club elders, he asked me to come one weekend when I wasn’t working and come give kayaking a shot, and I came to the pool, I kayaked for the two hours and I absolutely fell in love with it.”
For the uninformed, a kayak is a small one or two person vessel, similar to a canoe, that is propelled using a two-sided paddle. Though there are a number of different types of kayaks, the group focuses on two: whitewater (or river) kayaks and sea kayaks.
Whitewater kayaks tend to be smaller and easier to maneuver. Sea kayaks, on the other hand, are usually larger and thus more difficult to maneuver as they are mostly used for long distance paddling on open water.
“To become a member of the kayak club there is no other requirements except you have to know how to swim,” Mosseri said.
“We’ve actually had people who have come to the kayak club learning how to swim. Granted, there are people including myself who are certified swim instructors, but that is not what we do at the kayak club,” Mosseri said.
“What we do is train and hone our skills in different skills of kayaking, such as whitewater and sea kayaking,” Mosseri said. “The main focus of what we do is actually whitewater kayaking. We train and we learn skills that you can use anywhere: in any river, in any pond, any lake and anywhere in classes in 1-5 of skills.”
The group meets every Sunday from 3-5 p.m. in the REC/IM Jones pool. New members are always welcome, and becoming a full member involves showing up to a meeting twice in the same month. The first meeting is free, but thereafter all members have to pay a $15 semester fee, which pays for equipment, lifeguards and pool time.
During meetings the group takes kayaks out into the Olympic-size pool and trains on various skills members will need to know before attempting to take their kayaks outside.
“We train during the off-season so that way during the on-season you are safe, you know what you are doing and we can have a good time going out on the rivers,” Mosseri said.
“What people need to realize though is that once you join the kayaking club it’s a very bad idea to not come. You should continue to come mostly because… the skills aren’t hard to pick up, but maintaining them and doing them right is actually quite hard.”
“Once you get out on the water it’s a different experience than in the pool, so you want to constantly train,” Mosseri said.
When the weather starts getting warmer the group will take a number of trips, including kayaking down the Huron River west of Ann Arbor and a trip in March to the U.S. National Whitewater Center in North Carolina, where the U.S. Olympic team trains.
Last year the group did a sea kayaking touring trip in Lake Superior, and a few of the more experienced members returned for a sub-zero trip on Superior later in the year.
No experience is necessary to join the group, and all equipment is provided by the university through the semester fee. For those looking to get even more training, EMU offers a basic kayaking class that satisfies the gen-ed physical education requirement.
The group currently has about 20 regular members, both students and non-students who come to train with the group. At any given meeting the group has anywhere between one and four trained kayaking instructors who can teach everything from the basics to more advanced techniques and tricks.
“Kayak Club is about honing your skills to be able to go into whitewater rapids and to sea kayak,” Mosseri said. “But it’s also about camaraderie; it’s about meeting new people and most importantly it’s about having a good time.”
For more information on the group visit its page at www.emustudentorgs.com.